This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2010/10/28/ereader-with-linux/.

● 10.28.10

● Links 28/10/2010: Finnix 100 Released, Colour E-reader With Linux, Mozilla Firefox 4 Delayed

Posted in News Roundup at 11:58 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ How did we learn to use our computers?

• It is a common argument that Linux will never make it mainstream because everybody already knows windows. It has been said that because everybody knows windows that there is nobody to teach them Linux. Ipso facto, nobody will learn Linux because there is nobody around to show them how to use Linux. What a load of bovine back end fertiliser. What people are referring to is that the uptake of Linux is a chicken and egg problem.

• [...]

• This introductory period only went so far. After that time I bet that you started exploring for yourself and only asked questions when you became stuck. Or you learned enough to do what you needed and stayed at that level. This is exactly the same for any operating system, be it Macs, Linux or windows.

=> ↺ Why Newbies Should Use Linux

• But a large number of Microsoft’s customers aren’t customers because Microsoft makes good products, but because Microsoft products are default and a lot of people are afraid to delete those apps and OSes and try something different.

• If there is someone in your life who uses computers, but is not very computer literate, you can help wean them off of Microsoft’s bloated OSes and change-resistant user apps.

• The open source and Linux communities appeal to techies who are opinionated about computer technology, and want to have the best of everything.

• But the GUIs with Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu and Kubuntu, are no less user friendly than recent Microsoft OS GUIs.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Podcast Season 2 Episode 20

• In this episode: The London Stock Exchange is super fast, thanks to Linux, while Android celebrates its 100,000th app submission. We discover things and talk about tiling window managers, while our listeners talk about Ubuntu’s Unity.

Ballnux

=> ↺ Samsung Captivate AT&T, Completed Review by CNET

• Out of the four major U.S. carriers, AT&T was the most in need of a solid Android smartphone, and it’s finally got one in the Samsung Captivate. Part of the Galaxy S series, the Captivate is by far AT&T’s most powerful and feature-rich Android device, boasting a gorgeous Super AMOLED touch screen, a 1GHz Hummingbird processor, and some great multimedia features. It won’t win any beauty contests, and we wish AT&T would stop restricting app access, but overall, the Captivate delivers and is a great alternative to the iPhone 4. The Samsung Captivate for AT&T will be available starting July 18 for $199.99 with a two-year contract (voice plan and minimum $15 data plan required).

Kernel Space

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ The State, Direction Of The PSCNV Nouveau Fork

• Christopher Bergström of PathScale has passed along a note detailing some of the recent progress made by the Nouveau team and their developers working on PSCNV, their Nouveau driver fork. This includes 2D beginning to work on the GeForce 400 “Fermi” graphics hardware, open-source 3D for Fermi still being worked on, and a pool of documentation is beginning to form for the NVIDIA hardware by the open-source community. Here’s the details in full.

=> ↺ AMD’s R300 Gallium3D Driver Is Looking Good For 2011

• Along with the benefits of being easier to develop and maintain a driver within the Gallium3D architecture than a classic Mesa DRI driver and being able to extend its features and capabilities in a somewhat generic manner by state trackers, it’s also commonly said that Gallium3D drivers will be faster than the old Mesa drivers. We have looked at the R300 Gallium3D driver (R300g) performance a few times comparing it to classic Mesa, results showing R300g is still catching up to the proprietary AMD Catalyst driver, and that the rate of changes it was going through this summer was quite impressive.

=> ↺ Pixman 0.20.0 Is Here With Performance Improvements

• Just over a week ago we reported on Pixmain gaining improved gradients and is rendering much faster in the project’s latest development release. Now this free software project that provides pixel manipulation capabilities for the X Server and Cairo, has reached its version 0.20.0 stable milestone.

Applications

=> ↺ Caught on Video: 2 Tools for Linux Screen-Session Recording

• But two cool Linux apps give you a the ability to record directly to a file whatever’s being shown on your computer’s monitor. RecordMyDesktop and Istanbul both record screen sessions into an Ogg Theora video file.

=> ↺ Empathy’s Still Around….A stalemate

• I decided to go with Final Fantasy for now because, as Dan knows, they hold a special place in my nostalgic heart. But I think I’ll probably end up going with pushpin. So, are any of these compelling reasons to switch to Empathy? So far I haven’t found one. Right now they’re more or less equivalent. So just use whatever your distro has as the default. Right now the important use cases for Pidgin are if you need off the record or the other encryption plugin, if you don’t want chat logging, or if you also use it on Windows and want a consistent experience. I’m going to use Empathy for a while and see if I end up pining for something from Pidgin or just stick with it.

=> ↺ Real-time Sunlight Earth Wallpaper for Ubuntu Linux

=> ↺ Remmina – A Better Ubuntu RDP Client

• I went looking for a replacement and found Remmina – which bills itself as the GTK+ Remote Desktop Client.

=> ↺ Life, New Sabayon Site Design & Sabayon 5.5 Teaser

• So what have I been up to lately? Well, I have recently got a nice new job with a local ex-ISP turned “cloud services” provider so I’m looking forward to jumping into the new role which, I hope, will be far more interesting as it will unleash my passion for Linux in a commercial environment. I’ve been a bit less active on the Sabayon front because of the job hunting and such but should increase again soon.

• One of the things I’ve been working on is the Sabayon website design, the plan is to provide the whole portal and services with a uniform clean look that is more accessible and easy to use. I’ve attached a screenshot of the homepage draft design, feedback as always is encouraged.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Create Software Using Illumination Software Creator Without Using Programing Codes

=> ↺ Learning Linux the hardcore way: Linux From Scratch

=> ↺ How To Use Kindle With Ubuntu

=> ↺ How To Make An Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Resemble A Mac (With Elementary, Docky & Gloobus-Preview)

=> ↺ Why I Love Unix

=> ↺ How to Use policy to control bluecoat ProxySG administrator access

=> ↺ Prevent DOS with iptables

=> ↺ PostgreSQL 9: Reliable Controller and Disk Setup

=> ↺ PostgreSQL 9: Balancing Hardware Spending

=> ↺ Get Up to Speed with Blender, for Graphics and Animation Panache

=> ↺ Boot from CD-ROM in newer versions of VirtualBox

=> ↺ Using Strace to Trace Problems

Games

=> ↺ Crossfire- Another Open Source MMORPG

• To play the game, you’ll need a client with which you can connect to any of the available servers. Alternatively, you install the game on your own server which you can then add to the metaserver list so others can connect to yours.

Desktop Environments

=> ↺ 20 Stunning Illustrated Wallpapers: Halloween Edition

• Seeing a lot of user-submitted artwork and animations via Blender, GIMP, and Inkscape enthusiasts (some of which you can see in 10+ Amazing Short Films Made With Free Software) has made me really appreciate images illustrated by hand, which includes wallpapers. Given the season, illustrated wallpapers shouldn’t be too difficult to find, and it might even get you excited for Halloween!

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

=> ↺ Synchronicity: Amarok in the Field

GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ Ubuntu Aims for Linux Desktop Unity

=> ↺ Ubuntu drops GNOME in favor of homegrown Unity UI

=> ↺ Why Unity is good for the future of Ubuntu, Gnome, Canonical, etc.

• A few month ago I already blogged about “the end of the (Linux) desktop as we know it.” I will not blatantly repost this entry but draw some conclusions linked to the recent adoption of Unity for the default Ubuntu desktop.

• My conclusion was the following : “At a certain level, one can say that the battle is already lost : the current desktop environments can not really fight this war as they don’t own the key technology : the browser. As a consequence, the risk, for them (Gnome, KDE, etc.) is to be a tool that will launch a browser. A (relatively) simple tool that can be easily changed with almost no user impact…”

=> ↺ The Right Question

• [T]here is a list of prob­lems that are severe enough to cause Canonical & Co. to think it’s worth pay­ing devel­op­ers to work on a fifth desk­top inter­face con­tender for Linux rather than use any of the avail­able ones, includ­ing the Shell — an under­tak­ing that Dave Neary quite pre­sciently calls “really hard” (more on that later).

=> ↺ When is a Gnome Not a Gnome? In Ubuntu 11.04!

• At the Ubuntu Devloper Summit on Monday, it was announced that Ubuntu 11.04 will ship with Unity as its default shell. It will still focus on Gnome applications, and depend heavily on the Gnome libraries — but the default interface will be Unity. For those unfamiliar with Unity, it’s the default shell for the Netbook Edition of Ubuntu.

=> ↺ GNOME Developers Attack Canonical’s Ubuntu Decision

Distributions

=> ↺ Hacking Damn Vulnerable Linux

• If you can’t exploit it, you can’t secure it. I don’t know if that quote has been said before, but if you are deeply interested about computer security or ethical hacking, that should be your main mantra. To fully learn how to secure a computer program, you must know how to break it and find vulnerabilities. In relation to this, there is a unique Linux distribution that is primarily created to help teach you about software security, its name is Damn Vulnerable Linux (DVL).

=> ↺ Learning Linux the hardcore way: Linux From Scratch

• For those not familiar with the project, it is a type of installation published in a book (freely available in PDF form) for someone to be able to read through and build their own Linux distribution straight from source. If you want to learn more about a Linux-based operating system and if you have some time to kill, this is a great start. My earliest of experiments were all successfully built in a virtual guest under VirtualBox. I was able to customize it the way I desired by installing only the packages that mattered to me and ran with it. Immediately after my first build, I went to the Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) project page, to install additional applications not documented in the LFS book. As dorky as this sounds, it was all part of an exciting experience.

New Releases

=> ↺ Finnix 100 released

• Finnix 100 comes over a year since its previous release, Finnix 93.0, and introduces a new version scheme, with future versions incrementing numerically.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ KDE 4.5.2 available for Mandriva 2010 !!

• I hadn’t noticed, but there are Mandriva 2010 Spring packages for KDE 4.5.2 available since some days now on KDE FTP. I currently don’t know whom to thank but thank you !! (neoclust maybe ??) Packages for both i586 and x86_64 are available.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Analyst huddles with Red Hat execs, ups share price

• Wall Street analyst Katherine Egbert of Jefferies & Co. came to red Hat’s headquarters for some on-site research at the Linux software and services firm. To the relief of the Hatters, she was impressed.

• In an extensive research note written after the visit, Egbert upped the target price for Red Hat shares $3 to $48 while maintaining her “Buy” rating.

• Red Hat shares traded up slightly Wednesday morning at $41.61.

=> ↺ Leading Spanish Travel Operator Chooses Red Hat to Virtualize Its IT Environment

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Barceló Viajes, a leading Spanish travel operator, has chosen Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization to consolidate its datacenters that support the company’s mission-critical business platforms. By virtualizing its systems, Barceló aims to reduce its server farm by half. With Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, Barceló has enhanced the ease of management of its systems and has experienced improved flexibility, scalability and performance.

=> ↺ Red’s Bull Trade Action Alert: Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)

• LTN’s Pattern Recognition Analyst, Paul A. Ebeling, Jnr, today ID’d the start of a New Bullish Trend (NBT) for Red Hat, Inc.

• Red Hat closed at US$41.08 on Monday and opened Tuesday at US$40.72.

Fedora

=> ↺ Fab, Linux Outlaws Podcaster

=> ↺ Fedora 13: One day I love you, the next day you’re pushing kernel updates that break my system … but I’m holding on for the moment

=> ↺ Using Four Seasons of Code to help run Fedora Students Contributing program

• There is a running instance to look at, and we could get a similar instance running on a Fedora Infrastructure public test server. We have a ways to go for it to be fully hosted by the Fedora Project, but why not try using it for the next session?

Debian Family

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Have You Seen The Latest Ubuntu Ad? Watch It Here!

• Ubuntu has released a new video ad which tells about some of the core markets of Ubuntu — desktop, servers and cloud. The ad also says that Ubuntu will always be free.

• The ad is undoubtedly good, but if it is targeted to be shown at business meets, conferences its good. If the ad is targeted at the home users, it is nowhere close to what it should have been. What do I mean? Just think if Apple iPad ad. It was all about what ‘you’ can do with the device and not what all an operating system can do, because you know what? No one cares.

=> ↺ New Ubuntu Advert makes for a slick introduction to the OS

=> ↺ Have Questions About Unity? Ask Them At AskUbuntu!

• Another interesting question asked is “Will Unity become themeable?”, however it seems no decision regarding this has been made so far.

=> ↺ Using Unity – Day One

• Overall I am rather happy-ish with Unity. There are some issues that I will explore as the days go on.

• Overall it feels quicker than regular Gnome, but there are moments when it really seems to wait for something when responding, like when you open the menu.

• Tomorrow I will be looking at how much resources it uses compared to Gnome2, and a few other things.

=> ↺ System 76 Starling Netbook Review

• I’ve had the pleasure of trying out plenty of netbook hardware. Just about every form factor and operating system combination available. These netbooks range from the hardly usable, to the might-as-well-be-a-laptop, and everything in between. It’s that “everything in between” space that appeals to the majority of users on the planet and that’s exactly where the Starling lands – but it does so while leaving quite a solid impression on the user.

=> ↺ Jolicloud 1.1 Hands On

• Jolicloud 1.1 will be provided as an upgrade for existing Jolicloud 1.0 users. It will be based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx), and supported until April 2013. But, the good news is that future patches from Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) will also be added in the new Jolicloud 1.1 release.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Review: Mint 9 Fluxbox Edition

• Released 09/06/2010, The Fluxbox edition of the ultra-popular Mint Linux OS is hailed as a newer Fluxbuntu type of derivative based on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. So I’ll take it for a spin and see how it runs.

=> ↺ Kubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Review

• On October 10, Canonical released its latest installment of Ubuntu, codenamed “Maverick Meerkat”. Like previous iterations, Maverick also includes variations from the standard Ubuntu Gnome interface. Kubuntu is the KDE variation of Ubuntu, and last week, I decided to upgrade from 10.04 and give 10.10 a try.

=> ↺ Ultimate Edition 2.8

• Earlier this week I wrote a quick look over on EOL about Super OS 10.10. Super OS…well…it didn’t exactly live up to its name, though it does have its place among the many Ubuntu remasters out there. I ran into another distro though that does a more credible job of living up to its name. Ultimate Edition 2.8 is the latest release of yet another Ubuntu-based distro.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Most Touch Screen ebook Readers Run on Linux

• Want to go on an ebook-reading marathon for two weeks? You don’t need an iPad. All you need is a decent touch screen ebook reader. They can last more than 10 days (not just 10 hours) and, thanks to e-ink technology, so will your eyes.

• E-ink displays, which most of these ebook readers use, consume less power, are less susceptible to glare, are less strenuous to the eyes, and most of all, cost much less than even the most basic iPad.

=> ↺ Barnes & Noble unveils color e-reader

• US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble unveiled a color electronic book reader on Tuesday, getting the jump on rivals Amazon and Sony.

• [...]

• Barnes & Noble said customers could immediately purchase the Nook Color, which is powered by Google’s Android software and has eight gigabytes of memory, through the bookseller’s website with shipping beginning around November 19.

=> ↺ PandaBoard opens up Cortex-A9 SoC to developers

• Digi-key is shipping a 1080p-ready development board based on Texas Instruments’ Cortex-A9-based, dual-core, 1GHz OMAP4430 system-on-chip (SoC). The $174 “PandaBoard” offers 1GB of DRAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, DVI, and HDMI connections, and targets smartphone and mobile device development using open source Linux distributions such as Android, Angstrom, Chrome, MeeGo, and Ubuntu.

Sub-notebooks

=> ↺ OLPC San Francisco Community Summit 2010

• There were six people who flew from Boston to SF for the OLPC summit this past weekend, three of them work for OLPC, one for SugarLabs, one for public media non-profit and myself. It was a beehive of a weekend, as everyone felt like a bee taking active part in presenting, learning and collaborating! The opening reception took place on Friday evening at the Market st location of SF State University, kindly arranged by Sameer Verma and SF OLPC community. It was great to hear Carol’s announcement of San Fran Mayor’s decision to proclaim Sat, Oct 23 of 2010 as One Laptop Per Child Day in San Francisco.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Open doors to open source computing

• It wasn’t that long ago that open source computing was more a dreamy ideal than a working proposition. But as attested by the strength of the two-day government open source conference that kicks off in Portland today, it’s become a practical, problem-solving movement.

• Open source computing may be defined broadly as software that is developed, maintained and used in a collaborative way, across organizational boundaries, rather than software that is developed in-house and presented as a proprietary, commercial product. It’s the difference between the Microsoft Office suite of applications, for example, and OpenOffice, which provides free and broadly supported software applications. Open source can also apply to operating systems, servers, browsers and other software.

=> ↺ Open Data, Open Source, and the City of Portland

• Skip Newberry: I look forward to learning about some of the innovative open source and open data initiatives underway in other cities. In particular, I am interested in exploring opportunities for collaboration.

• Mark Greinke: Open Source is a platform that effectively enables collaboration and interactive communities. Attending GOSCON allows us to collectively share our tremendous experiences and talents in solving problems that benefit all our communities. I am extremely excited to learn how our peers are leveraging open source solutions and to share with the community some of the innovative things Portland is doing around Open Source and Open Data.

=> ↺ 7 Things We Don’t Have to Invent for Animation Production (Thanks to Free Software and Previous Free Culture Productions)

• Counting your blessings is good for the soul — not to mention for convincing yourself and any investors that your project will succeed. Free culture is highly conservative, because it’s possible to simply reuse ideas (and sometimes actual artifacts) with little to no cost. Here’s seven things I’m really glad I don’t have to worry about in designing the production model for our free culture animated series Lunatics.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Get a Feel of Firefox 4 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat

• Firefox 4 is all over over the news and the funny thing is, Firefox 4 final release has not even happened yet. Firefox 4 beta 6 was released recently and it boasts of key performance improvements and a number of new and useful features like Tab Candy. Let’s do a quick look at the latest Firefox 4 in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat.

=> ↺ Mozilla delays Firefox 4 release until 2011

• According to a just-revised timetable, Firefox 4 will now shift to release candidate status sometime in early 2011. Release candidate, often simply dubbed “RC,” is the final stage of development before a software maker gives the green light for a final version.

=> ↺ Mozilla Releases Firefox 3.6.12 and Delays 4.0

=> ↺ What’s the matter with Firefox these days?

• Not long ago I was still defending Firefox as a good browser that never, or only very rarely like every few months, crashed on me. That may in retrospect have had something to do with hosts file and all sorts of nasties blockers, because once I disabled these for a while for a little test it suddenly kept crashing, like in abnormally exiting, at least once a day.

Oracle

=> ↺ Oracle: Google ‘directly copied’ our Java code

• Oracle has updated its lawsuit against Google to allege that parts of its Android mobile phone software “directly copied” Oracle’s Java code.

• Oracle filed a surprise lawsuit against Google in August, claiming portions of Google’s mobile OS platform infringe Java-related copyrights that Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems.

CMS

=> ↺ Tate using Drupal

• The site is based on Drupal. Web design firm BrightLemon London was chosen to build the online community.

Government

=> ↺ EU’s procurement tool supports purchase orders and service catalogues

• The European Commission published version 1.0 of Open e-Prior, its open source electronic procurement solution for member states, in late September. The new version allows users to import and view catalogues of services, submit purchase orders and credit notes, and exchange invoices.

• The software is made available on the OSOR.eu.

• Open E-Prior version is developed by the Directorate-General for Informatics (Digit) of the European Commission. The tool is Digit’s contribution to the Pan European Procurement Online (Peppol) project. Peppol intends to simplify the cross-border electronic exchange of information between public administrations and their suppliers.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Star Trek cited by Texas Supreme Court

• The Texas Supreme Court when writing their opinion in Robinson v. Crown Cork and Seal cited Mr. Spock, effectively making him a legal authority for interpreting the Texas Constitution.

=> ↺ City Paper Mocks Competitors For ‘Policies’ Over Stewart/Colbert Rallies

• NPR specifically banned journalists from participating while the Washington Post similarly warned reporters, that they could “observe,” but “cannot in any way put themselves in a position that could be construed as supporting (or opposing) that cause.” Yes, how dare reporters be seen supporting sanity!

=> ↺ Multnomah County dumps Microsoft in favor of Google

• Multnomah County officials have decided to dump Microsoft in favor of Google, expecting to shave as much as $600,000 a year from the county budget.

• The government agency said that 3,500 county employees — excluding staff in the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices — will be using Google Apps for Government for e-mail, calendars and contacts Monday. Previously, they relied on Microsoft Outlook for the same functions.

Security

=> ↺ New Firefox and Thunderbird security releases

=> ↺ Pentagon cites hardware glitch in ICBM outage

• A communications malfunction at a Wyoming Air Force base knocked 50 intercontinental ballistic missiles offline for 45 minutes last weekend as technicians scrambled to diagnose the problem, Pentagon officials said Tuesday.

• [...]

• Officials stressed that there was no possibility the missiles could have launched accidentally, nor was there any indication that foreign governments or terrorists had hacked into the system. If the U.S. had needed to fire the Minuteman III missiles in the affected squadron during the outage Saturday, officials said, backup systems could have been used.

=> ↺ Firefox 3.6.12 and 3.5.15 security updates now available

Defence/Police/Aggression

=> ↺ X-RAY VANS: Security Measure, or Invasion of Privacy?

• Privacy advocates worried about x-ray scanners making their way around U.S. airports may be surprised to know the technology is also making its way onto America’s streets.

• The Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military and even local law enforcement agencies are buying and deploying mobile X-ray vans that can see into the interior of vehicles around them.

• The Z Backscatter Van (ZBV), manufactured by American Science and Engineering (AS&E), can be used to detect contraband such as car bombs, drugs and people in hiding.

• But the vans, which can also see through clothing and into some buildings, are raising privacy concerns as well as questions about health risks — and what might happen if the technology gets into the wrong hands.

=> ↺ Airport body scanners are an unacceptable intrusion

• The introduction of body scanners at international airports followed the case of Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a flight to Detroit on which he was a passenger. He had flown from Yemen via Lagos and Holland’s Schipol Airport. There are real questions about whether the scanners work. Furthermore, they’re not needed; they invade privacy; and they’re potentially unsafe. In evidence before the Canadian parliamentary group investigating scanners, Rafi Sela, a leading Israeli security expert, derided them as ‘useless.’ His experience is acquired in a country which really knows something about security, and has no plan to introduce scanners. The scanners seem unable to penetrate beneath skin. So hiding material in body cavities or in implants conceals them.

=> ↺ UK airlines back call for airport security changes

• Mr Broughton said some “completely redundant” security checks should go.

=> ↺ BA slams stupid security checks

• Enough already with the security theatre

=> ↺ Tantric TSA: The art of foreplay

=> ↺ West Midlands Police Issue Apology Over Birmingham Mail Picture

• Reference the article in the Birmingham Mail on Thursday 21 October entitled “Masked Robbers Preyed on Women”.

=> ↺ Hotel guest blacklist website irks privacy campaigners

• A Bristol company that has launched a hotel guest blacklist website has prompted a privacy watchdog to call for a government enquiry.

=> ↺ Sobriety tests – the latest absurdity to pop into some politician’s foolish head

• He was touting a bonkers new scheme by which drinkers in London who fall foul of the law would be breathalysed or otherwise tested for booze twice a day for prolonged periods of time and, if they failed said tests, could be sent to jail. “It is not just punitive but corrective,” he said. For which, read, nannying and bullying.

=> ↺ Some thoughts on privacy and cloud computing

• In an paper published in 2009, HP identifies six cloud computing privacy issues when developing for the cloud. They are:

• 1. Minimise personal information sent to and stored in the cloud 2. Protect personal information in the cloud 3. Maximise user control 4. Allow user choice 5. Specify and limit the purpose of data usage 6. Provide feedback

=> ↺ Follow the Money: Pork-Powered Pig Preps for Flight

• The shifting formation is aimed at confusing potential attackers, a concern that reached a fever pitch after 9/11. It could just as easily apply to the corporations jockeying to replace the aging Marine One fleet — a boondoggle that’s wasted billions and fattened politicians’ war chests for years, as a short list of well-connected players maneuver to build a custom rotary aircraft deemed safe enough to fly the president through almost any crisis, even a nuclear blast.

=> ↺ The Revolution Will Be Distributed: Wikileaks, Anonymous And How Little The Old Guard Realizes What’s Going On

• Bear with me, as I try to connect a few different thoughts that are coming together in my mind in this particular post. My thought process kicked off with this monumentally clueless opinion piece by former state department official Christian Whiton, complaining that President Obama and Congress have failed us by not killing the folks behind Wikileaks. I’m not kidding.

Finance

=> ↺ Mean Street: Goldman Sachs’ Suckers Bond Trade

• Are you still unsure whether we’re in the midst of a giant bond bubble?

• Well, Goldman Sachs sure isn’t. Today, it is selling $1.25 billion in 50-year bonds to retail buyers at a yield of 6.125%.

• Do you believe that Goldman would be selling these bonds a week before the Fed meets if it thought interest rates were heading much lower?

=> ↺ Michael Lewis Exposes Goldman’s Prop Trading In Flow Clothing

• In other words, this is nothing less than prop trading masking as flow. Period. The problem is that as this does nothing to address the issue that the TBTFs are once again taking on massive risk in the form of huge principal inventory accumulation. Furthermore, due to the quirks of VaR reporting, this will actually have an impact of reducing reported VaR, even at a time when Morgan Stanley recently reported its highest blended VaR in history. In other words, the TBTFs, in their avoidance of Donk, have become even greater timebombs than ever imagined. And that banks will crash is certain…

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ The Ubiquitous “Too Much Big Government” Theme

• The “Government intrusion” argument is a powerful propaganda theme that has been around for a long time, and one that big businesses often use to manipulate public opinion. As with so many other corporate-derived propaganda tools, the anti-government theme originated largely with the tobacco industry, which has relied on it for decades to get its way in public policy.

=> ↺ Pro-Life Organization Calls Obama The “Angel of Death” (VIDEO)

• A few hours before I left my room for the opening plenary of a two-day conference on abortion, a friend sent me the link to Personhood USA’s latest ad. It was playing in the back of my head as I listened to academics debate, politely but forcefully, about selective abortion and fetal personhood, the right of conscientious objection and the issue of fetal pain. And although I thoroughly enjoyed the conference, and left with a more nuanced view of several issues, I’m still terrified for the state of discourse on abortion in this country – in large part because of this ad.

=> ↺ Special Report on Outrageous Election Spin and Misinformation

• It’s difficult to watch almost any TV without being bombarded with repetitive ads “paid for” by some group that claims to be just like you, or like someone you want to be, like “Americans for Prosperity” and its so-called “Prosperity Network.” But you can help fight back.

=> ↺ Millionaire Insiders Hide Behind Group Attacking Feingold

• An activist group called SpeechNow.Org is running ads against Senator Russ Feingold. It blames him for the deficit and claims that clean election laws he spearheaded are “attacking free speech.” But who’s really behind SpeechNow’s folksy, cartoon attack ads?

• The Money Bags: One funder is multi-millionaire Fred Young, the heir of the Young Radiator fortune in Racine. He sold his Wisconsin company for over $70 million in 1998 to a group that quickly merged with Wabtec Corporation, a multinational with a history of outsourcing jobs to make goods in China and elsewhere.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

=> ↺ Schmidt: Don’t Like Google Street View Photographing Your House? Then Move.

=> ↺ When Your CEO Suggests Moving In Response To Privacy Questions, Time For A New CEO

• We already had mentioned his bizarre idea that kids might change their names upon becoming adults in the future, but Schmidt just keeps on making rather creepy statements about privacy that suggests someone totally out of touch with what people are actually complaining about.

=> ↺ Things heat up in US privacy debate

• Internationally, the EU, OECD and Canada have all taken steps to address privacy concerns while strengthening their current practices. Canada, in particular, recently launched their Privacy by Design campaign that advocates privacy through the principles of IT, technical development, and best business practices. Additionally, US industry groups are taking the issues into their own hands in order to develop industry standard practice through self regulatory programs. In particular, the Interactive Advertising Bureau recently launched their new program.

=> ↺ Understanding what Facebook apps really know (FAQ)

=> ↺ Nailing the jelly fish

• Late European time on Friday (22 October 2010) Google slipped out a blog confirming that, contrary to previous public assurances, its global Wi-Fi privacy breach had resulted in the widespread collection of consumer data which was more than merely fragments of emails. This included the unauthorised interception of entire emails and passwords.

=> ↺ Amazon wins fight to keep customer records private

• In a victory for the free speech and privacy rights of Amazon.com customers, a federal judge ruled today that the company would not have to turn over detailed records on nearly 50 million purchases to North Carolina tax collectors.

• The state had demanded sensitive information including names and addresses of North Carolina customers–and information about exactly what they had purchased between 2003 and 2010.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

=> ↺ High-speed Internet for rural areas pegged at $7-billion

• The price tag for closing the digital divide between urban and rural Canadians is about $7-billion, says Winnipeg-based telecom provider MTS Allstream Inc.

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ Marvel Is Green With Rage Over ‘Hulk’ Power Tools

• Now that Marvel has again decided to revitalize its comic icon the Incredible Hulk with a new TV series, the company is bulking up to protect its “Hulk” trademark.

• In Marvel’s line of sight is an Ohio-based power tool manufacturer, Airbase Industries, that’s introducing a new line of industrial and home equipment under a “Hulk” brand. The company’s marketing tagline for these tools is “Unleash the Power.”

=> ↺ The Vatican Concerned About Intellectual Property

• Of course, this actually applies to developed countries as well, but we’ll skip over that for now. Still, it’s nice to see at least some folks recognizing that intellectual property creates competing incentives, and that the only way to judge whether or not it’s a net benefit involves looking at both impacts.

=> ↺ South Korea’s US-led copyright policy leads to 65,000 acts of extrajudicial censorship/disconnection/threats by govt bureaucrats

• Tens of thousands of South Koreans have had their websites censored or been kicked off the Internet by their ISPs on the strength of a single, unsubstantiated accusation of copyright infringement, in a process that has no right of appeal, no right to face your accuser, and no right to see or contest the evidence against you.

Copyrights

=> ↺ ACCESS COPYRIGHT 1,300% Proposed Increase – Update Re Proposed “Interim” Decision/Tariff

• I recently posted on how Access Copyright (“AC”) is trying to eliminate all but two of the 101 timely objectors to its proposed tariff hearing that would seek to increase its per student rate by about 1,300% for university and college students. AC is also seeking to charge for linking to and displaying digital content from the internet, which is interesting since no permission is required to do either.

=> ↺ Porn sets goal of ending piracy within 15 months

• Although the RIAA and MPAA have stopped suing P2P users for piracy, the porn industry has decided to take on the task of ridding the Web of file swappers. To show how committed they are the purveyors of porn have set a goal to stop P2P porn piracy within 15 months. That’s a pretty tall order considering that the RIAA and MPAA failed.

=> ↺ Third trial to begin in $1.92M music piracy case

• A third trial is set to begin in a bitter, closely watched legal battle between Minnesota native Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

=> ↺ Mom Asks Court to Declare Universal Violated Law in “Dancing Baby” Case

=> ↺ Filesharing software distributor LimeWire ordered to close by Court

• One of the world’s largest distributors of Filesharing software, LimeWire, has been placed under permanent injunction by the US District Court in the Southern District of New York, to cease distributing and supporting its software. The injunction, requested by multiple parties including Bertlesmann Music Group, Motown, Capitol Records and Sony Entertainment, was filed and approved 26th October and was issued under Title 17 U.S.C §502, covering infringement of copyright.

Clip of the DayGiver (more here) Credit: 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.