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● 07.19.11

● Links 19/7/2011: Why GNU/Linux Feels Better Than Mac OS X, Howard County Library Uses Ubuntu

Posted in News Roundup at 4:12 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Price of “7″ Premium is $56

• An Italian retailer, Monclick, is selling identical eeePC 1215P with “7″ Premium and Ubuntu. The price difference comes to $56 with that other OS costing that much more. Well, they aren’t identical, quite; that other OS comes in red while Ubuntu comes in black, but who cares? They’re both N570 Atoms at 1.5gHz with 2gB RAM and 12.1inch screen so they are, officially, not netbooks.

=> ↺ How to best choose hardware for Linux

• Let’s say you want to buy a laptop and install a Linux distro on it. However, you’re facing a sort of a dilemma. Unlike Windows, which often comes preinstalled and configured with all the necessary drivers, you do not really know if your distro will fully support the underlying hardware. You might end up with a non-functioning system that will require a long time fixing and tweaking.

• So what do you do? How do you choose hardware that will make your Linux flavors behave without compromising on your actual needs? No worries, I will help you. Today, you will learn how to make the best decisions when it comes to purchasing hardware for Linux.

=> ↺ Ubuntu VS OS X

• So, if you were like me, and curious about Mac OS X, you can see I am not overall impressed.

=> ↺ How Linux saved my computer from Windows Update

• Without the Linux CD, I’d have been stuffed.

Desktop

=> ↺ Howard County Library and Ubuntu

• Well today I stepped foot inside Howard County Library in Woodbine, MD for the first time and saw that all of their computers were in fact still using Ubuntu. It was so much cooler in real life than what I read about it.

=> ↺ On Linux Distributions and Desktops

• However, what names come into mind when you think about Desktops? I believe that in this case, the names which feel most like it are Mac, Windows, Android, Meego, BeOS, ChromeOS, JoliCloud, and so on. Some of them are running proprietary OSes, some of them are partly open, and some of them are actually based on a Linux distribution or a Linux kernel and libraries stack.

• And finally, what comes into mind when you think about the term ‘Linux Desktop’? Without holy wars and discussion which distribution is better (notice the word distribution here), I believe that it is hard to escape from the names as Ubuntu, Mandrake, Linspire, SLED, and similar solutions.

• Some of you perhaps have already got my point. What makes a “Desktop” is not a mere combination of packages, applications, community and artwork; but it is the integration and common feeling among all of its components, and somewhat inherited desire of having a ‘standard’ way of doing everything. And Linux Distributions, on their turn, inherently have the essence of freedom of choice, flexibility and multitude of combinations of applications and goals within, which make them much more flexible on one hand, but much less focused on another.

• Why Linux distributions will never (in my humble opinion) beat Windows or MacOS on desktop? By a one simple reason – they are too flexible. They provide too many options and possibilities by default, without a ‘standard’ way of doing things, and while everything works and is usually tightly integrated, this is still a combination of packages and applications, and not a Desktop. This is not a bad thing – by the contrary, I believe that this is awesome! But this opposite to what is expected from a Desktop experience.

=> ↺ Look What’s On Amazon.com’s Best Selling List!

• That’s right folks. On 2011-7-17 at 0634 Winnipeg time, items 8 and 9 in notebooks ordered by “Bestselling” are “Chromebooks” from Samsung.

=> ↺ 7 days in the cloud: My week with the Samsung Chromebook

• But, brave soul that I am, I decided to give it a try. This is what I found. I warn you now, it’s a tale of both triumph and tragedy. Well, OK, so it’s really a story of what worked and what didn’t work, but you get the idea.

=> ↺ Flash Drive Linux vs. Standard Linux Desktops

• Flash drives have had a long-lasting relationship with Linux distributions. These portable storage devices are among the most reliable for out of the box hardware support on the Linux desktop. Clearly, using flash drives to run Linux has its benefits for various types of users.

• As luck would have it, I was told of a company that is apparently running individual installations of Linux on flash drives for each of their employees. Apparently cost was a major motivation, but so was the need to VPN into the office from home without needing to configure a separate piece of software for each person.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Test Driving GNU Hurd, With Benchmarks Against Linux

• Last week there was a GNU Hurd status update, which generated a fair amount of attention as it stated there are plans for a Debian GNU/Hurd release in conjunction with Debian “Wheezy” when it’s out in late 2012 or early 2013. After being in development for more than 20 years, the Hurd is finally taking some shape. The Debian GNU/Hurd installer for Wheezy is even now working, which I tried out and ended up porting the Phoronix Test Suite to GNU Hurd. In this article is a brief look at Debian GNU/Hurd along with the first-ever benchmarks of Debian GNU/Hurd against Debian GNU/Linux.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Missing Functionality From The Linux Graphics Drivers

• While NVIDIA yesterday released a new Linux driver, it was quick to be pointed out in our forums that NVIDIA Optimus Technology still is not officially supported under Linux. But that’s not all that’s missing from their proprietary driver.

• Also still missing is support for Fermi overclocking (overclocking the GeForce 400/500 series). Last August is when I mentioned that it was missing and NVIDIA confirmed they had it disabled in their Linux driver (but not under Windows) for all Fermi hardware. When testing out the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 last week, I noticed the support was still missing when trying to enable CoolBits. I asked NVIDIA’s Andy Ritger for a status update concerning Fermi overclocking on Linux, but he hasn’t yet responded to that message from five days ago.

Applications

=> ↺ Moving the screenlocker into compiz

=> ↺ Giving Audacity its due: An audio editor with serious functionality

• Every so often I feel compelled to drop the corporate conspiracy theories and the how-tos and simply offer up kudos to an application and team of developers that work hard to create a piece of open source software that has great functionality and allows the user to enjoy freedom in so many ways. I found one of these programs when l I started creating a podcast (Zombie Radio) to promote my “I Zombie” trilogy of novels. When one of my beta readers came up with the idea, I knew it had to be done…and I knew the open source community would have all the tools I needed to make it a reality.

• What I wanted to do was be able to create podcasts that resembled a radio station deejay, so music would be interwoven or added to dialog…a simple task, actually, especially with the right tool. That tool, of course, wound up being Audacity. If you’re out of the loop, Audacity is a free, open source, cross-platform sound editor that not only has an amazing feature list, but winds up being incredibly easy to use. Even for someone who has had limited exposure to sound editing, Audacity can have you creating somewhat complex audio files that are then exported as mp3 files.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Creating Startup Scripts with Bash

=> ↺ How to make your own 20th Century Fox and LIONSGATE intro with Blender 2.5 in 5 min

=> ↺ Install Elementary Music App BeatBox in Ubuntu 11.04 from PPA

=> ↺ How to install PCLinuxOS 2011.6 on an encrypted LVM file system

=> ↺ Logitech Webcam On Ubuntu

=> ↺ The touch command does more than just create empty files

=> ↺ Using getmail to backup Gmail on Linux

=> ↺ Steampunk beautiful theme for KDM and ksplash

=> ↺ In the Spotlight

=> ↺ systemd for Administrators, Part IX

=> ↺ Hacking together my digital artifacts with a wifi picture frame

• I’ve been thinking about the problem of digital artifacts in a physical world. I remember clearly, a fantastic conversation I had with the amazing Jas Dhaliwal about this exact subject when he was up in Manchester recently.

Games

=> ↺ The FSF about Free Games

• I have noticed a new FSF-bulletin-article via identi.ca: The Free Game Lag by Danny Piccarillo. The article is about the lack of FLOSS games. It neglects the theory that Free Software would be an unsuitable method for game development. Free games will evolve like any other fields of software, but currently it is low-priority, because games are not that important. Seriously, the arguments of that article are null and void, it does not take specific properties of game development into account, I want to explain my thoughts about the issue:

=> ↺ SuperTuxKart 7.2 Final Has Been Released

=> ↺ Mad, Mad Intervew

=> ↺ FLARE 0.14, 0.14.1 and a new video!

=> ↺ World of Padman 1.5.4 Beta

=> ↺ Last Tuesday

=> ↺ Top 10 FPS Games for Linux

• As part of our effort in giving Linux games category its due share, here is our second post featuring some really good games for Linux. If it was about top RTS games for Linux before, now its time for some fast paced first-person shooter(FPS) games for Linux. Quick collection of 10 FPS games for Linux((in no particular order) every Linux gamer should be aware of.

Desktop Environments

=> ↺ Seven Great Enlightenment (DR17) Themes

=> ↺ Get Over The Old UIs

• Anyway, it had the KDE 3.5X series desktop environment as default. I thought, cool! I’ll like this probably. Then I paused. You all should know that pause, right? It’s the one where our mind is actually being rational for a minute and starts spinning trying to figure something out. Then it’s almost as if a bell gets rung once and the answer’s there. My mind was telling me that it remembered that the last time I looked at a distribution using the KDE 3.5X series I thought it looked antiquated at best.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

=> ↺ Community Keynote Interview: Stuart Jarvis

• Stuart: At the moment I mainly try to keep KDE’s marketing in good shape. This means working with the promo team to keep up to date with happenings in our community, and spreading the word about events through articles on the official KDE news site, KDE.News. It also means getting involved in writing press releases about the latest software news and doing a bit of people management to get things done on time.

GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ UGR Linux: Ubuntu Gnome Remix project

• I have Ubuntu 11.04 on my laptop but I’ve added Gnome 3 and ditched Unity by adding repositories which have Gnome3. Everything kind of works but there are problems as described before here.

=> ↺ Seven Great Enlightenment (DR17) Themes

=> ↺ Gnome 3 Themes Explained

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ SystemRescueCd 2.2.1

=> ↺ PapugLinux release 11.1

• PapugLinux-11.1 is available for download, this is a major release in term of package update.

Slackware Family

=> ↺ Slackware Turns 18

• Slackware 1.0 was released by Patrick Volkerding exactly 18 years ago in 16 July 1993 in an official release when he was still a student. At that time, it was distributed under 24 disks (yes, floppy disks) and it only has two series, A and X. No one will ever thought that it’s now being the oldest maintained Linux distribution up to now Applause

=> ↺ A Weekend with Kongoni 2011

• My experience with this new CD was a bit worrisome at the beginning. I inserted it and let its automatic boot go…but got the unpleasant error message that the live CD was not found. Since I had nothing else to do, I rebooted the computer and pressed “enter” before the 10 seconds for the automatic boot were over.

=> ↺ Learning to Slack with Kongoni!

• Some days ago, I had said that I was bored since my multi-boot systems were working perfectly. I also said that I wanted to try Kongoni GNU/Linux.

• Since booting the live CD wasn’t enough, my quest for knowledge led me to actually installing this Slackware-based distro. Three were my main motivations to add yet another head to my hepta-boot desktop computer:

• 1. I have not tried a purely Libre distro.

• 2. I’ve always wanted to try Slackware, but I feel I’m not yet up to it.

• 3. I felt it was about time for me to see if I could do well with a text-based installation.

Mandrake Family

=> ↺ PCLinuxOS Phoenix XFCE Edition 2011-07 – Final is here

• PCLinuxOS Phoenix Edition 2011-07 is now available for download, PCLinuxOS Phoenix Edition 2011-07 features the following updates.

=> ↺ A first look at PCLinuxOS 2011.6

• Under the hood PCLinuxOS is still a good distribution. It has a nice installer, the KDE desktop has pretty good defaults and it comes with a wide selection of useful software. It’s the presentation that I feel could use some improvement. I don’t mean the grey theme — it’s not my favourite colour, but at least it’s not purple. No, by presentation I mean, for example, the default icons on the desktop. Most users aren’t going to regularly access their firewall configuration, their localization settings or the LibreOffice Manager. Most users will want to access their web browser and e-mail client on a daily basis, but those icons aren’t on the desktop or the quick-launch bar. The application menu does quite a bit of nesting in some places, even if the sub-menu has just one item in it. Synaptic is a capable package manager, but it’s not as newcomer-friendly as Mageia’s software manager. What it boils down to is that, if we put Mageia beside PCLinuxOS, I think an argument can be made that the latter is more appealing from a technical, “let’s tweak the settings,” point of view, but loses points in presentation and user-friendliness.

=> ↺ PCLinuxOS 2011.6 – You don’t give me love

=> ↺ Mageia 2 Release Details Revealed

• After an extensive discussion with the community on the Mageia developmental mailing list, Anne Nicolas revealed the results concerning Mageia release and support cycles as well as the release schedule for Mageia 2. The consensus was to use basically the same cycle used in Mageia 1.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Overview of CentOS 6

• CentOS stands for Community ENTerprise Operating System and it exists to provide a free enterprise class computing platform and strives to maintain 100% binary compatibility with its upstream distribution, in this case Red Hat EL 6.

=> ↺ Asia Pacific traders prefer open source

• Some of the busiest stock exchanges in the region have shown a preference for open source software as indicated by the number of installations of Red Hat, one of the companies providing open source solutions.

=> ↺ NTT Com Receives Red Hat Cloud Leadership Award

Fedora

=> ↺ Distro testing marathon

Debian Family

=> ↺ Debian 7 might come in a GNU Hurd version

• As you all might be aware Debian is a popular Linux distribution that forms the basis of many other more popular distributions such as Ubuntu. Hurd on the other hand is something you might not be aware of.

• While Linux is most popularly considered a family of operating systems, Free Software Foundations purists reserve that name for the kernel, or the very core of the operating system. They prefer to call the resultant distribution of kernel and software running on the kernel as GNU/Linux since it is a combination of GNU software and the Linux kernel. Debian is thus known as Debian GNU/Linux.

=> ↺ Debian invites you to Debian Day

• During Debian Day, the conference opens its doors to anyone interested in finding out more about Debian and Free Software, inviting enthusiasts, users, and developers to a full day of talks on several subjects — such as Free Software in government and enterprise, and involvement — as well as a string of talks about the Debian Project and operating system.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Canonical Finally Hiring Consumer Marketing Expert!

• Canonical has been doing ads focused on business and it’s business products for at last a few months. But the question was when would they finally start advertising Ubuntu itself? Well that time is getting very near. On July 14th Canonical posted this job ad on it’s career portal.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 11.10 Says Goodbye to the ‘Me Menu’

• The ‘Me Menu’ will no longer be installed by default in Ubuntu 11.10.

=> ↺ Leaky Unity in Oneiric

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Sometimes things don’t go all that well (Linux Mint 11) (Harry Potter was better)

• I installed Linux Mint 11 last night. And this morning. And again this morning. I think I’m done now.

• I’ve been using Linux Mint for several years and just loving it. It’s the most stable, most newbie-friendly, most media friendly Linux I know. Release 7 was terrific, 8 even better — and there I happily stayed until I began having browser woes. I knew there could be hassles jumping three versions forward, but Mint is so friendly I wasn’t worried.

• Ha!

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

=> ↺ 6.36 Android Activations per second

=> ↺ Google announces bumper financials and 550,000 Android device activations daily

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ 80 “Funnest” Open Source Applications

• In the summer, we like to take a break from all the serious open source applications that we usually cover and take a look at some apps that are just plain fun.

• This year, we’ve updated our list of the “funnest” open source applications with more games than ever before. In fact, the 2011 list has 74 games in all, including 46 that we’ve never featured before. At the end, we’ve also included a few apps that aren’t really games, but are still pretty fun.

• Notably, the majority of the apps on this list run on multiple platforms, so you should be able to find plenty of games for your system, no matter which operating system you run.

• If you’d like to call attention to a great open source game that isn’t on our list, please make a note in the comments section below.

=> ↺ The open source “shallow fork” approach to pre-deployment

• The not-for-profit Outercurve Foundation’s systems infrastructure and integration gallery has launched a new developer competition.

• The open source group’s work with “CoApp” is focused on this community driven “package management system” for open source applications on the Windows Platform.

=> ↺ Control Points and Steering Mechanisms in Open Source Software Projects

• Most commercial software today depends on open source software. The commercial software might be using an underlying open source platform, or it might be incorporating open source components, or it might be provided as a commercial open source product itself. Whichever the case, the software firm behind the commercial software needs to ensure that its interests are met by the open source software projects it depends on. This article shows how commercial software firms manage or steer open source software projects to meet their business needs.

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Firefox world loses Web dev guru to Chrome

• For years, an extension called Firebug has been a powerful tool that kept Web programmers loyal to Firefox.

• But now, as browser makers add their own tools geared to attract those who build Web sites and applications, the lead Firebug programmer has taken a job with Chrome, CNET has learned.

• “Monday, I start work on next-gen Web dev tools at Google on the Chrome browser team. Consequently I will no longer be contributing routinely to the development and maintenance of Firebug for Firefox,” John J. Barton told members of a Firebug mailing list yesterday.

=> ↺ Mozilla Challenges Google: Open Source Chrome Isn’t Good Enough

• There are people who claim that Mozilla does not have the guts to openly challenge Google in the same way the company attacked Microsoft in the mid-2000s. Mozilla’s official competitive strategy can be described as almost being mushy in a time when the company needs to be more aggressive than ever to make its case. But the company gets more confident and its chairman has just told us that, while Google is the lesser of two evils, Firefox will have to evolve to sustain its role as the Robin Hood of the open web.

Mozilla

=> ↺ At last, the Bird became the Thunderbird

• Well, today I want to talk about Thunderbird 5, a recent update to the popular Email client from Mozilla that I believe is worth talking about.

=> ↺ Firefox Is Going 64-Bit: What You Need To Know

• Firefox product manager Asa Dotzler determined that figuring out the 64-bit confusion surrounding Firefox will be “near the top” of his to-do list this summer and fall. One could conclude that Mozilla has no idea at this point what people are expecting from a 64-bit version of Firefox, so Dotzler is asking for some feedback. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of 64-bit – are you ready for a 64-bit Firefox?

=> ↺ Firefox at 64-bit: Do You Care?

• Mozilla has begun collecting feedback on what appears to be a more serious approach to move Firefox for Windows from 32 to 64 bit.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Discordant Notes Surround IBM’s Symphony Move

• It was just early June, of course, when Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) decided to donate OpenOffice to the Apache Foundation rather than to LibreOffice — a move at least one blogger equated with a “spiteful child, smashing their toys instead of sharing.”

• Well, so much for any kind of lasting quiet since then. Last week, none other than IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it was donating its Lotus Symphony office suite to the Apache OpenOffice.org project, thus throwing its own weight behind the Oracle-affiliated project as well.

=> ↺ OpenOffice.org and Symphony: Did IBM Do the Right Thing?

• Along with that sigh of relief, however, red flags began to fly in the FOSS blogosphere because IBM had a hand in Oracle’s decision. Experience has taught open sourcers to be suspicious, and there was plenty of fodder here to make one wary of Big Blue’s possible motives, mostly revolving around IBM Lotus Symphony, the freeware suite that utilizes OpenOffice code. Since the permissive open source Apache License allows a commingling with proprietary code in a way strictly forbidden by the GPL and its derivatives, it was feared that OOo would be neglected as IBM and Oracle focused their efforts on proprietary add-ons to create non-free versions of OpenOffice.

Funding

=> ↺ Quest Software Demonstrates Open Source Absorption

=> ↺ AU: Guide to open source software published after online public consultation

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ Interview with MusicBrainz developer Kuno Woudt

=> ↺ Creative Commons Chief Technology Officer

• The Chief Technology Officer manages all aspects of the company’s technology infrastructure and provides strong leadership in setting the overall technology direction and goals for the organization. Responsibilities are twofold. First, directly managing the staff responsible for supporting the technology needs of staff; managing the organization’s intranet and internet services; directing the organization’s varied development projects; ongoing technical oversight of the company’s products and services; and solving the most challenging of technology development problems facing the organization. Second, the CTO is a visionary, looking beyond the existing curve with respect to opportunities and innovations that Creative Commons can explore and embrace to remain timely and relevant to its broad constituency.

Licensing

=> ↺ Harmony 1.0 Reflections

• The month before the Harmony 1.0 release was quiet, and I was starting to wonder if anyone other than the drafting group was even paying attention any more. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see the posts start to appear last week after the Monday release. Some more positive, some more negative, but the most important thing right now is that people are engaging with Harmony, thinking through what the agreement templates mean, and how they fit in the general FLOSS ecosystem. So far I’ve read posts by: Bradley Kuhn, Dave Neary, Jon Corbet, Mark Webbink, Richard Fontana (part 1 & part 2), Simon Phipps, Stephen Walli and a Slashdot mention (glad for links in the comments if you come across others). I’ve observed a few common themes, so I thought it might be useful to take a step back and ponder through them.

=> ↺ Why I would not sign a Harmony Agreement

• Jos blog post today reminded me that I had a look at the Harmony Agreements and tried to decide for me whether I would consider to sign such a CA. To make it short: signing a Harmony Copyright Assignment is for me unacceptable. I think it could be valuable to others why I would not sign such an agreement. As a note: I have signed the KDE Fiduciary Licensing Agreement, so I am not in general opposed to licensing agreements.

Leftovers

Security

=> ↺ What I’ve learned from (nearly!) a year of open source

• Whilst Agnitio v1.0 was only released 7 months ago I announced that I was writing the tool at SecurityBSides Las Vegas last year and that it would be “free for anyone to download and use” (see slides 49, 50, 51 and 53 here). That particular statement makes me think of one thing in particular I learned and I will cover later in this post.

Finance

=> ↺ Matt Taibbi vs. Goldman Sachs — [VIDEO]

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ ALEC and the Tobacco Industry

• The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is an influential, under-the-radar organization that facilitates collaboration between many of the most powerful corporations in America and state-level legislative representatives. Elected officials then introduce legislation approved by corporations in state houses across the U.S., without disclosing that the bills were pre-approved by corporations on ALEC task forces.

=> ↺ Common Cause Alleges ALEC Violates Non-Profit Status

• Common Cause has asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to investigate the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for possibly violating its tax-exempt status. The request came one day after the Center for Media and Democracy unveiled “ALEC Exposed,” a website uncovering more than 800 model bills created by the corporate-funded organization.

=> ↺ ALEC Hotels

• ALEC’s Annual Meetings and Task Force Summits are held in some of the nation’s top travel destinations, at swanky hotels where state legislators and corporate executives enjoy lavish accommodations and exclusive excursions. A registration form for ALEC’s 21st Annual Meeting in Tampa, Florida invited members to “come and experience endless sandy beaches, sunny days, beautiful sunsets and the cool gulf breezes,” at the posh Hyatt Regency, which features more than 17 golf courses within 35 minutes of the hotel. In fact, a golf tournament and clinic sponsored by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company was one of the event’s top activities.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Lawsuit Accuses 70-Year-Old Retired Widow of Downloading Porn via BitTorrent

• We’re fairly certain if you take a random sample of folks in their 70s and ask them to describe what BitTorrent is, the majority of them will tell you to hush up because you’re interrupting Matlock. Even folks much younger who aren’t entrenched in the tech world aren’t likely to be all that familiar with BitTorrent, but they’re all fair game for sue-happy firms looking to score quick settlements for big media.

Reader’s Picks

=> ↺ Hotmail and Outlook have left users without SSL for a decade and fewer than 2% are covered by this fundamental if weak protection

=> ↺ Microsoft’s war against the world rages on as the company tries to become what they think Google and other companies are.

• We still have this big, audacious goal of having a continuous cloud service for every person and every business around the world. … We have to have Active Directory completely deployed … No. 2 is the importance of System Center [which "is going to manage other devices, something no one else does."]. … We’re doubling down on the Microsoft Stores. … our biggest competitors. What’s the first one? Google. … We don’t scan your e-mail. We’re not snooping your Wi-Fi. … [Microsoft competitors and partners, Oracle, Salesforce, VMware, Apple, are subjected to laughter and derision]. … the gateway to get to Windows 8 is Windows 7 … [the pep talk ends with a movie, Nethope] a humble reminder that we’re all a part, ladies and gentlemen, of something bigger than ourselves…

=> ↺ The Free Game Lag

• gaming is not a top-priority and, as such, has not advanced as rapidly as say, web browsers or word processors. That isn’t to say that no progress has been made. … The state of non-free gaming has gotten so bad, that an effort called The Humble Indie Bundle launched to sell games that did not force you to use a particular platform, and did not use DRM.

Defence/Police/Aggression

=> ↺ The CIA set up a phony free vaccination program to find Osama bin Laden’s children in Pakistan. … it was wrong to give children in Nawa Sher just one dose of vaccine when three are needed.

=> ↺ Israeli military withheld vital video evidence in the death of Rachel Corrie.

• Rachel’s father, told a press conference in Jerusalem that the footage from a surveillance camera near the scene of his daughter’s death submitted to the court was “incomplete”. Additional video material obtained by the family showed Rachel’s body in a different spot to the place identified by some military commanders

=> ↺ Collateral Murder video

=> ↺ accuses his commanders of a horrible, illegal order.

• [in 2007] our Battalion Commander walked into the room and announced our new rules of engagement: “Listen up, new battalion SOP (standing operating procedure) from now on: Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every [expletive] in the street!”

=> ↺ US anti-terrorist laws have blocked humanitarian aid to Somalia.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ A lobbyist from the Hoover Institute tried to block the addition of BPA to California labeling law by smearing an environmental organization as a wasteful “special interest group.”

• Sharing scientific facts seems like it should be fairly straightforward, but there’s always a cacophony of naysayers trying to dispute scientific findings.

Censorship

=> ↺ Israeal formally abolishes free speech by banning the advocacy of a boycott of settlements.

=> ↺ The rules publishers have recently pushed on their ISPs are also an attack on open wireless routers, making every subscriber a copyright enforcer.

Privacy

=> ↺ Facebook gives law enforcement access to some of their analysis.

• U.S. law-enforcement agencies are increasingly obtaining warrants to search Facebook, often gaining detailed access to users’ accounts without their knowledge…. The Facebook search warrants typically demand a user’s “Neoprint” and “Photoprint” — terms that Facebook has used to describe a detailed package of profile and photo information that is not even available to users themselves.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ US citizens: tell Attorney General Holder to oppose various states’ show-me-your-papers laws.

=> ↺ The fate of the flytilla

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ Paul Alen’s Interval Licensing Patent Troll Suit is Denied.

• BAM! BOP! SMASH! That’s what came to mind reading the court’s Order Denying Reconsideration in the Interval Licensing case. It is also clear that Judge Pechman is getting tired of Interval’s inability to stay with the script.

=> ↺ Patents have driven up the cost of asthma inhalers from $5 to $60

=> ↺ Does Nortel patent sale make Google an antitrust victim?

• how does a coalition of its mobile rivals swoop in and bid five times what Google offered for a bundle of patents whose value is seen mainly as a wall against intellectual property lawsuits? It’s a question that Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has raised and one that The Washington Post reports that antitrust folks in Washington are pondering.

=> ↺ Ridiculous price of Nortel patents used as an excuse for aggression.

• Though Amster calls the sum a “shockingly big number,” he noted that the patents hold strategic value that is difficult to quantify. “Each company had different reasons why they didn’t want Google to own the patents,” he said. “The value was driven by the desire to ensure [that wouldn't happen].” … “Prices…got to a level where owning the patents became much more important and having them be purely defensive became not viable.”

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