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● 06.24.13

● Links 24/6/2013: Cumulus Networks, More GNU/Linux Migrations in Germany, PHP 5.5.0 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 12:21 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Cumulus Networks unveils ‘Cisco killer’

=> Networks And Its Version Of Linux ↺ Cumulus Networks And Its Version Of Linux

=> ↺ Stats-Quake!

• You know those graphs of Earth’s motion recorded by scientists to find location and strength of earthquakes? Here’s one for market-share of operating systems. I obtained it by adding up StatCounter’s page-view shares for M$’s Windows. For a month there was a rapid decline in share and then the rumbling began on May 2, when Earth shifted on its axis the decline in the share of that OS was suddenly reversed until two weeks later, it’s share returned to “normal” and stayed there with no further decline…

=> ↺ German City Set To Make Linux A Norm For Citizens

• Munich City Council is all set to make Linux-based operating system a norm for its citizens. Earlier we had reported on how the city saved over 10 million Euros or $12.8 million by employing Linux and open source software instead of using Windows with Microsoft Office and Windows with OpenOffice. And now, the city is all ready to take the next step. The German city is now eyeing to wean its citizens off Windows XP with free Linux CDs. Munich City Council has plans to distribute thousands of free Linux CDs to the citizens in spring of next year.

• Munich City Council has chosen Ubuntu over other distros as the ‘replacement of Windows XP’ for the citizens of the city. Microsoft has recently decided to officially end support of the 11-year old operating system in April next year. This is where the government saw the opportunity of introducing their people to the world of free and open source software.

=> ↺ Enterprise Networking Week in Review: SIP, Video Conferencing, Wi-Fi, and Linux

=> ↺ Cumulus Networks CEO: How Linux-based switches change network ops

• J.R. Rivers: We’ve had a few customers come in and say, ‘I want to use [Linux tools] for configuration management.’ We made sure it installed and did appropriate things, and then we let customers go to town. More often than not, they were able to use their existing recipes they had built for their server environments pretty much intact on their network devices. They had to augment it some because things are a little bit different. But something like Chef is really about building out a server and making sure all of its packages are put together correctly. A lot of that is based on standard internal policy — setting up your user authentication mechanisms correctly, setting up your IP table filter lists, tying back to your AAA servers, setting up your NTP servers. All of these are the same whether you are running on a networking device or a server.

=> ↺ Startup Cumulus Brings Linux OS to Data Center Networks

• Company officials say the Cumulus Linux operating system will help drive down networking costs while helping propel the SDN trend.

=> ↺ Cumulus Targets Data Centre Networks With Linux OS

=> ↺ Ex-Google Man Brings Linux to World of Networking

=> ↺ What’s Inside Cumulus Linux for Networking?

=> ↺ Cumulus Networks Emerges From Stealth With Cumulus Linux

=> ↺ Mac OS X vs Windows 8 vs Chrome OS vs Linux OS

• I like Ubuntu and other Linux distros for various reasons. They are free, both as in beer and freedom (Open Source).

=> ↺ Windows 8 vs Mac OS X vs Linux: The Best Operating System

=> ↺ The Perfect Operating System

• Most people if they have even heard about Linux, only know Ubuntu. I have been asked to compare Ubuntu and OpenSuse. On technical merits, I think the basic technologies used by both are a tie. But in execution, OpenSuse runs away from Ubuntu. The polish and elegance of OpenSuse’s KDE and Gnome UI’s far exceeds the homeliness of Ubuntu’s Unity desktop. Even Unity’s default color scheme is awful. Some think Ubuntu might be marginally better on ergonomics (Though I really don’t think so) but it is not pleasing to many eyes.

Desktop

=> ↺ 5 Services To Make Linux Desktops Enterprise-Ready

• Bangalore: We all know enterprises serve as the home for Linux operating systems. These operating systems can be tweaked so much that, today, they have become a common OS in personal computers too. But earlier or years before, to say exact, Linux was credited to be one of the toughest nuts to crack and apart from that, tweaking a Linux desktop into business-ready machine really gave headaches.

Server

=> ↺ What’s Next for IBM Power? [VIDEO]

• Arvind Krishna has a big job at IBM. Krisha is the General Manager for Development and Manufacturing in the Systems and Technology Group at IBM. His responsibilities include semi-conductor research and development as well as production.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Kernel Log: Coming in 3.10 (Part 2)

• Bcache has been added to the kernel as a second framework for SSD caching. More compact metadata should speed up btrfs. Checksums help XFS prevent data errors in its file system structures.

=> ↺ Hacking the kernel: one man’s tale

• Mel Gorman works with code. Nothing unusual in that, an overwhelming number of the people I interact with in the FOSS arena do just that.

=> ↺ Changes coming for systemd and control groups

• Lennart Poettering posted a message to the systemd-devel mailing list that outlines some changes coming. It refers to an earlier message that started describing differences coming in the kernel’s control group (cgroup) implementation and their effects on systemd. Those cgroup changes were discussed in February 2012 and cgroup maintainer Tejun Heo decided to eventually drop multiple cgroup hierarchies in March 2012.

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation:How Collaborative Development Works

• Over the last years few years the Linux Foundation has extended their charter beyond Linux. They provide a home for a number of open source projects that extend beyond the Linux kernel.

=> ↺ Linux Foundation sees broadening role for developers

• Linux developers were once just that, developers. But their role is changing says the Linux Foundation, which is expanding its training options to help them.

• The foundation, an industry supported non-profit, has added two courses to its program, OpenStack Cloud Architecture and Deployment and Linux Enterprise Automation.

=> ↺ Kernel Log: Coming in 3.10 (Part 2)

• Bcache has been added to the kernel as a second framework for SSD caching. More compact metadata should speed up btrfs. Checksums help XFS prevent data errors in its file system structures.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA To License Its Kepler GPU Technology

=> ↺ Nvidia Launches CUDA Support for ARM Server Chips

Benchmarks

=> ↺ 8-Way Desktop Comparison On Ubuntu 13.10 Linux

• Up this Saturday morning on Phoronix are some OpenGL/gaming performance benchmarks of eight different desktop environments currently available from the Ubuntu 13.10 “Saucy Salamander” package archive when using Intel Core i7 “Haswell” graphics with the Linux 3.10 kernel and Mesa 9.2.

=> ↺ Assessing The Current Intel Haswell Linux Experience

• Since the Computex launch of Intel’s much anticipated Haswell processors at the beginning of the month, there’s been much Linux coverage on Phoronix concerning the compatibility and performance of these new Intel processors from both the processing and graphics sides. Here’s a summary of all of our discoveries and findings over the past few weeks.

Applications

=> ↺ Cool Indicator Sticky Notes for Ubuntu

=> ↺ 4 Text Editor for Linux

• Today I want to do a roundup of the available text editor for our Linux computer, in particular I’ll take a look at the graphical text editor, so no vi, emacs, nano or joe today.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ 5 ways to display line numbers in a file

=> ↺ Multiarch: How To Use 32bit Packages On A 64bit System (Debian 7 Wheezy)

=> ↺ Programming for Intel Xeon Phi (MIC)

=> ↺ Most Common Apache Tuning Parameters

=> ↺ Quick troubleshooting network bottleneck on Windows

=> ↺ LDAP for Rocket Scientists

=> ↺ How To Use PHP 4.4.9 (FastCGI) With Apache & ISPConfig 3 (Debian Wheezy)

=> ↺ Using BlinkStick with Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ How to change the UUID of a partition

=> ↺ yED Alternate of Microsoft Office Visio on Ubuntu Linux

=> ↺ 5 Tips To Speed Up Linux Software Raid Rebuilding And Re-syncing

=> ↺ Build your own custom modules for Drupal 7, part 2

=> ↺ Parsing Human Date-Times

=> ↺ Kartesio: best fit curves with experimental points

=> ↺ Automatic key synchronisation

Games

=> ↺ The Cheapskate’s Corner 6 (Jun 20th-26th) (UPDATED)

• Welcome to The Cheapskate’s Corner! Take a deep breath and prepare your wallets because this issue comes loaded with bundles and sales on which to spend your money — sparingly, of course.

=> ↺ ‘Incredipede’ is free (as in beer) for Linux users

=> ↺ Humble Bundle 6 with Android Released

=> ↺ Steam can now serve 64bit games on Linux!

=> ↺ Squad-based competitive space combat simulator, GoD Factory: Wingmen will be available on PC, Mac and Linux

=> ↺ Planetary Annihilation starting alpha testing

• The real-time strategy game Planetary Annihilation, developed by Uber Entertainment, has been released in an alpha version for Linux, Windows and Mac on Steam.

• The project was financed through the Kickstarter and has collected $2,229,344 of $900,000 pledges in a period of one month.

=> ↺ Europa Universalis IV is coming on Linux

• Europa Universalis IV is expected to appear on 13 August 2013 for Linux, Windows and Mac. It was developed by Paradox Development Studio, the company that has published Crusader Kings II apart of Europa Universalis.

=> ↺ 3D Game Development Goes AAA With Leadwerks for Linux

• Linux is a solid and secure operating system that’s suitable for gaming, but at this time Windows remains the lead platform for PC games. This may be about to change. Last year, Valve Software brought their game distribution system Steam to Linux, along with several of their popular game titles like Left 4 Dead and Half-Life.

• One company wants to boost Linux gaming by putting the game development process on Linux. Leadwerks Software has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring their game development software to the Linux operating system. The company says this will allow users to build and play games without ever leaving Linux.

=> ↺ Planetary Annihilation Released For Linux Gamers

• Planetary Annihilation, a real-time strategy game out of Uber Entertainment, is now available in alpha form on Linux.

• The final release of Planetary Annihilation isn’t expected until year’s end for all major platforms, but Uber Entertainment is keeping the Linux developments in-step with OS X and Windows. Thus, available now is the alpha release of Planetary Annihilation for Linux gamers.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ First steps towards Animation in Krita

=> ↺ Help us testing Microsoft Money import in Skrooge

=> ↺ KScreen 1.0 Released For KDE Screen Management

• Version 1.0 of the KScreen System Settings Module has been released for easy yet powerful RandR-based screen management from the KDE desktop.

=> ↺ Splashed across plasma

=> ↺ rekonq 2.3.1

• This release just focuses on bugfixing: first hint I had to add about is about qtwebkit version. In this “strange” period, where qt focuses on Qt5, QML and WebKit2, while we are still bound to Qt4 && Webkit1, I think we need to follow the unofficial QtWebKit 2.3.x branch, with its releases about (last should be QtWebKit 2.3.1). People reported, in this 40 days since rekonq 2.3.0 release, a lot of crash bugs that can be fixed just upgrading from QtWebKit 2.3.0 to QtWebKit 2.3.1.

=> ↺ My life with KDE 4.10.2: Using activities

=> ↺ Share your love of Krita!

=> ↺ Trashcan : Development Phase

=> ↺ NetworkManagerQt

=> ↺ 4.11 Build Chart and What Else?

• SC 4.11 build chart. Lines and lines and lines!

=> ↺ KScreen 1.0 released

• We are really glad to release the first officially stable version of our new Screen Management tool that allows you to configure screens such TV, Projectors or Monitors magically just by plugging them while keeping an interface for those users that want or need a more custom configuration.

=> ↺ D-Ptr, the modern way

Distributions

=> ↺ Puppy don’t preach – Slacko and Precise head on!

• Puppy does not disappoint, once again. For the past six or seven years I have been using this little distro and reviewing it occasionally, it has always delivered a very pleasant and efficient experience. Some of the stuff could benefit from extra polish, like making some of the network configurations faster and easier. But overall, given its mission statement, it delivers the most practical combo box.

=> ↺ Linux Deepin review – beautifully perfect

• This weekend, I decided to install a new distro on my netbook. I saw Linux Deepin just released a new version so I gave it a try. And it was a right decision, Linux Deepin is really a perfect distro in my opinion.

New Releases

=> ↺ Zorin 7 (Educational)

=> ↺ Lite 1.0.6

=> ↺ AUSTRUMI 2.7.2

=> ↺ Linux Deepin 12.12 Released With New Desktop Environment, More [Video, Screenshots]

• Linux Deepin is a Chinese Linux distribution (English ISO files are available as well) based on Ubuntu, that ships with its own desktop environment and some unique applications, which integrate with the overall Linux Deepin look and feel.

=> ↺ Zorin Announces Four Specialized Editions for its Version 7 OS

• Zorin OS, a newbie friendly Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, has now got four new companions in Zorin OS 7 Educational, Business, Multimedia and Gaming editions. All these editions are based on the Zorin OS 7 Core that was released on 9th June. Zorin OS 7 is based on Ubuntu 13.04, and is thus package-compatible with Ubuntu’s repositories. Version 7 and its companion editions come out about a year after the Zorin OS 6 release, and do not differ much from it in terms of features. The new release comes with a huge set of software updates, and a facelift (new logo plus theme) that closely follows on the Windows 8 interface design.

Screenshots

=> ↺ KXStudio 12.04.1 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Caixa Magica 20 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Piumalinux 2012-1.2 Screenshot Tour

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ Random thoughts

• Well, thanks to Megatotoro’s review of Pisi Linux here (and his output problem), I have been fooling around with my “From-PC-to-TV” output lately. I finally discovered how to have two different monitors on KDE. I’ll write about it soon.

• I need some time to install Pisi myself. Maybe next weekend. And I need to learn how to install the newer versions of Firefox on Mageia 3, 64 bits.

• The PCLinuxOS update went good. I only encountered a minor sound problem because my previous sound configuration was invalid in the new KDE 4.10.4. Yet, it was a matter of changing the position of devices in the hierarchy. Oh, and the new login screen looks great! No wonder PCLinuxOS is now ranked #3 on DistroWatch’s chart.

Gentoo Family

=> ↺ Gentoo Starts Work On KDE-Wayland Support

• Soon it will likely be possible to run a KDE desktop over Wayland using Gentoo Linux with its Portage packages.

• With KDE 4.11 beginning to support Wayland through KWin window manager changes, a Gentoo maintainer is already readying the support to use Wayland/Weston in conjunction with KDE rather than X11.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Premium Lock Linux market still remains ‘bread-and-butter’ business at Red Hat

=> ↺ When Will Red Hat Make Money from OpenStack Clouds?

• Linux vendor reveals where the money is coming from as revenues grow in the cloud. OpenStack is part of the picture — but it’s still early, says CEO.

=> ↺ Red Hat continues to grow

• In the first quarter of its current fiscal year, which ended in May, US Linux distributor Red Hat increased its revenue by 15% to $363 million, continuing the positive trend of the previous quarters. Net income grew 8% year-over-year to $40 million. Revenue from software subscriptions alone rose 16% to $316 million, according to a press release.

=> ↺ Google and Red Hat bring App Engine to JBoss

• Google is collaborating with Red Hat to enable developers to run Java application designed for Google’s App Engine Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) in private cloud installations, according to a post on Google’s Cloud Platform Blog. Both companies have been working together, improving the open source App Engine Test Compatibility Kit (TCK) to further interoperability between Google’s own platform and Red Hat’s third party implementation CapeDwarf. The result is an implementation on top of Red Hat’s JBoss application server that allows users to transfer their Java code from Google’s infrastructure to their internal JBoss installation and back.

=> ↺ Red Hat Q1 earnings: Right in line

• Results are in for the U.S. open source software company’s fiscal first quarter 2014. A look at the numbers.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ There’s Now An Ubuntu Touch PPA For Unity 8, Mir

• For those wishing to play with the next-generation Unity 8 interface atop the Mir Display Server while running Ubuntu Touch, a Personal Package Archive (PPA) is now available. There’s also been other Mir and Unity 8 progress made this week.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Rapiro – The Raspberry Pi Robot Kickstarter

• A Raspberry Pi-powered robot from the Tokyo Raspberry Jam is now seeking funding on Kickstarter, from the maker of the mechanical Necomimi cat ears

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Model B 512MB Linux Test Suite Benchmarks

• One question we get a lot around here is whether or not ARM is the top choice out there. Of course, ARM hardware is easy to acquire, but in terms of turn key installation, Intel is still much easier to integrate at this point. We did decide to start running the Linux test suite on a few ARM platforms. The first of which is the mega-popular Raspberry Pi 512MB model. We installed Raspbian and tried our Linux test suite. Luckily, almost everything worked, except the crafty chess benchmark. Otherwise, there are certainly some interesting results. Let’s take a look.

=> ↺ Rapiro – The Raspberry Pi Robot Kickstarter

• A Raspberry Pi-powered robot from the Tokyo Raspberry Jam is now seeking funding on Kickstarter, from the maker of the mechanical Necomimi cat ears

Phones

=> ↺ My Moto RAZR V3 wants a firmware hack. Any documentation?

Android

=> ↺ GameStick Android Console Ship Date Delayed Until August To Refine UI

=> ↺ Commentary: The future of Android looks more like Apple

• Last week, Apple unveiled the latest incarnation of its mobile operating system, iOS 7. The response was decidedly mixed, with users and critics welcoming a long overdue update to the OS but bemoaning the Easter-colored M&M icons, the inconsistent UI, and an overall look and feel that was wholly lifted from Android and Windows Phone.

=> ↺ Super-sharp displays on Android phones take on Apple

• Huawei, HTC, and Sony are leaders in super-sharp, large-screen phone displays, and Apple’s got some catching up to do, says DisplayMate Technologies.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Small Brick Open Source PLC

• The OSPLC SMALL BRICK is an open-source PLC (programmable logic controller) that can be programmed using open source C language programming tools.

• The PLC is a general-purpose controller with a wide variety of applications. It is useful to the engineer, technician, student and hobbyist.

=> ↺ Open source summer reading list

• Earlier this month, Facebook officially announced its implementation of hashtags, prompting both celebration and outcry from users. But the event also sparked a spate of critical analyses addressing the nature of conversations today, as well as the ways technologies facilitate and organize even the most banal ones. Love them or hate them, hashtags have become an overwhelmingly popular convention for pursuing those recurring questions: What’s going on right now? And how should we make sense of it?

=> ↺ Opensource.com summer book Twitter drawing rules

• Enter for your chance to win a book from our summer reading list. Here’s what you need to do:

=> ↺ JDownloader Court Ruling Worries Open Source Software Developers

• This week news broke that the popular JDownloader download tool had been declared illegal by a German court. The headline was open for debate since the court only took exception to one particular and long-since removed feature which allowed the downloading of encrypted video streams. However, the ruling has concerned the creators of JDownloader who say that it represents a threat to the development of Open Source Software.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 24 for Linux gets native MP3, AAC and H.264 support

• Firefox users who use the Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating system benefit from support for H.264, Mp3 and AAC formats that Mozilla implemented in version 21 of the web browser. Support means that users of the browser on those systems can play audio and video files requiring these formats in the browser without plugins.

=> ↺ Launching Maker Party 2013

=> ↺ Mozilla checks in with Cookie Clearinghouse for better cookie handling

• The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School has announced a list-based exception platform for managing cookies, called the Cookie Clearinghouse (CCH). Mozilla has committed to work with the CCH Advisory Board to develop the platform.

• Mozilla’s recent attempts to bring in better handling of cookies – in the form of Safari’s third-party cookie block – and reduce the tracking of users ended up in “development hell” a month ago. This was not, though, a result of criticism from advertising groups, but because it was generating too many false positives and false negatives when deciding whether to block cookies from third-party sites.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Rackspace, Fidelity: OpenStack Hybrid Cloud Partnership

• The public cloud’s heyday has passed, and enterprises should focus on hybrid cloud investment. So say executives at Rackspace (RAX), the OpenStack-powered cloud hosting vendor. And if deals like the one Rackspace just announced with Fidelity Investments to build an OpenStack cloud is any indication, Rackspace’s vision is on the mark. Here’s the scoop.

Databases

=> ↺ Oracle Databases: From MySQL to NoSQL Switch?

• Is the NoSQL database trend a threat to Oracle (ORCL)? This is a big week for the company, which announced somewhat disappointing Q4 new software licenses yesterday. While cloud computing and hardware sales are Oracle’s big challenges, you can’t overlook the open source database wars as well. Indeed, Oracle and MySQL faces challenges from smaller NoSQL vendors.

=> ↺ MongoDB GUIs that Shine

• MongoDB is a high performance, open source, non-relational NoSQL database written in C++. MongoDB stores structured data as JSON-like documents with dynamic schemas (MongoDB calls the format BSON). This property helps make the integration of data in certain types of applications easier and faster. MongoDB is network accessible, has full index support, query profiling, replication and fail-over support, indexing, auto-sharding for cloud-level scalability, load balancing and more.

=> ↺ Oracle Advances Open Source MySQL Clustering

=> ↺ TokuMX brings “Fractal Tree indexing” to MongoDB

• Tokutek has announced version 1.0 of TokuMX, a version of MongoDB that has its storage layer replaced with Tokutek’s storage engine. The storage engine, which is available for MySQL and MariaDB, uses the company’s patented Fractal Tree indexing. In developing TokuMX, the developers have also replaced the locking and replication code of MongoDB to get better workload performance as the client count increases. The focus for TokuMX is on large databases of over 50GB, where its indexing technology can bring the most benefit to performance.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ LibreOffice is getting better, even better

• The group responsible for overseeing the development of the LibreOffice free and open source “Office”-style productivity suite of applications has confirmed its latest release.

• The Document Foundation says that 98 bug reports and improvements have been included in LibreOffice 4.0.4, with the 4.1.x (and onward) set of releases due to follow as soon as this July.

CMS

=> ↺ WordPress 3.5.2 Released – Maintenance and Security Fixes

• WordPress 3.5.2 is now available. This is the second maintenance release of 3.5, fixing 12 bugs. This is a security release for all previous versions and we strongly encourage you to update your sites immediately.

• The WordPress security team resolved seven security issues, and this release also contains some additional security hardening.

=> ↺ CMSs mostly vulnerable through addons says German security agency

• Unpatched vulnerabilities not closed by the developers in time or the lack of a crisis communication plan or brute force protection did have the biggest negative impact on the BSI’s overall rating, while a clunky integration into existing management software only brought down the score a little. However, the security experts did not conduct a penetration test for the study.

Education

=> ↺ How libraries can be a haven for makers

• I work at a public library in the Washington DC-area and often think about what needs to be designed into the space of future public libraries. I was recently visiting the MAKE magazine website when I saw a fascinating how-to video about building your own portable Raspberry Pi game system.

Funding

=> ↺ Hello World and GSoC2013 Introduction

• I can’t promise I’ll post regularly or keep this up to date, in fact I can pretty much promise I won’t but I’m not going to. Anyway this’ll be a blog on my development related activities and maybe some other things, who knows?

=> ↺ Intermittent GSoC Status Update 1

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GIMP 2.8.6 Has Been Released

Project Releases

=> ↺ Suricata 1.4.3 released!

• Photo by Eric LeblondThe OISF development team is pleased to announce Suricata 1.4.3. This is a small but important update over the 1.4.2 release, fixing some important bugs.

=> ↺ Touch-aware Magnolia 5.0 released

• Version 5.0 of the open source Magnolia CMS has been released after a year and a half spent redeveloping the front end tools that deliver content to the CMS’s users. Talking with The H, Pascal Mangold, CEO of Magnolia, explained that Magnolia 4.5 had seen the redevelopment of the backend of Magnolia to create a foundation for the work that has been delivered in Magnolia 5.0. Magnolia is a Java CMS that is built around the concept of being an enterprise integration platform, connecting users with enterprise systems in an accessible way.

=> ↺ Google’s Dart hits beta

• Google has released the first beta version of its scripting language Dart, which it originally unveiled as its alternative to JavaScript in October 2011. Google’s new programming language essentially aims to replace JavaScript – unlike Microsoft’s TypeScript and CoffeeScript, two supersets that add important features to the older scripting language.

=> ↺ Build Tool Version 0.6.8 Released

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ The most inspiring introduction to Open Science. Ever.

• The video never went viral, probably because it has an unexplained ‘interlude’ after 42 minutes 57 seconds which makes it seem to end at a random point. This bizarre showstopping moment didn’t deter your intrepid iij innovation hunters (it actually resumes after about a minute of serious onscreen weirdness) from recognizing a gem and it certainly shouldn’t stop you watching it

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Funders have all the power in OA negotiations. So why aren’t they using it?

• A few days ago I explained why I don’t think “hybrid OA” is a legitimate path to the full-open-access world we all want. The TL;DR is first that it’s offered at stupidly high prices, and secondly that it’s completely impossible to detect or prevent double-dipping because journal subscriptions are the most opaquely priced good in the known universe.

• Then I found that Stuart Shieber had written much the same article but much better four years ago, from the perspective of explaining why the Harvard open-access fund does not cover hybrid fees.

Programming

=> ↺ 13 Linux Debuggers for C++ Reviewed

• Most time in debuggers is spent doing the same few things: setting breakpoints, stepping through code, looking at variables. Which products make those features supremely accessible and useful? We compare 13 debuggers and find out.

• Have you compared debuggers lately? Until recently, I’d been programming using only one debugger — the one supplied by my compiler vendor. Suddenly, with a new job programming on Linux, I find the range of choices in debuggers is dizzying. Wikipedia lists 18 GUI front ends for GDB alone. This article is the result of my effort to choose a debugger with a good GUI front end for my first UNIX/Linux job in several years.

=> ↺ Zend Framework 2.2.1 Released

• The Zend Framework community announced the immediate availability of Zend Framework 2.2.1!

• Packages and installation instructions are available at: http://framework.zend.com/downloads/latest

=> ↺ Google’s JavaScript challenger gains better tools, performance

• Like TypeScript, Dart is a language aimed at making it easier to develop large, complex web applications that are efficient, secure, and maintainable. It compiles into JavaScript, so it can run in any modern web browser, but its syntax is designed to ameliorate some of JavaScript’s more glaring flaws.

=> ↺ PHP 5.5.0 Released

=> ↺ PHP 5.5.0 adds optimizer and drops Windows XP support

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Google’s VP9 web video codec enters home straight

• As planned in May, Google has now finalised the bit stream for VP9, its open video compression format. Chromium has included a beta VP9 decoder for some time and this has now been activated by default according to an entry in the issue tracker reading “Remove VP9 flag, and enable VP9 by default”. VP9 can also be enabled in the developer version of Chromium and Chrome (“Enable VP9 playback in video elements”). Google is planning to incorporate the final version of VP9 into Chrome 29 and enable it by default by 20 August. It is nonetheless likely to be some time before VP9 achieves a critical mass on YouTube – to date VP9 is limited to a few demo videos.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Second Life turns 10: what it did wrong, and why it may have its own second life

=> ↺ Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to seven years in jail in bunga bunga sex trial

Science

=> ↺ Black hole mysteries

• Scientists are just getting to know the black holes that help anchor our cosmos

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ EU Approves the Use of Laser “Tattoos” on Fruit as Replacement for Sticky Labels

• Sticky fruit labels may soon be things of the past thanks to a new EU ruling that allows grocers and retailers to make laser marks on the skin of citrus fruit, melons and pomegranates. Laser branding, previously banned because of the use of iron oxides and hydroxides, was approved after three years of liaising between the EU and Laser Food – the company behind the technology. The new law will come into effect on June 23rd.

• Read more: EU Approves the Use of Laser “Tattoos” on Fruit as Replacement for Sticky Labels | Inhabitat – Sustainable Design Innovation, Eco Architecture, Green Building

=> ↺ When Jeremy Hunt can become health secretary, it’s a sign Britain is sick

• How can one have faith in the democratic process and the ruling elite when such a man is passing judgment as health secretary?

Security

=> ↺ Kaspersky Secure OS vs China, Iran, North Korea Hackers?

• Kaspersky Lab is developing a cyber secure operating system to combat state-sponsored hackers in China, Iran, North Korea and more. But when will CEO Eugene Kaspersky offer updates?

=> ↺ DNS provider’s error caused LinkedIn “hack” and affected 5,000 more

• LinkedIn, the professional networking site which had been reported as hacked or hijacked yesterday, was in fact the victim of human error at the company’s DNS provider, Network Solutions, an error which appears to have affected up to 5,000 domains in all. Network Solutions has said in a blog posting that while trying to resolve a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, it accidentally changed the DNS records of a “small number” of customers.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Report: Stronger Border Led to More Migrant Deaths

• Tucson, Arizona – As immigration reform debates run hot on Capitol Hill, many members of Congress say a more secure border has to be part of any bill they approve. One of those is Arizona Sen. John McCain, one of the “Gang of Eight” of bipartisan lawmakers pushing reform.

=> ↺ First State Department Benghazi photos released

=> ↺ Latest Brazil protests bring 250,000 on to streets

• More than 250,000 anti-government protesters have again taken to the streets in several Brazilian cities and engaged police in isolated intense conflicts. Demonstrators vowed to stay in the streets until concrete steps are taken to reform the political system.

• Across Brazil protesters gathered to denounce legislation known as PEC 37 that would limit the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes. Many fear the laws would hinder attempts to jail corrupt politicians.

=> ↺ Turkish police use water cannon to disperse remembrance gathering

• Turkish police used water cannon to disperse thousands who had gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday to observe a memorial for four people killed during recent anti-government protests. The officers later fired teargas and rubber bullets to scatter demonstrators who regrouped in side streets.

• The police move came as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that foreign-led conspirators he alleges are behind the anti-government movement in his country also are fomenting the recent unrest in Brazil.

=> ↺ Guevara’s ‘betrayer’ tells his story: ‘When I heard Che had died it was like a bullet had hit me’

• He was one of Guevara’s most trusted collaborators, yet he has been framed by some as the man who betrayed him. Now Ciro Bustos tells his story

=> ↺ Boy’s death highlights anger some Yemenis feel over U.S. drone strikes

• If an apparent U.S. drone strike this month in the village of Mahashama had killed only its intended targets – an al Qaida chief and some of his men – locals might’ve grumbled about a violation of Yemen’s national sovereignty and gone on with their lives.

• But the strike also killed a 10-year-old named Abdulaziz, the younger brother of the targeted militant, Saleh Hassan Huraydan, according to local tribal leaders and Yemenis with close ties to the al Qaida branch here. And that set off a firestorm of complaints that underscores how American airstrikes can so outrage a community that even though al Qaida loses some foot soldiers, it gains dozens of sympathizers.

=> ↺ Ex-CIA chief to Obama: Strike North Korea

• The Obama administration should “seriously consider” a surgical strike to prevent North Korea from developing long-range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, argued former CIA director James Woolsey.

• In a radio interview Sunday night, Woolsey warned the U.S. is currently wide open and virtually defenseless against a missile coming from a southerly direction, and that both Iran and North Korea made advances toward firing missiles in that direction.

=> ↺ Obama’s Secret CIA Hit Squad Detailed in “The Way of the Knife”

• The story behind the development and deployment of this presidential killing corps is told inThe Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth, the latest book by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Mazzetti.

=> ↺ Jihawg Ammo: Pork-laced Bullets Designed To Send Muslims Straight ‘To Hell’

=> ↺ How Barrett Brown shone light on the murky world of security contractors

• Unlike Edward Snowden or Bradley Manning, Brown is not a celebrity. But after helping expose a dirty tricks plot, he faces jail

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ Why NASA’s latest photo of Alaska is freaking people out

• On most days, relentless rivers of clouds wash over Alaska, obscuring most of the state’s 6,640 miles (10,690 kilometers) of coastline and 586,000 square miles (1,518,000 square kilometers) of land. The south coast of Alaska even has the dubious distinction of being the cloudiest region of the United States, with some locations averaging more than 340 cloudy days per year.

=> ↺ Alaska’s Summer Temperatures Cause Floods While Residents Ward Off Record-Breaking Heat

=> ↺ Proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska Could Wipe Out Half the World’s Sockeye Salmon

• The Keystone XL Pipeline has been firmly established as North America’s biggest environmental battleground, but another major battle is forming in Bristol Bay, Alaska over the proposed Pebble Mine, a massive gold and copper mine that has the potential to wipe out half the world’s remaining wild sockeye salmon. And like the Keystone pipeline, President Obama will have the final say on whether construction will move forward. The sprawling open-pit mine would decimate vital salmon streams, and commercial fishermen, environmental organizations and native tribes are all voicing their opposition to the mine.

=> ↺ Climate-science denying Governor Perry renews declaration of drought disaster throughout Texas

=> ↺ Scientist: ‘Miami, As We Know It Today, Is Doomed. It’s Not A Question Of If. It’s A Question Of When.’

• Jeff Goodell has a must-read piece in Rolling Stone, “Goodbye, Miami: By century’s end, rising sea levels will turn the nation’s urban fantasyland into an American Atlantis. But long before the city is completely underwater, chaos will begin.”

Finance

=> ↺ California sends a cease and desist order to the Bitcoin Foundation

• California’s Department of Financial Institutions has issued a cease and desist letter to the Bitcoin Foundation for “allegedly engaging in the business of money transmission without a license or proper authorization,” according to Forbes. The news comes after Bitcoin held its “Future of Payments” conference in San Jose last month. (The license information is available on CA.gov and Forbes placed the cease and desist letter on Scribd.)

• If found in violation, penalties range from $1,000 to $2,500 per violation per day plus criminal prosecution (which could lead to more fines and possibly imprisonment). Under federal law, it’s also a felony “to engage in the business of money transmission without the appropriate state license or failure to register with the US Treasury Department,” according to Forbes. Penalties under that law could be up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

=> ↺ Starbucks pays corporation tax in UK for first time in five years

• Starbucks, one of the companies exhorted by the prime minister to “wake up and smell the coffee” over tax, has handed over £5m to HM Revenue and Customs – its first payment in five years.

• But the cash has only gone some way towards assuaging critics, one of whom complained that companies should not be able to “pick and choose” how much tax they wanted to pay.

• The coffee shop chain said on Sunday it had made the contribution to please its customers and would be paying a second £5m instalment in the last half of the year despite claiming the business overall continued to make a financial loss in Britain.

=> ↺ Why Spain And Italy Are Like Cyprus, Slovenia, And Greece

• The “XXXXX is not YYYYY” jokes aside, Europe’s union of nations is beginning to separate increasingly between the haves and the have-nots. The sad truth, as Bloomberg’s Niraj Shah notes, is that recession/depression has pushed Spanish and Italian GDP-per-capita below the EU average in purchasing power terms – just like Cyprus, Slovenia, and Greece. Irish GDP per capita was 29% above the average, while Greek and Portuguese per capita output were 25% below. Output per head for the EU ranged between 47% (Bulgaria) and 271% (Luxembourg) of the average. With today’s news that retroactive ESM recaps are unlikely, the banking-sovereign symbiosis of Spain and Italy will increasingly come under pressure and with productivity so dismal, there is little hope for now.

=> ↺ Southeast Asia: The Next Crisis?

• Southeast Asia, so long a byway of the world economy, has become a well-worn path for foreign investors seeking refuge from the continuing after-effects of the global financial crisis. They have come because the region has been surging ahead over the last few years, even as the West slumped, China readjusted and India stuttered.

• As confidence grew in Southeast Asia’s newfound ability to realize its potential, success followed success: Indonesia is on the cusp of becoming the region’s first trillion-dollar economy, and achieved an investment-grade credit rating for the first time in 14 years in late 2011, something the Philippines also attained for the first time ever earlier this year; manufacturing has been booming in Malaysia and Thailand; and the Philippines began to challenge India as the top destination for offshore services, while posting first-quarter GDP growth of 7.8%, Asia’s best performance.

=> ↺ Bitcoin Foundation Receives Cease And Desist Order From California

• Directly following last month’s Bitcoin 2013 conference event in San Jose, CA that brought decent revenue into the state, California’s Department of Financial Institutions decided to issue a cease and desist warning to conference organizer Bitcoin Foundation for allegedly engaging in the business of money transmission without a license or proper authorization.

• If found to be in violation of California Financial Code, penalties can be severe ranging from $1,000 to $2,500 per violation per day plus criminal prosecution which could result in fines and/or imprisonment. Additionally, it is a felony violation of federal law to engage in the business of money transmission without the appropriate state license or failure to register with the U.S. Treasury Department. Convictions under the federal statute are punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

=> ↺ Bernanke’s stand-off with markets: who will blink first?

• US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is playing a potentially dangerous game of chicken with global financial markets sent reeling by his threat to scale back the central bank’s huge stimulus program.

=> ↺ China stocks tumble on credit tightening fears

• Chinese stock markets have fallen sharply as the country’s central bank indicated its credit tightening policy would continue.

• The Shanghai Composite SSE index fell 5.3% to 1,963.24 points, over 1,540 points below its 52-week high.

=> ↺ How Austerity Has Failed

• Austerity has failed. It turned a nascent recovery into stagnation. That imposes huge and unnecessary costs, not just in the short run, but also in the long term: the costs of investments unmade, of businesses not started, of skills atrophied, and of hopes destroyed.

=> ↺ U.S. Seemingly Unaware of Irony in Accusing Snowden of Spying

• At a press conference to discuss the accusations, an N.S.A. spokesman surprised observers by announcing the spying charges against Mr. Snowden with a totally straight face.

• “These charges send a clear message,” the spokesman said. “In the United States, you can’t spy on people.”

=> ↺ 6 Facts About Hunger That Demonstrate the Shameful Excesses of American Capitalism

• Of all the miseries placed on human beings in their everyday lives, the lack of food may be the most inexcusable. Even in a world controlled by unbending attitudes of self-reliance and individual responsibility, the reality of children and seniors and disabled citizens going hungry is a stain on humanity, a shameful testament to the capitalist goal of profit without conscience.

=> ↺ Teachers to close schools with strike against cuts

• The strike, which will be followed by regional strikes elsewhere in the UK next term leading to a one-day national stoppage before Christmas if the dispute is not solved, is over government curbs on teachers’ pay, cuts to their pension and changes to their working conditions.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Brazil Protests Peaceful, And Not About Bus Fares

• In preparation for FISL (where I hope to be speaking next week), I have been continuing to try to understand the protests in Brazil, which are now regularly bringing crowds the size of a European town onto the streets. They aren’t really about “bus fares” — and as far as I have been told are free of violence by the protesters apart from a statistically insignificant number of them. With so many people on the streets, there are bound to be a few disorderly encounters; to focus on them is try to distract from the real issues.

• The real issues every Brazilian friend I have spoken to cares about relate to a sequence of governments failing to address structural issues and widespread corruption, and even perhaps joining in. The protesters are people just like you and me, who just won’t take it any more and are peacefully but loudly saying so.

Privacy

=> ↺ Edward Snowden seeks asylum in Ecuador amid diplomatic storm

• The intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden will on Monday attempt to complete an audacious escape to the relative safety of South America after his departure from Hong Kong escalated already fraught diplomatic relations between the United States and China.

=> ↺ NSA leaker Snowden arrives in Moscow en route to ‘third country’ with WikiLeaks help

• The plane carrying whistleblower Edward Snowden has landed at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport. The former CIA contractor, who left Hong Kong in a bid to elude US extradition on espionage charges, is on his way to a ‘third country’ via Russia.

=> ↺ RT interview re Snowden flying to Russia

• As the news broke that NSA whis­tleblower, Edward Snowden, had fled Hong Kong for Rus­sia today, I was invited on RT to do an inter­view. At that point few people had any idea of his plans. How­ever, it appears that the USA had charged Snowden under the Espi­on­age Act 1917 (no sur­prises) and then asked Hong Kong to arrest and hold him, pending extra­di­tion. Equally unsur­pris­ingly, Hong Kong found mis­takes in the paper­work and used the oppor­tun­ity to com­plain about US spy­ing activ­ity in its territory.

=> ↺ WikiLeaks Statement On Edward Snowden’s Exit From Hong Kong

• Mr Edward Snowden, the American whistleblower who exposed evidence of a global surveillance regime conducted by US and UK intelligence agencies, has left Hong Kong legally. He is bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum, and is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisors from WikiLeaks.

• [...]

• “The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden’s rights and protecting him as a person. What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange – for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest – is an assault against the people”.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden asks for asylum in Ecuador: live updates

• The NSA whistleblower left Hong Kong on an Aeroflot flight to Moscow, two days after the US charged him with espionage, before applying for asylum in Ecuador

=> ↺ Now the Government Knows You’re a Dog

• “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” That phrase is ingrained in web culture, stemming from a Peter Steiner comic that was published in a 1993 issue of The New Yorker.

=> ↺ Anger mounts after Facebook’s ‘shadow profiles’ leak in bug

• Facebook said Friday it fixed a bug that exposed contact info for over six million accounts. The admission revealed its ‘shadow profile’ data collection activities, and users are furious.

• [...]

• …users behind closed doors, without their consent.

• [...]

• One man commented this afternoon, “I just downloaded the “extended backup” and I’m still viewing emails and phone numbers that are NOT PUBLIC!!!!”

• [...]

• The yearlong gap of exposure as described by Reuters creates a scenario of horrifying possibilities for any woman who has begin to experience harassment, abuse or stalking by an ex within the past year. Or, anyone being maliciously stalked and harassed by a tech-savvy aggressor (or a stalker’s Facebook sock puppet) they may have accidentally friended over the past year.

=> ↺ Obama’s ‘Insider Threat’ Program a ‘Sweeping’ Crackdown on Leakers

• A program being implemented by the Obama administration titled “Insider Threat” requires millions of federal employees to keep a close watch on each other—a “sweeping” effort to crackdown on whistleblowers and leakers across the U.S. government, McClatchy reports Friday after obtaining a series of government documents.

=> ↺ We can use European law to challenge this spying

• If the law says you can do whatever you like, saying that everything you do is “in accordance with the law” doesn’t mean anything. If “supervision” over state spying is done in secret, by “trusted” cronies appointed by the executive itself, it offers no safeguards either. We need strict legal rules, transparency at least about the law and the basics of practice, and spies who are accountable to parliament and to the general public.

=> ↺ Bush’s Foiled NSA Blackmail Scheme

• In early 2003, as the U.S. and British governments were seeking international acquiescence to their aggressive war on Iraq, an unexpected cog throw into the propaganda machine was the disclosure that the National Security Agency was spying on UN Security Council members in search of blackmail material.

• The revelation received little attention in the mainstream U.S. news media, which was almost fully onboard the pro-war bandwagon, but the disclosure received wide international attention and stopped the blackmail scheme. U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were forced to abandon a UN resolution and invade Iraq with a ragtag “coalition of the willing.”

=> ↺ EXCLUSIVE: Snowden reveals more US cyberspying details

=> ↺ Greenwald Tears Into Gregory: With Newsmen Like You, ‘Who Needs Government To Criminalize Reporting?’

• Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald took Meet The Press host David Gregory head on in an interview Sunday morning, after Gregory asked if Greenwald would be criminally culpable for “aiding and abetting” NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

• “I think it’s pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would publicly muse about whether or not other journalists should be charged with felonies,” Greenwald said. “The assumptions in your question, David, is completely without evidence, the idea I’ve aided and abetted him in any way. The scandal that arose in Washington before our stories began was about the fact that the Obama administration is trying to criminalize investigative journalism by going through the e-mails and records of AP reporters, accusing a Fox News journalist of the theory you just embraced, being co-conspirator in felonies for working with sources.”

• “If you want to embrace that theory,” Greenwald continued, “it means that every investigative journalist in the United States who works with their sources, who receives classified information, is a criminal. It’s precisely those theories and precisely that climate that has become so menacing in the United States. It’s why the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer said investigative reporting has come to a standstill, as a result of the questions you just mentioned.”

=> ↺ Obama says FBI nominee Comey will balance privacy, security

• In nominating Jim Comey to be the next FBI director on Friday, President Barack Obama said the former Justice Department official will help strike a balance between the need for information on terrorist plots and respecting Americans’ privacy.

=> ↺ An Apology to my European IT Team

• As more information comes out on Prism, two criteria consistently show up that we would have consistently triggered oversight…

=> ↺ NSA director: Edward Snowden has caused irreversible damage to US

• Keith Alexander defends agency’s broad surveillance as being in line with Americans’ expectations for preventing another 9/11

=> ↺ Edward Snowden and the NSA files – timeline

=> ↺ Former Facebook security chief is now working for the NSA

=> ↺ Support NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, says Julian Assange

• The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has called on the world to “step forward and stand with” Edward Snowden, after the NSA whistleblower was charged with espionage by US federal prosecutors.

• According to a statement on the WikiLeaks website, Assange said: “A few weeks ago, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on an ongoing program – involving the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the internet services giants – to spy on everyone in the world. As if by clockwork, he has been charged with espionage by the Obama administration.”

=> ↺ Venezuela or Ecuador: where next for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden?

=> ↺ NSA leaks: US and Britain team up on mass surveillance

• Latest revelations from Edward Snowden show that the state risks crossing ever more ethical and legal boundaries

=> ↺ NSA Targeted Communications in China and Hong Kong – Snowden

• Earlier, he had said that the British agency, GCHQ, is worse than the NSA when it comes to cyber-snooping on worldwide communications.

=> ↺ NSA Now Revealing A Lot More About What It Does Than Snowden Leaks Did; So Is That Harming America?

• One of the key refrains that has come out from those who are unhappy about the revelation of details around the NSA’s surveillance efforts is that Edward Snowden’s leaks are somehow harmful to America. During hearings about all of this, NSA boss Keith Alexander claimed that “Americans will die” because of these sorts of leaks. But… between those same hearings and other revelations from the administration and Congress, we’re actually learning much more about the various programs directly from the government, as information is now being “declassified.” And, apparently, President Obama is asking the NSA and the Justice Department to look into declassifying even more. So while the initial shove to declassify information may have come via Snowden, the stuff that we’re really learning about is coming through revelations following Snowden’s leaks — revelations that never would have happened without his leaks.

=> ↺ Snowden’s plane leaves Moscow, NSA leaker not seen aboard

• Ex-CIA contractor, Edward Snowden, has not been seen aboard the plane to Havana on which he would reportedly be traveling, reports RT’s correspondent on the flight. The plane has already departed from Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden due to fly to Cuba in Ecuador asylum bid

=> ↺ LinkedIn DNS hijacked, traffic rerouted for an hour, and users’ cookies read in plain text

• According to Berg, that site does not require SSL (secure sockets layer), which means that anyone who visited in the last hour or so sent it their long-lived session cookies in plain text … a potential security risk.

=> ↺ To the Guardian – why PRISM? ECHELON has been around since 1948 supported by US, UK, Canada, Australia

• It is not at all clear to me why everyone is so excited about PRISM and the apparently new ability to monitor private communications that the Guardian got all excited about last week. It took me a day or two to remember the name, but I have this piece (below) from 2003 which documents ECHELON which has been around since 1948. PRISM reads like an extension/ subset/ addition to ECHELON.

=> ↺ NSA PRISM puts “public” cloud in a new light

• It’s all those other three-letter acronym (TLAs) organizations, such as the FBI, IRS, and SEC, which might have access to my data that I worry about.

=> ↺ Snowden receives refugee document of passage from Ecuador

=> ↺ Google must delete last of UK Street View data

• The payload data was collected by Google’s Street View cars when driving around the countryside; the software that was mapping out the location of Wi-Fi access points was also recording any data packets it could see which could include fragments of Wi-Fi users’ email, passwords or other personal data. The decision to enforce and prosecute over the payload data came as a result of investigations started when ICO reopened the case in April 2012 after concerns about the engineer’s actions working with the data. This then immediately raised questions about how the search company has handled the data.

=> ↺ Why A Special Congressional Committee Must Be Created To Investigate NSA’s Unconstitutional Domestic Spying

• In the past couple of weeks, the NSA has, unsurprisingly, responded with a series of secret briefings to Congress that have left the public in the dark and vulnerable to misstatements and word games. Congress has many options at its disposal, but for true accountability any response must start with a special investigative committee. A coalition of over 100 civil liberties groups agrees. Such a committee is the right way the American people can make informed decisions about the level of transparency and the reform needed.

=> ↺ EXCLUSIVE: Snowden sought Booz Allen job to gather evidence on NSA surveillance

=> ↺ Rep. Rogers: Snowden’s Secrets ‘Belong To The People Of The US’ & He’s A Traitor For Giving Them What They Own

• Over the past few years, we’ve found that Rep. Mike Rogers, the head of the House Intelligence Committee, has an incredible knack for spewing pure bullshit in defense of whatever he’s supporting, rarely even bothering to make sure his statements are internally consistent. Still, his statements on Meet the Press this weekend take that nonsense to a new high.

=> ↺ GCHQ Revelations Destroy Case for Snooper’s Charter

• So the revelations from Edward Snowden keep on coming, exposing ever-more profound attacks on privacy and democracy in the UK and elsewhere. News that GCHQ is essentially downloading, storing and searching through the entire flow of Internet traffic that comes into and goes out of the UK without any specific warrant to do so is one side of that. That seems to be taking place through an extremely generous interpretation of the out-of-date RIPA law that is supposed to bring some level of accountability to just this sort of thing. The fact that it doesn’t shows that we must reform RIPA and make it fit for the Internet age.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Civil liberties: Guarding the guards

=> ↺ to understand terrorism and threat assessment, look to Aum

• Just as important was what the Japanese government and people did not do. They didn’t panic. They didn’t make sweeping changes to their way of life. They didn’t implement a vast system of domestic surveillance. They didn’t suspend basic civil rights. They didn’t begin to capture, torture, and kill without due process. They didn’t, in other words, allow themselves to be terrorized. Instead, they addressed the threat. They investigated and arrested the cult’s leadership. They tried them in civilian courts and earned convictions through due process. They buried their dead. They mourned. And they moved on. In every sense, it was a rational, adult, mature response to a terrible terrorist act, one that remained largely in keeping with liberal democratic ideals.

=> ↺ Stephen Lawrence family and friends targeted by police ‘smear’ campaign

• Exclusive: former undercover officer Peter Francis says superiors wanted him to find ‘dirt’ shortly after 1993 murder

=> ↺ Journalist Hastings Sent Out Mysterious Email Hours Before Death

=> ↺ Meet The Man In Charge Of America’s Secret Cyber Army (In Which “Bonesaw” Makes A Mockery Of PRISM)

• With his revelations exposing the extent of potential, and actual, pervasive NSA surveillance over the American population, Edward Snowden has done a great service for the public by finally forcing it to answer the question: is having Big Brother peek at every private communication and electronic information, a fair exchange for the alleged benefit of the state’s security. Alas, without further action form a population that appears largely numb and apathetic to disclosures that until recently would have sparked mass protests and toppled presidents, the best we can hope for within a political regime that has hijacked the democratic process, is some intense introspection as to what the concept of “America” truly means.

• However, and more importantly, what Snowden’s revelations have confirmed, is that behind the scenes, America is now actively engaged in a new kind of war: an unprecedented cyber war, where collecting, deciphering, intercepting, and abusing information is the only thing that matters and leads to unprecedented power, and where enemies both foreign and domestic may be targeted without due process based on a lowly analyst’s “whim.”

• It has also put spotlight on the man, who until recently deep in the shadows, has been responsible for building America’s secret, absolutely massive cyber army, and which according to a just released Wired profile is “capable of launching devastating cyberattacks. Now it’s ready to unleash hell.”

=> ↺ Obama’s crackdown views leaks as aiding enemies of U.S.

• Even before a former U.S. intelligence contractor exposed the secret collection of Americans’ phone records, the Obama administration was pressing a government-wide crackdown on security threats that requires federal employees to keep closer tabs on their co-workers and exhorts managers to punish those who fail to report their suspicions.

• President Barack Obama’s unprecedented initiative, known as the Insider Threat Program, is sweeping in its reach. It has received scant public attention even though it extends beyond the U.S. national security bureaucracies to most federal departments and agencies nationwide, including the Peace Corps, the Social Security Administration and the Education and Agriculture departments. It emphasizes leaks of classified material, but catchall definitions of “insider threat” give agencies latitude to pursue and penalize a range of other conduct.

=> ↺ Time to repeal the Patriot Act, NDAA and abolish DHS

• Many Americans have known for a long time that the IRS is a rogue agency that will readily break the law to accomplish its “mission.”

• A friend of ours tells the story: He got a call from the local police department in the pre-dawn hours of a dark night. The dispatcher told him he needed to go immediately to his business, a heating and air conditioning business. When he arrived he learned that his business had been burglarized. The investigating police wanted him to determine what had been taken. After a couple of hours of searching he could find nothing noticeable missing. Even some cash had been left behind. “Well, you need to get ready for an IRS audit,” the policeman said. Sure enough, a few days later when he arrived at work he found a chain and padlock on his door and a notice from the IRS to contact them.

• In case you’re interested, the audit revealed that he was due a refund. Nobody paid any attention, even the Congressman whom the business man contacted.The result of what happens when government operates in secret—whether it be the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Department and the Washington Police Department or the FBI/CIA, can be seen in the FISA Court. That’s the apparatus set up by the Patriot Act to review government eavesdropping. We now learn that the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” Court approved 99.97% of the government’s request to snoop, and that many of them were aimed at Americans, within America, not foreigners outside the USA.

=> ↺ Who’d try to smear Stephen Lawrence’s family? A Met that’s out of control

• The Met is out of control. The revelation that it sought to smear the Lawrence family in the hunt for Stephen Lawrence’s killers – perhaps to stifle racist aspersions on its detectives – beggars belief. Less surprising is that the operation was unknown to the then police chief, Sir Paul Condon, to the home secretary and to the Macpherson inquiry. It is merely further evidence of the Met’s gift for malpractice and skulduggery.

=> ↺ Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics and the state

• The myriad protests from Istanbul to São Paulo have one thing in common – growing dissent among the young, educated and better-off protesting against the very system that once enriched them. And therein lies the danger for governments

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ LeaseWeb explains why it deleted Kim Dotcom’s MegaUpload data

• Kim Dotcom wasn’t making it up. European Web-hosting company LeaseWeb did indeed delete massive amounts of data from the former MegaUpload servers. Now the two sides are arguing about why.

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