This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2013/06/27/new-debian-derivatives/.

● 06.27.13

● Links 27/6/2013: Kubuntu to Deviate Further From Canonical, New Debian Derivatives

Posted in News Roundup at 4:03 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ IdentityForge Increase Their Linux Line-Up to Include: CentOS, Ubuntu, and Suse Linux

• IdentityForge; with this release of Advanced Adapters for CentOS, Ubuntu, and Suse Linux; IdentityForge is working hard to develop real world solutions that deliver Real ROI. Targeting key functions such as local management of user accounts and delivering automated provisioning to improve compliance. Package all of that into easy to deliver OOTB (out of the box) solutions and combine it with 24/7 “All Level” support and this is a winning combination for integrators of Unix / Linux based environments and solution providers.

=> ↺ TrackingPoint turns to crowdsourcing to pick next Linux-powered rifle

• Back in March, Ars spent some time at the shooting range with Austin-based TrackingPoint and its $17,000 Linux-powered rifles. The company sells three different models of bolt-action hunting rifles equipped with big, computerized tracking scopes that use lasers and predictive algorithms to reliably land rounds on moving targets as far away as 1,000 yards with relative ease.

=> ↺ Apriorit Adapts Nanomites for Linux: Modern Antidebug Protection

=> ↺ The 99th Reason To Migrate To FLOSS and GNU/Linux

• Christine Hall thinks M$’s penchant for assisting US government agencies with vulnerabilities of WindowsTM on hundreds of millions of PCs around the world may be the last straw for users of IT who value security. Combined with the NSA leaks, the world now knows M$ is not their friend and may well be their enemy. This is not theoretical. Only a few years ago nations demanded to see the source code… Obviously some subterfuge was involved as USA got a lot more.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Podcast Season 5 Episode 11

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Xen comes back to CentOS with Xen4CentOS

=> ↺ Kernel Log: Coming in 3.10 (Part 3)

• Kernel developers have toned down an over-eager feature for protecting against the Samsung UEFI bug and added a function for reducing timer interrupt overhead. Improvements have also been made to Hyper-V support and instructions for reporting errors.

=> ↺ Citrix Extends Open Source Strategy with XenServer

=> ↺ Citrix Brings XenServer Back To Open-Source Community

=> ↺ Citrix now offers XenServer as fully open source

=> ↺ Citrix open sources XenServer

=> ↺ Citrix Takes XenServer Open Source

=> ↺ Citrix open-sources XenServer to win over cloud customers

=> ↺ Citrix Extends Open Source Strategy with XenServer

=> ↺ XenServer.org and the Xen Project

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA Releases 319.32 Linux GPU Driver

• NVIDIA has issued an updated proprietary Linux graphics driver in their 319.xx driver series. The NVIDIA 319.32 Linux graphics driver release brings with it some new hardware support and features.

=> ↺ AMD spruces up open-source Linux graphics driver

• AMD has improved its Linux graphics driver with more than 165 kernel patches. The Linux 3.11 kernel will get Dynamic Power Management support for AMDs R600 GPUs through Southern Islands hardware.

=> ↺ AMD Has Massive Radeon Patch Set – Power Management!

Applications

=> ↺ greed: Alluring to some

=> ↺ 2ping – A bi-directional ping utility

• 2ping is a bi-directional ping utility. It uses 3-way pings (akin to TCP SYN, SYN/ACK, ACK) and after-the-fact state comparison between a 2ping listener and a 2ping client to determine which direction packet loss occurs.

=> ↺ Scrot: A Command-Line Screenshot Tool

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Grsync: An Easy Rsync Front-end GUI Backup Tool

=> ↺ Installing Nightingale music player on Ubuntu 13.04

=> ↺ Singletons, shared instances, the modern way

=> ↺ How to Install rtl8192cu based Wifi on the Beaglebone Black (BBB)

=> ↺ How to customize Linux Deepin 12.12

=> ↺ How to Create a sysfs File Correctly

=> ↺ Make everything transparent!

=> ↺ Unix: Choosing the easy path

=> ↺ Code raw sockets in C on Linux

=> ↺ Apt get tutorial – manage packages on ubuntu/debian

=> ↺ High Performance Linux Router With Optional LMS Web Panel And Radius Server In 5 Minutes

=> ↺ How to Install and Configure RCP100 Routing Suite on Debian 7

=> ↺ How To Install Adobe Air in Ubuntu 13.04

=> ↺ How To Add WiKID Two-Factor Authentication To OpenVPN Community On Ubuntu 13.04

=> ↺ Install CSF/LFD Firewall on your Linux Server

Games

=> ↺ American McGee’s OZombie Is Steampunk Wizard Of Oz Adventure

• American McGee and his company Spicy Horse Games have turned to Kickstarter to fund their next game. OZombies is an action-adventure set in a Steampunk version of L. Frank Baum’s Oz universe.

• In OZombies, the main villain isn’t a wicked witch. Instead, it’s the Scarecrow. He is trying to kill the Immortals in the Land of Oz and turn all the remaining Ozites into the titular OZombies.

=> ↺ Humble Bundle 6 ready for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android

=> ↺ Source SDK 2013 adds Linux, Mac and Oculus Rift support

=> ↺ Source SDK update adds Mac, Linux and Oculus Rift mod support

=> ↺ Source SDK Gets Oculus Rift, Mac, Linux Support

=> ↺ FlightGear 2.12 is taking shape

=> ↺ Half-Life 2 Receives More Improvements on Linux

• Half-Life 2 is a first-person shooter developed by Valve that was released back in 2004 and that has recently been ported on the Linux platform. The patches have started to arrive.

• Porting a complex title such as Half-Life 2 is a very difficult task, and the developers have to release a lot of updates until the game exits the Beta stages.

=> ↺ OpenMW v0.24.0 has been released with open-able doors!

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ What Cinnamon can learn from KDE

• Like the laws of physics tell us, for every article, there’s an equal counter-article. Indeed, it is time to complete the battle royale started last week. In the first piece, we compared KDE and Cinnamon, arguably the two leading desktop environments in the Linux world, from the perspective of the former, in terms of what it can learn from its younger rival.

• Previously on Star Trek … I mean Netrunner, we saw that Cinnamon benefits from a jolly nippy development speed, both because of its age and size as a project, a tightly knit sense of belonging with the user community, and some extra layers of granularity in terms of control and simplicity. So far so good. And now, the conclusion.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GTK+ 3.9.6 and GLib 2.37.3 released!

=> ↺ Linux Top 3: Linux 3.10 and GNOME 3.10 Updates Near

• GNOME developers continue to be very busy building out the next big version of the open source GNOME desktop. Currently that development is at that GNOME 3.9.3 stage which is work that will enter general availability as GNOME 3.10

• “GNOME 3.9 development is now going smoothly, we have a set of features defined and people actively working to implement them,” the GNOME 3.9.3 release notes states.

• There are a lot of interesting features that are likely to land in the final 3.10 release including the integration of flickr for photos and Git for developers.

• There is also work ongoing to port GNOME to the Wayland Window System instead of X, thought that is a multi-step and complicated process that will not be entirely complete in the 3.10 timeframe.

Distributions

=> ↺ Linux Deepin 12.12 Overview – Linux for Dummies

New Releases

=> ↺ KNOPPIX 7.2.0

=> ↺ Clonezilla 2.1.2-17

Screenshots

=> ↺ Slackel KDE 4.10.4 Screenshot Tour

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat aiming for 25% growth this year in Argentina

• US Linux operating system provider Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) expects its business in Argentina to grow nearly 25% this fiscal year, ending February 2014, the…

=> ↺ Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) Investors: A Breakdown Of The Shorts

• To the untrained eye, there are a multitude of facts and figures for Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) traders to watch, but it’s smart to take note of a stock’s short sellers. A couple indicators typically used are: (a) the percentage of a stock’s float that short sellers are presently selling, plus (b) the change in short selling activity.

=> ↺ Red Hat Stock Rating Reaffirmed by TheStreet (RHT)

• Red Hat (NYSE: RHT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by equities research analysts at TheStreet in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, StockRatingsNetwork reports.

=> ↺ Red Hat Analyst Day Gets Positive Reviews; Stock Up

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 20 Will Have A Security/Performance Change

• With Fedora 19 being released soon, the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee has begun evaluating potential changes/features for Fedora 20. One of the features that was approved today is a build change for the RPMs that can yield greater code security but at the potential cost of performance.

• The change that was approved today is a GCC flag change for now using “-fstack-protector-strong” on building Fedora RPM packages rather than just the “-fstack-protector” argument. The -fstack-protector flag has the compiler generate extra code automatically to check for buffer overflows. If a guard check fails — meaning a potential buffer overflow occurred within the application — there’s an error message and the program exits. Fedora has been using -fstack-protector but now they are looking to use -fstack-protector-strong.

=> ↺ This week in rawhide 2013-06-25, a word about comps

=> ↺ Fedora 19 RC2 “Schrödinger’s Cat” Is Now Available for Testing

• The second Release Candidate version of Fedora 19 “Schrödinger’s Cat” operating system has been officially launched and it’s ready for testing.

• Unlike former Fedora releases that have been plagued by delays and various problems, the new 19 branch has arrived relatively on time and it’s ready to be tested.

Debian Family

=> ↺ A Debian GNU/Hurd snapshot

• Debian has released the first usable snapshot of its port to the GNU Hurd kernel (or, technically speaking, a microkernel and its servers). The snapshot is still very much a work-in-progress, and the announcement makes it clear that the system is not to be taken as an “official Debian release,” but it still makes for an interesting look at the microkernel-based Hurd. A significant portion of the Debian archive runs on the snapshot, which provides a convenient way to test drive a Hurd system, although those using it should be ready for a few problems.

Derivatives

=> ↺ SolydXK: New Kid on the Linux Block Delivers Rock-Solid Performance

• Young doesn’t always mean immature. Offering both Xfce and KDE as desktop options, SolydXK is not only polished and fast, but its desktop choices deliver solid computing power and convenience without being clones of other Linux distros. Rarely do I try a Linux distro that instantly makes me want to put it on all of my computers. SolydXK does just that.

=> ↺ Tails 0.19 is out

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Mir To Ship As Default Display Server in Ubuntu 13.10

=> ↺ Ubuntu Weekly Update Videocast, Mir Interview, and More Interviews

• We have been working hard to ensure that the various engineering teams working on different parts of Ubuntu are being as open and transparent as possible. This has included many of these teams (e.g. Unity, Mir, App Development etc) sending regular weekly updates of progress being made. Well, we want to amp that up to the next level, so I am proud to announce the Ubuntu Weekly Update Videocast!

=> ↺ Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 322

=> ↺ Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) Alpha 1 Testing

=> ↺ Canonical Is Hiring More Mir, Unity Developers

• Canonical is hiring more engineers to work on their Mir Display Server and Unity desktop interface.

• Just earlier today I happened to write about Mir Development Stats Dominated By Canonical. There’s been 16 Canonical developers working on the Mir code but only seven of them have more than 100 commits to Mir.

• Olli Ries, the fellow Bavarian beer drinker who turned from working at SUSE to Canonical, posted about new job openings involving Mir and Unity. Most of the positions are about Unity work, but they also want at least another developer to engage in “developing a technology that is set to replace X.org and will be the foundation for the work on newer form factors.”

=> ↺ Ubuntu Rocks! According to Recent Poll

• In light of developments over the last few years at Canonical, it seemed reasonable that Ubuntu’s popularity was waning. In fact, it seems fact given some recent numbers. However, according to a new poll at www.tuxmachines.org, visitors still think Ubuntu Rocks!

=> ↺ A Whistlestop Tour Of Ubuntu 13.04

• This review is aimed at anyone who has never seen Ubuntu before and highlights the look and feel, the applications and the functionality that comes as standard. You can consider this more of a whistlestop tour than a review.

=> ↺ Ubuntu graphic stack roadmap update

=> ↺ Canonical Will Now Ship Mir By Default In Ubuntu 13.10

• Originally Canonical was planning to ship their Mir Display Server by default in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on the desktop and in Ubuntu 13.10 still be using an X.Org Server outside of mobile devices. However, it’s been announced today that with Ubuntu 13.10 they will now be using Mir by default.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Kubuntu plans to steer clear of Mir and switch to Wayland

=> ↺ Kubuntu Won’t be Switching to Mir or XMir

• A few months ago Canonical announced their new graphics system for Ubuntu, Mir. It’s a shame the Linux desktop market hasn’t taken off as we all hoped at the turn of the millennium and they feel the need to follow a more Apple or Android style of approach making an OS which works in isolation rather than as part of a community development method.

=> ↺ DreamStudio Unity 12.04.3 Official Release

• We’re proud to announce the official release of DreamStudio Unity 12.04.3.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Cubietruck Allwinner Dual Core Open Source Mini PC Unveiled

• Cubiesteam has this week unveiled a new addition to their range with the unveiling of the new Cubietruck open source mini PC that is equipped with a dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor.

=> ↺ Cubieboard2 open SBC ships, Cubietruck model revealed

=> ↺ Virtualization tech suits Carrier Grade Linux requirements

=> ↺ Linux-friendly development board supports TI AM1705 SoC

• Modulixtech announced a development board based on a Texas Instruments AM1705 ARM9 system-on-chip, supported by ready-to-run ports of Buildroot embedded Linux and the U-Boot bootloader. The EVB1L board provides Ethernet, serial, USB, and MMC/SD expansion, is implemented on a 158 x 100mm Eurocard form factor, provides PC/104-style expansion, and consumes less than 2 Watts.

Phones

=> ↺ Akademy 2013 Keynote: Jolla’s Vesa-Matti Hartikainen

• This Akademy keynote talk is based on Jolla and their Sailfish OS. It will cover project history, software architecture and collaboration between Jolla and various open source projects such as Qt, Mer, and Nemo Mobile. It will address the user interface concepts used in Sailfish OS and highlight the benefits of using Qt Quick to build the user experience in Sailfish OS.

Ballnux

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy 3 tablets available from July 7 in US

• Samsung is all set to launch its 3rd generation line of tablets. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 devices will be available to the customers in US from July 7.

Android

=> ↺ Ouya UK Launch: Open-Source Console Hits Amazon For £99

• The Ouya open-source Android console has launched in the UK.

=> ↺ HP adds open source flavour to PCs with Android-powered all-in-one

• Relies on the cloud to deliver the goods

=> ↺ Gartner Research Shows Android’s Momentum, Apple’s Mobile Tenacity

• If you haven’t been taking the Android mobile operating system all that seriously, you have to get a load of the latest research numbers from Gartner, which show, among other things, that 866 million Android devices will ship this year, up from 505 million last year. The research also turned up an interesting observation, though: In spite of the fact that Android devices are trouncing iOS devices in shipments, Apple actually has leading relevance across the major device types. In other words, in spite of Android’s success, Apple’s mobile strategy is resulting in strong roots across mobile device types.

=> ↺ Introducing Sony SmartWatch 2

• Sony SmartWatch 2 is a second screen for your Android smartphone that, as well as enhancing existing phone functionality, offers unique new benefits. Combining form and function in a sleek design, it serves as a multi-functional watch, notifier, Android app interface and phone remote control, all-in-one.

=> ↺ Sony unveils higher res, NFC enabled SmartWatch 2

• Sony revised its Android-based SmartWatch with a higher-resolution, water resistant SmartWatch 2 model featuring NFC sync and a longer-lasting battery. The 1.6-inch SmartWatch 2 was announced two weeks after the company open-sourced the Android firmware for the original SmartWatch.

=> ↺ Sony unveils thin, light, supersized Xperia Z Ultra

• Sony unveiled a supersized, 6.4-inch phablet running Android 4.2 on a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 800 processor. The Xperia Z Ultra features Triluminos display technology with 1920 x 1080 progressive scan resolution, as well as 2GB RAM, LTE, an 8-megapixel camera, IP55/IP58 water and dust resistance, and a slim 6.5mm profile.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Revealed! Why the IRS is Targeting Open Source Software Groups

• So there you go. I just thought some of the open source geeks in the crowd might be interested in this.

=> ↺ Inside VPR’s Open Source Initiative

• While writing this post to announce the open sourcing of the Vermont map used in the Mapping the Money project, Tim Johnson brought to my attention that the average reader of the VPR Blog might not have any idea what “open source” even meant. Given that the map marks VPR’s first contribution to the open source community, it seems like the opportune time to explain the concept as well as VPR’s intended role as an open source contributor.

=> ↺ Open-Source System for Energy Data Storage and Integration Launched

=> ↺ The open source Cucumber BDD tool boosts acceptance test automation

• Alan Parkinson, founder and CEO of Hindsight Software, said he got into software quality after years as a software developer and engineer. What attracted him to the idea of software QA over development was that software QA makes sure developers keep their jobs. “Without quality software, buyers go elsewhere,” Parkinson said. “If they don’t buy, the sellers go out of business, and we [software developers] are all out of a job.” Parkinson recently spoke about the use of behavior-driven development (BDD) with the open source test automation tool Cucumber in front of an audience of Java developers at the monthly Boston Java Meetup Group in Cambridge, Mass.

=> ↺ Five More Common Myths About Open Source

• We won’t lie, some Open Source users do have beards and some are seen wearing sandals, but you’re more likely to see an Open Source user out shattering Open Source myths in a suit and tie than sporting the beard and sandals combination. In fact, if you take Linux, one of the largest Open Source projects, most of the big contributors are working for major corporations such as Red Hat, SUSE, IBM, Intel and even Microsoft. For full details and more Linux facts take a look at this report from the Linux Foundation.

Events

=> ↺ Community Foundations at OSCON

• OSCON is approaching and the schedule‘s looking great. On the Tuesday morning Simon will be one of several open source foundation leaders giving guidance and sharing experience on some of the practical aspects of starting a foundation at the Community Foundations 101 tutorial.

=> ↺ Census in the spotlight at open source summit

• The Census Bureau is using open source communities to further its digital development goals, and finding the approach rewarding, said Alec Permison, applications manager for Census.gov.

• This year, the agency held a “National Day of Hacking,” during which more than 11,000 developers across the country used Census data to create new online applications that would help solve civic and social problems in local communities, he said, speaking at the third annual Open Source Summit, held at the NYU Washington, D.C., building.

=> ↺ Open World Forum 2013: Call for Participation

=> ↺ SmartDevCon seeks presenters for September event

=> ↺ linux.conf.au 2014 Conference Announced

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 22 comes with 3D game support

=> ↺ Mozilla Ignite winners provide glimpse of the Internet’s future

=> ↺ Open Badges Launches Massive Citywide Summer Learning Campaign

=> ↺ Advertising Bureau Calls Mozilla’s Privacy Plan “Kangaroo Cookie Court”

• It was only last week when the news broke that Mozilla would join forces with Stanford’s Center for Internet Society to support a new Cookie Clearinghouse that will oversee easy-to-use “allow lists” and “block lists” to help Internet users protect their privacy. The privacy scheme could become a default setup in the Firefox browser. As that news broke, it seemed likely that it might draw a caustic reaction from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), which has blasted Mozilla’s attempts to control online ads and cookies before.

=> ↺ Firefox 22: Look Ma, No Plug-ins!

• The latest release of Firefox, version 22, commits fully to WebRTC, setting it as the default option. WebRTC lets devs integrate video and voice calls and file sharing into Web apps with a few lines of code. Firefox 22 also adds support for 3D gaming without requiring any plug-ins. Though there are still some kinks to work out, “I think [WebRTC] will be a keeper,” said consultant David Stein.

=> ↺ Firefox 22 Delivers Open Source Communications

• Mozilla is out today with an updated open source Firefox 22 browser release. The new browser release includes fixes for 14 security advisories and bakes in new features for users.

• Among the big items that has landed in Firefox 22 is WebRTC. WebRTC is a Real Time Communication (RTC) effort that will enable users to use a browser as a communications and collaboration vehicle. Mozilla has been working on including WebRTC over the last several Firefox releases, and with Firefox 22 now considers it to be ready for prime time.

=> ↺ H.264 support for Firefox Nightly Linux has landed

=> ↺ For Firefox OS’ first wave of devices, it’s Poland or bust

• Poland is one of the initial markets where Firefox OS will be launched, and its performance there will help indicate what future lies ahead for the operating system.

=> ↺ Survey: Developers express enthusiasm for Firefox OS

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ WANdisco Announces Open Source Availability of Hadoop S3-Enabled HDFS

=> ↺ Been there, forked that: What the Unix-Linux schism can teach us about Hadoop’s future

• Concerned about proprietary and expensive forks of Hadoop, T-Systems’ Juergen Urbanski explains how to tell if you are buying an open version of Hadoop or something you might later regret.

=> ↺ OwnCloud makes its enterprise file sync service even more enterprise-y

=> ↺ HP announces cloud platform based on OpenStack

• HP executives have announced a cloud platform based on OpenStack amid a flurry of other cloud-related announcements at the HP World Tour in Beijing.

• “Our focus, our ambition, our passion is to provide the cloud that enterprise relies on,” said HP COO Bill Veghte.

=> ↺ eXo Cloud Brings eXo Platform 4 Online: Full Featured, Open Source Enterprise Social Platform

Databases

=> ↺ Have you any experience with MariaDB?

• Recently there have been many alternatives presented to MySQL, with MariaDB looking like a great alternative due to its drop-in nature, and increased performance.

=> ↺ Talend, Neo Partnership: Open Source Graph NoSQL Database for Big Data

• NoSQL databases are a driving force in the evolution of Big Data. That could have important implications for Oracle (ORCL), as we wrote last week. At the same time, it’s an impetus for integration across the channel, as Talend and Neo Technology highlighted this week with a partnership designed to encourage enterprise adoption of open source graph NoSQL databases.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Contest Banner – Thanks!

• For those of you who haven’t seen it – our marketing team (thanks Astron!) and our website team (Cloph, cheers to you) teamed up and got a banner on our site. Looks perfect so wanted to share

=> ↺ Review: LibreOffice 4 liberates you from Microsoft Office

=> ↺ Saudi Arabia Gets FLOSS

• Many years ago I worked in Saudi Arabia helping to develop and to produce radiopharmaceuticals. Information technology globally was just getting into the PC age and we used PDP11 minicomputers at work. I was pleasantly surprised to see Saudi Arabia joining the Document Foundation. Further digging turned up more general goals of the National Program For Free And Open Source Software Technology:

Semi-Open Source

=> ↺ Actuate Enhances Open Source Eclipse BIRT With Connectors to MongoDB, Cassandra, POJO, and Emitters for Microsoft Office Documents

=> ↺ ICSI Launches Broala, a Services Company for Its Popular Open-Source Network Security System Bro

Funding

=> ↺ Get funded with OpenGov Grants

• We know how challenging fundraising can be. You start an innovative project using technology to make government more open and accessible and halfway through—you run out of money. Or maybe you know someone who is collecting municipal data and wants to make a cool app to help residents understand how local government works, but they don’t have funding.

=> ↺ Metacloud, Focused on OpenStack Private Clouds, Announces Funding

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ Richard Stallman becomes a Hall-of-Famer

=> ↺ Richard Stallman enters Internet Hall of Fame

• The Free Software Foundation founder and activists Richard M Stallman has been inducted into the 2013 Internet Hall of Fame along with Aaron Swartz, Jimmy Wales and John Perry Barlow.

• Stallman, known for expressing his candid views on subjects which compromise user’s freedom, wears many hats. He founded the Free Software Foundation, wrote the most widely user free software licence GNU GPL, created the GNU Project and much more.

=> ↺ GNU remotecontrol – News: Version 1.1 is coming soon…..

=> ↺ June 2013 GNU Toolchain Update

=> ↺ Guix gets cross-compilation support

=> ↺ OSI Congratulates Richard Stallman And Other Hall-Of-Fame Inductees

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ City of Genoa to increase use of open source

• The city’s IT department is developing e-learning modules, where possible using freeware or open source software, in order to train large numbers of employees in the new systems. The document goes on to list certain applications that will replace existing proprietary software: Gimp as an alternative to Photoshop, 7zip as an alternative to Winzip, and PDFCreator, for creating PDF files. Also mentioned are Zimbra, Quantum GIS, Kosmo, Postgres and PostGIS. These are all being introduced following testing.

=> ↺ EU Pushes For Open Standards in IT

=> ↺ Open standards will save us billions on tech projects, says Europe

• The vice-president of the European Commission, Neelie Kroes, believes that avoiding vendor “lock-in” is the best way to a fruitful IT future.

=> ↺ 1Open Source: should the UK have been the leaders?

• Open source has some firm supporters, but many still don’t believe it’s the direct alternative to big vendor contracts. But does the UK have the opportunity to lead in this space? Or is it already playing catch up?

Licensing

=> ↺ Hamburg court: GPL source and binary versions must be equal

• The object of the lawsuit had been Fantec’s 3DFHDL media player, which ships with Linux-based firmware that uses iptables 1.3.7 as part of its software. Fantec offered both the firmware and source code for download but did not reference the GPL nature of the code and did not include a licence notice. As part of the FSFE’s Hacking for Compliance Workshop in 2012, hackers also discovered that the iptables version in the source code was older than the sources the firmware binaries were compiled from. According to the Hamburg court, this means that Fantec did not comply with the GPLv2′s requirement to release the complete corresponding source code.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ NREL launches open-source system for data collection/analysis.

=> ↺ Stanford’s Open Source Camera Project

=> ↺ Maker Machine sends open source robots to school

• Maker Machine is a mobile makerspace that brings 3D printers, DIY robotics, and interactive art to primary schools, libraries, museums and youth clubs. The project is currently fundraising for a tour of Australia to bring our workshop to schools around the country.

Programming

=> ↺ Swift: The Easy Scripting Language for Parallel Computing

• Over the next decade, computer scientists anticipate the world’s largest supercomputers will grow to millions of cores running as many as a billion parallel threads. Even personal devices will contain a hundred cores and perform thousands of concurrent tasks.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Digg Reader Opens in Beta

• Digg Reader is designed for a power-user demanding the freshest and the hottest. The challenge of replacing the Google Reader is in the infrastructure. Reader needs to be reliable and snappy. Jake Levine (GM) and Andrew McLaughlin (President) of Digg promise their reader to be just as good and better than Google Reader.

=> ↺ 2 Amazing Google Reader Replacements You Haven’t Heard Of

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ USDA Forces Whole Foods To Accept Monsanto

• In the wake of a 12-year battle to keep Monsanto’s Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from contaminating the nation’s 25,000 organic farms and ranches, America’s organic consumers and producers are facing betrayal.

Finance

=> ↺ Gensler Staring Down Administration and Banks on Derivatives Reform

• Yves here. Readers may recall that Gary Gensler, the head of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, is being pushed out by Obama. His planned replacement is so appallingly lightweight (oh, and formerly in a very junior role at Goldman) as to assure that all she’ll be able to do is take dictation from financial firm lobbyists.

=> ↺ U.S. Civil Charges Against Corzine Are Seen as Near

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Does Jon Meacham Remember the 2000 Election?

=> ↺ Seven Faces of NRA/ALEC-Approved “Stand Your Ground” Law

• As George Zimmerman’s trial for shooting and killing unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in early 2012 gets underway, the “Stand Your Ground” law that initially kept Zimmerman from being arrested is still the subject of much controversy. Florida’s law became the template for an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) “model bill” that has been introduced in dozens of other states. As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has reported, the bill was brought to ALEC by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

=> ↺ For Bradley Foundation, Challenging Affirmative Action & Voting Rights Is Part of Long-Term Crusade

• The Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is one-for-two in legal challenges to civil rights and racial equality this term, with the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in one case bankrolled by Bradley, and in another, remanding an affirmative action case to a lower court, turning back the Bradley-backed challenge. The cases represent the latest in the Bradley Foundation’s long-term effort to dismantle the gains of the civil rights era.

Privacy

=> ↺ The personal side of taking on the NSA: emerging smears

• When I made the choice to report aggressively on top-secret NSA programs, I knew that I would inevitably be the target of all sorts of personal attacks and smears. You don’t challenge the most powerful state on earth and expect to do so without being attacked. As a superb Guardian editorial noted today: “Those who leak official information will often be denounced, prosecuted or smeared. The more serious the leak, the fiercer the pursuit and the greater the punishment.”

• One of the greatest honors I’ve had in my years of writing about politics is the opportunity to work with and befriend my long-time political hero, Daniel Ellsberg. I never quite understood why the Nixon administration, in response to his release of the Pentagon Papers, would want to break into the office of Ellsberg’s psychoanalyst and steal his files. That always seemed like a non sequitur to me: how would disclosing Ellsberg’s most private thoughts and psychosexual assessments discredit the revelations of the Pentagon Papers?

=> ↺ Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype & Yahoo Hit With Prism Data Protection Complaints In Europe

• The European data protection activists behind the Europe v Facebook (evf) campaign group, that has long been a thorn in Facebook’s side in Europe, have filed new complaints under regional data protection law targeting Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Skype and Yahoo for their alleged collaboration with the NSA’s Prism data collection program.

=> ↺ NSA takes surveillance fact sheets off website

=> ↺ Potential Blind Spots in Clearance Process that Gave Snowden Top-Secret Access

• More than a million Americans have security clearances to access classified information. Here’s what the government does–and doesn’t–do when deciding who’s trustworthy

=> ↺ An EFF sticker on your laptop is an Insider Threat warning sign?

=> ↺ NSA collected US email records in bulk for more than two years under Obama

• The Obama administration for more than two years permitted the National Security Agency to continue collecting vast amounts of records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans, according to secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

=> ↺ FAQ: What You Need to Know About the NSA’s Surveillance Programs

• A record of most calls made in the U.S., including the telephone number of the phones making and receiving the call, and how long the call lasted. This information is known as “metadata” and doesn’t include a recording of the actual call (but see below). This program was revealed through a leaked secret court order instructing Verizon to turn over all such information on a daily basis. Other phone companies, including AT&T and Sprint, also reportedly give their records to the NSA on a continual basis. All together, this is several billion calls per day.

=> ↺ EFF Sues FBI For Access to Facial-Recognition Records

• As the FBI is rushing to build a “bigger, faster and better” biometrics database, it’s also dragging its feet in releasing information related to the program’s impact on the American public. In response, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today filed a lawsuit to compel the FBI to produce records to satisfy three outstanding Freedom of Information Act requests that EFF submitted one year ago to shine light on the program and its face-recognition components.

=> ↺ ‘World order unjust and immoral!’ Ecuador’s Correa rips into Snowden coverage

• Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa came up with scalding online remarks over criticism his country faced from the US press for potentially granting asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

• “They’ve managed to focus attention on Snowden and on the ‘wicked’ countries that ‘support’ him, making us forget the terrible things against the US people and the whole world that he denounced,” Correa said Wednesday in response to a Tuesday Washington Post editorial.

• “The world order isn’t only unjust, it’s immoral,” Correa added.

• The US newspaper accused Correa of adhering to double standards in the NSA leaker case, as Ecuador is considering harboring Snowden from prosecution over US espionage charges. It descried the Ecuadoran president as “the autocratic leader of a tiny, impoverished” country with an ambition to replace the late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as “the hemisphere’s preeminent anti-US demagogue”.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Pandering to Racism

• It is unpleasant for a nation to be singled out as comprised of particularly untrustworthy individuals against whom special measures are needed. Theresa May appears quite deliberately to be singling out countries whose citizens are normally black or brown – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Nigeria. They are all citizens with extremely close ties to the UK. For example, all of those countries supplied large numbers of men to British armed forces in two World Wars; with little resulting gratitude.

=> ↺ A failiure of oversight that goes beyond the police

• The revelations about the Metropolitan Police’s efforts to discredit the family of Steven Lawrence have rightly brought cross-party condemnation. Taken alongside disclosures from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the wider questions about the oversight of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies are too important to ignore.

• As David Davis MP wrote in the Guardian:

• “Sadly this is not an isolated example. Back in 2002 the Labour government set out to smear members of the Paddington Survivors Group, an organisation made up of those injured in the rail crash that killed 31 people. When the group’s leader, Pam Warren, dared to criticise Stephen Byers, then transport secretary, muckraking spin doctors quickly went digging for dirt on her political affiliations and even her sexual history.

=> ↺ Federal Judge Dismisses Abu Ghraib Case Under Sweeping Ruling Under The Alien Tort Statute

• The Lee ruling illustrates the hypocrisy of the United States in proclaiming our government as committed to the rule of law while denying review of the most egregious abuses by our government and its contractors. It also reflects the Obama Administration continue scorched earth approach to public interest litigation seeking review of the actions of the government from warrantless surveillance to torture to prison abuse. President Obama has made clear that his preferred court and form of transparency is the secret FISA court with secret rulings, rubber stamp approvals, and no adversarial process.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Tim Berners-Lee: internet freedom must be safeguarded

• Web inventor warns against companies or governments ‘trying to get total control’ as his pioneering work is recognised with award

=> ↺ ICANN working group seeks to kill WHOIS

• An Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) working group is seeking public input on a successor to the current WHOIS system used to retrieve domain name information.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Dotcom Reveals Megaupload Data Massacre Emails, Plans to Sue LeaseWeb

=> ↺ Kim Dotcom says Dutch firm deleted “at least 40 petabytes” of Megaupload data

=> ↺ Anti-Piracy Group Admits Streaming Movies Isn’t Illegal

• BitTorrent sites are a long-established mechanism for downloading video of all kinds but in recent years streaming of content, YouTube-style, has increased massively in popularity. While plenty of authorized content is available via streaming, so are thousands of mainstream movies. Now the lawyer for Sweden’s top anti-piracy company has admitted that using these sites to watch illicit content is not illegal and little can be done to stop it.

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