This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2013/08/26/gnu-sip-witch/.

● 08.26.13

● Links 26/8/2013: GNU SIP Witch Updates, Pro-War Propaganda Debunked

Posted in News Roundup at 11:26 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Steve Ballmer retires: A dark day for Linux!

• This is a dark day for Linux, my friends. Ballmer has unwittingly been a true friend to Linux during his long reign of errors at Microsoft. Ballmer has my utmost gratitude for his help in growing the Linux user base over the years. Windows 8, in particular, has gotten many Windows users to take another look at Linux.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ S06E26 – Raging Ubuntu

• We’re back with the twenty-sixth episode of Season Six of the Ubuntu Podcast from the UK LoCo Team! Alan Pope, Mark Johnson, Tony Whitmore, and (sort of) Laura Cowen are back in Studio A with carrot cake, tea, and an interview.

=> ↺ SaltStack Redux

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 3.10 Kernel Receives Two Updates in One Day

• There were two updates for a stable Linux kernel yesterday. Is the process too fast? Linux Kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman has a plan to slow it down.

=> ↺ Today, in 1991, Linus Torvalds sent that ‘famous’ email

• It was August 25, 1991 when some Linus Benedict Torvalds sent an email introducing the world to some ‘tiny’ project he was working on. It’s been 22 years and what Torvalds created back then is now the world’s most popular and widely user operating systems.

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds celebrates 22 years of Linux with nostalgic message

• It was 22 years ago on Sunday that Linus Torvalds announced in a newsgroup posting that he was creating a free operating system, a message he echoed in his announcement Sunday of the latest Linux kernel release candidate.

• “Hello everybody out there using minix – I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones,” Torvalds wrote on August 26, 1991, asking people to send in feature requests.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Performance Overview Of Mesa 9.2

• Mesa 9.2 is due to be released in the coming days so here’s an overview of what to expect from the key open-source graphics drivers on this six-month update.

• Mesa 9.2 is still at OpenGL 3.1~3.2 support for the key drivers (sans the “RadeonSI” driver and LLVMpipe software fallback still in an OpenGL 2.1 world), but for those not up to dateo n the performance differences:

=> ↺ Why Mesa 9.2 Doesn’t Work For All Linux Users

• While Mesa 9.2 has some performance improvements and many new features, this open-source 3D graphics library isn’t cut for everyone.

=> ↺ X.Org Foundation Loses Its 501(c)(3) Status

• The X.Org Foundation has lost its 501(c)(3) non-profit status and is now seeking new options, including possibly joining a larger organization.

• It was revealed this week that the X.Org Foundation is no longer a 501(c)(3) organization as they failed to file their taxes on time (or at all) for the past three years or possibly as far back as 2005.

=> ↺ X11 Server Alternative, Wayland 1.2.1 Released with Touch Support for Toytoolkit

• Wayland, a protocol for a compositor to talk to its clients, as well as a C library implementation of that protocol, which can be used as a standalone display server running on Linux kernel modesetting and evdev input devices, an X application, or a Wayland client itself, has reached version 1.2.1.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ Real-world SSD vs HDD: cvs2svn speed

• This just absolutely blew my mind so I figured I’d post a quick note about it. I have to convert a CVS repository to SVN and this is a big repository, over 33k commits to it spanning a decade. In my trial runs, using cvs2svn resulted in it taking just shy of 11.5hrs to complete, on the HDD (I have an SSD in my workstation for everything and a 2TB HDD for storage and scratch space which is where I was running the conversion). Moving the original raw CVS repository into a temporary directory on the SSD and running cvs2svn from there (reading from and writing to the SSD) resulted in 19 minutes.

Applications

=> ↺ Best Open Source Mathematical Software

=> ↺ 5 Pomodoro Apps For Linux Users

• In our earlier article, we talked about how procrastination can be useful for enhancing your productivity. The technique, though effective, is not enough if you need to do high-value tasks like working on reports and even writing a novel. Doing tasks like those requires you to go into a ‘flow state’. According to Wikipedia, “Flow is the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. ” This concept, proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, has gained a lot of attention recently.

=> ↺ aria: The perfect downloading tool

=> ↺ LinSSID – Graphical wireless scanning for Linux

=> ↺ Free, Open Music Tools for Producers, Players and Listeners

• Opensource.com has a very thoughtful, extended piece up on the present and future of open source music. It delves into whether new kinds of listeners and distribution models can create a brand new future for open source music, or whether they’re already creating meaningful change.

• One thing is for sure, there are many free and outstanding open source tools for anyone interested in producing, making or listening to music. In this post, you’ll find our updated collection of some of the best ones.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How To Install sView 13.06.8 On Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10, 12.04, Linux Mint 15, 14, 13 And Elementary OS 0.2 Luna

=> ↺ How To Install Double Commander 0.5.6 / 0.6.0 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint And Elementary OS Via PPA

=> ↺ How To Install NitroShare 0.2 / 0.3 On Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04, Linux Mint 15, 14, 13 And Elementary OS 0.2 Luna

=> ↺ How To Install The Linux Kernel 3.0.93 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Debian And Elementary OS

=> ↺ How To Install Google Chrome 29 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint And Elementary OS Via The Official Repository

=> ↺ How To Install Geary 0.3.1 On Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.10, 12.04, Linux Mint 15, 14, 13

=> ↺ How To Install Scratch Text Editor On Ubuntu 13.10, 13.04, 12.04 And Linux Mint 15, 13

=> ↺ How To Install Indicator-Remindor/Remindor-Qt 13.08 On Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10, 12.04 And Linux Mint 15, 14, 13

=> ↺ How writing about Linux boosts your IT career. Interview with Jason Hibbets, Red Hat

=> ↺ How to Re-Enable the Blink Effect in Mozilla Firefox 23

=> ↺ How to force all network traffic through Tor on Fedora

=> ↺ How to install mariadb on ubuntu 13.04

=> ↺ Make Password Asterisks Visible in Your Mac or Linux Terminal

=> ↺ Add a user in Ubuntu

=> ↺ How to force all network traffic through Tor on Fedora

=> ↺ Nvidia 325.05.03 on Fedora 19

=> ↺ Q&A – 8 Practical Examples Of grep Command In Linux

=> ↺ Esoteric mouse pointer issues in XFCE

=> ↺ Running ProcessWire On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Wheezy/Ubuntu 13.04

=> ↺ Starting a Raspbery Pi without a display

=> ↺ Make Password Asterisks Visible In Your Mac Or Linux Terminal

=> ↺ Dynamic DNS with Bash & Afraid.org

=> ↺ Q&A – All You Wanted To Know About rm Command In Linux

=> ↺ Hey Raspberry PI, where is my cat?

=> ↺ Q&A – 8 Practical Examples Of grep Command In Linux

=> ↺ Zenoss Core Installation & Configuration on CentOS 6.X /RHEL 6.X

=> ↺ How to Install MPlayer in Ubuntu(12.04 /12.10 /13.04)

=> ↺ Learning Xen: Converting Existing Non-Xen Hypervisor Images for Use in Xen

=> ↺ How to monitor failed ssh login attempts on CentOS

=> ↺ KDE Plasma Media Center 1.1 Released – Install on Fedora 19/18/17 and Ubuntu 13.04/12.10

=> ↺ Encrypt Your Files And Folders With Cryptkeeper And Encfs

=> ↺ Linux Desktop: Alternative Disk Layouts

• Installing Linux on the desktop has largely become a “no brainer”. The installation routines of all major distributions have really matured to the point where you literally answer a few basic questions (a little more involved than Windows, but not much) and then you have a fully functional Linux desktop. However, that ease of installation has come with a bit of a price. Installing your system with the defaults can limit your flexibility when it comes layout and segregation (for backups). Today we will talk about some of the options for laying out your desktop storage a bit more “old school”.

Games

=> ↺ The 7DFPS Challenge 2013: A Linux Perspective! (part One)

=> ↺ ShinyLoot Game Store Interview And Giveaway!

• ShinyLoot is an awesome game store that has Linux support, one we told you about way back when in April! They have been in beta status for quite some time and are finally about to remove this tag and be classed as fully open!

=> ↺ Untold Universe: Game Concept Described

=> ↺ 5 different ways to track frames-per-second

=> ↺ Wasteland 2 RPG Shows Off New Images

=> ↺ Tropico 5 Announced for Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, and Linux

• Tropico is a long running franchise, initially dating back to 2001, of “god games”. The first entry, suitably called Tropico, was suitably published by Gathering of Developers (GoD Games). The franchise is also, suitably, tongue in cheek with its portrayal of totalitarianism and corruption. El Presidente is also suitably suited in a suit.

=> ↺ Poltergeist: Pixelated Horror, A Reverse-Horror Game With Gameplay From The New Guy

=> ↺ Wasteland 2 RPG Shows Off New Images

• Wasteland 2 the in development RPG from inXile that did extremely well on Kickstarter has shown off some more in game images to keep us going while we wait.

=> ↺ Broken Sword series returns with The Serpent’s Curse on Vita

=> ↺ Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs will drag you to the depths of madness next month

• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs launches on September 10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux publisher Frictional Games has confirmed.

=> ↺ Kalypso has announced Tropico 5 for Linux!

• In Tropico the player will take over the role of “El Presidente”, the dictator of the island “Tropico” and will be responsible for the islands nation from the colonial period to the 21st Century.

=> ↺ Top 5 Linux Games of 2013

=> ↺ Gravity Ghost A Game To Soothe Your Senses

• Gravity Ghost is a game to soothe your senses. There’s no killing. No dying. No way to fail. Just hours of blissing out to buttery-smooth gravity goodness.

=> ↺ Let’s Play: Brutal Legend

=> ↺ The Cheapskate’s Corner 15 (Aug 23rd-29th)

=> ↺ Dead Sky – Tower Defense, Zombie Shooter – Announced for PC, Mac and Linux

=> ↺ No major coding experience required: Gaming and more with Ren’Py

• Ren’Py, created by Tom Rothamel (@renpytom on Twitter), is an a open source tool for developing visual novels. Visual novels are the computer game equivalent of a “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel. Writing a basic game script is super simple and adding in game/programming logic (using variables, if statements, jumping to a different section of the script, etc.) is not very hard.

=> ↺ Metro: Last Light Round Up – Metro Series Will Continue, Linux Release Planned

• Publisher Deep Silver confirmed on 23 August that its FPS video game Metro: Last Light will not be the final cog in the Metro series. Dr. Klemens Kundratitz, CEO Deep Silver, has revealed that the series will be continued.

=> ↺ C4 Engine, An Alternative To Unity And Leadwerks?

• The C4 Engine is a comprehensive suite of robustly implemented game programming tools for the Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PS4, and PS3 platforms.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ KDE Commit-Digest for 21st July 2013

=> ↺ Porting Calligra to Qt5

=> ↺ Qt Developer Days – Europe

=> ↺ KDE Games on SoK

• If you’re willing to be part of this year’s SoK then don’t be so eager to pick a project, consider working with KDE Games having fun with one of the coolest parts of programming: game development.

• I wrote the following proposals related to KBounce and KNavalBattle, which are the games I currently maintain and therefore feel more confident regarding mentoring related projects. However this is not a problem, if you have a project or at least a good idea for a project related to any game in KDE, then feel free to talk to me and submit your proposal.

=> ↺ Plasma Media Center 1.1 and digiKam 3.3

• Plasma Media Center 1.1 was released today August 20, while digiKam 3.3 was released on August 6. Plasma Media Center is a promising media center application for the K Desktop environment, while digiKam is a popular KDE photo management application, with some editing capabilities.

=> ↺ KDE Games on SoK

• If you’re willing to be part of this year’s SoK then don’t be so eager to pick a project, consider working with KDE Games having fun with one of the coolest parts of programming: game development.

• I wrote the following proposals related to KBounce and KNavalBattle, which are the games I currently maintain and therefore feel more confident regarding mentoring related projects. However this is not a problem, if you have a project or at least a good idea for a project related to any game in KDE, then feel free to talk to me and submit your proposal.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ My First GUADEC!

• I must say, I am really lucky to be working for GNOME for this Google Summer of Code. After all, there is the extra perk of getting to attend GUADEC!

=> ↺ GNOME Control Center 3.10 Beta 1 Introduces a New Design

• GNOME Control Center, GNOME’s main interface for configuration of various aspects of your desktop, is now at version 3.10 Beta 1.

=> ↺ GNOME 3.10 Continues Pushing Ahead With Wayland

• New GTK+, Mutter, and GNOME Shell development releases in recent days continues advancing the GNOME 3.10 support for Wayland.

• As the very latest GNOME 3.10 Wayland developments:

=> ↺ GNOME 3.10 Will Bring New Map App

• Woohoo, our old friend Matthias Clasen, GNOME developer extraordinaire, has posted some new screenshots to show the new features coming in GNOME 3.10. He says, “we’re already at the beta – I’ve just released 3.9.90, which is the first beta release. High time to show some of the nice new things that will come in GNOME 3.10.”

=> ↺ GNOME Online Accounts 3.10 Beta 1 Supports Telepathy Accounts

• The first Beta of the upcoming GNOME Online Accounts 3.10 package for the GNOME desktop environment was made available for download and testing last evening, August 22, 2013.

=> ↺ GNOME 3.10 sightings

• I’ve not been very good about posting updates on this GNOME development cycle. I was busy with other things, and all of a sudden, we’re already at the beta – I’ve just released 3.9.90, which is the first beta release.

=> ↺ Gedit 3.10 Beta 1 Implements Regular Expression Search

• The developers of Gedit, the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment, announced a couple of days ago the immediate availability for download and testing of the first Beta release of the upcoming Gedit 3.10.

Distributions

=> ↺ Review of LXLE 12.04.3 Paradigm Linux Distro

• The new LXLE 12.04.3 is a lite version of Distro, which is based on Lubuntu from Linux and what users will find enjoyable is how there are five different desktop styles that you can switch to and from. These different styles include Windows XP, Mac OS X, Unity, Netbook, and finally Gnome Classic.

=> ↺ Top 50 Linux Distros

=> ↺ The first rule of choosing a desktop Linux distribution: User, know thyself

• There are literally hundreds of Linux desktop distributions. Here’s how to find one that’s right for you.

=> ↺ Linux Lite 1.0.6 an Ubuntu LTS Based Operating System for Linux Newbies – Full Review

• Linux Lite 1.0.6 codename ‘Amethyst‘ with PAE support has been released recently. Linux Lite is a Linux Operating System which is freely available to download, use and share with everyone. Linux Lite is released based on Ubuntu LTS series, LTS stands for ‘Long Term Support‘. That means each release will be supported for period of 5 years time, means your system will continue to receive latest updates during this 5 years time.

New Releases

=> ↺ OpenMediaVault 0.5 (Sardaukar) released

• Today i am proud to release OMV 0.5 (Sardaukar) after a long time of development. The following changes and new features have been implemented:

=> ↺ OpenELEC 3.1.6 released, includes Raspberry Pi tweaks

• The OpenELEC 3.2 development series continues, this time with some serious Raspberry Pi updates from XBMC Gotham

=> ↺ Clonezilla 2.1.2-43

=> ↺ Macpup 550

• Macpup is a small,light OS. It runs in ram and is very fast. It is not a striped down,bare bones,basic core OS. Macpup is a full featured systemright out of the box with apps for office,graphics,multimedia,internetand much more.And it looks really cool.

=> ↺ SolydK 201308

=> ↺ Burapha 2.5.006

=> ↺ Endian Firewall Community 2.5.2 released

• The update for Endian Firewall Community to version 2.5.2 is now available!

=> ↺ MANJARO 0.8.7 Will Be Released By The End Of This Month

• I have some news about Manjaro Linux for you guys. To be honest i have not tried this Linux distribution yet, but a friend of mine says that it works like a charm. The team behind the Manjaro Linux projects seems to be very passionate, dedicated and hard working. What is Manjaro, some of you may ask. Manjaro is a Linux Distribution based on Arch Linux and it is a very fast, lightweight and powerful.

=> ↺ Slackel 4.0 openbox has been released

• Slackel 4.0 Openbox has been released. Slackel is based on Slackware and Salix.

• Includes the Linux kernel 3.10.9 and lots of updates from Slackware’s ‘Current’ tree.

Screenshots

=> ↺ OS4 OpenLinux 13.7

=> ↺ LXLE 12.04.3

=> ↺ Antergos 2013.08.20

Debian Family

=> ↺ Debian Package Managers

=> ↺ DebConf was fantastic (not just the view)

Derivatives

=> ↺ Second beta release (beta 1) of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ I Am Speaking at the Ohio LinuxFest!

• Then for the main show I’ll be giving “Service Orchestration in the Cloud with Juju in Ubuntu” which takes place at 5pm on Saturday. I’ll be showing off some of the advances we’ve made in getting your apps deployed on the cloud as quickly and easily as possible.

=> ↺ 18 New Wallpapers Chosen for Ubuntu 13.10 (Updated)

• 18 images have been selected from a pool of hundreds to ship by default in this October’s release of Ubuntu.

=> ↺ If Only The Real Ubuntu Boot Experience Was This Cool [Video]

• Chances are it wasn’t recently. Ubuntu’s boot screen is nice enough and, if you’re on a recent computer, pretty quick, too.

=> ↺ If you ever use text VTs, don’t run XMir right now

• It’d be easy to assume that in a Mir-based world, the Mir server receives input events and hands them over to Mir clients. In fact, as I described here, XMir uses standard Xorg input drivers and so receives all input events directly. This led to issues like the duplicate mouse pointer seen in earlier versions of XMir – as well as the pointer being drawn by XMir, Mir was drawing its own pointer.

=> ↺ System76 Gazelle Pro: An Intel Haswell Laptop With Ubuntu Linux

• System76 recently sent over their Haswell-based Gazelle Professional laptop that sports HD Graphics 4600, a fancy Intel SSD, 8GB of system memory, and a beautiful HD display. This Haswell Linux laptop has already been used for testing within a few Phoronix articles while now is a full look at this Ubuntu laptop along with some comparison performance tests.

=> ↺ 4 favourite C’s in Ubuntu setup

• The introduction of Unity in Ubuntu was a great disappointment. For newcomers it would be an easy to use environment; in fact an ideal “granny” system. But for the serious tweaker it was a big step backwards.

• Then came a little ray of hope with the MATE desktop. But even that wasn’t perfect with the two configurations, MATE and GNOME, running side by side and confusing things. The advantage of MATE was the file browser which was better than Nautilus, because also at that time Nautilus lost important features like the “up to parent folder” button gone.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Linux Mint 15 Olivia Xfce – Almost

• All right, here’s another Mint article. Basically, we have covered pretty much the entire spectrum. Two reviews of the Cinnamon version, one on a somewhat lower end laptop, albeit with SSD, and one on an Nvidia-powered machine. Next, A MATE review. Then, we looked at the KDE edition just a few days back. Now, it’s time to examine the Xfce flavor. But before that, ask me, what did I think of Mint so far?

=> ↺ Mint with a Dash of Cinnamon

=> ↺ Crunchbang – Beautiful Minimalism

• Crunchbang, also known by its moniker: “#!”, is a lightweight Linux desktop distribution based on Debian and the Openbox window manager. Crunchbang is somewhat known as an alternative to Puppy Linux, and is perfectly suitable for older, low resource computers. I have also found that Crunchbang’s super low overhead to be perfect on my workstation for every day use. By default, Crunchbang sports a beautiful dark theme that relays the intentions of the system: Crunchbang is a subdued, low friction environment that gets out of your way and lets you get to work.

• Having been burned one too many times by Ubuntu, I went searching for a suitable desktop environment that wouldn’t make me want to pull my hair out. I was drawn to Crunchbang when I saw a few screenshots of the default desktop theme. Having spent time with minimalist desktop environments in the past, I was interested in trying out Openbox and seeing how it felt during daily use, and an endorsement by a coworker sealed the deal.

=> ↺ Canonical Shows Off Ubuntu Kylin at Dell Solutions Summit

• Canonical has announced its participation at the Dell Solutions Summit that will be held in Beijing, China.

=> ↺ Oppo Find 5 to get Ubuntu Touch?

• Oppo Find 5 seems so popular that some developers want to port Ubuntu Touch to it. The main guy behind this project is Oppo forum user Eoghan, who has only just started “getting a device tree etc modified to work with Ubuntu touch’s build environment.”

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch successfully ported to the Sony Xperia Z tablet

• The Ubuntu Edge campaign, an ambitious project to crowdfund $32 million to develop a ‘next-generation’ smartphone, ended well short of its target last week, but there’s something for fans to cheer about after a prototype version of the Ubuntu Touch operating system was made available for Sony’s Xperia Z tablet.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Edge: Is there life after an unsuccessful crowd-funding campaign?

=> ↺ Failed Funding Effort Blunts Canonical’s Ubuntu Edge

• A number of factors likely contributed to Canonical’s inability to achieve its wildly ambitious crowdfunding goal, including the brutally short, 30-day time frame of its campaign. “Allotting only 30 days for selling an effort that relies deeply on enterprise support was a boneheaded mistake,” suggested Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

=> ↺ The Ubuntu Edge phone is dead

=> ↺ Canonical’s next move after $32 million Ubuntu Edge crowfunding failure: Find a real phone, put your damn system on it AND JUST SHIP SOMETHING ALREADY

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ ProcessMaker 2.5: Open source workflow made faster, simpler

• Latest rev of Colosa’s Web-based BPM offering has something for developers, admins, and users

=> ↺ The open source alternative

• In a recent conversation with an uncle of mine, he asked me to find him a license key for Microsoft Office. I replied “why do you need that when you can use a free open source alternative?” His answer was simply “It is what I know”. This response struck me as fascinating because it was not the first time I had heard that exact statement with regards to computers and software. In this day and age people still opt to use illegal or unlicensed copies of software instead of using free open source solutions because that is what they learnt in school or were taught at work. It seems a lot of people especially in developing countries would still opt to use illegal copies of Windows & Office than use the free and I must add impressive alternatives such as Ubuntu and Open Office.

=> ↺ 3D Photo Maker by DVDVideoSoft Goes Open Source

• DVDVideoSoft has announced the launch of its first open-source project: 3D Photo Maker, a unique program for three-dimensional image creation, is released in a new form, with an open source code.

=> ↺ 3D Photo Maker by DVDVideoSoft Goes Open Source

=> ↺ Bolivian open-source software company gets senate approval

• The Bolivian senate has approved a proposal for the creation of a national open-source software company in Sucre, according to a senate press release.

=> ↺ Open source culture thrives in Chattanooga

• Last week I had a chance to visit Chattanooga for several days and received an up close look at the maker and entrepreneurial culture of the city. Chattanooga is home to a municipal gigabit fiber installation, which reaches every home and business in a 600 square mile area. The city is positioning itself as a hub of digital innovation, and from where I sit they’re doing quite a good job of that. Some of the smartest minds from other parts of the country are moving to Chattanooga because of the quality of life combined with structural community support for innovators.

=> ↺ Open Source Meets Textbook Publishing – Much Cash Freed Up

• What do you get when you take the open source approach and apply it to textbook publishing? Answer: a whole lot of happy students, thrilled at the chance to save a whole lot of cash. “There’s over $1 trillion in student debt here, and textbooks cost $200 to $300 a pop,” said David Harris, editor-in-chief of OpenStax College. “There’s a great need to help students.”

=> ↺ ProcessMaker 2.5: Open source workflow made faster, simpler

=> ↺ Automate your common tasks on Linux with AutoKey

=> ↺ 5 Key Considerations When Choosing Open Source Statistics Software

• Type “free statistical software” into Google, and it’s not difficult to discover websites listing free and open source statistics packages available at zero cost. Just download them, and run.

=> ↺ Open Source Disk Partition Software List Published In Boffin’s Official Site

=> ↺ New glossary helps break down common open source related terms

• A couple of months ago, I wrote the first draft of “A Free, Libre and Open Glossary.” I am often frustrated by people using terms like “open source” and “free software” loosely, even though they have fixed and clear definitions. There is a web of terms, many of them using ambiguous terms like “open” or “crowd,” that frequently confuse and blur the issue.

=> ↺ Boffin Makes List Of Open Source Network Management Software Public

Events

=> ↺ Slideshow: Best LinuxCon Goose Chase Contest Photos (So Far)

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Chrome for Android getting more gesture controls

• Mobile browsers are getting quite some love, why not the mobile traffic is increasing manifold. Yesterday we covered how Firefox is revamping its Start Page and Awesonescreen, now Google just announced that they are bringing more gesture based control to the Chrome for Android.

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox gets biggest design changes for Android

• The open source browser Firefox is getting the biggest UI changes for its Android browser. Lucas Rocha of Mozilla calls it the “biggest UI change in Firefox for Android since our first native release back in June last year. It took us about 3 months, 147 fixed bugs, and 250 changesets.”

=> ↺ Firefox 24: The Road to Australis

=> ↺ Mozilla’s Plug-n-Hack Can Integrate Security Tools with Browsers

• “Configuring a browser to work with a security tool can be a non-trivial process, and this can discourage people with less experience from using such tools,” said Mozilla’s Simon Bennett. “Without integration between security tools and browsers, a user must often switch between the tool and their browser several times to perform a simple task, such as intercepting an HTTP(S) request.”

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Cloud Foundry Event Showcases Open Source PaaS

• Developer interest in cloud-based application delivery platforms is expected to heighten over the next few weeks in the lead up to Cloud Foundry’s Platform industry event. Cloud Foundry, managed by Pivotal and used as a component of IBM’s open cloud architecture, provides an open source, cloud-based platform on which developers can release their applications.

=> ↺ Pivotal Boosts Cloud Foundry PaaS with Help from Piston OpenStack

• Piston Cloud, focused on the OpenStack cloud computing platform, has announced that it will donate hardware and developer resources to the Cloud Foundry community, as the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) company joins itself more closely with VMware-spinoff Pivotal. Also, Joshua McKenty, CTO and co-founder of Piston, will join the Cloud Foundry Advisory Board. This partnership between Piston Cloud and Pivotal could have a big impact on the IaaS, PaaS and OpenStack cloud scene.

=> ↺ Pivotal Extends Cloud Foundry PaaS With Piston OpenStack

• The open-source Cloud Foundry platform-as-a-service is embracing the open-source OpenStack platform to provide infrastructure-as-a-service for its users.

Databases

=> ↺ MariaDB and MySQL room at Froscon

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Valencia region government completes switch to LibreOffice

• The administration of the Spanish autonomous region of Valencia has completed its switch to LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity applications. Last week Friday the region’s ICT department announced that the office suite is installed on all of the 120,000 desktop PCs of the administration, including schools and courts. The migration will save the government some 1.5 million euro per year on proprietary software licences.

=> ↺ Apache OpenOffice Templates New Site

=> ↺ LibreOffice 4.1.1 RC2 Gets New Features on All Platforms

• The Document Foundation has announced that the second Release Candidate version for LibreOffice 4.1.1 is now available for the Linux platform, bringing a lot of bug fixes and improvements.

=> ↺ New LibreOffice Update Released

• The Document Foundation yesterday announced the release of LibreOffice 4.0.5, the latest update to the acclaimed 4.0 branch. This is a bug fix update, but it does address 100 bugs and several annoying regressions. All users of the 3.6 and 4.0 branches are encouraged to upgrade.

Education

=> ↺ Mistakes Being Corrected In IT In Swiss Schools

=> ↺ /ch/open: ‘Swiss schools should switch to using open source’

• The Swiss Open Systems User Group /ch/open is calling on schools to switch to using open source, now that these can no longer use a discount contract to purchase proprietary software licences. Their volume licence deal was cancelled earlier this spring, in connection with an ongoing investigation into possible fraud. “Open source is a convenient and practical alternative, promoted also by Educa, the country’s national coordination platform for ICT in education.”

Healthcare

=> ↺ Why open source is the future of clinical trials

• Clinovo is a Clinical Research Organization (CRO) that partners with life science companies to streamline their clinical trials. Their CTO Marc Desgrousilliers is managing the development of ClinCapture, their open source Electronic Data Capture (EDC) system. In this interview, he tells us more about why healthcare needs open source and why it is the future of clinical trials.

Funding

=> ↺ The Daily Startup: Sweet Funding for Open-Source Startup SugarCRM

• SugarCRM Inc.–an open-source competitor to Salesforce.com Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other big technology companies that sell customer relationship management software–has raised $40 million in equity from Goldman Sachs as it claims 15 consecutive quarters of growth. Chief Executive Larry Augustin, who joined the company in 2009, described the round as “a milestone” toward a possible IPO but declined to discuss whether or when SugarCRM would go public.

=> ↺ Crowdtilt Formally Releases Crowdhoster, Open Source Crowdfunding Platform

• Crowdtilt today formally released the first public version of its full-featured, open source, customizable crowdfunding tool: Crowdhoster. Built using Crowdtilt’s API, Crowdhoster enables anyone, from individuals to businesses, to launch their own crowdfunding page with their own branding, hosted on their own domain, and with full control and ownership of all aspects of what they are funding.

=> ↺ “WordPress for Crowdfunding,” Crowdhoster Makes Payments a Form of Communication

BSD

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ Pulling Back From The Cloud

• Lately, the furore over NSA capturing the web has made me rethink that. RMS was right.

=> ↺ GNU SIP Witch and Antisipate

• Generally I avoid doing gui projects, simply because every gui I ever attempted ended up looking very ugly. Yet, a little over a month ago I decided we needed to develop a true GNU Free Call desktop & mobile client of our own to work with our SIP Witch servers, even with what limited resources we had. This package is now being called Antisipate.

=> ↺ Updates and sipwitch 1.7.1

• There are many deployment and use cases for sipwitch where it never needs to do an external srv or even dns lookup, and so there is no need to carry all that baggage to support srv in the default server. This is also true for sipwitch zeroconf support, which already is a plugin so that the default server image need not depend on avahi client libs when zeroconf is not being actively used.

=> ↺ A practical GNU epsilon tutorial – 2013-08-23 12:54

=> ↺ GNU lightning 2.0.0 released!

• GNU lightning is a library to aid in making portable programs that compile assembly code at run time.

=> ↺ Release of GNU pyconfigure 0.2.1

• I am pleased to announce the release of GNU pyconfigure 0.2.1.

=> ↺ GNU Parallel 20130822 (‘Compostela’) released

=> ↺ FreeIPMI 1.3.1 Released

=> ↺ Hello from the GHM

• Posting during a quiet time at the GHM pre-meeting, before most people arrive. We have something new to show:

=> ↺ GUPnP 0.20.5 Adds Simple Network Device Whitelisting Infrastructure

• The development team behind the GUPnP project, an object-oriented and elegant open source framework for creating UPnP devices and control points, released version 0.20.5 with several improvements and fixes.

Project Releases

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Ireland agency helps local governments beat open source fear

• Public administrations in Ireland are losing their fear of open source, trying it out in a test environment offered by the country’s Local Government Management Agency (LGMA). In July, the agency publicly announced its so-called Sandbox, a standalone network infrastructure offering a safe, controlled environment. Already in place for a while now, the sandbox helped convince local administrations to implement customer relation management tool SugarCRM and content management system Drupal.

=> ↺ Turkmenistan, Champion of Free Software

• One thing I don’t like about StatCounter, besides their numbers, is that many countries list only 7 operating systems, conveniently lumping either GNU/Linux or Android/Linux in with “Other”. Turkmenistan is one that shows both…

Licensing

=> ↺ Where does free and open source licensing stand in Europe?

• Ken Moon discusses the impact of the Court of Justice decision in Usedsoft v Oracle.

=> ↺ OpenLogic Open-Source Services Vendor Gets Acquired

• Leading provider of open-source support and tools is acquired by Rogue Wave Software. What does it means for enterprise software development and support?

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Low-cost telepresence robot developed on open source platform

=> ↺ X2CRM Ships Version 3.4 Open Source Sales Force & Marketing Automation System

=> ↺ USAID Invests in Open-Source Mobile Tech for Water Sanitation Monitoring

Open Data

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Open-source textbooks projected to save students $3.7M

• The open-source online textbook publisher OpenStax College, which claims it could save students upwards of $750 million in textbook costs over the next five years, announced this week that their open-source books would cut textbook costs by $3.7 million during the 2013-14 academic year.

Open Hardware

=> ↺ An Open Source for New Furniture

• If you like puzzles and aren’t afraid of the words “Assembly Required,” OpenDesk is for you.

=> ↺ Video: The Making of Intel’s $200 open-source MinnowBoard

• The $200 MinnowBoard – developed by Santa Clara and CircuitCo Electronics – is a motherboard that measures 4 inches (10.16 centimeters) by 4 inches, sans casing.

Programming

=> ↺ Student programming with Scratch and The Finch

• The growing shortage of qualified programmers, computer scientists and software engineers is gathering significant attention in the media and popular press. Recent efforts from the non-profit organization Code.org have helped shine light on the problem—software is the defining industry of the 21st Century and the pool of skilled talent is slim. Conversely, for students who pursue software development the opportunity for employment is colossal: By the year 2020, it is estimated that there will be one million more programming jobs than available students.

Leftovers

Security

=> ↺ Hacked Feature Phone Can Block Other People’s Calls

• Swapping software can give one GSM phone the power to prevent incoming calls and text messages from reaching other phones nearby.

=> ↺ Ubuntu: 1936-1: Linux kernel (Raring HWE) vulnerabilities

=> ↺ Red Hat: 2013:1166-01: kernel: Important Advisory

=> ↺ Gentoo: 201308-01 PuTTY: Multiple Vulnerabilities

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Zombies Needed for Drone Terror

• Even with All the Pro-War Propaganda, The Air Force Can’t Find Enough Drone Pilots

=> ↺ Decades Of Failures: Why The CIA Keeps Blowing It

• Every failure has been rewarded with more money — and weakened America’s standing around the world

=> ↺ CIA Files Show U.S. Was Involved In Saddam Hussein’s Iranian Gas Attacks, Foreign Policy Reports

• The U.S. government may be considering military action in response to chemical strikes near Damascus. But a generation ago, America’s military and intelligence communities knew about and did nothing to stop a series of nerve gas attacks far more devastating than anything Syria has seen, Foreign Policy has learned.

=> ↺ The NYPD Division of Un-American Activities

• After 9/11, the NYPD built in effect its own CIA—and its Demographics Unit delved deeper into the lives of citizens than did the NSA.

=> ↺ Educators prepare the next generation of law enforcement, CIA

• Worldwide Counterterrorism Center is also offering people a look inside the CIA.

=> ↺ Snipers shoot at UN chemical inspectors in Syria – UN spokesman

=> ↺ Syria Presents More Evidence on Mercenaries” Use of Chemical Weapons

• The Syrian Government continues presenting evidence showing that armed opposition groups use chemical weapons, as it seeks to dismantle a media campaign aimed at unleashing a military invasion.

=> ↺ US gave Saddam blessing to use toxins against Iranians

• As Washington ponders over whether to hammer Damascus over unidentified use of toxic agents in Syria, declassified CIA documents reveal that 25 years ago the US actually indulged ruthless Saddam Hussein to use chemical warfare gases in war with Iran.

=> ↺ The BBC: A Criminal Instrument in the War on Syria

• Evidently, the BBC was not satisfied with the propaganda pieces I referred to in yesterday’s article, so it’s come out with another, equally audacious piece of fiction that reiterates, again without any proof, the same drivel it peddled to us yesterday (and the day before). But what ‘UN’s Angela Kane in Syria urges chemical weapons probe‘ (24/8/13) does is communicate a sense that it (the BBC’s) wishes might yet come true; that the Empire would once again unleash the dogs of war this time on poor, destroyed Syria.

=> ↺ What did the Cia Know?

• Fifty years after JFK was assassinated, many files remain secret. Experts believe they will show the CIA knew a lot about Lee Harvey Oswald before he became an assassin, and may have even used him to infiltrate a pro-Castro group

=> ↺ Amazon.com lawsuit criticizes handling of CIA contract

• Amazon Web Services’ battle with IBM over a $600 million contract with the Central Intelligence Agency has largely played out behind the closed doors of law offices and conference rooms.

=> ↺ Report: War Looms: Hundreds of American Troops and CIA Operatives Have Entered Syria

• This is all speculation, of course, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that the US financial system is potentially on the brink of a massive re-collapse, while the Obama administration is actively engaging Syria in what we can only conclude will lead to a broader conflict in the middle east.

=> ↺ Was Gilmore the victim of a CIA plot?

• Campaign has made Labour leader look like an opportunist and a back-stabber, writes Gene Kerrigan1

=> ↺ Hail Obama, America’s Hypocrite-in-Chief!

• Psychologist Kevin Dutton in his book, The Wisdom of Psychopaths, notes that society generally admires and rewards many of the qualities of psychopaths – fearlessness, emotional sterility, supreme confidence, ruthlessness, lack of remorse, refusal to take responsibility, narcissism and delusions of grandeur.

=> ↺ Pennsylvania Action Alert: Pass SB999, Help Stop “Indefinite Detention”

• The NDAA of 2012 allows the Federal Government to detain U.S. citizens without due process rights right here in Pennsylvania.

• Citizens suspected of a “crime” without a warrant, a judge, jury or trial.

• Think of Guantanomo Bay right here. They can lock you up and forget about you.

=> ↺ The Permanent ‘War on Terror’

• Under these circumstances, anyone who accepts at face value the assurance of government lawyers that laws such as the Patriot Act and NDAA will conform to the Constitution and not walk all over one’s civil rights should, as the old saying goes, have their head examined.

• What we have in the Hedges v. Obama case is yet another very bad precedent. As Judge Forrest had pointed out, “Courts must safeguard core constitutional rights.” The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, clearly not applying the principle of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) to this situation, has sold out that obligation for a handful of dubious promises.

=> ↺ The BBC’s Syrian Chemical Weapons Coverage: An Exercise in Imperial Deception By William Bowles (updated)

• Now you have to ask why the BBC feels it necessary to propagandise on behalf of the UKUS governments? What’s in it for the BBC? Well if it was an independent organisation, there could be no justification for promoting an allegation as fact even when its main UK advocate, Hague himself, can only offer his “belief”. But given as the BBC is the de facto mouthpiece for the UK state, it clearly has to peddle the ‘party line’.

• [...]

• Well at least now the man is admitting that he doesn’t actually know what really happened, and it makes a nonsense of the BBC’s title. But just how compelling the propaganda assault has been (it reminds me somewhat of the media’s coverage of the Boston Bombing), is that ‘progressive’ media outlet, Democracy Now! has just published a piece that’s pretty much in step with the BBC’s coverage, though it does at least entertain the idea that if the Syrian government had done it it had shot itself in the foot and opened the door to direct (as opposed to indirect) foreign intervention, which is what Hague is proposing we do.

=> ↺ Beware the US military presence: academic

• WITH US forces in military bases dotted all over the north of the country, Australia is now hard-wired into the American military system, with potentially dangerous consequences, a political studies academic says.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ Venezuela to sell oil at ‘fair price’ to Palestinian Authority

• Chavez, who often inveighed against US “imperialism,” also cultivated close relations with Washington’s foes, including Iran and Syria.

=> ↺ Canada’s oil pipelines will not build a nation – they are a great swindle

• The only nation-building that is occurring appears to be a coast-to-coast movement of opposition against planned pipelines

=> ↺ What if the Ocean Dies?

• The ocean (1) creates more than half of our oxygen; (2) it drives weather systems; (3) it modulates the atmosphere, and (4) it provides vital resources. As it happens, the ocean transcends national borders to maintain life everywhere on Earth. Yet, lamentably, the ocean is used and abused like a local trash dump on the edge of town, circa 1950s. And, connecting the dots of (1) ocean health or (2) ocean degradation and (3) survival of humanity is an exercise easily accomplished because the dots seamlessly connect all the way around the planet.

• In the words of Philippe Cousteau: “The effects of climate change, pollution and over-fishing should be making headlines because the ocean and all of us – and I literally mean all humankind – who depend on its resources are facing the very real prospect of the catastrophic collapse of ocean ecosystems if we continue on our current course.”

=> ↺ Cattle—not climate change—killing the Great Barrier Reef

• The Great Barrier Reef is considered one of the great wonders of the world and was granted World Heritage status in 1981. It’s the largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) over an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, Australia.

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