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● 07.20.14

● Links 20/7/2014: Jolla in India, Mega Censored in Italy

Posted in News Roundup at 4:53 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds’ Workspace Is Nothing Like I Imagined (Video)

• As part of an ongoing video series from The Linux Foundation you can now nosey at the desk and work ethic of Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux. In the short 4 minute clip you’ll learn what he keeps on his desk, what he gets up to between kernel releases and witness him use a contraption called the ‘zombie shuffling desk‘.

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds’ Home Office Is Definitely Messier Than Yours

• It doesn’t matter how organised — or cluttered — your workspace is, if it makes you productive, that’s all that matters. Not that it stops one from wondering if greats, such as Linux creator Linus Torvalds, operate in the equivalent of clean rooms as they go about making the world a better place. Well, it turns out Torvalds isn’t exactly stressed about keeping his home office in a state of perfection, as this video shows.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ MP Counters In Prototype Stage For Nouveau NV50

• Samuel Pitoiset has shared another blog post on his excellent work for reverse-engineering NVIDIA hardware performance counters and implementing the functionality within the open-source Nouveau driver.

Applications

=> ↺ Geary Is Getting Ready to Take Thunderbird Head-On

• Geary, a lightweight email program designed around conversations and built for the GNOME desktop by the Yorba software group, is now at version 0.7.0.

=> ↺ ansiweather: One-line weather report, with frills

=> ↺ bm: A console bookmark manager

• I never really thought about a bookmark manager for the console; the browsers that I use these days — specifically elinks or Pale Moon — have onboard bookmarking systems already.

=> ↺ Cloud Music Player Nuvola 2.4.2 Released with More Fixes

=> ↺ Astronomic Observatory Stellarium 0.13.0 Officially Released

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Top 10! Fun On The Command Line

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine 1.7.22 Arrives with Lots of Fixes for Games

• Wine 1.7.22 is a new development version of the software that has been announced and its makers have implemented quite a few changes and improvements, not to mention various fixes for a huge number of Windows applications.

Games

=> ↺ Leadwerks Game Developer Toolkit Now Heading To Steam For Linux

• The Leadwerks developers have overcome some issues they faced that prevented the Linux version of Leadwerks appearing on Steam.

• So, this is good news for any game developers waiting on it, as you will have an easy way to get it and keep it up to date when it hits Steam.

=> ↺ Leadwerks: Blender Exporter, Steam For Linux Coming

• While Leadwerks has been out for Linux and Leadwerks is in the Ubuntu Store, it hasn’t been on Steam for Linux up to this point. Barring this Kickstart-funded Linux game engine port from being on Steam came down to a technical requirement — GCC mandating 16-bit ABI alignment. After help from Valve and Blitz Research, that issue has been overcome so Leadwerks will soon be released on Steam.

=> ↺ Top 5 Linux Gaming Emulators

• The history of Linux in gaming is quite poor, but this year so many changes happened in this area that we might be able to review top commercial video games very soon. By commercial I mean those created by most significant gaming companies like Ubisoft or Bethesda, and not indie video games. Even though real gaming in Linux based operating systems got a boost this year, emulators were everywhere to be found, for most known video game consoles.

=> ↺ Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Beta Update Now Uses SDL2

• The Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition game is a modest feature and graphics re-make of the Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition, Duke It Out In D.C., Duke Caribbean: Life’s a Beach, and Duke: Nuclear Winter titles. The Windows version has been out for a while on Steam while the Linux version is still evolving.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ bringing green processes to Qt

• I’ve begun prototyping a system for green processes in Qt applications. I’m not yet at the code-writing stage, but the API is definitely taking shape and a design is starting to emerge. It’s a spare-time project for me, so is progressing at a reasonable but not extremely fast pace.

=> ↺ What’s new in KF5 porting script: convert-kdialog.pl

• When we want to remove kdelibs4support there is a class which is used by all kde application: KDialog.

• Each time that we wanted to create a dialog we used it.

• So it’s necessary to have a script to help us to port to QDialog now that KDialog is deprecated.

• When we port to QDialog, we need to add a QDialogButtonBox and mainwidget (if necessary)

• As in kdepim there is a lot of KDialog I created a script for it.

=> ↺ QML binary modules

• Developing a new project is usually done in two phases: first, the most important features are added, and the feature list of the project quickly grows. Then, the features need to be polished, bugs fixed, and the overall usability of the project improves slowly. This second phase is often considered less interesting than the first one, but personally, I like to fix small annoyances. Fixing them makes the difference between an experimental project and one that can be reliably used by real users.

=> ↺ Plasma Active Continues Coming For Qt5/KF5

• Being done as part of a Google Summer of Code project this year is porting KDE’s Plasma Active to their newer technology stack.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GTK+ 3.13.4 Features a Much Improved Adwaita Theme

• GTK+ 3.13.4, a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces that provide a complete set of widgets, suitable for projects ranging from small one-off tools to complete application suites, is now available for download and testing.

Distributions

Arch Family

=> ↺ Manjaro 0.8.10 Netbook

Debian Family

=> ↺ BitKey: A secure, Debian-based Live OS for bitcoin transactions

=> ↺ Debian 6.0.10 “Squeeze” Is Out and It’s the Last Point Release

• This tenth point update is actually a very important one because it’s the last one in the life of this branch of the Debian distribution, which was released back in February 2011. The developers have announced that no more major updates will be made for Debian 6.x “Squeeze, but there are also some good news.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Canonical Issues Final Warning for Ubuntu One Closure, Get Your Files Now

• “This is the FINAL reminder to make sure you have retrieved all your data from Ubuntu One filesync, as we will be deleting all the content permanently on 31st July 2014. After that date, we will no longer be able to retrieve any of your files.”

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Raspbery Pi Model B+ Released

• The Raspberry Pi foundation has recently released a new version of its really small and adaptable computer, this week. This is the third model of the device, which includes USB ports for input devices (keyboard and mouse), an SD card slot, an Ethernet port and an HDMI port to enable connection to a monitor or a TV.

=> ↺ The DragonBox Pyra Moves Closer As OpenPandora Successor

• Michael Mozrek gave a presentation recently about his work as the project lead on the DragonBox Pyra, the slated replacement to the Open Pandora handheld Linux game system.

Phones

=> ↺ Jolla sailing to India soon: Sailfish OS set to compete with Firefox, Ubuntu and Tizen

=> ↺ “I’ll Be Back” — After Reviving Meego Dreams, Jolla Preps for India Launch

• Mobile operating systems are kind of like comic book heros or horror movie villains — just when you think they’re gone for good, they come back with a new bag of tricks. Thus is the case of Sailfish OS, a challenger that’s on the verge of launching a high volume product to the burgeoning Indian market.

=> ↺ Jolla arriving in India in partnership with Snapdeal

=> ↺ Finnish smartphone startup Jolla set to enter Indian market with Sailfish OS device

=> ↺ Finnish smartphone maker Jolla set to enter Indian market

=> ↺ Sailfish OS powered Jolla smartphone launching in India next month. What to expect?

=> ↺ Jolla to enter Indian market soon with Sailfish OS smartphone

=> ↺ Finnish smartphone maker ‘Jolla’ set to enter Indian market

=> ↺ Jolla to launch Sailfish OS smartphone in India soon

=> ↺ Jolla to launch Sailfish OS phones in India

=> ↺ Indian phone makers look to penetrate Russia

• Local smartphone makers Micromax, Karbonn, Lava and Intex have eaten into market shares of multinationals Nokia and BlackBerry, though South Korea’s Samsung still leads the market. Now the four are eyeing Russia.

Ballnux

=> ↺ Google and Samsung escalate hostilities over watches, Tizen and Android’s openness

• Google is growing increasingly worried that Samsung, its largest licensee, is working to undermine its own strategy for Android, while Samsung and the rest of the industry is concerned that Google has become a “bully,” according to a new report by The Information.

Android

=> ↺ Want to make your own CyanogenMod theme?

• If you’re familiar with CyanogenMod (CM) or simply part of any of CM’s social network you will be well aware of the CM’s Theme Store. For those of you who don’t know this is simply a CM powered theme generator which allows users to instantly change the theme, fonts, and color-scheme for the UI. Some themes are available for free while most charge a small amount to download and install. These are lightweight items for your device and simply change the aesthetic appearance completely.

=> ↺ CyanogenMod’s Apollo Music Player modified for Android L

=> ↺ First Android One phone landing in October?

• Ironically, in the world of mobile, there’s more than just one One. HTC, for one, has several Ones, and not forgetting the OnePlus One. One? One.

• Room for One more? How about Android One? Launched at this year’s Google I/O, it’s aimed squarely at emerging markets, and we’re hearing that the first handset might land as early as October.

• While Android Silver will see Google working closely with its best mates at the high end of the spectrum, the aim of Android One is to make a decent phone that’s truly affordable for every Tom, Dick, Harry, Sanjay, Raj and Mukul across the world.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ EFF releases experimental open wireless router firmware

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced the release of the alpha version of an Open Wireless Router firmware. It was officially announced at the HOPE X (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference in New York City.

=> ↺ Standardized open source products are the key to unlocking the lock-in trap

• Mårten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus Systems, argues that when companies lock in to their own design and customizations, it’s as harmful as when they lock in to a vendor. Mickos explains why he thinks using standardized open source products is the best way to avoid both types of lock-in.

BSD

=> ↺ FreeBSD 9.3 Officially Released With Updated ZFS Filesystem!

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Geneva class-rooms switching to free software

• All primary and secondary public schools in the Swiss Canton of Geneva are switching to using Ubuntu GNU/Linux for the PCs used by teachers and students. The switch has been completed by all of the 170 primary public schools, and the migration of the canton’s 20 secondary schools is planned for the next school year. Ubuntu GNU/Linux offers powerful services to the teachers, is easier to maintain, faster, safer and more stable than the decade-old proprietary operating system it is replacing, the canton’s school IT department concludes, based on several four-year long pilots.

Openness/Sharing

Open Hardware

=> ↺ Makeblock Starter Robot Kit Review

• The Makeblock kit is all about assembling building blocks in three major parts: putting together the Arduino caddy, constructing a chassis for it and finally programming it via Arduino IDE.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ FedEx Indicted For Failing To Look Into Its Packages To See If Any Online Pharmacies Were Sending Drugs

• Back in March of last year, we were somewhat disturbed by UPS agreeing to forfeit $40 million to the US government for shipping drugs from “illegal internet pharmacies.” Not that such drugs or pharmacies should be legal (that’s a whole different discussion), but it’s insane to pin the blame for the shipments on the shipping company, whose sole job is to get packages from point A to point B. In fact, we don’t want shipping companies to be liable for what’s in packages, because then they have not just the incentive, but the mandate to snoop through all our packages.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ ‘Mysterious’ Plane Crash – Who benefits?

=> ↺ Facts Needed on Malaysian Plane Shoot-Down

• It will likely take some time to determine who downed the Malaysia Airlines Boeing-777 over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 298 people onboard. Initial speculation is that someone with a missile battery mistook the plane as a military aircraft, but the precise motive may be even harder to discern.

=> ↺ Airline Horror Spurs New Rush to Judgment

• President Obama and the State Department’s “anti-diplomats” are fanning flames of anger against Russia after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine. But some U.S. intelligence analysts doubt the popular “blame-the-Russians” scenario, reports Robert Parry.

=> ↺ Three Lessons We Need to Heed from the Soviet Downing of KAL 007

=> ↺ MH17 makes the situation in Ukraine an American crisis and an EU catastrophe

=> ↺ Rebels, extremists have easy access to advanced missiles

=> ↺ Russia: US implicating rebels

• On Saturday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said the US administration sought to pin the blame on separatists and Russia without waiting for the results of an investigation. “The statements of representatives of the US administration are evidence of a deep political aberration of Washington’s perception of what is going on in Ukraine,” he told Russian news agencies. “At least, that is how the relevant statements can be interpreted,” he said. “Despite an obvious and indisputable nature of the arguments provided by rebels and Moscow, the US administration is pushing its own agenda,” he said. Meanwhile, a rebel leader appealed to Russia for help with worsening conditions at the crash site of a Malaysian airliner, accusing the Ukrainian government of preventing experts from arriving and allowing bodies to rot.

=> ↺ MH17 joins long list of commercial planes shot down

• Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 that was blown out of the sky while flying across eastern Ukraine, was not a sole casualty of warfare.

=> ↺ Missiles are now so easy to get that it’s a miracle more planes haven’t been shot down

• Stinger man-portable missiles may also threaten the U.S. Army crews of Apache helicopter gunships recently dispatched to Baghdad to secure the airport and defend the U.S. embassy. Intelligence reports say that the Islamic State organization, also known as ISIS, has likely captured U.S.-made Stingers. In seizing major cities such as Mosul and Tikrit, and overrunning four Iraqi army divisions, Islamic State fighters have reportedly taken control of two major weapons depots, where Stingers were likely stored along with other sophisticated U.S.-manufactured armaments.

=> ↺ Russia’s Missiles Stung the World Long Before MH17

• On May 1, 1960, a U-2 spy plane operated by the CIA took off from an airbase in Peshawar, Pakistan. The existence of the U-2 was a secret. It had an unusual appearance created by its long, slender wings. These wings gave it the ability to fly at heights beyond 70,000 feet to the edge of the stratosphere, way above any other airplanes.

=> ↺ All hands stained with blood

• Ricardo and Lugo flew back to Trinidad and checked in at the then Holiday Inn in Port of Spain. There, that said evening, that local police under Randolph Burroughs arrested them and found incriminating evidence that linked them to anti-Castro CIA operative Luis Carriles.

• It turned out that the CIA, and possibly higher officials in Washington, were aware of the plot to blow up the Cubana plane. Even worse, Washington helped Carriles escape and evade prosecution in Venezuela and/or Cuba (Ricardo and Lugo were jailed in Caracas).

=> ↺ Ex-Shin Bet Chief: Israeli Illusions Fueled Blowup

• Yuval Diskin, who served as director of Israel’s Shin Bet security service from 2005 to 2011, posted some rather blunt observations on his Facebook page this morning regarding the tit-for-tat murders of teenagers, the Palestinian rioting in East Jerusalem and the Triangle (the Arab population center south of Haifa) and what he fears is coming down the pike.

• It strikes me that he’s probably saying a lot of what IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz was thinking at this week’s security cabinet meeting, when Gantz’s far more restrained comments led to a tongue-lashing from Naftali Bennett. In other words, this is how the current meltdown looks to much of the top Israeli military and intelligence brass. It’s what they’ve been saying privately while in uniform and publicly after retiring (and occasionally even while still in uniform). I’ve taken the liberty of translating Diskin’s Hebrew into English.

=> ↺ Hacker Group Anonymous launches #OpSaveGaza, an intensive online offensive against Israel

• In an online offensive against Israel, the global hacker group took down hundreds of Israeli websites including that of Tel Aviv Police Department, which is still not available, at the time of writing this report

=> ↺ Israel Vows to Escalate Gaza Offensive: 341 Killed

=> ↺ Israel using flechette shells in Gaza

• The munitions are not prohibited under international humanitarian law, but according to B’Tselem, “other rules of humanitarian law render their use in the Gaza Strip illegal. One of the most fundamental principles is the obligation to distinguish between those who are involved and those who are not involved in the fighting, and to avoid to the extent possible injury to those who are not involved. Deriving from this principle is the prohibition of the use of an imprecise weapon which is likely to result in civilian injuries.”

=> ↺ Israeli envoy to US lands in hot water

• Dubai- Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer landed himself in hot water Thursday when Palestine activists posted a barrage of sarcastic questions to his Twitter Q&A #AskDermer thread. The Q&A was held amid escalating violence between Israel and Hamas forces in Gaza. The hashtag, which was used more than 20,000 times, included questions that were harshly critical of Israel’s strategy in Gaza. Many tweets by activists were snarky, and others were angry. Eli Clifton wrote: IDF says houses, hospitals, schools and mosques are weapons depots. What were the “human shields” shielding on the beach? #AskDermer US Dept of Drone War wrote: A Palestinian walks into a bar. Do you A) Blow up the bar, B) Blow up the person’s home, or C) Kill 4 random kids on a beach? #AskDermer

=> ↺ Israel-Gaza conflict: Baby killed by tank as IDF begins ground offensive

=> ↺ Hamas raid kills two Israeli soldiers

• In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory.

=> ↺ Despite Israeli Push in Gaza, Hamas Fighters Slip Through Tunnels

• Eight Palestinian militants emerged from a tunnel some 300 yards inside Israel on Saturday morning, armed with automatic weapons and wearing Israeli military uniforms, the Israeli military said. The gunmen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at two Israeli military jeeps on patrol, starting a battle that killed two Israeli officers and one of the militants, according to the military. The rest then retreated underground, back to Gaza.

=> ↺ Hamas Fighters Infiltrate Israel Through Tunnel and Kill Two Soldiers

• As Israel continued its deadly assault on the Gaza Strip, Hamas militants sneaked into the country on Saturday and killed two soldiers, delivering the worst blow to the Israeli military on its side of the Gaza border in years.

=> ↺ Pakistan condemns US drone strike in NWA

=> ↺ US drone stike on Pakistan compound kills 11

• Pakistan has condemned the US drone strike in North Waziristan in which 15 suspected militants were reportedly killed early Saturday, saying these strikes would have a negative impact on its efforts to bring peace and stability in the country and the region.

=> ↺ Death toll rises to 11 in U.S. drone strike in NW Pakistan

=> ↺ New York officer in fatal arrest placed on desk duty

=> ↺ Complaints About Chokeholds Are Focus of Study

=> ↺ Outrage Mounts Over Death of Staten Island Man Placed in NYPD Chokehold [Updated]

• When LIRR workers and the MTA reached an agreement to avoid the strike that would have begun on Sunday, it seemed that Mayor de Blasio and his family would be able to leave for their ten-day Italian vacation on Friday, as scheduled. But on Friday evening, De Blasio’s office announced that the mayor would remain in New York until Saturday “to attend to City business.” According to the New York Times, the mayor wanted to “spend more time making calls to elected officials, community leaders and members of the clergy, and talking to the police” about Eric Garner, the 43-year-old Staten Island man who went into cardiac arrest and died after NYPD officers put him in a chokehold on Thursday. Anyone who has seen the cell phone video of five cops piling onto an unarmed Garner can probably understand why De Blasio felt the need to at least briefly postpone his trip.

=> ↺ Israel begins heaviest bombardment yet in Gaza, sending residents fleeing

=> ↺ Opinion: Self-righteousness is the siren song of war

• Even the educated are not immune to these feelings. Consider, for instance, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a well-paid speaker and author, respected by many as an expert in international affairs. Yet, in an interview with Charlie Rose on May 29, 2003, Friedman justified his support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq on the grounds that if we killed enough Iraqis, Arab terrorists would give up believing they can attack us without repercussions. He concluded by saying that “they” needed to see “American boys and girls going from house to house from Basra to Baghdad” and telling people to “suck on this!”

=> ↺ Of Planes and Proxies

• In the nineteen-eighties, the C.I.A. handed out Stinger surface-to-air missiles to the mujahideen

=> ↺ Clinton papers on Iraq, Haiti released

• President Bill Clinton’s advisers carefully considered how to explain the president’s military action against Iraq in 1998 as the House was debating his impeachment, according to records from the Clinton White House that were released Friday. The documents also touched upon al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, consideration of military action in Haiti in 1994 and preparations for Supreme Court nomination hearings.

=> ↺ Top 6 takeaways from the Clinton document dump

=> ↺ Clinton had asked for Bin Laden info in 1988 Clinton had asked for Bin Laden info in 1998

• The latest batch shows Mr Clinton asked his national security aides whether the CIA overstated bin Laden’s role in the August 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

=> ↺ Markus R. case highlights spy game between Washington, Moscow and Berlin

=> ↺ Can the US accept allies as equals?

• By expelling the CIA station chief in Berlin recently, Germany hoped to jolt the United States into paying attention. Germans are outraged by reports that American spies may have been working inside their security services. Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that hostile operations like this “contradict everything that I understand to be a trusting cooperation between friendly partners.”

=> ↺ Loss of trust

• A specialist on German foreign policy at the European Council on Foreign Relations has described the US as a “weak superpower” whose spying methods and surveillance on other countries is solely driven by a feeling of insecurity.

Finance

=> ↺ US states with higher minimum wages gain more jobs

• The 13 U.S. states that raised their minimum wages at the beginning of this year are adding jobs at a faster pace than those that did not, providing some counter-intuitive fuel to the debate over what impact a higher minimum has on hiring trends.

=> ↺ Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It’s Falling.

• The finding comes from a recent investigation by Christoph Lakner, a consultant at the World Bank, and Branko Milanovic, senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study Center. And while such a framing may sound startling at first, it should be intuitive upon reflection. The economic surges of China, India and some other nations have been among the most egalitarian developments in history.

=> ↺ When the Boss Says, ‘Don’t Tell Your Coworkers How Much You Get Paid’

• Whether I was working as a barista or a paralegal, the story was the same: My employers wanted me to keep my mouth shut about money.

=> ↺ What Happens When Detroit Shuts Off the Water of 100,000 People

• When the water trucks arrived near Arlyssa Heard’s home on the west side of Detroit at the end of June, the 42-year-old single mother of two said it felt like the entire neighborhood was being taken over. “There were water trucks literally circling up and down blocks. I’d never seen so many in my life,” she says. “It’s like they were the police hunting down a criminal.”

Censorship

=> ↺ ‘Friendly Wi-Fi’ Aims To Stop Porn Access In Public Hotspots

• The UK government has launched the ‘Friendly Wi-Fi’ licensing scheme – an effort to make harmful and pornographic content inaccessible through public Wi-Fi networks.

=> ↺ ‘Pirate’ Site ISP Blockades Reversed By Court

• As Spain struggles with its continuing online piracy problems, a local court has issued an order for several file-sharing sites to be unblocked by ISPs. The decision overturns a ruling in May which required the service providers to censor torrent and download sites on copyright infringement grounds.

=> ↺ Dotcom’s MEGA Blocked in Italy Over Piracy Concerns

• The Court of Rome has issued a nation-wide block of two dozen sites that facilitated the distribution of pirated movies. Among the blocked domains is Kim Dotcom’s cloud hosting service Mega, Firedrive (formerly known as Putlocker), and even Russia’s largest email provider Mail.ru.

Privacy

=> ↺ As Feared, UK Data Retention Act Passed In Record Time; Fight Back Has Already Begun

=> ↺ You should be horrified by DRIP

• If you care about digital rights you should be horrified by DRIP. The UK’s new Data Retention and Investigatory Powers law was rushed through parliament just before MPs go on holiday, with very little debate.

• The law forces communications companies to store all our data for up to 12 months so that the security services can snoop on them should they so wish. Companies were already doing this before, but then an April ruling by the European Court of Justice stated that the mass data collection interferes with “fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data”. DRIP — which went from draft to law in just over a week — reinstates the legal framework for spying on this personal data. If that’s not bad enough, DRIP attempts to extend the territorial reach of the UK’s powers to mandate the interception of communications across the globe. Any foreign firms holding data relating to UK citizens can be served a warrant to hand over information. This means that companies beyond the jurisdiction of the UK’s Data Protection Act must also store UK citizens data. How will this be safeguarded?

=> ↺ NSA On Snowden’s Claims Of Passing Around Nudie Pics: We Totally Wouldn’t Allow That… If We Knew About It

• Following on the news that Ed Snowden told the Guardian how NSA employees routinely passed around pictures they had intercepted of “extremely attractive” people who were naked, the NSA has issued one of its typical non-denial denials.

=> ↺ Mann film finds China, US on same side of cyber war

• Mann said that in the wake of 2010 Stuxnet computer worm, which attacked Iran’s nuclear program, he became fascinated with what was happening in the world of cyber-crime and cyber-espionage.

=> ↺ ProtonMail and Subrosa: Encrypted communication for the privacy-conscious

• ProtonMail and Subrosa are two separate communications services that’s attempting to offer users a platform for secure, encrypted communication. They are trying to offer what’s come to be known as zero knowledge (also zero access) Cloud data service, that is, the service provider cannot read your data.

=> ↺ Tor, trust and the NSA

• Tor is an anonymizing network that’s designed to protect you by “bouncing your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world: it prevents somebody watching your Internet connection from learning what sites you visit, and it prevents the sites you visit from learning your physical location.”

=> ↺ On the First Day of HOPE, Plenty to Fear

• Like Snowden, Drake does not fit the bill of your typical hacker icon.

=> ↺ At HOPE X Conference, Protecting and Supporting Dissenters is at Forefront of Many Presentations

• The tenth Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE X) conference has been organized around supporting dissenters, especially how to support hackers or hacktivists who are targeted by the government.

=> ↺ JPSO has no policies yet on how and when to use its drone

• The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office appears to be the first agency in the state to use an unmanned aerial drone for law enforcement purposes.

=> ↺ Innocents lost as collateral damage

• The term ”collateral damage” was once primarily used to describe the victims within a conflict, such as those who died in war who were not soldiers but who still lost their lives. One side attacks a target and, in pursuing its aims, inflicts casualties and damage as a consequence of the attack. There is no intention within the action, but still it occurs. This is war. And war is hell.

=> ↺ Arab-Americans take on hate

• “We have the power,” says Arab American Association of New York Executive Director and community civil rights activist Linda Sarsour in the promotional video. “We have the power. We have the capability and the opportunity here to change the way our society views our community to create a society that accepts our children and allows them to be proud of who they are as Arab-Americans and/or Muslim-Americans.”

=> ↺ Backdoors and surveillance mechanisms in iOS devices

• Jonathan Zdziarski’s paper about backdoors, attack points and surveillance mechanisms built into iOS is quite, quite interesting.

=> ↺ Dotcom to drop political ‘bombshell’ days before election

• Internet Party leader Kim Dotcom says that he will announce a political bombshell capable of toppling the Prime Minister on September 15 – five days before the general election.

=> ↺ Key tells Dotcom to put up or shut up

• Kim Dotcom has revealed more details today on his “Moment of Truth” event, scheduled for five days before the September 20 election.

=> ↺ Key to Dotcom: Put up or shut up

=> ↺ Dotcom enlists US journalist for event

• Internet Party founder Kim Dotcom says he has enlisted heavy-hitting US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who blew open secrets about mass spying by the US Government, to help embarrass Prime Minister John Key immediately before the election.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: easy-to-use technologies can subvert surveillance

• Edward Snowden, a former US spy agency contractor who leaked details of major US surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.

=> ↺ Reuters: Snowden asks hackers to build software to beat the NSA

• Edward Snowden, a former U.S. spy agency contractor who leaked details of major U.S. surveillance programs, called on supporters at a hacking conference to spur development of easy-to-use technologies to subvert government surveillance programs around the globe.

=> ↺ National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden seeks to develop anti-surveillance technologies

=> ↺ Edward Snowden Plans to Work on Privacy Tech

=> ↺ Snowden Tells Hackers of the World to Unite

=> ↺ Edward Snowden Developing Anti-surveillance Technology

=> ↺ Snowden to developers: create NSA-proof software

=> ↺ Snowden Favors SpiderOak Over Dropbox

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: Dropbox is ‘hostile to privacy’

• Dropbox is a very popular cloud storage service, but NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is no fan. In a recent interview with The Guardian, Snowden called Dropbox a “targeted, wannabe PRISM partner” that is “very hostile to privacy.”

=> ↺ Edward Snowden Towers Over His Enemies

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: ‘The World Is Much More Unpredictable and Dangerous’ Than George Orwell’s ‘1984’Edward Snowden: ‘The World Is Much More Unpredictable and Dangerous’ Than George Orwell’s ‘1984’

=> ↺ India puts conditions on China for better relations

=> ↺ US intelligence blunders pile up

=> ↺ Big Brother Obama in a Backwards Cap Looks Down on Berlin

=> ↺ German Artist Throws ‘NSA in Da House’ on U.S. Embassy in Berlin

=> ↺ ‘NSA in da house’: German artist lights up US Embassy (VIDEO)

=> ↺ Rand Paul at Reboot Conference: Idiots and Trolls in Washington Can’t Out Think the Market

=> ↺ Rand Paul rallies crowd at Reboot conference

=> ↺ Congress Hopeful Condemns NSA Surveillance

=> ↺ Top-secret flashback: When I worked at the NSA

• So is national security any better now? We can’t “see” security anymore in the age of computers and passwords and all kinds of encrypted things. I sure could see the guy in front of me with the red light. It was a little awkward but effective. I was probably the least threatening person ever to walk the halls of the NSA, but they still kept an actual, physical eye on me all the time. I wonder what it means that, before we started to color code our level of threat, such a non-threatening consultant as myself would have required an escort at all times, and yet now, living at a time of more serious threat, a consultant like Snowden gets unlimited access to everything. Maybe the real threat is complacency and those pesky unintended consequences.

=> ↺ CIA’s war of words with the Soviets

=> ↺ Snowden’s life in Russia: ‘Much happier than be unfairly tried in US’

• Although he is “probably three steps from death” considering his way of living, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden is quite happy and leading a “pretty open life” and not feeling any “oppressive surveillance” in Russia, he told The Guardian.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Protesters in Meridian Want to Uphold the U.S. Constitution

• Jason Casella also said that he is pleased that Emmett is the first city in the state to block provisions associated with the National Defense Authorization Act.

=> ↺ A nurse at Gitmo refuses to force feed any more prisoners. Others should too

=> ↺ Florida Gov. Rakes in Campaign Cash From CEO Who Makes Millions Locking Up Immigrants

• Florida Governor Rick Scott really knows how to pick a fundraiser. Last month, he was scheduled to attend a $10,000-a-plate event at the home of a real estate developer who’d done prison time on tax charges. Hours after Mother Jones disclosed the event, Scott canceled it. Now, on July 21, Scott will headline a $10,000 per person fundraiser at the Boca Raton home of another deep pocketed donor who is the CEO of a private prison company that’s profiting handsomely over the immigration crisis at the Mexican border.

=> ↺ Mom Jailed Because She Let Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Play in the Park Unsupervised

• Here are the facts: Debra Harrell works at McDonald’s in North Augusta, South Carolina. For most of the summer, her daughter had stayed there with her, playing on a laptop that Harrell had scrounged up the money to purchase. (McDonald’s has free WiFi.) Sadly, the Harrell home was robbed and the laptop stolen, so the girl asked her mother if she could be dropped off at the park to play instead.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ That Comcast Customer Service Rep Wasn’t Going Rogue

• During her time at Comcast, Bruce attended an all-day training session, on a Sunday, four times a year. At the training session, 40 people would be lectured by a trainer who would give “pep talks” about the importance of retaining customers and making sales. In addition to managing calls, Bruce also worked at the counter, where she was instructed to try to convince customers to keep their service, even as they were returning cable gear following a processed cancellation.

=> ↺ Verizon made an enemy tonight

• This Netflix video streams at 375 kbps (or 0.375 mbps – 0.5% of the speed I pay for) at the fastest. I was shocked. Then I decided to try connecting to a VPN service to compare.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ RIAA Now Bullying Fully Licensed, Zero Revenue Music Site

• Earlier this week it was reported how the RIAA had decided to turn the licensing thumbscrews on a site offering decades-old radio archives for download. Now another archival site, one that pays thousands of dollars in license fees to BMI, ASCAP and SoundExchange yet makes not a cent, is now in the RIAA spotlight.

=> ↺ [Old] Dotcom’s Mega Plans $179m Public Listing Via Reverse Takeover

• Mega.co.nz, the cloud storage company founded by Kim Dotcom, has announced its intention to go public with a backdoor listing on the New Zealand stock exchange. The deal, worth a cool NZ$210m ($179m), will be actioned via a reverse takeover of a local investment shell company.

=> ↺ Chrome Blocks uTorrent as Malicious and Harmful Software

• Google’s Chrome browser has started to block downloads of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent. Those who attempt to download the software are told that it’s malicious and harmful, hinting that the website might have been hacked.

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