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● 09.14.14

● Links 14/9/2014: Eucalyptus Devoured

Posted in News Roundup at 2:57 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Stephen Hawking tries Linux powered Wheelchair made by Intel

• Stephen Hawking, one of the smartest brains on the planet, gave Intel’s Linux powered wheelchair a try and talked about it. The company showcased their ‘Connected Wheelchair’ at the ongoing Intel Developer Conference (IDF).

=> ↺ CompuLab’s Intense-PC2 Is A Great Haswell-Based Mini Linux PC

• Compared to most Linux PC vendors targeting consumers that are just selling re-branded white box systems with Linux preloaded, CompuLab continues to have an interesting set of original offerings that are Linux-friendly and built really well. The latest system we’ve had the pleasure of trying out is the Intense-PC2.

=> ↺ How to Build a Linux Media Server

• Just about any Linux makes an excellent media server because it’s lightweight and stable, so you can use whatever flavor you’re most comfortable with. Any Ubuntu variant (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, and so on) is exceptionally nice to set up as a media server because they make it easy to get restricted codecs. I have Xubuntu running on a ZaReason MediaBox. This is a simple system for playing movies and music. It is not a DVR (digital video recorder), and it doesn’t need a TV tuner because I don’t have any broadcast TV. No cable, satellite, nor over-the-air even. Don’t want it and don’t miss it. But if that’s something you want you may have it, because Linux wants us to be happy.

=> ↺ On normal people using linux, part 3

• Another friend approached me to get rid of Windows, the problem was vulnerabilities and virus. She was an artist for life and paint, so I explained to her that Adobe no more and she didn’t really feel moved by that so I tougth “hm… this can work out”.

Desktop

=> ↺ Make Downloading Files Effortless

• A download manager is computer software that is dedicated to the task of downloading files, optimizing bandwidth usage, and operating in a more organized way. Some web browsers, such as Firefox, include a download manager as a feature, but their implementation lacks the sophistication of a dedicated download manager (or add-ons for the web browser), without using bandwidth optimally, and without good file management features.

• Users that regularly download files benefit from using a good download manager. The ability to maximize download speeds (with download acceleration), resume and schedule downloads, make safer and more rewarding downloading. Download managers have lost some of their popularity, but the best of them offer real benefits including tight integration with browsers, support for popular sites such as YouTube and much more.

=> ↺ Enjoy Five Gorgeous Linux Desktops from the Google+ Community

• Linux is a very customizable ecosystem and this is one of the main features of the open source world, the possibility to do almost anything you want with your OS. Every Friday, the Linux community shows its desktops on Google+, so we picked up a few of the most interesting to share with everyone.

Server

=> ↺ Understanding the key differences between LXC and Docker

• Linux containers (LXC) has the potential to transform how we run and scale applications. Container technology is not new, mainstream support in the vanilla kernel however is, paving the way for widespread adoption.

=> ↺ Linux containers startup Flockport launches first of its kind LXC sharing website

• Mumbai, India based startup Flockport launched a first of its kind Linux container (LXC) sharing website for users, administrators and developers providing popular web applications in portable containers that can be deployed in seconds.

• Flockport is based on LXC. LXC containers are like virtual machines, only lightweight and faster with near bare metal performance. The containers are lightweight and efficient, and easy to clone, backup, snapshot and deploy in seconds.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Intel Skylake’s MPX Is Closer To Providing Linux Memory Protection

• Besides Intel publicly working on Skylake “Gen9″ graphics support for Linux, Intel open-source developers are also working on other areas of Skylake hardware enablement for Linux. Work on supporting the Intel Memory Protection Extensions (MPX) that are new to the Skylake micro-architecture are still being revised for the Linux kernel and the many other operating system code-bases that need to be updated to work with this security feature.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Radeon DRM With Linux 3.18 To Support Concurrent Buffer Reads

• Another Radeon DRM driver update pull request has been submitted to drm-next for merging in the Linux 3.18 kernel.

=> ↺ Intel ILO Gallium3D Driver Sees New Improvements

• For users of the unofficial Intel Gallium3D driver, ILO, it’s been updated with some minor improvements.

=> ↺ Intel Haswell-ULT Graphics Don’t Change Much With Linux 3.17, Mesa 10.4

• The Linux 3.17 kernel that’s currently under development does provide many new features overall but for those using the Intel HD Graphics of Haswell-ULT chips, there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of any performance improvements and at least no regressions. Likewise, Mesa 10.4 isn’t doing too much for the Haswell hardware on the matter of frame-rates.

=> ↺ Wayland Is Still In Ubuntu 14.10

• Still packages and found within the Ubuntu Utopic (14.10) archive are the various Wayland packages. Right now within Ubuntu Universe is Wayland 1.5, the Weston 1.5 compositor release, and various other Wayland-related packages like for VA-API acceleration, the basic GLMark2 benchmark for Wayland, etc. Granted, most of these packages were just supplied by the upstream Debian base and are of no special interest to Canonical. The Wayland packages for Utopic can be found by this package search.

=> ↺ X.Org Server 1.16 Lands Officially In Ubuntu 14.10

• After writing earlier this week about a new AMD Catalyst driver paving the way for X Server 1.16 in Ubuntu 14.10, the updated packages have officially landed within the Ubuntu 14.10 “Utopic Unicorn” archive.

=> ↺ Wayland/Weston 1.6 RC2 Released

• The final release candidate of Wayland 1.6 along with the Weston reference compositor is now available for testing with hopes of officially releasing this quarterly update next week.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ AMD RadeonSI Gallium3D Performance For 4K Linux Gaming

• While we routinely carry out Ultra HD (4K) Linux graphics/gaming benchmarks at Phoronix, it’s generally been conducted with the proprietary NVIDIA and AMD graphics drivers since the open-source drivers traditionally have had a challenge on performance even at 1080p. However, thanks to the maturing open-source Radeon driver stack, it’s possible with higher-end AMD graphics processors with the latest open-source Linux driver code to begin running at the 4K UHD resolution of 3840 x 2160.

Applications

=> ↺ Calibre Is a Complete Software to Edit, Convert, and View eBooks

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Perform Multiple Operations in Linux with the ‘xargs’ Command

=> ↺ Share Files/Folders/Messages Using Cross-Platform ‘Dukto’ Application, Available For Ubuntu/Linux Mint

=> ↺ Beginner’s Guide To Setting Up SSH On Linux And Testing Your Setup

=> ↺ profiling is not understanding

=> ↺ Get started using the GPIO pins in RasPi issue 2!

Games

=> ↺ Retrogaming With Linux

• You might be surprised to learn that outside of work, bringing up three children and a dog and writing about Linux that I try to find time for other hobbies such as being a navigator at classic car rallies and playing old computer games.

=> ↺ Train Fever is a modern-day Transport Tycoon with procedural content and a sophisticated city simulation

=> ↺ New ‘Grave’ Screens Arrive Ahead of Backer Demo

• Indie developer Broken Windows will be releasing a new demo for their upcoming surreal survival horror game Grave later today. The demo supports Windows, Mac and Linux, and will be available to any of 1,100+ people who helped its Kickstarter campaign raise over $37k in April. Only the PC demo has been confirmed, but there’s an Xbox One version that’s also planned.

=> ↺ Shovel Knight digs a tunnel to Mac, Linux version coming

• Shovel Knight has pogo-hopped his way to Mac computers, developer Yacht Club Games announced via its Steam and Kickstarter pages earlier this week. Steam users on Mac need not take any extra steps to get their copies up and running, but those who prefer to go through GOG and the Humble Store should keep an eye out for when new builds become available.

=> ↺ Play Linux Is a Gaming OS That Wants to Stop People from Dual-Booting with Windows

• Play Linux, an operating system based on Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS (Trusty Tahr) that focuses on gaming, has been released.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Akademy Wednesday and Thursday Wrapup

• Akademy continues with hacking and BoF meetings. This wrapup meeting video covers sessions from Wednesday and Thursday including accessibility, release team, user information reporting, KDE applications websites, KDevelop and share-like-connect.

=> ↺ Beyond Unicode: Closing a gap in the support for mixed character set text in KDE workspaces

=> ↺ KDevelop 4.7.0 Released

• Today, the KDevelop team is proud to announce the final release of KDevelop 4.7.0. It is, again, a huge step forwards compared to the last release in terms of stability, performance and polishedness. This release is special, as it marks the end of the KDE4 era for us. As such, KDevelop 4.7.0 comes with a long-term stability guarantee. We will continue to improve it over the coming years, but will refrain from adding new features. For that, we have the upcoming KDevelop 5, based on KDE frameworks 5 and Qt 5, which our team is currently busy working on. See below for more on that topic.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ I’m looking at you

• I write to you all today on a solemn matter, one which I fear will be forgotten and ignored if nobody starts some discussion on this.

• Earlier this week, some of you may have noticed that for a very short time there was a rather angry post by Philip Van Hoof, he sounded quite frustrated and disturbed and the title of his post basically said to please remove him from the Planet GNOME feeds.

• Unfortunately this blog post was even deleted from his own blog, so there is nothing to refer to here, also it was gone so fast that I have a hunch many Planet GNOME readers did not get a chance to see what was going on.

• What I want to highlight in this post is not this frustrated angry post by Philip, but rather the precursor which seems to have led us to this sad turn of events.

Distributions

=> ↺ Free Linux Firewall OS IPFire 2.15 Core 82 Has Windows Active-Directory Single Sign-On Web Proxy

• Michael Tremer, a developer for the ipfire.org team, has announced that IPFire 2.13 Core 82, a new stable build of the popular Linux-based firewall distribution, is available, bringing quite a few security fixes.

=> ↺ Building Linux Distributions That Aren’t Boring [VIDEO]

• Has Linux become boring? That’s a question that Fedora Project Leader Matthew Miller is provocatively asking as he navigates a path forward for Linux.

New Releases

=> ↺ Black Lab Linux 6 Beta 1 Released

• Today we are pleased to release the Beta 1 release of Black Lab Linux 6. This release has been in planning over the last several months and while we have been slaving away over it we have introduced some unique features.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat extends its management reach to OpenStack and AWS

• Red Hat Inc. is bringing the centralized management and reporting capabilities of its Satellite platform to the hybrid cloud in a continuation of its efforts to expand beyond the operating system. The move marks the company’s first major product update since the departure of Brian Stevens, who set it on the course to becoming more than just a Linux distributor as chief technology officer.

=> ↺ Red Hat Sets Focus on Open Hybrid Cloud at GITEX 2014

Fedora

=> ↺ Guess What? Fedora 21 Alpha Has Been Delayed Again

• The Red Hat developers have decided to postpone the launch of the first Alpha for Fedora 21, yet again, for another week.

=> ↺ Fedora 21 Alpha to slip by one week

• Today at Go/No-Go meeting it was decided to slip Fedora 21 Alpha release by one week due to unresolved blocker bugs [1] and no release candidate available. More details in meeting minutes [2].

=> ↺ This Week’s Fedora Delay, Sparky Review, and New SteamOS

=> ↺ FUDCon LATAM, Activity Days, and Restructuring Fedora Leadership

• Fedora is a big project, and it’s hard to follow it all. This series highlights interesting happenings in five different areas every week. It isn’t comprehensive news coverage — just quick summaries with links to each.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Running The Oibaf PPA On Ubuntu 14.10

• While Ubuntu 14.10 is finally getting X.Org Server 1.16, it doesn’t yet have Mesa 10.3 but that can be easily addressed via third-party packages.

• Mesa 10.3 will hopefully still make it into Ubuntu 14.10 ahead of its debut next month since Mesa 10.3 brings many new features to the commonly used open-source Intel, Radeon, and Nouveau graphics drivers (along with promising drivers like Freedreno and VC4). If you want to try running the newest open-source user-space graphics driver code on Ubuntu 14.10, it can be easily achieved today using the well known Oibaf PPA.

=> ↺ Windows 9 lifts features from Ubuntu and Windows Phone

• In the version of Windows 9 demoed in the leaked video, the Metro style Start screen has been replaced with a traditional Windows desktop, complete with the taskbar at the bottom with frequently used app shortcuts. One new element that wasn’t in prior leaked screenshots is the search icon. It appears on the taskbar, next to the Start button. On the right side of the search icon is, at long last, the Virtual Desktop icon. Virtual desktops, a feature that allows users to create, save, and easily switch between multiple desktop configurations, has been available in competing operating systems, like Ubuntu, for some time. With it, a user could have a desktop with several image and video editing applications open and running, and then switch to a different desktop used for browsing the web, or one with a running game, waiting to resume progress. It’s a useful way to manage system resources, as well as screen real estate.

=> ↺ Windows 9 to Integrate Multi-tasking Desktops Feature

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Jeff Hoogland Leaves Bodhi

• Jeff Hoogland, the lead developer of Bodhi Linux, said in a blog post on Friday that “for a variety of reasons,” he is stepping down from the leadership of his “labor of love.”

=> ↺ Fate of Bodhi Linux in Balance as Founder Quits

• Our top story tonight is the resignation of Jeff Hoogland from his popular Linux project. Michael Larabel is reporting that X.Org Server 1.17 will probably have built-in KMS modesetting driver. Matthew Miller speaks to ServerWatch.com about Linux development. The Linux Rain reviews The Journey Down: Chapter Two. Unixmen reported today that Munich is giving out Ubuntu CDs to its citizens to increase Open Source awareness. And finally today, Leif Lodahl says Open Office and LibreOffice should join (or rejoin) forces to combat proprietary office alternatives.

=> ↺ When And Why A GNU/Linux Distro Dies

• Today, Bodhi Linux is on Death’s doorstep. The leader is quitting, leaving behind a git repository. Bodhi is a nice idea, a light desktop distro that is well documented and using APT packaging. It certainly delivers what many folks need. Why is it dying?

=> ↺ Stepping Down from Bodhi Linux Lead

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ AXIOM Beta Open-Source Camera Moves Closer To Reality

• The AXIOM Beta camera is designed to support two different image sensor modules (including the Cmosis CMV12000 that can allow up to frame rates up to 300 FPS), uses a Xilinx Zynq 7010/7020-based dual-core ARM SoC, supports various lens mounts, boasts three HDMI outputs with 4K support, and features a variety of built-in devices including a 3D accelerometer, 3D magnetometer, and 3D gyroscope. The camera, of course, runs Linux and fully open-source software. The camera’s hardware is also designed to be modular and upgrade friendly over time.

=> ↺ Cortex-A5 SBC offers mainline Linux support

• Emtrion’s new SBC uses Atmel’s Cortex-A5-based ATSAMA5D36 SoC and offers HDMI, 2x Ethernet, a battery charger, -40 to 85°C operation, and draws less than 300mA.

=> ↺ BattBorg: power your Raspberry Pi with almost any kind of battery

• “The BattBorg is a power converter for your Raspberry Pi which allows you to power the Raspberry Pi off batteries,” explains PiBorg’s Tim Freeburn. “It will work with most batteries/battery packs that are between 7-36V so it’s great for 12V car batteries, 8xAA battery packs, and so on. We’re including an AA battery holder in two of the kits as rechargeable AA’s are inexpensive, and readily available at most shops, and Ebay.”

=> ↺ BMW Show off how you remote control the BMW i3 electric car with your Tizen Gear 2 / S Smartwatch

• The car is not simply something that you sit in to get from A to B. Now it is technically an extension of you and integrates with your wrist. Previously we have shown you OnStar remote controlling a Chevrolet car, well now at IFA 2014 it was BMW’s turn to show off their BMW i3 electric car, and also show what Samsung Gear 2 and Gear S users could do with their Tizen based Smartwatches.

=> ↺ Robotic Arm Control from the BeagleBone Black

• In this tutorial, we’ll learn how to control a robotic arm from the BeagleBone Black. Then we’ll give your project the ability to manipulate real world objects and perform repetitive tasks for you.

• A robotic arm uses many servo motors to turn arm sections, wrists and move a gripper (fingers). The more servos used, the more moving joints the arm will have leading to greater flexibility. More servos also brings greater cost and control complexity.

• The base model of the Lynxmotion AL5D robot arm uses five servos; one for rotation, a shoulder joint, an elbow, a wrist and a gripper for holding things (sort of like the thumb coming together with all fingers).

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Not appy with your Chromebook? Well now it can run Android apps

• To help bridge the gap between its two mobile platforms, Google has released a beta version of a technology that allows Chrome OS users to run Android apps on their desktops.

• Google OS boss Sundar Pichai first previewed the tech in March, during one of the less buzzed-about segments of his I/O conference keynote.

=> ↺ Android apps start coming to Google Chrome OS

• During the I/O summit in June Sundar Pichai of Google said that soon Android apps would come to Chrome OS – bringing the two operating system closer and also bridge the app-gap.

=> ↺ Chrome to get Android applications

• Its being reported that the Chrome OS is set to get Android applications in the coming months.

• This news probably has many people excited, firstly the non-tech folk who have a Chrome OS device and have looked in envy to the Play Store, whilst being on “show” for all Chrome OS users, doesn’t offer (at present) any compatibility. It will also have the tech “experts” excited, who don’t actually own or use a Chromebook and see this as another string to the bow of Google’s offering over the evil empires of Microsoft and Apple.

=> ↺ Dev boards run KitKat on quad-core Snapdragon 805

• Intrinsyc debuted an SODIMM-style COM with up to 3GB RAM and 64GB flash, running Android 4.4 on a quad-core 2.5GHz Snapdragon 805, and a Nano-ITX baseboard.

=> ↺ Google’s About-To-Launch Android One Smartphones Could Further Its Dominance In Emerging Markets

• Google will reveal the first of its series of low-cost phones under the much-awaited Android One, an initiative through which it provides a key set of references for hardware to help device manufacturers make low-cost phones. The phones will be unveiled by Sundar Pichai, Google’s SVP of Android, Chrome & Apps in New Delhi on Sept 15.

=> ↺ Robot OS to support Linux and Android on Snapdragon

• The OSRF plans to add ARM support to the Robot Operating System (ROS), starting with the Snapdragon 600 running Linux in Q4, followed by Android in 2015.

=> ↺ The iPhone 6 Is Actually A Lot Like A 2012 Android Phone

• Calm down, Apple fans. Your beloved iPhone 6 may not be all its cracked up to be. In fact, it’s a lot like an Android phone … from 2012.

=> ↺ Apple Watch Follows in Android’s Footsteps

• Apple once led the way in mobile devices, leaving those scurvy pirates of the Android world to imitate, innovate, and fill in the niches that Apple neglected. Unlike the iPhone and iPad, however, the Apple Watch announced this week appears to be following more than leading.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

=> ↺ This may be the first Dell tablet an Android user would want

• Intel Developer Forum is going on with full swing and Dell used the stage to showcase the world’s thinnest, Intel powered Android tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Cassandra gets a clean up and speed up in release 2.1

• The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced on September 11 at the Cassandra Summit, the release of Apache Cassandra v2.1, the open-source, Big Data distributed database.

=> ↺ 7 Crazy-Named, Crazy Good Open Source Enterprise IT Tools

• Enterprise IT is a very serious matter, but you might not know it judging by the software tools that are often integral to enterprise application development and IT operations.

• The list of odd names in today’s data centers and enterprise IT shops also highlights the ongoing trend of polyglot programming. Today’s applications and services are based on a wider variety of application components — languages, frameworks, databases, Web and application servers — and run on a wider array of infrastructure that includes bare metal servers, traditional data centers, virtual environments, and public, private or hybrid clouds.

=> ↺ Open Source is driving disruption in technology: Interview with Nithya Ruff of SanDisk

• Nithya A. Ruff is the director of SanDisk Open Source Strategy Office. The company recently joined The Linux Foundation and we met up with her at LinuxCon to understand SanDisk’s plans for Linux and Open Source.

=> ↺ Be an entrepreneur with OpenSource, a talk for the II Forum of women and IT

• This Friday 12 and Saturday 13, September (you know), will be held the II Forum of Woman and Open Technologies ( II Foro de Mujeres y Tecnologías Libres), organized by the ActivistasXSL, which will be held at the INCES at Caracas. I have been part of this group for several years, when I had the amazing opportunity of meet wonderful women that, like me, are part of this technological world.

Events

=> ↺ Are You Going Conferencing?

• This year, we at FOSS Force are expanding our coverage of Linux, FOSS and OSS conferences. This got us wondering, in a self serving sort of way, how many of you regularly attend conferences?

• At this point, it’s looking as if we’ll have boots on the ground at three conferences, all scheduled for late October. In fact, we’re already hard at work coordinating our efforts to cover these events.

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Chromecast can play movies saved on your Google Drive

• Chromebook has become a true alternative of Windows and Mac PCs for an average user. Google continues to add more and more features to their Chromecast device. Now Chrome OS users can stream movies to Chromecast which are stored on their Google Drive.

=> ↺ Top Offline Games for Google Chrome

• Google Chromebook users sometimes have a hard time convincing Windows, Mac and Linux users why their laptop is a worthy purchase. This is because many people think that Chrome OS can’t do much of the stuff the usual desktop OS can do. After all, it’s just a browser in a laptop, right?

Mozilla

=> ↺ Mozilla Thunderbird 13.1.1 Lands in Ubuntu

• Canonical has shared some details about a number of Thunderbird vulnerabilities identified in its Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems, and the devs have pushed a new version into the repositories.

=> ↺ Mozilla Delivers Adapter for Cross-Browser Testing in Firefox

• If you work with web content very much, you’re probably familiar with doing debugging and content editing directly from within a browser. You may also be familiar with debugging and testing web apps across browsers.

• For some time now, Mozilla has been focused on delivering tools for doing development tasks directly within Firefox. For example, users have been experimenting with WebIDE, a development environment for HTML5 apps built into Firefox. Now, Mozilla is offering an adapter that lets it connect the Firefox developer tools with Chrome and iOS to help developers test their web apps directly within Firefox.

=> ↺ Firefox Add-on Enables Web Development Across Browsers and Devices

• Developing across multiple browsers and devices is the main issue developers have when building applications. Wouldn’t it be great to debug your app across desktop, Android and iOS with one tool? We believe the Web is powerful enough to offer a Mobile Web development solution that meets these needs!

• Enter an experimental Firefox add-on called the Firefox Tools Adaptor that connects the Firefox Developer Tools to other major browser engines. This add-on is taking the awesome tools we’ve built to debug Firefox OS and Firefox on Android to the other major mobile browsers starting with Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. So far these tools include our Inspector, Debugger and Console.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Piston Cloud Computing Boosts OpenStack Security

• A key feature Piston is pushing forward in version 3.5 of its OpenStack cloud distribution is support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.

=> ↺ HP buys private-cloud software player Eucalyptus in a nod to Amazon

• Tech giant HP is buying Eucalyptus, an early cloud-software startup. The acquisition points to HP’s acknowledgement that the public cloud spans beyond just HP’s data centers.

=> ↺ In Buying Eucalyptus, HP Strengthens its Growing Cloud Muscle

• It was all the way back in 2008 when OStatic broke the story about a cloud computing project at U.C. Santa Barbara called Eucalyptus. At the time, Rich Wolski and a team of university folks were focusing on creating a cloud computing framework that would be open source but include the feature set and feel of AWS. That was long before the project gave rise to Eucalyptus Systems.

=> ↺ HP buys Eucalyptus as cloud consolidation commences for real

• Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos, once known for his anti-OpenStack rhetoric, now leads the HP OpenStack private-hybrid-public cloud effort

=> ↺ OpenStack automation with cloud deployment tools

• In the cloud world, the mantra is “automate everything.” It’s no surprise that as OpenStack expands its scope, automation projects are emerging within it. But, the variety and the sheer number of these projects is still surprising: there are over twenty!

=> ↺ Mirantis and Piston Deliver New OpenStack Upgrades

• Mirantis, which has been expanding its set of training, support and development initiatives surrounding the OpenStack cloud computing platform, today announced the launch of Mirantis OpenStack Express 2.0. The offering now enables enterprises to deploy the most current OpenStack edition, OpenStack Icehouse as an enterprise-grade cloud service. The new release simplifies the setup process by providing a minimal Web form.

=> ↺ [Event Report] Openstack Pune Meetup

• Swapnil started with what is devstack and how it help to start with openstack what are the requirements and OS which a member can use to setup devstack environment. He also talk about how we can change configuration (local.conf, stackrc, openrc ..etc.) during run time or after install and where all those files are available. Then he talked about devstack tools like upload_image, install_pip, info and what are available hooks. He talked about available plugins for devstack and moved to use of devstack after installation. He also talked about how we use tox for openstack unit testing and then gave a basic introduction of tempest/gerrit workflow.

=> ↺ HP Acquires Open Source Cloud Pioneer Eucalyptus

=> ↺ HP embraces open source in the cloud with Eucalyptus acquisition

=> ↺ HP to acquire open source software company Eucalyptus

=> ↺ What HP’s Buyout of Eucalyptus Could Mean

=> ↺ H-P buys open source cloud technology company Eucalyptus

=> ↺ Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to Acquire Enterprise Cloud Open Source Software Provider, Eucalyptus

=> ↺ Mirantis Releases OpenStack Express 2.0 with Icehouse Support

Databases

=> ↺ There is no reason at all to use MySQL: Michael Widenius

• MySQL was once the most popular open source database (it still is), but it’s popularity and deployment is declining under the ownership of Oracle. The founder of MySQL Michael Widenius “Monty” was not happy when Oracle announced to acquire MySQL through Sun Microsystem. He created MariaDB, an open source, drop-in replacement of MySQL, which is gaining popularity lately.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ ‘Open and Libre Office projects should reunite’

• The software developers working on Apache OpenOffice and LibreOffice – two closely related suites of open source office productivity tools – should overcome their schism and unite to compete with the ubiquitous proprietary alternative, urges Daniel Brunner, head of the IT department of Switzerland’s Federal Supreme Court. Merging the two projects will convince more public administrations to use the open source office suite, he believes.

=> ↺ Apache Open Office and LibreOffice should join forces

• Before I continue I would like to emphasize that I’m part of the game and therefore you should consider this as one of many voices in the choir and not some kind of “I know the truth” statement. I’m member of The Document Foundation and not a neutral opinion. I would also emphasize that I’m speaking on behalf of my self and not as member of any organization.

=> ↺ LibreOffice cash-for-code strategy tests open source ethic

• The Document Foundation’s tender for the development of an Android implementation of LibreOffice begs serious questions, namely: Can an influx of cash into open source code creation succeed, and how do pay-for-code plays from nonprofit foundations affect the ethics and work ethic of today’s open source community?

CMS

=> ↺ Step-by-step: create an online quiz on Moodle

• Teaching is called the noblest profession of all. When you teach somebody you give that person knowledge that they are going to use over a lifetime. As with any other profession, teaching also is slowly embracing technology in terms of remote education, MOOCs, online tutorials, and more. Typical of open source methods, it is helping a field innovate, helping teachers educate students faster and better.

Funding

=> ↺ Engineering Group Becomes An Open Source Initiative Corporate Sponsor

• Engineering Group confirms its support for global open source communities and contributes to OSI’s growth

BSD

=> ↺ CD-Sized Image Of BSD-Based TrueOS Released For Servers

• In announcing their quarterly package updates that bring a wide assortment of improvements, the PC-BSD crew shared they managed to make a CD-sized image of their TrueOS server operating system.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ ThinkPenguin wireless router now FSF-certified to respect your freedom

• Friday, September 12, 2014 — The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today awarded Respects Your Freedom (RYF) certification to the ThinkPenguin Wireless N-Broadband Router (TPE-NWIFIROUTER). The RYF certification mark means that the product meets the FSF’s standards in regard to users’ freedom, control over the product, and privacy. This is the first router to receive RYF certification from the FSF.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Tiny open source robot, Drupal’s creator on our changing economy, and more

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ The True Story of How the Patent Bar Captured a Court and Shrank the Intellectual Commons

• Libertarians intuitively understand the case for patents: just as other property rights internalize the social benefits of improvements to land, automobile maintenance, or business investment, patents incentivize the creation of new inventions, which might otherwise be undersupplied.

Programming

=> ↺ Twitter and Other Tech Companies to Adopt Bug Bounty Programs

• Twitter recently announced that it will give security researchers who find security flaws in its tools cold, hard cash, not just a pat on the back. The company is partnered with the existing bug bounty program HackerOne, which offers a minimum of $140 for each bug and has no maximum payout for bugs disclosed responsibly. Meanwhile, Gizmodo has called for Apple to launch a bug bounty program.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Drone captures Manchester Dogs’ Home fire aftermath

• Aerial footage captured by a drone shows the burnt out remains of the Manchester Dogs’ Home

=> ↺ Apple’s free U2 “gift” angers many customers

=> ↺ HP’s Russia unit pleads guilty to bribery, pays $58.77 million fine

• HP ultimately pays a $108 million tab to put violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act behind it in Russia, Poland and Mexico.

Security

=> ↺ iPwned: How easy is it to mine Apple services, devices for data?

• Apple executives never mentioned the words “iCloud security” during the unveiling of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6+, and Apple Watch yesterday, choosing to focus on the sexier features of the upcoming iOS 8 and its connections to Apple’s iCloud service. But digital safety is certainly on everyone’s mind after the massive iCloud breach that resulted in many celebrity nude photos leaking across the Internet. While the company has promised fixes to both its mobile operating system and cloud storage service in the coming weeks, the perception of Apple’s current security feels iffy at best.

=> ↺ Gmail Hacked? Not Quite, Says Google (but Change Your Password)

• Reports early Wednesday of millions of Gmail addresses and passwords being leaked had users of the popular email Web app understandably alarmed — but Google says the danger has been greatly exaggerated. “We found that less than 2% of the username and password combinations might have worked,” the company wrote in a blog post, “and our automated anti-hijacking systems would have blocked many of those login attempts.”

=> ↺ Friday’s security updates

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Paul Woodward – War in Context

• Woodward maintains the popular website/blog, War in Context, which “from its inception, has been an effort to apply critical intelligence in an arena where political judgment has repeatedly been twisted by blind emotions. It presupposes that a world out of balance will inevitably be a world in conflict.”

=> ↺ Will The US Launch Airstrikes In Syria? – OpEd

=> ↺ Obama to extend airstrikes to Syria, send more advisers

• President Obama on Wednesday outlined a broad battle plan to defeat the Islamic State, including US airstrikes in war-torn Syria and an expanded American military advisory role in Iraq. But he vowed no US ground troops would be engaged in combat.

=> ↺ U.S. has supporting, rather than leading, role in battling ISIS [Commentary]

=> ↺ American Middle East intervention is ill-advised

• Nick IbarraThe decapitation of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of the group of militant jihadists calling themselves the ISIS (or ISIL, or just the Islamic State … it’s getting hard to keep up) struck a nerve with me as a journalist, as an American, and as a human being — and the desire to seek revenge is as easy to understand as it is entirely misguided.

=> ↺ Air strikes, drones and advisers: the new template for America’s counter-terror fight

• US offensive against Isis militants in Iraq is an extension of the strategy the White House deployed in Somalia and Yemen

=> ↺ Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia

• President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.

• The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.

=> ↺ Obama’s about turn breathes life back into the Bush legacy

• The speech made by Barack Obama on Wednesday evening was one he hoped he would never have to make. Until now he had clung to the idea that his legacy in foreign affairs was simple: he had withdrawn troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and killed Osama bin Laden, thus disposing of George W Bush’s unfinished business.

=> ↺ Kissinger: Drones have killed more civilians than the bombing of Cambodia in the Vietnam War

• Kissinger deflected criticism of the campaign, saying President Barack Obama has “hit more targets on a broader scale than the Nixon administration ever did.”

• “I think the principle is essentially the same,” Kissinger said. “You attack locations where you believe people operate who are killing you. You do it in the most limited way possible. And I bet if one did an honest account, there were fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks.”

• A reader suggested we run Kissinger’s comparative death tally through the Truth-o-Meter. We examined whether the Cambodian bombings killed fewer civilians than drones. The civilian death toll from both lacks precision, but by any estimates we could find, Kissinger is wrong. The only question is, by how much.

=> ↺ Somalia: Retaliation car bomb kills four U.S. officials

• A reported car bomb rammed into a convoy of troops of the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) on Sept. 8, killing 12 people, including a U.S. military commander and three others from the United States. Reportedly, 27 people were injured.

=> ↺ US drone kills 5 Qaeda militants in S. Yemen

=> ↺ Number of U.S. Air Strikes in Iraq Already Exceeds Those in Yemen, Somalia

• President Barack Obama laid out his strategy to “degrade” and “destroy” the extremist group ISIS in both Iraq and Syria, in an address to the nation on Wednesday.

• The campaign against ISIS would “not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil,” but would instead rely on “using our airpower and our support for partner forces on the ground,” Obama said.

• In the speech, the president pointed to the U.S. campaigns in Yemen and Somalia as successful implementations of this approach.

=> ↺ Yemen and Somalia are examples of U.S. mission creep, not success

• In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama laid out in somewhat unclear terms the planned U.S. campaign to combat the Islamic State, a murderous terrorist organization that has gained strength in the midst of political chaos in Iraq and Syria. U.S. action in Iraq will involve sustained targeted air strikes combined with ground offensives by the Iraqi army and Kurdish militias already fighting the Islamic State. In Syria, the challenge is thornier, with the United States leaning on a constellation of Sunni Arab allies to help reverse the Islamic State’s gains.

=> ↺ Bombing at a Press Conference Beats Mindlessly Flexing Military Might

• The Russia-Ukraine conflict “requires our participation,” declared John McCain.

=> ↺ Thirteen Years Later — Here We Go Again!

• Here we go again! One can only wonder when we’ll ever learn. Wars fought in vengeance can only lead to more war. The impulse to strike back without any comprehension of why we were struck only leads to more strikes. Yes, terrorism is outrageous. But do we ever take the time to analyze the source of that terror?

=> ↺ Beyond stolen celeb photos: sexism in the surveillance state

=> ↺ Airstrikes Are Like ‘Casual Sex,’ Says Former NSA Head Michael Hayden

=> ↺ Man Who Grew Weary of Sifting Through Your Sexts Compares Air Strikes to Casual Sex

=> ↺ Retired Gen. Hayden Compares U.S. ISIS Strategy To ‘Casual Sex’

=> ↺ Former NSA director explains to Jake Tapper how airstrikes are like ‘casual sex’

=> ↺ Fmr. NSA director explains how airstrikes are like casual sex; Twitter perks up

=> ↺ Ex-NSA chief: Airstrikes like ‘casual sex’

=> ↺ Bombing People Isn’t Like Casual Sex

• Lobbing missiles into foreign countries is a lot like a one night stand, says retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden.

• “The reliance on air power has all of the attraction of casual sex: It seems to offer gratification but with very little commitment,” Hayden told US News & World Report Thursday.

• Hayden – who served as director of the CIA and NSA across three presidents – was commenting on the Obama administration’s new plan to begin lethally targeting members of the Islamic State, the militant group currently holding ground in Iraq and Syria. While he welcomed the strikes, Hayden’s point was that more would need to be done to eliminate the fundamentalist group.

=> ↺ Another War Announced: 94,000 US Air Strikes Since 9/11

• On Wednesday night President Barack Obama gave a nationally televised address in which he vowed that the United States would “degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.”

=> ↺ Feds Wielded Baseball Bat to Win Yahoo’s NSA Cooperation

=> ↺ We don’t need another dumb war

• Back when he was just a U.S. senator, Barack Obama used to say that he didn’t oppose all wars, just “dumb wars.” I assumed that by “dumb wars,” he meant wars to address phantom or exaggerated threats (see: Iraq, 2003), or wars launched to achieve domestic political objectives (see also: Iraq, 2003), or wars begun without sufficient attention to alternatives, capabilities or strategic consequences (see yet again: Iraq, 2003).

=> ↺ Can Killer Drones Stop School Shootings?

• Americans may be sweating UAVs’ privacy implications, but in Wyoming, lawmakers are trying to make sure police can have weapons in the sky.

=> ↺ Wyoming legislative committee moves bill to require police to get warrants for use of drones

=> ↺ Four Myths About Obama’s War on ISIS

• The idea that ISIS poses an immediate threat to the United States–as opposed to its non-Sunni Muslim neighbors–has been a consistent theme in the media, encouraging the public to support war. Rep. Michael McCaul (R.-Texas) declared on ABC’s This Week (8/24/14) that the Islamic State is “intent on hitting the West and there are external operations, I believe, underway.” When CBS’s Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer (9/7/14) asked Republican Sen. Marco Rubio if he thought they posed a “threat to the homeland now,” Rubio replied: “I do. I believe they do.” Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Meet the Press, 8/31/14) said the threat to the country was “potentially very serious.”

=> ↺ “The Mentality of Brutality”: Islamic State Beheadings and “Civilized Barbarity”

• In the eighteenth century, the French had a revolution during which they beheaded numerous members of the aristocracy and even invented a machine to make beheading more humane. The French are America’s allies too. Are they horrid barbarians? When does a nation whose people kill others indiscriminately stop being barbaric?

=> ↺ U.S. Somalia strategy: Can a failed model destroy ISIS?

• U.S. operations in Somalia also include drone surveillance and drone strikes, although the U.S. official was at pains to stress that these always follow a clear chain of command and are by no means indiscriminate.

=> ↺ US eyes Somalia strategy as model for IS destruction

=> ↺ James Foley on the Dehumanization of War: Acclaimed Filmmaker Haskell Wexler Shares 2012 Interview

=> ↺ Why I Wrote The Book About Predator

=> ↺ Review: Good Kill (TIFF 2014)

=> ↺ Toronto Film Festival: Good Kill – film review

=> ↺ Good Kill: righteous take on US drone warfare – Toronto film festival review

• The disconnect of American drone ops is perfectly captured, but the supporting cast’s characterisations are one-dimensional

=> ↺ A drone pilot faces a crisis in ‘Good Kill’

• Don’t be fooled. Unmanned aerial vehicles have changed the way wars are fought, turning some forms of combat into a computer game with flesh-and-blood victims.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ German Minister calls for boycott of Shell

• “If you went to the Niger Delta and saw the standard of oil extraction, none of you would use the petrol stations of that oil firm,” he said. He said the company prioritized profit over concern for the environment. “That is unacceptable,” Müller added.

Finance

=> ↺ Neo-Cons of the World Unite: You Have Nothing to Lose Except Your Slaves, Mansions and Huge Pots of Money

• David Folkerts-Landau, Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank, who has claimed that Scotland would have a “Great Depression” if independent, has a second home he bought for US $11.6 million dollars. His first home is in London – where he would have been well-placed to notice that Deutsche Bank was at the very heart of the LIBOR interest rate fixing scandal. Naturally neither Folkerts-Landau (he and his wife are friends of the Camerons) nor any other senior banker was jailed for that long term criminal illegality.

=> ↺ Right-Wing Media Think Unemployed Americans Spend Too Little Time Working

• Conservative media are claiming that unemployed Americans are “lazy” because they supposedly spend too much time “shopping” and not enough time working or looking for work. But the data they cite includes the activities of stay-at-home parents, students, people with disabilities, and retirees who are “not employed.”

=> ↺ Cutting Pensions and ‘Responsible’ Politics

• The race saw state treasurer Gina Raimondo prevail, and this was good news for those who believe that the right thing to do about underfunded state pension is to cut benefits. We’re told again and again that states simply cannot pay what they’ve promised to public sector workers–who are often targeted for being overpaid anyway (Extra!, 1/11).

=> ↺ Putting the bankster foxes in charge of the BBC henhouse

• The Daily Mail revealed, one day after her appointment, that new BBC chief, Rona Fairhead, is being sued for supervising the laundering of billions of dollars for the Mexican drug cartels.

• From the Establishment dominated corporation there was not a hint of repentance, instead a secret gagging edict was issued to BBC staff not to mention or discuss the fact anywhere, specially on social media.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Scott Walker’s Favorite Judge Rescues Voter ID

• At a Federalist Society event in Washington D.C. last November, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker called 7th Circuit Judge Diane Sykes “one of our favorite jurists,” and joked about appointing her to the U.S. Supreme Court if elected president.

Censorship

=> ↺ Google Shuts Down Stewart Baker’s Faux Attempt To Delist Techdirt’s Posts About Him

• If you’ll recall, one of the NSA’s (and TSA, DHS, etc.) foremost apologists, Stewart Baker, decided to highlight the ridiculousness of Europe’s “right to be forgotten” ruling by sending in a few requests of his own. One of the links targeted by Baker’s “for demonstration purposes only” requests was the tag “Stewart Baker” here at Techdirt.

Privacy

=> ↺ Committee moves bill to restrict police drone use

=> ↺ Hey parents, Uncle Sam wants your kids’ personal data — and will get it, unless you opt-out

=> ↺ Kolab creates a privacy refugee camp in Switzerland

• The disclosure by NSA contractor Edward Snowden has exposed the ‘out-of-control’ surveillance system of the US and the UK. The more stories we are getting from Guardian and NYTimes, the more people are losing trust in the proprietary solutions offered by the companies which operate from the US and seemingly work closely with the spy agencies.

• This is a category of people who don’t yet understand the dangers of breach of privacy, but the more we are moving our lives into the digital world, the more important it is becoming to take control of our communication and privacy from the prying hands of those for whom we are the product.

• Then there are those need this privacy, due to the profession they are in or for purely sensible reasons that our privacy should be respected.

=> ↺ Village expands its self-built broadband network

• Shunned by government and big telecom companies, a group of villagers in rural northwest Germany is set to expand the super-fast internet network they built to a second village. The Local’s Tomas Urbina went to meet the villagers as they prepare to put shovels in the ground.

=> ↺ Bush Administration Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250,000 a Day if it didn’t Cooperate with Spy Program

• Yahoo’s participation last decade in the George W. Bush administration’s domestic spying program came only after the Internet giant was threatened with heavy penalties and fought unsuccessfully in court to resist the government’s orders to turn over private data about its users.

=> ↺ Yahoo’s NSA challenge documents shed light on secret process

=> ↺ Yahoo was threatened with $250,000 per day fine for opposing NSA data demands

• Over the last year trust in US companies has really slumped due to their complicity in the NSA surveillance programs. However court papers that were released show that Yahoo battled against the US government seven years ago over the expansion of surveillance laws. They also reveal that Yahoo was threatened by the government to hand over user data to the NSA for it’s PRISM program or receive a fine of $250,000 a day.

=> ↺ Yahoo $250,000 daily fine over NSA data refusal was set to double ‘every week’

=> ↺ NSA: Yahoo Threatened with Huge Fines for Refusal to Provide Data to US Government

=> ↺ UPDATE 1-Wiretaps against Palestinians are wrong, Israeli ex-spies tell Netanyahu

• Dozens of reserve soldiers from Israel’s top electronic surveillance unit say they will no longer spy on Palestinians living under occupation, in an unprecedented rebuke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security policies.

=> ↺ Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military…

• Dozens of veterans of an elite Israeli military signals intelligence unit have said they will no longer serve in operations against Palestinians.

• Forty-three past and present reservists signed a letter about Unit 8200, which carries out electronic surveillance.

=> ↺ 43 reservists refuse to serve, protest ‘abuse’

• Dozens of reserve officers in Unit 8200 — the unit of Israel’s Military Intelligence agency (Aman) that specializes in intercepting communications — have declared in a letter published Friday they refuse to continue and serve because of the way the army uses some of the information they obtain during their routine duties.

=> ↺ Lisa Owen Interviews Glenn Greenwald

=> ↺ Glenn Greenwald accuses New Zealand of spying on citizens

• US journalist Glenn Greenwald has claimed the New Zealand government is indiscriminately spying on its citizens. NZ Prime Minister John Key has rejected the accusation.

=> ↺ Key dismisses ‘Dotcom’s henchman’ over spy claim

=> ↺ ‘Dotcom’s little henchman’

• “There is no mass surveillance of New Zealanders by the GCSB and there never has been,” Mr Key told media this afternoon.

=> ↺ Key dismisses GCSB spying claims from Greenwald

=> ↺ When the US can’t spy it threatens

• In 2008, the U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user communications. At the time the company believed the threat was unconstitutional, but the US continued to insist that American tech companies participate in the National Security Agency’s PRISM program.

=> ↺ Glenn Greenwald rattles New Zealand with ‘spying’ claims

• US journalist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story on NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, said New Zealand officials are spying on their citizens, a charge that has provoked a harsh response from NZ Prime Minister John Key.

=> ↺ Key hits back at Greenwald’s claims of mass surveillance

• Mr Key has always said that he would resign if that was proven, but tonight he’s launched a counterattack.

• Mr Greenwald claims he will produce evidence that could take down the Prime Minister, but just a short while ago Mr Key hit back and upped the ante big time, promising to get ahead of Mr Greenwald and declassify top-secret documents that will prove him wrong.

=> ↺ Greenwald questions mass surveillance in NZ

=> ↺ NSA denies whistleblower Snowden ‘raised concerns’ in emails

• In May, however, the NSA did release a single email Snowden sent to NSA supervisors in April 2013 in which he questioned legal protocols in training materials.

=> ↺ US court updates phone surveillance program

• A US court overseeing spy agencies has renewed the government’s authority to carry out a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months.

• Reauthorization from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) allows the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect “metadata” in bulk about phone calls without warrants which includes the numbers called and call duration.

=> ↺ US court renews phone surveillance programme

• As per the federal bodies, the US court that oversees the spy agencies renewed the authority of the government to have a controversial phone surveillance program for another three months. It was attributed to the delay in the passage of the Senate’s surveillance reform bill.

=> ↺ Smartphones, dissected

• From the brick-like Motorola to today’s concerns about spying, Elizabeth Woyke’s fascinating book traces the history of smartphones

=> ↺ Despite Obama’s Pledge to Curb It, NSA Mass Surveillance Wins Rubber Stamp

• Mass surveillance just earned another 90-day blank check, nine months after President Obama promised to rein in the NSA’s spying powers.

=> ↺ Lawyer for Edward Snowden: Positive Developments in Switzerland But Issues Still Remain

• The attorney general of Switzerland did a review of whether National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden would have to be extradited to the United States if he came to the country to testify as part of an inquiry into NSA surveillance. He concluded that Snowden would be safe from extradition, however, “upper-level government commitments” might still affect his safety.

=> ↺ Snowden nails US lie on its economic spying

• The US government is an expert at taking the moral high ground when it comes to justice. But instead of being apologetic after the devastating revelations made by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in June last year, its top US officials, President Barack Obama included, have been claiming that the NSA has been doing exactly what every other nation does.

=> ↺ Analysis Of Volunteer’s Metadata Stream Reveals His Life In Detail, Allows Passwords To Be Guessed

• Three years ago, Techdirt wrote about how German politician Malte Spitz obtained six months’ worth of basic geolocation data for his mobile phone. He then gave this to the German newspaper Die Zeit, which produced a great visualization of his travels during this time. That showed clearly how much was revealed from such basic data. Since then, of course, metadata has assumed an even greater importance, as it has emerged that the NSA routinely gathers huge quantities of it about innocent citizens. More chillingly, we also know that people are killed purely because of their metadata. But what exactly does metadata show about us? We now have a better idea thanks to the generosity of Ton Siedsma from Holland.

=> ↺ Privacy International Lodges Legal Challenge To Official Secrecy Surrounding GCHQ Spying

• Although the scale of the surveillance being carried out by the NSA and GCHQ is daunting, digital rights groups are starting to fight back using the various legal options available to them. That’s particularly the case for the UK, where activists are trying to penetrate the obsessive secrecy that surrounds GCHQ’s spying activities. Back in December, we wrote about three groups bringing an action against GCHQ in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), and how Amnesty International is using the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) to challenge the spying.

=> ↺ Dropbox Calls For Support Of The Senate’s NSA Reform Bill

=> ↺ ​The creepy side of data mining: Selling “sick” lists

• When it comes to health care and data mining, the two are now merging in a way that might cause some consumers to feel sick.

• A segment of the data mining industry is tapping everything from social media to medical websites to create marketing lists of individuals whom are believed to suffer from diseases like diabetes or cancer, according to a Bloomberg report. Often, the consumers have no idea they are on the list, or that their names and contact information are being bought by marketers.

=> ↺ Yahoo Fought the NSA’s PRISM Program in Court

=> ↺ Privacy Groups Worry Americans are Losing Their Appetite for NSA Surveillance Reform

• This spring, Congress appeared primed for an Edward Snowden-fueled pullback of the nation’s spy programs. Then the world fell apart.

=> ↺ On 9/11 Anniversary, Fox News’s Andrew Napolitano Compares NSA to East German Stasi

• Appearing on the September 11 edition of Fox Business Network’s Cavuto program, Judge Andrew Napolitano compared the federal government’s counterterrorism efforts post-9/11 to the East German police state…

=> ↺ Independent Scotland would struggle to monitor intelligence, report says

• An independent Scotland would need more politicians and a way of plugging a crucial gap in expertise to ensure the activities of its new intelligence service and those of its UK neighbour were properly scrutinised, according to a report.

• It argues that the Scottish government’s proposals for oversight “may not be adequate to the task, or to the hopes of newly independent Scots”.

=> ↺ The NSA is Monitoring These 5 Games

• If you thought only your gaming buddies cared about your online activities, think again. The NSA and its British counterpart the GHCQ are both monitoring online video games, which they insist make for excellent tools of communication, training, and even money laundering, but gamers are not so sure. So far most of their effort in the gaming worlds are confined to popular games like these.

=> ↺ Shanghai civil service rolls out non-Apple smartphone programme

=> ↺ Senior GOP Lawmaker: Snowden Belongs in Jail, Not in Switzerland

• The powerful chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee has condemned Edward Snowden’s plans to seek political asylum in Switzerland, whose attorney general says the former NSA contractor could be immune from U.S. extradition requests if he manages to make it to the central European country without being arrested.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Ferguson PD Lies About Why It Released Videotape Of Store Robbery, Lies Some More When Confronted With The Facts

• This tape’s release was purely self-motivated. Even the Dept. of Justice — which had stepped in shortly after everything went to hell in Ferguson — advised against it. The only conceivable reason for the release was a post-facto “justification” of Officer Darren Wilson’s decision to shoot an unarmed man several times.

• But the Ferguson PD tried to cover up this motivation. Matthew Key at TheBlot has dug into the events surrounding the release of the surveillance tape and found nothing but Ferguson PD lies.

=> ↺ Confessions of an Ex-Obama Superfan

• When he won in 2008, I wept again. It was about him, but it was about the rest of us—together we’d found someone who could undo what had gone so wrong. For many like me, President Obama’s election was a milestone that marked a new America; an America that might be post-racial (almost), post-Guantanamo, post-war, post-recession, post-Sarah Palin. During the campaign, he was famously called clean, and it’s as though many of us expected him to take office with a broom in hand and sweep away all memory of the past decade. He could rebuild America.

=> ↺ Police Reform Must Come from the Bottom Up to be Effective

• Another day, another unconstitutional ‘solution’ from the Congress. This time it comes from Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and it involves the federal control of police.

=> ↺ Tech companies still under cloud after NSA revelations

• No company knows better than Yahoo the terrible cost of turning over sensitive information to the government.

=> ↺ Big Brother and Tyranny

=> ↺ NSA brings boom to German spy tourism

=> ↺ Cold War spy post is Berlin’s newest tourist spot

• A Cold War listening post in the former West Berlin, used by Allied forces and now an abandoned ruin, has become a tourist attraction since the NSA spy scandal.

=> ↺ No, Digital Natives Are Not Clueless About Protecting Their Privacy Online

• It is assumed that young people are increasingly comfortable sharing their private lives online. Older people assume this is because they don’t fully understand the implications of the public nature of the Internet. But new research proves that assumption to be wrong. Digital natives are more likely than any other age group to tweak their privacy settings.

=> ↺ Editorial: Privacy Dichotomy

• On Thursday, a US court ordered that documents showing that the National Security Agency (NSA) was forcing Yahoo to submit user data, as per new internet surveillance rules, be made public. Yahoo had contested the NSA directive as “unconstitutional” in court after the government surveillance body threatened it with a $250,000-a-day fine for non-compliance. The matter has revived the online privacy debate, both in the US and elsewhere in the world, with, of course, pressure mounting on NSA to desist, given it was at the centre of the Snowden-leaks scandal of 2013.

=> ↺ Russian Cisco Sales Slump by Quarter

• During the previous fiscal year, ending on the 26th of July, the turnover of the equipment and software giant Cisco has dropped by 24 percent, according to the annual report presented to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. This is the company’s lowest figure in any country of the EMEA.

=> ↺ Student tackled by officers over cell phone tells her side of the story

• Perez, with her mom and her brother by her side, described the chain of events that led to the officers wrestling her to the floor.

• She says her reading teacher caught her using her cell phone in class, which is against school rules, and told her to go to the hallway. That’s where Perez says she was confronted by an assistant principal who demanded she relinquish the phone. Students caught using phones in class are required to turn them over to school administrators and then retrieve them at the end of the school day, for a fee.

=> ↺ DHS Wants To Expand ‘See Something, Say Something’ To Retailers Selling You Pressure Cookers

• “See something, say something” continues to be the Dept. of Homeland Security’s favorite words. Concerned that its sprawling reach and 100-mile, border-encompassing “Constitution-Free Zone” aren’t protective enough, it has routinely called on the American people to report anything suspicious activities their fellow Americans might be participating in… like taking pictures of public structures… or using a hotel’s side exits.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Everything You’ve Wanted To Know About Net Neutrality But Were Afraid To Ask

• Okay, ever since our big Net Neutrality Crowdfunding, we’ve had some new readers who aren’t as familiar with the details and issues — yet we’ve been mostly writing as if everyone is informed of the basics. So, we figured it only made sense to take a step back and do a bit of an explainer about net neutrality.

=> ↺ Most Americans Don’t Want Internet ‘Fast Lanes,’ Poll Finds

• A particularly timely finding, as the public comment period for Federal Communications Commission’s proposed rule on net neutrality draws to a close

=> ↺ Internet Slowdown Shifts Into High Gear

• Internet users spoke loudly, firmly, and in no uncertain terms on Wednesday in sending a message of overwhelming support for net neutrality protections during the Internet Slowdown campaign.

• Tech companies, websites, public interest organizations and more than a million users joined forces to bring the message of net neutrality forward by posting icons and links on their sites symbolically representing a slow-loading Internet, and by directing those clicking on the links to messages to Congress, the White House and the Federal Communications Commission.

=> ↺ BitTorrent to ISPs: Pay us and our users to stay in the “slow lane”

• BitTorrent, Inc. CEO Eric Klinker doesn’t want Internet service providers to charge Web services for prioritized access to consumers—”fast lanes” as described in the debate over proposed network neutrality regulations.

• Instead, Klinker is (satirically) suggesting the opposite: that ISPs should pay companies and users to remain in a “slow lane.”

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ IT expert casts doubts on hacking allegations

• American computer security expert and hacker Jacob Appelbaum said that the evidence in Denmark’s largest ever hacking case is “tainted” and the prosecution “doesn’t understand anything related to technology at all”.

=> ↺ Dane makes first remarks in hacker case

• The Danish man accused alongside Pirate Bay co-found Gottfrid Svartholm Warg made his first public comments since being arrested in June 2013.

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