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● 10.21.14

● Links 21/10/2014: Debian Fork Debate, New GNU IceCat

Posted in News Roundup at 5:16 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

=> ↺ Six Years Of Desktop GNU/Linux In Europe

• The European country with the lowest share of page-views for GNU/Linux is Denmark at 1%. M$ bullied Denmark over “software patents” and OOXML… I would bet the resentment there is growing. Indeed there were several consecutive weekends where some large organization rolled out GNU/Linux. Signs of life.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ GParted 0.20 Improves Btrfs Support

• GParted 0.20.0 is out today with a release that primarily improves Btrfs support. The improved Btrfs support comes via now handling support for resizing Btrfs file-systems that span multiple devices. GParted 0.20 also has GRUB2 restoration steps added to the help manual plus various translation updates.

=> ↺ Video: Systemd the Core OS (no coughing)

• There has been so much negative stuff about systemd on teh Interwebs lately. It is so sad. Quite a few distros picked systemd because they liked a lot of the features it has. Why do the people who like systemd actually like it? Sure, if you look hard enough, you can find those answers… but I remembered a video where the man himself explains it.

=> ↺ Linux 3.19 To Have Skylake Graphics, PPGTT Enablement

• Now that Linux 3.18-rc1 is out, Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center developers responsible for their graphics driver work have begun submitting their changes to drm-next for landing with Linux 3.19.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Imagination Releases Full ISA Documentation For PowerVR Rogue GPUs

• Imagination Technologies released the PowerVR SDK v3.4 this morning and while it may not sound too interesting for most Phoronix readers, it’s a very interesting release in that for the first time they are providing full instruction set documentation for their latest PowerVR GPUs.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 Offers Great Linux Performance

• Since last month’s Linux review of the GeForce GTX 980 as NVIDIA’s newest high-end GPU powered by their Maxwell architecture, many Phoronix readers have been requesting Ubuntu Linux tests of the GTX 970 too. I’ve now got my hands on an EVGA GeForce GTX 970 and am putting it through its paces today.

Applications

=> ↺ gnugo: Any excuse to avoid a thrashing

=> ↺ arkanoid.sed, sedtris and sokoban.sed: sed-tacular

=> ↺ 3 Alternatives to the Adobe PDF Reader on Linux

• Adobe has pulled the plug on supporting its PDF reader app for Linux. This should come as no surprise, as the last time Adobe Reader for Linux was updated came in May 2013. But until recently, you could at least download and install Reader on your Linux desktop machine. Now? You can’t. If you go to the Adobe Reader site, you’ll find the Linux installer is no longer available.

=> ↺ What is a good command-line calculator on Linux

• Every modern Linux desktop distribution comes with a default GUI-based calculator app. On the other hand, if your workspace is full of terminal windows, and you would rather crunch some numbers within one of those terminals quickly, you are probably looking for a command-line calculator. In this category, GNU bc (short for “basic calculator”) is a hard to beat one. While there are many command-line calculators available on Linux, I think GNU bc is hands-down the most powerful and useful.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Detecting bootable IBM Power server ISO images

=> ↺ How to repeat a script, or not

=> ↺ 5 Deadly Linux Commands You Should Never Run

=> ↺ How To Install Emacs 24.4 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How To Install Cairo Dock 3.4 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How To Install Kingsoft WPS Office Alpha 16 On Ubuntu, Debian And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How To Install Audacious 3.5.2 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint And Their Derivative Systems

=> ↺ Wine 1.7.29 (Development Version) Released – Install in RedHat and Debian Based Systems

Games

=> ↺ Vendetta Online – Space MMO Game Free Trial without Restrictions

• Vendetta Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Guild Software, Inc, with builds for Linux as well, besides Windows and Mac OS. The game takes place throughout the Vendetta space universe, and players can choose from a large range of factions to play with.

=> ↺ Best Android Games that let you Build your Own Farms and Towns

• Being a farmer in the bustling cityscape might not be the ideal dream for you. However, if you are still keen on doing that, you can do it anywhere. But wait, before you head out to your lawn and start planting seeds, relax and pull out your Android smartphone or tablet.

=> ↺ Indie Developer Threatens Gabe Newell, Game Removed From Steam

• In a case of common sense going out the Window, Mike Maulbeck developer of the game Paranautical Activity that was only just released in full on Steam has been a bit of an idiot. I only sent word to GamingOnLinux last night about the game being released, and now I’m sending word about this.

=> ↺ Steam for Linux Has 14 Discounted Games in “Weeklong Deals”

• Valve runs all sorts of promotions, all the time. The number of games in the Steam catalog is so big that discounted titles are always available. One of the regular discounts is called “Weeklong Deals” and it now features 14 games that run on the Linux platform.

=> ↺ Civilization: Beyond Earth comes to Mac and Linux this holiday [update]

• The PC version of the game is due out Oct. 24. The Mac and Linux versions don’t have a specific date, just that the Mac version will be launching on Steam and the Mac App Store sometime this holiday season. The Mac version will hit first, followed by the Linux version. They will sell for $49.99.

=> ↺ The Dark Descent Of Frictional Games: Part One

• In the first of a two part opinion series, we will explore how the Penumbra games through a process of gradual evolution created a solid design template for later Frictional Games titles to follow.

=> ↺ Civilization: Beyond Earth Linux Release Date Cleared Up

• Civilization: Beyond Earth is coming to Linux and the Linux release has been cleared up a bit in terms of when we can expect it.

=> ↺ Door Kickers Officially Released Today

• The tactical squad shooter has been in Steam Early Access since 3rd September of last year, but was officially released today. The game is now available for Linux through retailers such as GOG, Humble Store and Steam.

=> ↺ Warlock 2: The Exiled Now On Linux

• Warlock 2 is a turn-based strategy game of fantasy warfare. Rival against Great Mages, lead mighty armies into fierce battles, wield ancient magic and faith as your weapons. It is now available on Linux, and a new expansion has been released alongside it too.

=> ↺ Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth to Arrive on Linux This Holiday

• Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth, the next game in the Civilization series developed by Firaxis and ported for Linux and Mac OS X by Aspyr Media, will be made available for the two platforms this holiday season.

=> ↺ Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey Arrives Today on Steam for Linux

• Dreamfall Chapters is a new title in the The Longest Journey saga that was started 15 years ago when the game with the same name launched for the PC. Now, the developers have returned with a sequel that continues the story in the previous two games and it arrives today.

=> ↺ SteamOS Update 145 To The Beta (Alchemist) Branch Brings Security Fixes

• Among others, SteamOS update 145 brings a major update for the OpenSSL package has been implemented, a new p7zip package has been added to the repositories, and the plymouth package has been implemented again.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Joining Kolab Systems

• Kolab interested me because it had the opportunity to join such key free software products as LibreOffice (then Open Office) and Firefox in terms of importance and usage. Think about it: in a professional setting (business, government or educational) what key software tools are universally required? Certainly among them are tools to read and edit office documents; a world-class web browser; and collaboration software (email, calendaring, contacts, resource booking, notes, task lists, file sharing …). The first two were increasingly well covered, but that last one? Not so much.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GTK+ Gains Experimental Overlay Scrollbars

• The overlay scrollbar work that was committed on Monday is about improving the scrolling experience for those using GTK+ applications from touch screens. This prototype widget allows for showing a scroll position indicator on touch screens while hiding the scrollbar — it sounds similar to Ubuntu’s GTK2/GTK3 overlay scrollbar support for Unity.

=> ↺ Features GNOME Developers Want In The Linux Kernel

• Made into a concise list is a number of features that GNOME developers want to see landed within the Linux kernel, in hopes of kernel developers eventually tackling these wish list features that could help not only GNOME but other desktops too.

Distributions

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Why work in the open?

• There are of course good reasons that communication has to be in private: if customers or customer data are involved, then (especially for a public company) private conversations are needed. Similar for sales numbers or other financial aspects. Reality is though that engineers most of the time don’t hear any sales numbers. And most customer cases are just general software problems that can be openly discussed when not mentioning the customer name. Which brings me to the question why people are not collaborating in the open—especially when the resulting source code is published to a public repository like GitHub.

=> ↺ Red Hat adds management features to open source oVirt 3.5 offering

• An updated version of oVirt, Red Hat’s open source KVM management tool, has been released with added features to help customers better manage the lifecycles of virtual machines and storage domains.

• The latest community release features improvements to its Live Merge tool. If an image has one or more snapshots, oVirt 3.5′s merge command will combine the data of one volume into another.

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) Announces New Results Of Collaboration With SAP

• Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) has collaborated with SAP to get the next-gen of mobile database development. It will be used and synchronized with MySQL databases in OpenShift. Developers can use the system to develop SAP SQL anywhere-based mobile and remote applications. They will have access to new features of the SAP® Data Management product portfolio in OpenShift PaaS offering.

Debian Family

=> ↺ UNIX greybeards threaten Debian fork over systemd plan

=> ↺ Should Debian be forked because of systemd?

• Systemd has set the Linux world on fire, and that inferno continues to rage out of control. It has spawned endless discussion threads and many angry blog posts. This time around a collection of veteran Unix administrators is threatening to fork Debian if systemd replaces sysvinit.

=> ↺ New Group Threatens To Fork Debian

• Yet another team of self described “veteran unix admins” and developers are planning to fork Debian if the project goes ahead with plans to replace sysvinit with systemd. Debian introduced systemd as a technical preview in Wheezy in May of last year, following Fedora and several other distributions.

=> ↺ Forking Debian, Celebrating Ubuntu, and Best Desktops

• Debian and Ubuntu dominated the headlines today with various topics. The community is is celebrating Ubuntu’s 10 years and Mark Shuttleworth announced the next codename. Debian lost a contributor and released 7.7 over the weekend while the threat of a fork is pushing a freedom choice. In other news we have Gentoo and 4MLinux reviews as well as the chance to vote for the best Linux desktop environment.

=> ↺ Pushback against systemd in Debian gathers steam

• A general resolution on not allowing Debian packages to depend on a single init system has been revived by developer Ian Jackson, one of the members of the project’s technical committee.

• In February, following a vote by the same committee, it was decided that systemd, something that provides not only an init system but also controls various other aspects, would be the default in the next Debian release, Jessie.

=> ↺ Debian And The Systemd Storm – Ready To Reconsider?

• Debian has adopted systemd in place of the existing init system and this seemingly small technical change is creating mayhem. Is it about to move back to init or will the Fork Debian group have to go though with their threat?

=> ↺ Debian Project mourns the loss of Peter Miller

• The Debian Project recently learned that it has lost a member of its community. Peter Miller died on July 27th after a long battle with leukemia.

=> ↺ Catalyst/fglrx trouble in Debian (and not just in Fedora)

• My AMD Catalyst (aka fglrx) trouble in Fedora is well-documented. Biggest of the big at this point is that the proprietary AMD driver DOES NOT work with GNOME 3.

=> ↺ The Debian Jessie installer: first impressions — desktop choice (yay), encryption fail (boo)

• I did a Debian Jessie install last week. This was a traditional install on “real” hardware, more specifically a different drive on my daily (HP Pavilion g6) laptop.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu 15.04 Is Codenamed “Vivid Vervet”

=> ↺ Linux distro Ubuntu 15.04 gets its name — Vivid Vervet

=> ↺ Ubuntu 15.04 to Be Codenamed Vivid Vervet, Ubuntu Celebrates 10 Years Birthday

=> ↺ Ubuntu turns 10: A look back at desktop Linux standard bearer

• Tech pundits differ, to say the least, on a lot of topics in the world of free and open-source software, but it’s inarguable that Ubuntu has been the most influential Linux desktop distribution of the past decade. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, here’s a brief look back.

=> ↺ Happy Birthday, Ubuntu. (Ubuntu Has Turned 10 Yesterday)

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch RTM Update Is Out, Has Better Performance and Beautiful New Indicators

• Ubuntu developers had some minor problems in the week before with all sorts of bugs that were popping out. They postponed the release of a new update for the Ubuntu Touch RTM and, at one point, they even got everyone to focus on fixing the problems and nothing else. Now they have a new version out and progress really shows.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 16.04 Might Be The Distribution’s Last 32-Bit Release

• Come April 2016, Intel 32-bit users might be on their last, overdue leg for upgrading their distribution. Quigley is considering a proposal to kill off the 32-bit install (ISO) images after that point while support for 32-bit applications on 64-bit Ubuntu would still be supported. The proposal would only involve Intel/AMD x86 with 32-bit ARM being unaffected given that 32-bit ARM is still very common to devices.

=> ↺ Still running 32 bit Ubuntu?

• I’m considering a proposal to have 16.04 LTS be the last release of Ubuntu with 32 bit images to run on 32 bit only machines (on x86 aka Intel/AMD only – this has no bearing on ARM). You would still be able to run 32 bit applications on 64 bit Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Used by FIA Weatherman at Suzuka F1 Grand Prix

• One of the favorite pastimes of the Ubuntu community is to find interesting or weird places where this operating system is being used. There have been some strange sightings before and it’s usually the last place where you would expect to find a Linux system. The same is true for Suzuka.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Stick computer runs Android on quad-core Atom

• Shenzhen Apec Electronics has launched a $110, Android stick computer built around a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735 SoC with 1-2GB of RAM and 16-32GB storage.

Phones

Android

=> ↺ The coming together of Android and Chrome OS

• PC World isn’t the only site speculating about a unification of Chrome OS and Android. ZDNet also wondered if Android and Chrome would marry, and CNet thinks a change in executives could herald such a merger. Even the Wall Street Journal’s Digits jumped in with a story about Chrome OS and Android being brought together by Google.

=> ↺ Nokia expands HERE mapping to broader Android market

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

=> ↺ Does Anyone Care About Tablets Anymore?

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Why Contribute to an Enterprise Open Source Project?

• It would be difficult to find a better example of the former scenario than the OpenDaylight project. With a focus on software-defined networking and network functions virtualization, OpenDaylight launched in April 2013 as a collaborative open source project hosted by The Linux Foundation. Since then, it’s taken off like a rocket.

Events

=> ↺ Asia’s Largest Convention on Open Source is Back

• The much-awaited convention on open source technology, Open Source India, fondly known as OSI Days, is back and registration for passes has begun. The 11th edition of Open Source India will be held at the NIMHANS Convention Center, Bengaluru from 7th to 8th November, 2014.

=> ↺ A Seat at the Big Kids’ Table at Ohio LinuxFest

• Ohio LinuxFest isn’t just another excuse to travel. It’s a means for us to fulfill ourselves, and to get honest, tangible feedback for what we do and for what others are doing. It’s a place where ideas are sounded, bent, crumpled and turned until they either come out of the crucible perfect…or useless.

• That’s what our gatherings are about.

• They are about excitement and promise. They​ are about making sure the next generation has a real chance to put the first human footprint on Mars. They are a chance to insure they have the tools and the curiosity to take something apart and then make it better. This next generation will cure diabetes; they will make cancer an inconvenience and not a death sentence.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox 34 Adds Browser-Based Voice Calling, Blocks POODLE Attacks

=> ↺ [GNU IceCat] 31.1.1 released

• We’ve packaged latest release 31.1.1 based on Firefox 31 ESR. The 08th October, it has been announced by IceCat’s new maintainer, Rubén Rodríguez…

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ OpenStack Juno is out, Debian (and Ubuntu Trusty ports) packages ready

• This is just a quick announce: Debian packages for Juno are out. In fact, they were ready the day of the release, on the 16th of October. I uploaded it all (to Experimental) the same day, literally a few hours after the final released was git tagged. But I had no time to announce it.

=> ↺ How OpenStack powers the research at CERN

• OpenStack has been in a production environment at CERN for more than a year. One of the people that has been key to implementing the OpenStack infrastructure is Tim Bell. He is responsible for the CERN IT Operating Systems and Infrastructure group which provides a set of services to CERN users from email, web, operating systems, and the Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud based on OpenStack.

=> ↺ Creating scalable, intelligent storage solutions with OpenStack

• Managing complexity and the sheer volume of storage requirements within the corporate environment today is one of the greatest challenges facing IT departments. The growth of business data and the insatiable demand for storage has been a catalyst for developing a new approach to enterprise storage in the cloud.

Funding

=> ↺ Mirantis Pulls Down Huge $100 Million Funding for OpenStack Efforts

• Mirantis, which has steadily remained a nimble player in the OpenStack cloud computing arena, has just nailed down a massive $100 million Series B funding round led by Insight Venture Partners. The financing is being billed as the largest Series B open source investment in history.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ Emacs 24.4 Ships with Integrated Web Browser [Ubuntu Installation]

• Emacs 24.4 has been released earlier today, and it ships with several new features and improved functionality, on the most notable being the presence of an integrated web browser.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Open source baby robots – a moonshot project

• In his TEDx Talk Fabricating open-source baby robots, Oudeyer explains that scientists also use fabrication to build new knowledge of the world around us. Scientists build large scale aquariums to understand ocean behavior and construct large computer simulations to understand spiral galaxies.

=> ↺ Democracy And FLOSS

• How can you have transparency with non-Free software running the system when you can’t see the code? How can there be accountability with non-Free software when you can’t see the code? These things are about more than source code, but to really start being accountable and transparent, the code has to be trusted by everyone. Only opening the code can do that. Free Software is also about the rights of the user of the software. Non-Free software always restricts what a user can do with his own hardware and how a user uses the software on his hardware and the information therein. FLOSS acknowledges the ownership of the hardware and data. For real democracy, governments and citizens should use Free Software, FLOSS, Free/Libre Open Source Software. Nothing else will do.

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ 5 open access journals for open source enthusiasts

• The ever rising cost of academic journals is a major burden for researchers. Academic libraries cannot always keep up with increases in subscription fees causing libraries to drop journals from their collection. This makes it harder for students and professors to quickly and easily access the information they need. Inter-library loan requests are an option but they do take time. Even if it only takes a few days to fill an inter-library loan request, that is still time wasted for a researcher that has a deadline. While there is no single, quick fix to the problem with the academic journal prices, there is a movement applying the open source way to academic research in an attempt to solve the problem—the open access movement.

Open Hardware

=> ↺ What would you print with a 3D printer?

• 3D printing is all the rage. 3D printing changes lives. 3D printing is fun and amazing!

Programming

=> ↺ Facebook’s Hack Language Making Progress To Advance PHP

• Earlier this year Facebook launched the Hack language powered by their HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM) and being based off PHP. Good progress is being made on enhancing the language with interest in the project continuing to grow inside and outside of Facebook.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Malayalam opentype specification – part 1

• This post is a promised followup from last November documenting intricacies of opentype specification for Indic languages, specifically for Malayalam. There is an initiative to document similar details in the IndicFontbook, this series might make its way into it. You need a Malayalam unicode font supporting traditional orthography to correctly display most of the examples described in this article, some can be obtained from here.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ Mac Mini receives lower repair score than 2012 model after iFixit teardown

• THE IFIXIT TECHNICIANS have torn open the 2012 Apple Mac Mini and given it a lower repairability score than the previous generation of just six out of 10.

• The 2012 Mac Mini was awarded eight out of 10 by the iFixit handymen, but the updated model received two fewer points because the machine cannot have its RAM upgraded as the unit is soldered fast to the logic board inside.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ When ‘Washington Is Broken’ Isn’t the Story

• There’s no real reason to think that the US Surgeon General could do much to calm people’s irrational fears about Ebola. Nonetheless, the wall-to-wall coverage of Ebola on TV news has served as a reminder that the country does not currently have one, thanks to so-far successful efforts to block the nomination of Vivek Murthy. But explaining his nomination as a problem of “Washington dysfunction” misses the point.

Security

=> ↺ Tuesday’s security updates

=> ↺ New SSL Attack Lets a Malicious Listener Steal Session Cookies

• New flaw in an old encryption scheme leaves the experts scrambling to disable SSL 3

Finance

=> ↺ Athens v Munich: why homelessness hits rich cities as hard as poor ones

• In Athens, it’s caused by an economy in crisis; in Munich, by an economy that’s booming. The result, though, is the same – a worsening homeless problem that doesn’t reflect a city’s wealth

• [...]

• Through seven years of deep recession, Greece’s GDP has sunk by a quarter. The official unemployment rate here is 27%, including 52% of under-25s. That means some 180,000 (probably many more) of Athens’ 670,000 residents – and maybe more than 1 million of the 4 million-odd people who live in the greater Athens urban area – are now without work.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Spending for ALEC Member Tillis Breaks All Records in NC Senate Race

• The Koch brothers’ new Super PAC, Freedom Partners Action Fund (FPAF) — launched this summer — has announced a huge new seven-figure ad buy attacking Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC). The ad buy makes the North Carolina Senate race between Hagan and Republican state Speaker of the House Thom Tillis all-time number one in outside spending, at $55.7 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

• Spending is on track to surpass $100 million, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Nearly $8 million was spent there (in party and non-party independent spending) just in the last week, according to the Campaign Finance Institute.

Censorship

=> ↺ Ex-wife of well-known performer obtains injunction against book to protect son

=> ↺ UK Court Blocks Author From Publishing A Book About His Own Sexual Abuse, At Ex-Wife’s Request

• There’s no doubt that even closely related or allied countries treat the issue of free speech quite differently. Perhaps our most natural European cultural equivalent, Britain, has laws that I often find either confusing or silly, with a particular eye towards their long-panned libel laws. But even correcting for cultural differences, I’m having a real hard time figuring out how a UK court can issue an injunction barring the publishing of an author’s recounting of his own personal history with sexual abuse at his ex-wife’s request. You’ll have to forgive the vagueness here, because there are simply no names being discussed on the matter due to the ongoing litigation.

Privacy

=> ↺ How Edward Snowden Changed Journalism

• “Citizenfour,” the new documentary about Edward Snowden, by Laura Poitras, is, among other things, a work of journalism about journalism. It opens with quotations from correspondence between Poitras and a new source who identifies himself only as Citizenfour. This source turns out to be Snowden. Soon, Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, at the time a columnist for the Guardian, travel to Hong Kong to meet Snowden in a hotel room.

=> ↺ Apple May Want To Protect Your Phone Data From Snooping, But It’s Snarfing Up Your Local Desktop Searches

• So, Apple got plenty of kudos from security and privacy folks in deciding to encrypt mobile phone data, but over on the desktop side, apparently the message hasn’t quite gotten through. Instead, it appears that the latest Mac operation system has the company automatically sending all of your desktop searches back to Apple. These aren’t internet searches, but just what you’re searching for locally.

=> ↺ Apple’s Mac computers can automatically collect your location information

• Apple has begun automatically collecting the locations of users and the queries they type when searching for files with the newest Mac operating system, a function that has provoked backlash for a company that portrays itself as a leader on privacy.

=> ↺ Australian spookhaus busted for warrantless tap of own phones

• Australia’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (AIGIS) has found that the nation’s Australian Security and Intelligence Agency (ASIO) spied on itself in contravention of local laws.

=> ↺ FBI Wants To Know If Applicants Have Been Downloading Unauthorized Content

• Earlier this year, FBI Director James Comey suggested that the FBI might consider backing off its policy of refusing to hire anyone who has used marijuana in order to find competent computer folks who can deal with online crimes. After some backlash (and some support) for those statements, Comey quickly backed down, claiming it was all just a joke.

=> ↺ Everybody Knows FBI Director James Comey Is Wrong About Encryption, Even The FBI

• FBI Director James Comey is apparently a likable guy, but if he’s going to attack encryption, it might help if he actually understood it better than, say, the editorial board of the Washington Post, who recently argued against “backdoors” in technology, and for a magical “golden key” — as if the two were somehow different. We wrote a quick take on Comey’s Brooking’s talk last week, but the deeper you dive into his talk the more and more evident it is that he not only doesn’t quite understand the issues he’s talking about, but that he doesn’t even seem to understand when his own statements conflict with each other.

=> ↺ FBI Director Continues His Attack On Technology, Privacy And Encryption

=> ↺ New Zealand Police Raid Home Of Reporter Who Embarrassed Gov’t Officials & Was Working On Snowden Documents

• Over at The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald and Ryan Gallagher note that Hager was also working with them on some Snowden documents as they concerned what was happening in New Zealand. As you may recall, right before the election, Greenwald had used some Snowden documents to show that Prime Minister Key had lied about mass surveillance — leading Key to petulantly lash out with ad hominems at Greenwald, referring to him as a “loser.” Greenwald made it clear that they would likely be revealing more about New Zealand’s activities — and now wonders if that might be another reason why Hager was raided, once the government figured out who Greenwald was working with.

=> ↺ Police in Washington, DC Are Using the Secretive ‘Stingray’ Cell Phone Tracking Tool

• Back in 2003, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in Washington, DC was awarded a $260,000 grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to purchase surveillance technology called Stingray — a contraption the size of a suitcase that simulates a cell phone tower and intercepts mobile phone calls and text messages.

=> ↺ Chinese government launches man-in-middle attack against iCloud

• GreatFire.org, a group that monitors censorship by the Chinese government’s national firewall system (often referred to as the “Great Firewall”), reports that China is using the system as part of a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack on users of Apple’s iCloud service within the country. The attacks come as Apple begins the official rollout of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus on the Chinese mainland.

=> ↺ Who’s Lying About Whisper?

• The denials are strong, but 1 & 2 above can’t both be true. That means someone is lying, and based on what I’ve seen so far, and looking at who has what incentives, that someone is Whisper.

• The additional information about Whisper working with the Department of Defense, and likely the Chinese government, are also huge stories on their own.

=> ↺ RT interview about GCHQ

• Here is my recent inter­view on RT dis­cuss­ing the UK listen­ing post, GCHQ, its pros­ti­tu­tion to America’s NSA, and the fail­ure of oversight…

Civil Rights

=> ↺ FF Launches Updated Know Your Rights Guide

• If the police come knocking at your door, the constitution offers you some protection. But the constitution is just a piece of paper—if you don’t know how to assert your rights. And even if you do assert your rights…what happens next? That answer may seem complicated, but protecting yourself is simple if you know your rights.

=> ↺ Know Your Rights

=> ↺ Police Officer Blames Everyone Else But Police Officers For The Public’s General Distrust Of Law Enforcement

• The cop who always laid a few extra licks on an “uncooperative” arrestee still does so… only there’s a good chance the punches/baton swings/taser bursts have been captured on “tape.” The cop who always performed a little extracurricular searching during routine traffic stops continues to do so… only now he’s being served with civil rights lawsuits and the dashcam recording of his illegal efforts is splashed all over the news thanks to the plaintiff’s lawyer.

• If the public no longer implicitly trusts the police to be the “good guys,” the problem isn’t the public. It’s the cops who take money from citizens just because local laws say they can. It’s the multiple agencies who feel the only way to handle the drug problem is as violently as possible. It’s cops who shoot people’s pets, rather than allow the animals’ owners to restrain them. It’s officers who constantly “fear for their lives” endangering the lives of citizens around them with careless use of deadly force. This is what’s changed the public’s perception of law enforcement. Sure, some of it may be based on bad info and careless hyperbole, but a majority of the damage done to the reputation of law enforcement has been inflicted by the officers themselves.

=> ↺ Parents May Be Liable for What Their Kids Post on Facebook, Court Rules

• Parents can be held liable for what their kids post on Facebook , a Georgia appellate court ruled in a decision that lawyers said marked a legal precedent on the issue of parental responsibility over their children’s online activity.

• The Georgia Court of Appeals ruled that the parents of a seventh-grade student may be negligent for failing to get their son to delete a fake Facebook profile that allegedly defamed a female classmate.

=> ↺ Dangerous Rulings: Georgia Court Says Parents May Be Liable For What Their Kids Post On Facebook

=> ↺ Cops Won’t Help You: 7 Things I Saw as a Real Slasher Victim

• Maksim Gelman, noted crack addict and man-about-town, flipped out in February of 2011 and stabbed his stepfather to death over an argument about a Lexus. During the next 28 hours he would fatally stab two more people (a woman he had a crush on and her mom), kill a fourth by running him down with a car, and wound several more innocent New Yorkers via random stabbings.

• [...]

• We still weren’t moving. The cops told me it was because there were other officers on the tracks so they’d had to cut the power. But, again, none of them came near me to render first aid. The only guy who did was a passenger named Alfred Douglas. He stuck his bare hand on the biggest wound, on my head, and staunched the bleeding. Eventually, somebody gave him napkins. I’m not sure how much those helped, but I am sure Alfred saved my life.

=> ↺ How to Drive a Colleague to His Grave and Sleep Easy at Night

• Walter Pincus, the Washington Post’s long-time CIA correspondent–he makes it clear to Grim that he doesn’t appreciate it when people refer to him as a “CIA stooge”–knows quite a bit more about drug-trafficking and Latin America, enough that he knows how to greet charges that CIA assets were running drugs–not with denial, but with a blithe shrug…

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Google Continues To Try To Appease Hollywood, Though It Is Unlikely To Ever Be Enough

• But, here’s the thing: as we said when Google first came out with this report, it will never be enough for the legacy guys in Hollywood. That’s because they incorrectly blame Google for their own inability to adapt to the changing market. They blame their diminishing revenue on Google, and even as Google makes it harder and harder to find unauthorized content, that revenue isn’t going to come back… so they’ll still blame Google. But Google was never the problem. The legacy entertainment industry and its political supporters will continue to point to search results that don’t exist and search terms that are never used as some sort of “proof” because that’s what they do. Rather than adapt, they really just want Google to do things for them. And for whatever reason, Google is doing more and more… and it’s unlikely to ever please the likes of James Murdoch, because Google “not doing things” was never the real problem.

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