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● 12.27.14

● Links 28/12/2014: Red Hat CEO Talks, Ruby 2.2.0 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 7:56 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Mac OS X Yosemite, From The Perspective Of A Linux User

• It’s been a while since Mac OS X 10.10 “Yosemite” has been released into the wild, so we have a pretty good idea of how it performs. Mac OS X is also sometimes used as the poster child for a clean and elegant interface (most of the time, anyways). As a Linux writer, it’s my duty to make comparisons not only amongst Linux distros, but also against the competition.

=> ↺ How About 2014?

• As for */Linux taking over the world, I think it’s inevitable. Android/Linux seems to be working on it’s third billion users perhaps by the end of 2015. At some point there will be saturation but the diversity is amazing. I saw a young lady with a Christmas gift of a CyanogenMod Android/Linux smartphone. CyanogenMod is a customization of Android/Linux which gives users more features and some independence from Google. She’s leaving a feature-phone behind as soon as she can switch “sim” cards. Within hours she’s learned to use a bunch of features including speech-to-text (It was nearly perfect)… Strangely, at about the same time her regular notebook PC (GNU/Linux) melted down (hard drive suspected). It will be interesting to see whether she even needs to replace it. This smartphone is just so powerful. Maybe I will get one and leave Beast to serving/storing stuff.

=> ↺ OMG! GNU/Linux @ Walmart.com, sort of…

• Remember the netbooks with GNU/Linux at Walmart, years ago?

=> ↺ Heartbeat of Canada

• Canadians tend to lag USAians in some trends (GNU/Linux) and sprint ahead of them in others (Medicare).

Desktop

=> ↺ Librem Linux Laptop Drops NVIDIA Graphics But Still Coming Up Short Of Goal

• One of the oddest things I found about the crowd-funded Librem 15 laptop when writing about it last month was that it wanted to be open-source down to the component firmware/microcode yet they opted to ship with a NVIDIA GPU. In an updated earlier this month, at least they came to their senses and dropped the discrete NVIDIA GPU. While I have no problems recommending NVIDIA graphics for Linux gamers and those wanting the best performance, that’s only when using the proprietary drivers, and certainly wouldn’t recommend it for a fully open-source system — NVIDIA on the desktop side doesn’t do much for the open-source drivers, let alone down to the firmware/microcode level. Instead the Librem folks have opted to upgrade the design to using an Intel Core i7 4770HQ processor that features more powerful Intel Iris Pro 5200 Graphics, which isn’t as powerful as a discrete NVIDIA GPU but at least is more open-source friendly.

=> ↺ How to set up your new Chromebook the right way

• Setting up a new Chromebook is much easier than setting up a PC. Chromebooks don’t require major updates or antivirus software. You start simply by signing in with your Google Account (or creating that account, if you don’t already have one).

• All that said, Chromebooks have some unique quirks—such as limited offline capabilities, and a wonky method for connecting a printer. Here’s everything you need to know to set up your new Chromebook up the right way—starting with the tools that let you replace the Windows software that just won’t work on a Googley laptop.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Features Of The Linux 3.19 Kernel: Graphics & Disks Rule

• The merge window is closed and 3.19-rc1 was released on Saturday, marking the end of new mainline Linux kernel features for 2014. Here’s a rundown of the exciting new features of the Linux 3.19 kernel for what will become the first major kernel release of 2015.

=> ↺ OpenVZ: Past and Future

• Since Russia has 10 days of holidays in January, I really don’t expect anything to be released until late January or more likely in February. One major change in the upcoming RHEL7-based Virtuozzo Core release is the move from the internal chkpoint code to CRIU. Although there are a lot more details and specifics to come, overall I see this as a very possitive move.

=> ↺ Live Patching Support Planned For Linux 3.20/4.0 Kernel

• This year there’s been kGraft and Kpatch in development as new live kernel patching solutions to reduce downtime when applying maintenance/security updates to the kernel by avoiding system reboots, similar in nature to Ksplice. These solutions were devised independently by Red Hat and SUSE while more recently a unified infrastructure combining both kGraft and Kpatch was proposed. It looks like for Linux 3.20 is when that code will be merged.

=> ↺ Heterogeneous Memory Management Is Coming Along For The Linux Kernel

• Jerome Glisse remains hard at work on readying his Heterogeneous Memory Management (HMM) patch-set for eventual integration into the mainline Linux kernel. This HMM memory management will benefit HSA/OpenCL workloads on Linux.

=> ↺ Biggest Linux Kernel Features & Work Of 2014

• Richard Hughes is looking to develop an open-source USB ambient light sensor as an OpenHardware initiative.

=> ↺ That Peculiar Linux 3.18 Kernel Bug Might Be Closed Soon

• For the past month there’s been kernel developers investigating “a big unknown worry in a regression” that have left many key kernel developers — including Linus Torvalds — puzzled. It looks like that investigation is finally being close to being resolved.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ 2014 Catalyst Linux Graphics Benchmarks Year-In-Review

• With the year quickly coming to an end, it’s time to do our year-end driver recap benchmarks from the year for the proprietary AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers as well as the open-source drivers. To get things started, here’s benchmarks done of the official AMD Catalyst Linux releases of 2014 and testing these drivers on three different graphics cards.

=> ↺ NVIDIA Sends Out 11 Nouveau Patches For Christmas

• A NVIDIA engineer has sent out eleven new patches for the open-source Nouveau graphics driver just in time for Christmas.

=> ↺ Mode-Setting Driver Now Supports VBlanks With Present

• The xf86-video-modesetting driver continues to be improved as now being built into the X.Org Server.

=> ↺ SPI Hasn’t Yet Voted On X.Org As An Associated Project

• SPI, Software In The Public Interest, was supposed to vote earlier this month on accepting the X.Org Foundation as an associated project to its umbrella organization. That vote, however, has yet to occur.

=> ↺ AMD’s Open-Source Radeon Linux Driver: 2014 Was Incredible

• With this week having delivered our 2014 Catalyst Linux Graphics Benchmarks Year-In-Review that looked at the evolution of the AMD Catalyst Linux driver performance over this year, now it’s time to see how the open-source Radeon driver performance has evolved.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ 2014 Year-End NVIDIA Linux Benchmark Comparison

• While on the AMD side there were just three official driver releases in 2014 (Catalyst 14.4, 14.9, and 14.12), on the NVIDIA side there were many more driver updates… NVIDIA continues to do a splendid job of maintaining multiple driver branches for their frequent and stable drivers, along with continuing to maintain multiple legacy driver branches for their older hardware that is still maintained for modern Linux kernel and X.Org Server releases along with important bug-fixes.

Applications

=> ↺ Shutter Screenshot Tool Works with Dropbox Again

• Shutter, a feature-rich screenshot program that allows users to capture nearly anything on their screen without losing control, has been upgraded and some minor changes have been made.

=> ↺ dvorak7min: The path to enlightenment

• I’ve been hearing the litany of Dvorak enthusiasts for at least as long as I’ve been using Linux, and I can tell you with all honesty that I … have not converted.

=> ↺ ips: Intelligent process monitoring

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Install Centmin Mod on a CentOS 6 VPS

=> ↺ How to boot into command line on Ubuntu or Debian

=> ↺ 20 Linux Commands Interview Questions & Answers

=> ↺ How To Install Subsurface 4.3 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Fedora 20, OpenSUSE 13.2, OpenSUSE 13.1, Arch Linux And Derivative Systems,

=> ↺ How To Install Tomahawk 0.8.2 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How to Install VMware Workstation 11 to Create Virtual Machines on RHEL/CentOS 7 and Fedora 21

=> ↺ How to Download Music from Grooveshark with a Linux OS

=> ↺ Making Firefox Hello work with NoScript and RequestPolicy

Games

=> ↺ Latest SteamOS Update Brings New NVIDIA and AMD Drivers

• SteamOS, a Linux distribution based on Debian and developed by Valve that aims to provide the best gaming experience, has been updated by its makers and a new Beta version has been released.

=> ↺ Five Games You Really Need to Buy This Holiday Season on Steam for Linux

• Valve has a massive holiday sale and the Linux users can find quite a few interesting titles among them. We’ve put together a short list of must-have games that are also appreciated by the community.

=> ↺ Five Linux Gems in the Massive Humble Bundle Winter Sale

• The Humble Bundle website is now hosting a major sale and they have hundreds of discounted games available for purchase. A large number of those games are also available for Linux users and quite a few of them are actually very good. Here is a short list of Linux gems in that offer.

=> ↺ Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Might Be A Little Present To Unwrap Soon For Linux Gamers

• Chivalry: Medieval Warfare has today added Linux information to their Steam database, so get your “it’s happening” images ready.

=> ↺ Akalabeth: World of Doom now available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS

• Akalabeth: World Of Doom is one of the best games you will come across. This game was the birth of the role-playing game (RPG) genre and the best part of it is that it’s now available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS thanks to GOG.com. This is how the story unfolds:

=> ↺ Civilization: Beyond Earth Linux Version Launched Last Week

=> ↺ Review: Robotex for Mac, PC and Linux

• Welcome to the future, where the people of Earth need a new home. It’s your job to clear all the undesirable life forms from the planet on which we just dropped you. Start shooting and don’t stop until you’re the only thing left moving.

=> ↺ OpenMW 0.34.0 Released!

• The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.34.0! Grab it from our Downloads Page for all operating systems. This release features many bug fixes, improvements to installation and the launcher, and exciting updates to OpenCS. Our “1.0” release remains excitingly close!

=> ↺ OpenMW 0.34 Released With Many Changes

• Making it out in time for some holiday open-source gaming is OpenMW, the open-source engine re-implementation of Elderscrolls III: Morrowind.

=> ↺ Xonotic 0.8 Is Slowly Creeping Closer To Being Released

• There’s been talk about Xonotic 1.0 plans going back years, but in reality, Xonotic 0.7 has been the current stable release for the past year and a half while Xonotic 0.8 is slowly coming together as the next version.

=> ↺ PlaneShift 0.6.3 Open-Source MMORPG Released

• PlaneShift 0.6.3 has been released in time for Christmas for those pure open-source gamers wishing to engage with this community-based, open-source massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG).

=> ↺ Choice of Robots Is a New Text-Based Adventure Game for Linux

• Choice of Robots is a new text-based interactive novel developed and published on Steam for Linux by Choice of Games. The game consists entirely of text, so you should really be sure you know what you’re buying before committing to it.

=> ↺ Planetary Annihilation Major Update, Unit Cannon Makes An Appearance

=> ↺ Remarkable open source and Linux games in 2014

• We’ve covered quite a bit on this topic in 2014. We started the year with OpenPandora, which further opened its hardware by releasing its designs. We looked at the Oculus VR, who acquired and open sourced their networking engine, and later in the year they released a software development kit. The Raspberry Pi is on the list, with emulating retro OSs. And we covered a few controllers, like the one from Steam, the Microduino-Joypad, and Gamebuino: an 8-bit ‘maker movement’ Arduino console.

=> ↺ The Most Significant Linux Gaming Milestones Of 2014

• This year was huge for Linux gamers with titles like Civilization: Beyond Earth, Metro Redux, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive seeing native Linux game releases. There were also new milestones reached for SteamOS, Linux drivers for better handling OpenGL games, etc. Here’s a look at the most popular Linux gaming 2014 milestones along with a call for feedback for what you view as most significant to Linux gaming this year.

=> ↺ Minetest 0.4.11 Released As Open-Source Alternative To Minecraft

• Minetest 0.4.11 was released today as the latest version of this popular open-source game alternative to the extremely popular Minecraft game.

=> ↺ Get the Excellent RTS Darwinia on Steam for Linux with a Measly 90% Discount

• Darwinia is one of the most unappreciated strategy games and now Linux users have the opportunity to get it with a huge 90% discount on Steam for Linux.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ My KWin short-cuts experiment

• Inspired by Aurélien Gâteau’s blogpost and the thread on KDE Forums, I decided to change my global KWin short-cuts as well to see how it fares.

=> ↺ QuickPlot: A collection of native QtQuick plotting items

• For a project at university I recently needed a plotting widget to display some data. Naturally, Qwt came to my mind. I’ve already been using it in a number of other projects and it works great.

• The one drawback, however: The project was intended to be run on the Raspberry Pi. Now the X-Server on the R-Pi doesn’t have any 3D acceleration yet, so the performance of Qwt was subpar.

=> ↺ 11 years developing Krita

• Back in 2003 Krita had never been released and the application was only able to do some very crude painting. I think the main reason that I started contributing to Krita back then was that I was much more comfortable with the single window UI and the fact that it used Qt/KDE and C++. In the early days I would never have imagined that I would be still with the project after 10+ years and how big the project is now. Even that the project exists today is a miracle and result of many developers putting in effort without ever knowing how it would develop. For the first few years we had almost no users and the users that we had were die-hard KDE users. At the time that wasn’t a bad thing as it allowed us to do some radical changes and experiments. Many features that were developed during this time still provide the base for the current Krita.

=> ↺ The Christmas break project – autocompletion of KDE projects for kdesrc-build

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Libra Is Great Light Gtk Theme for Ubuntu/Linux Mint

• Libra is one of the best theme derived from flattastic theme suite. This theme is light with combination of blue color and it has menu colored buttons (minimize, maximize, close). It features a modern and clean look, with fully integrated and tested support for many of the popular desktops Including: Unity, Gnome Shell, Cinnamon, Mate, Gnome Classic & Fallback. It has been designed to be compatible with most GTK2/3 desktops out of the box. Rave-X-Colors and Ursa icons used in following screenshots. You can use Unity Tweak Tool, Gnome-tweak-tool or Ubuntu-Tweak to change themes.

=> ↺ An Open-Source Hardware Ambient Light Sensor Is Brought Up

• GNOME developer Richard Hughes who is responsible for a lot of work on open-source software as well as being the engineer behind the open-source ColorHug color calibrating device is now looking at the possibility of making a USB ambient light sensor that’s open-source. A few days ago I wrote about Richard’s brainstorming over making a SD card based random number generator to provide fresh entropy to the system, but he’s received a lot of feedback with similar devices that have already been developed and are too Linux/open-source friendly.

Distributions

=> ↺ Webconverger 27 Is a Linux Kiosk OS with No End of Life

• Webconverger is a Linux distribution used for deployment in places like offices or Internet cafes, where only web applications are used. A new update has been released and the version number has advanced to 27.

=> ↺ Your Old Computer Can Live Again with Emmabuntüs 2

• Emmabuntüs 2 1.09, a distribution created for reconditioning old computers and relying on the robustness of Xubuntu 12.04.5 LTS, has been released and is now ready for download.

• The Emmabuntüs developers only use LTS editions of Xubuntu, and that means they actually have two distros out right now that are maintained and improved. We had Emmabuntüs 3 1.0 released a few weeks ago, but that one was using Xubuntu 14.04 LTS as the base. Now, the old branch based on Xubuntu 12.04, Emmabuntüs 2, has been improved as well and the devs have made quite a few changes.

=> ↺ Happy New Year 2015!!

• We would like to wish to all the Chakra community a happy and creative 2015!

New Releases

=> ↺ SparkyLinux 3.6 e19, JWM and Openbox Editions Now Ready for Download

• SparkyLinux 3.6, a lightweight, fast, and simple Linux distribution designed for both old and new computers featuring customized e19, JWM and Openbox desktops has been released and is now ready for download.

=> ↺ Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0 Beta 2 Shows Major Improvements

• Black Lab Education Desktop 6.0 Beta 2, a Linux distribution built for an education environment and based on the Black Lab Professional Desktop series, is now ready for testing and download.

=> ↺ 4MParted Is a New Distro Based on the Very Small 4MLinux OS and GParted

• 4MParted is a new Linux distribution based on the 4MLinux 11.0 OS and GParted. It has a simple goal, to provide users with the tools they need to make adjustments to the partition of their PC without having to actually go into the operating system.

=> ↺ OpenELEC 5.0 RC3 Is a Bleeding Edge Distro Based on Kodi and Linux Kernel 3.17

• OpenELEC, a powerful embedded operating system built specifically to run the Kodi media player hub and to run on most available hardware, has been updated once more and the developers are getting closer to the final version.

=> ↺ KaOS ISO 2014.12

• KaOS is very proud to announce the availability of the December release of a new stable ISO. This ISO marks two major milestones for this distribution. Since it’s inception almost two years ago, a need to be ready for UEFI installs has always been a priority. That was tied though to getting a modern Qt based installer that could handle such UEFI installs. With this ISO, both are implemented.

=> ↺ Q4OS 0.5.23 released

• The Christmas release improves XDG standards compliance, brings more accurate GTK3 theme and fixes screen resolution detection weighty bug. Several internal improvements and bugfixes has been closed as usual.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ PCLinuxOS 2014.12 Arrives for All Editions, Including FullMonty

• PCLinuxOS 2014.12, a free Linux distribution aimed at desktop computers and laptops, has been made available and the devs have made a number of important upgrades.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat CEO lauds open source’s progress

• For years, Red Hat executives fielded questions about its open source software from prospective customers: “Is open source safe? Is it secure? Is it reliable?”

• But such inquiries have faded as open source software has gained momentum, CEO Jim Whitehurst wrote in a recent blog posted on the website of the Raleigh-based company. Red Hat is the leading open source software company.

• “Today, it is almost impossible to name a major player in IT that has not embraced open source,” Whitehurst wrote. “Only a few short years ago, many would have argued we would never see that day.”

=> ↺ Red Hat Tech Exchange highlights: Architect, Implement, Enable

• As open source advances, education is key for IT professionals to understand how their organizations can best take advantage of the technologies that are driving everything from cloud and mobile to big data and the Internet of Things.

=> ↺ From Red Hat’s CEO: Reflecting on a ‘great year,’ looking to ’15

• It is confirmed: 2014 has been a great year for Red Hat. [On Dec. 18], we announced third quarter results of our fiscal year 2015 and, with that, celebrated our 51st consecutive quarter of revenue growth – more than 12 years of consecutive revenue growth. Thank you to the team of Red Hat customers, partners, open source contributors, and associates around the world, for helping us propel Red Hat to new heights. While 2014 has been a fantastic year for Red Hat, it has also been a banner year for open source.

Fedora

=> ↺ Linux Best & Worst, Live Patchin’, and Devuan Good

• It was a fairly slow news day today in Linuxville. Nevertheless, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols explains why 2014 “was the best of years, it was the worst of years.” Gary Newell asks if the Debian-fork Devuan is a good idea and Serdar Yegulalp looks at the competing live kernel patchers and Fedora 21 is reviewed again, twice.

=> ↺ ROSA Fresh R5, Year in Ubuntu, and Fedora to the Rescue

• Still a bit slow on the news front but yesterday, like a Christmas present, ROSA Fresh R5 was released. Simon Phipps offers his Open Source confessions and Phoronix.com reviews the year in Ubuntu. Also, William Moreno Reyes offers a few thoughts on his recent Fedora 21 Workstation install.

=> ↺ Punching Out the Week on Boxing Day

• Also nearing release is Korora 21, the Fedora remix from down under, which should be ready sometime early in the new year, according to lead developer Chris Smart… As for the speakers for the Southern California Linux Expo SCALE 13x, the SCALE Team has chosen most of the speakers and they are setting the schedule for the four-day event in February. Keynoters have yet to be named, and I have it on the highest authority that SCALE 13x could be unique regarding the keynotes and many of the speakers this year.

=> ↺ Fedora 21 review – Uh, not again

• Why did Fedora 21 have to be so buggy? Why? I wanted it to succeed, I wanted it to be cool and fun, just like the last release. There was so much potential, and then, something went wrong. Quite a few somethings, apparently. Installer partition selections, bootloader, login, codecs, printing, desktop effects. Damn. Fedora, where art thou?

• Anyhow, Fedora 21 KDE is just not as good as it should be. Not as good as its predecessor, not as good as its rival, and most importantly, not as good as Fedora. There must be a baseline to quality, and it must never be crossed, downwards. This time, I did not get what I wanted, and I’m sad, because I know that Fedora can do it. We’ve all seen it happen. So more time is needed in the special oven for naughty distros. Perhaps I rushed testing just days after the official release, but it is how it is. 6/10. Done.

=> ↺ Fedora 21 GNOME Review: If you can ignore the initial hiccups, fantastic operating system!

• I am definitely going to recommend Fedora 21 to users fed up with Unity/Ubuntu and contemplating a change. Novice users may wait for Korora release. The 6 month release cycle of Fedora will ensure that you always have the latest packages. Many reviewers suggest to avoid Fedora for production purposes. Possibly in 2015, I’ll try to use Fedora for a year or so for all production purposes to understand if it is true or not.

=> ↺ F2FS Might Get Enabled In Fedora

• On Sunday I wrote about how I found it surprising that Fedora didn’t enable F2FS support within its Linux kernel while it packaged the user-space F2FS tools and contains plenty of other experimental/early-adoption features. The discussion resulting from this article about F2FS for Fedora has been both good and bad.

=> ↺ Fedora Workstation [not English]

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ The magic behind Ubuntu

• Ubuntu, the latest LTS version 14.04 operating system (OS), is definitely worth trying. My statement is backed by the fact that Ubuntu won the operating system of the year award from W3tech not only once but three times consecutively, followed by admiration from major players in the market and an inclusion of major organisations such as Lenovo, Dell, HP, IBM, and Asus etcetera.

=> ↺ Notifications Without User Interaction on Ubuntu Are Annoying

• The Unity desktop environment has a simple and rather ineffective system notification mechanism and it looks like that’s not going to change, not even with the arrival of Unity 8.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Macbuntu strikes again, and we likes it!

• Remember Macbuntu? It’s a MAC OS X transformation pack for Ubuntu, which lets you tweak your Ubuntu desktop into looking like an Apple’s offering. I have tried it about four years ago, on Lucid, but haven’t played with the software since Unity replaced Gnome 2 as the desktop environment. I decided it was time for another attempt.

• If you read online, you will find multiple references to Macbuntu, so it can be a little confusing. There’s the SourceForge hosted project, and there’s the initiative by Noobslab, who have packaged together a handful of PPA and scripts to help you refashion your Unity desktop in a modular and easily reversible way. We checked.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Quadcopter drone packs first all-Linux APM autopilot

• Erle Robotics launched a ROS-enabled, open source “Erle-brain” autopilot that runs APM directly on Linux. The device also powers an “Erle-copter” drone.

• Over the last year, Spanish firm Erle Robotics S.L. has been working with 3DRobotics to develop an open source BeaglePilot autopilot for drones that can run Linux on 3DR’s popular, Arduino-based APM (ArduPilot Mega) platform. The APM Linux port was developed by both companies, as well as several academic institutions. The BeagleBone-based “Erle-brain” autopilot is built into the $490-and-up Erle-copter quadcopter.

=> ↺ Orange Pi Is The Latest Raspberry Pi Inspired ARM Board

• The latest low-cost, Linux-friendly ARM single board computer is the Orange Pi that’s trying to ride off the success of the Raspberry Pi.

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Tizen TV no substitute for Samsung’s long-awaited answer to Android

• Global smartphone leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd is planning a new product launch next year based on its own Tizen operating system, the South Korean giant’s strategic push to free itself from Android and blaze its own software path.

• But after years of development and a handful of Tizen-powered smartwatches and cameras, the only product confirmed for a 2015 launch so far is a TV set.

Android

=> ↺ Will A Gorgeous Android Tablet Make Dell A Player?

• Dell is about to begin selling an eye-poppingly beautiful slab of hardware. Will anyone notice?

• Pricing and availability will be announced for the Venue 8 7000 at CES in January, a Dell spokeswoman said in response to an email query. (The tablet had initially been expected for release at the end of November.)

=> ↺ 5 Reasons Not to Update on Nexus Android 5.0.2 Release Day

• Last week, Google released an Android 5.0.2 Lollipop update for the Nexus 7 2012. The update does not appear to be rolling out OTA just yet but that should change in the future. While many users will likely want to rush into downloading the new Android 5.0 Lollipop update, we want to take a look at some reasons why Nexus owners might want to think about skipping Google’s brand new Android 5.0.2 update on the day it arrives.

=> ↺ Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Reportedly Confirmed For Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S4 In Finland

• The two-year-old Galaxy Note 2 has surprisingly been included in the list of devices that are slated to get the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop firmware update, according to Samsung’s official website in Finland. A section of the website shows a table, providing details about a number of handsets and tablets that are scheduled to get the latest update.

=> ↺ Galaxy S5 receives new Android 5.0 G900FXXU1BNL9 firmware with performance improvement [How to Install]

=> ↺ Nokia C1 Smartphone With Android 5.0 Lollipop in the Works: Report

• After launching its first Android tablet in November, the Nokia N1, the Finnish firm is now rumoured to be working on an Android 5.0 Lollipop-based smartphone called Nokia C1. If the rumour is true and smartphone is released as the Nokia C1, the firm would be breaching the Microsoft acquisition agreement.

=> ↺ Best Android Phones of 2014

• Here we are at the end of 2014, a year that was full of smartphone launches. There’s a hard-fought battle on the high-end Android smartphone market and it’s getting harder and harder to choose a smartphone that fits your needs.

=> ↺ Seven Tips To Get The Most From Your New Android Smartphone

• With applications able to run in the background and sync as they see fit, Android can rapidly eat through your cellular data allowance if you are not careful. While it’s fine to let the data run free on wi-fi, you’ll want to restrict your data usage when out and about.

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Note 2 Android 5.0.2 Lollipop Update: How to Install CyanogenMod [Unofficial] CM12 Beta Custom ROM [Tutorial]

=> ↺ Galaxy Note 3 Android 4.4.4 Update Arrives Ahead of Lollipop

• A Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Android 4.4.4 KitKat update is hitting the United States ahead of the Galaxy Note 3 Android 5.0 Lollipop update that’s confirmed to arrive sometime next year.

=> ↺ The best Android apps for kids of 2014

• If your children are getting to grips with a new Android tablet for Christmas, here’s our pick of the most educational and entertaining kids’ apps this year

=> ↺ The best Android games of 2014

• It was an excellent year to be an Android gamer in 2014. More developers embraced the platform—which means not only more games, but also timelier releases. And the selection gets better and better by the week, with an array of excellent cheap titles and deeper-dive premium games that justify the added expense. Even the free-to-play market generated some serious winners this year.

=> ↺ Go download $220 worth of Android apps for free at Amazon right now

• Earlier this week, we told you about a massive sale Amazon was having that would let you download $220 worth of Android apps for free. Well that sale is now live and you can go right now to Amazon’s Appstore to get 40 Android apps that would normally cost a total of $220 for free right now.

=> ↺ Facebook Releases iOS And Android App That Places Emoji Stickers On Your Photos

=> ↺ Dolphin Browser update brings Flash player to Android 5.0 Lollipop devices

• Android Lollipop, while chock full of features and a fresh new UI, still doesn’t support Flash enabled videos online. A once killer Android feature, Adobe stopped supporting their Flash player for Android devices many moons ago, as websites too made the move to more mobile friendly format.

=> ↺ Ban lifted, OnePlus can sell the One in India once again

• Have you ever heard the theory of winning a battle, but losing the war? A judge in India has lifted the sales ban on OnePlus One Android smartphones in India, but is it enough to ‘win the war?’

=> ↺ How to switch from iPhone to Android: A simple guide to going Google

=> ↺ Amazon offers $220 worth of Android apps for free in Christmas sale

• ‘Tis the season of goodwill, apparently, and in an effort to spread a bit of festive cheer Amazon is offering up a bundle of paid apps and games for the princely sum of nothing.

• The deal runs from December 24 through 26 and brings with it a not-to-be-scoffed-at saving of $220, with the Android apps ranging in price from 99 cents to a whopping $65.

=> ↺ There’s now hope that your older Samsung phone will be updated to Lollipop

• Samsung is slowly starting to update its top Android handsets to Android 5.0 Lollipop, with the Galaxy S5 having already received Lollipop builds in certain regions, and the Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S4 also having been confirmed to be getting Lollipop updates in the near future. Now, GSM Arena discovered that even older Samsung devices will receive Google’s Material Design overhaul and other Lollipop features in the near future.

=> ↺ The single most important feature every Android Wear user should know about

• If you find an Android Wear device under your tree this year, the very first thing you’ll want to do is make sure you know how to control which apps are allowed to send you notifications. After all, if your wrist vibrated every time someone favorited one of your tweets, you’d get pretty annoyed very quickly.

=> ↺ The best apps of 2014 for Android, iPhone and iPad

• For most people with a smartphone or tablet, their most-used apps weren’t released in 2014. Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, Candy Crush Saga, Kindle, Spotify, Clash of Clans, YouTube… these apps have been out for years, albeit regularly updated since their original releases.

=> ↺ How to set up a new Android smartphone or tablet: Start enjoying your device straight away

=> ↺ Seven Tips To Get The Most From Your New Android Tablet

=> ↺ Here’s why The Hunt’s app developer hearts Android

• Many app developers choose to launch first on Apple’s iOS platform.

• But one app developer — The Hunt‘s founder/CEO Tim Weingarten — told VentureBeat that he would take a different approach in the future.

• While “the conventional wisdom is build first for iOS,” he said, “if we had to do it all over again, I would launch on Android first,” or at the same time as iOS. More than half of The Hunt’s downloads are to Android devices.

=> ↺ Best Android Games of the Week: Baldur’s Gate 2, GTA Chinatown Wars, Hearthstone, and Others

• Today’s the Christmas Eve and below you can find some of the best Android Games that you can play in case you’re on your way home or to a friend’s house. All titles are listed randomly and you can find RPGs, puzzlers, action shooters and others that should offer you enough entertainment before the end of this year.

=> ↺ Must-play games for your new Android phone or tablet

=> ↺ Steps to Install Android 5.0.1 Lollipop AOSP Custom ROM on Galaxy Nexus CM12 Custom ROM [Tutorial]

=> ↺ Believe It or Not, Boeing’s Super-Secure Android Smartphone Comes With the Best of BlackBerry

• As it turns out, Boeing might actually be BlackBerry’s best friend right now. You see, the ultra-secure Boeing Black handset will come with support for BlackBerry’s BES 12 device management service. It’s not much of a stretch to assume the Boeing Black might also feature BlackBerry’s hallmark secure messaging system.

=> ↺ Google developing car-specific Android operating system

• The automotive world is rapidly leaping into the next generation of infotainment systems. We already know that the CarPlay from Apple and Sync 3 from Ford are on the way. Even Microsoft has something up its sleeve. Google showed off its future concept for Android Auto earlier this year and promised that it would be available by the end of 2014. That didn’t happen, but the technology giant has put a tentative plan in place for its challenger in this crowded field.

=> ↺ Kodak to Launch Its First Android Smartphone at CES 2015

=> ↺ Kodak Is Making Android Phones Now Because Sure, Why Not I Guess?

=> ↺ Kodak-branded Android smartphone to launch at CES 2015; tablet and camera coming later

• Millions use their smartphone as their primary camera because it is always with them and sharing those photos is easy from your phone. Kodak announced they will be launching an Android-powered smartphone at CES in a couple weeks with a tablet and connected camera coming later in 2015.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Confessions of an open source purist

• I have also repeatedly evaluated GNU/Linux as a platform for my daily writing and administration. Each time, I’ve found it fairly easy to install (moreso every time I try) and easy to add applications. I’ve never had problems with malware, but at some point in the life of the system, a problem arises that at best causes an inconvenience (like the sleep mode failing) and at worst leaves the system impossible to boot.

=> ↺ Open Source’s 2014: MS ‘cancer’ embrace, NASDAQ listings, and a quiet dog

• Ho hum. Another year, another slew of open source announcements that prove the once-maligned development methodology is now so mainstream as to be tedious. Running most of the world’s most powerful supercomputers? Been there, done that. Giving retailers the ability to deliver highly customized paper coupons to consumers based on warehouse inventory nearby? So 2013!

• And yet in 2014 we had a few events in open source that managed to surprise us, and suggest an even brighter future.

=> ↺ Marvell Releases New Open-Source 802.11ac WiFi Driver

• On Christmas Eve, Marvell announced the release of a new open-source driver for one of its 802.11ac chips in cooperation with Linksys.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ What is your Mozilla Resolution?

• 2014 was both a phenomenal year for Mozilla while a wild ride for us as we waded through what seemed like hit after hit from the tech press but we fared well.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ CIOs debate cloud, open source transformation

• Cloud computing is no longer an issue of “if” for enterprises anymore, clearly all businesses will adopt or are adopting cloud in some shape or form as the basis for transforming their IT infrastructures into more agile and flexible organizations.

• Whether from government, telecoms, retail or even the highly regulated financial sectors, companies across the board are jumping on the cloud bandwagon in efforts to create a new model for IT.

=> ↺ HP Sees NFV as a ‘Huge Opportunity’

• Hewlett-Packard is bullish on the future of the cloud and on network functions virtualization (NFV). Helping to lead HP’s NFV and cloud efforts is Senior Vice President Saar Gillai, who is also the general manager for NFV as well as the chief operating officer for HP Cloud.

Databases

=> ↺ GPU-Based Acceleration For PostgreSQL

• A developer has modified the PostgreSQL database software so that it can exploit GPGPU computing for faster performance.

Healthcare

=> ↺ Healthcare one of the most impacted industries by open source

• Healthcare is one of the most urgent socioeconomic issues of our time. This year, Opensource.com saw a variety of news and feature stories about applying the open source way and open source software (including tools) to alleviating the many problems faced by the healthcare industry. Here are this year’s best of the best from Opensource.com in open health.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GNU Binutils 2.25 Released With Port To Andes NDS32

• Version 2.25 of Binutils is new this week. Binutils consists of the GNU linker and assembler along with other common binary tools to GNU/Linux environments.

Project Releases

=> ↺ Kodi 14.0 Helix Unwinds

• Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone! We are proud to announce the release of Kodi 14.0, which comes with a new name, a new logo, and a wide variety of new features, but underneath the new coat of paint remains the same software we all love.

• A detailed changelog for Kodi 14 can be found under milestones on our code repository, should you be interested. With that said, let’s take a look at some of the features that come with Kodi 14.0.

=> ↺ Kodi 14.0 Released For The Holidays – Formerly Known As XBMC

=> ↺ Kodi 14.0 Is Out and Replaces the Old XBMC

• Kodi 14.0, the successor of the famous media hub XBMC, has been released. The developers have been working on this new version for some time and it’s finally here.\

=> ↺ Announcing Subsurface 4.3

• The Subsurface development team proudly announces release 4.3 of Subsurface, an open source divelog and dive planning program for Windows, Mac and Linux.

=> ↺ BusyBox 1.23.0 Unstable Release Arrives

• BusyBox 1.23.0 is the new release and it brings a wide variety of changes across the table. There’s far too many changes to note but among the BusyBox 1.23.0 updates are a lot of fixes for ash, find improvements, ntpd improvements, etc.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Campaign promotes open source in Finland’s towns

• Municipalities using open source are reaching out to other towns and cities, motivating them to switch to this type of software. The past four months, members of Finland’s Centre for Open Source Solutions (COSS) have been visiting towns around the country, talking about their use of free and open source.

• The so-called ‘Open Knowledge Roadshow 2014’ involves six municipalities, Turku, Mikkeli, Pori, Oulu, Tampere and Rovaniemi. Apart from reaching out to their colleagues, the towns of Mikkeli, Oulu and Rovaniemi also organised a workshop, reports COSS on its website.

=> ↺ Open source now part of Romania’s Digital Agenda

• All of Romania’s public administrations are to use open source and open standards software. The government is making this a (minute) part of the 2014-2020 Digital Agenda, made public in November. The approach will increase interoperability of ICT systems.

=> ↺ Cenatic to focus on open source reuse and certification

• sIn 2015, Cenatic, the open source software resource centre of the Spanish government, will campaign to get enterprises to implement, share and re-use open source solutions. The centre wants to help companies select the right free software solutions. It will also promote sharing and re-use, and reinforce the network of free software service providers.

Licensing

=> ↺ Varying Vagrant Vagrants Adopts Open Source MIT License

• One of the most important updates in VVV 1.2 is the addition of a license. The project has adopted the open source MIT license after a six-month long discussion with participation from more than 50 contributors on the project.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Security in open source, a Google surprise, and more

=> ↺ Eco-friendly open-source dental toolkit

• Goodwell toothbrushes, equipped with a medical grade aluminum handle have bristles made from Binchotan which is a biodegradable fiber that can repel negative ions, remove plaque and bad breath.

=> ↺ Enter the abyss with OpenROV, the $899 open source kit

• The OpenROV submersible is a low cost and open source kit designed for exploration and education. Originally launched on Kickstarter in 2012 it has now grown into a dedicated global community launching missions everywhere from Hawaii to the UK. The project raised $111,662 from 484 backers and has now reached version 2.7. Today the kit costs $899 with a fully assembled version coming in at $1,450 which you can purchase from the online store. Units weigh in at 2.6kg and normal battery life is expected to last between 2-3 hours depending on use.

Open Data

=> ↺ Open data portals should be API [First]

• Not long ago, I was speaking at the National Association of Government Web Professionals. At the same conference, Mark Headd was speaking. We were speaking on different open data topics. My discussion was about the difference between open government and open data and his talk was about API [First].

Programming

=> ↺ Ruby 2.2.0 Released

• We are pleased to announce the release of Ruby 2.2.0.

• Ruby 2.2 includes many new features and improvements for the increasingly diverse and expanding demands for Ruby.

=> ↺ Ruby 2.2 Released With A Better Garbage Collector

Leftovers

Science

=> ↺ Let’s Not Dumb Down the History of Computer Science

Security

=> ↺ Git Vulnerability Exposed; Patch Now or Be Hacked Later

• A vulnerability in the widely used Git open-source development tool has been revealed, but there is a patch.

=> ↺ Old FOSS Friend & Foe Represents Sony in Hack

• Boies, along with three attorneys representing the States, brought Microsoft to it’s knees — or so it seemed at the time.

• On November 5, 1999, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson found that Windows dominance on the PC made the company a monopoly and that the company had taken illegal actions against Apple, Java, Netscape, Lotus Notes, RealNetworks, Linux, and others in order to maintain that monopoly. He ordered Microsoft broken in two, with one company producing Windows and another handling all other Microsoft software.

• As we all know, Judge Jackson’s solution was never implemented.

• Although an appeals court upheld the verdict against Redmond, the breakup of the company was overturned and sent back to the lower court for a review by a new judge. Two years later, in September, 2001, under the Bush Administration, the DOJ announced that it was no longer seeking the breakup of Microsoft, and in November reached a settlement which California, Connecticut, Iowa, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia and Massachusetts opposed.

• The settlement basically required Microsoft to share its APIs and appoint a three person panel that would have complete access to Microsoft’s systems, records, and source code for five years. The settlement didn’t require Microsoft to change any code or stop the company from tying additional software with Windows. Additionally, the DOJ did not require Microsoft to change any of its code.

=> ↺ Security updates for Wednesday

=> ↺ Security advisories for Monday

=> ↺ Tuesday’s security updates

=> ↺ Security advisories for Christmas day

=> ↺ Rackspace Joins Ranks of the Holiday Hacked

• Are hackers and malware purveyors targeting cloud and network service providers over the holidays? With the news of the Sony hack fresh in everyone’s minds, unusual hacking reports are flowing in.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Seeing Behind the Corporate Spin

• There have been some rumblings from officials in Russia in recent days. I caught something like “the US needs to take another look at the real story behind the shooting down of Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine last July.” The US-NATO were quick to blame Russia after the plane was shot down – the same kind of campaign we now see with North Korea over the Sony ‘comedy’ that I believe is truly aimed at creating more antipathy towards that nation. Today I stumbled upon this fascinating story about an eye witness who claims that it was a Ukrainian military jet that accidentally took down the Malaysian airliner.

=> ↺ The Empire is Crumbling, That is Why it Needs War

• The world is in turmoil. Like in the early 1940’s, something tremendous is gaining shape, something irreversible.

• Almost all of us who have been analyzing the Empire fighting against the propaganda and nihilism it spreads, and its venomous tentacles extending to every corner of the globe, know that ‘appeasing’ Western imperialism is clearly impossible, as it is impractical, and even immoral.

• Just as George W. Bush (clearly borrowing from fundamentalist Christian rhetoric), liked to say: “You are either with us or against us”. Countries are now evidently put on the spot: ‘they either accept the Western neo-colonialist doctrine’, or they get destroyed, one after another, as were Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria.

• No logic can help, no negotiations, no international mediation from the United Nations. The willingness to compromise is mocked. Appeals for simple human compassion do not move the rulers of the Empire even an inch.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ France Alps: Snow strands motorists in Savoy

• British driver Gavin Rigby told BBC News he had taken 11 hours to drive between Val d’Isere and Bourg Saint Maurice – a journey which would normally take 30 minutes.

Finance

=> ↺ China’s powerful economic presence begins to fade for Australian investors

• With the federal government fore­casting a $9 billion shortfall in ­revenue over the next two years as iron ore plunges to new five-year lows, the view of China from Australia is one of a ­country struggling to maintain the growth that turned it into a ­economic superpower.

• Shadow banking, ghost cities, ­slumping property prices, a ­manufacturing slowdown and debt defaults are just some of the ­headwinds that threaten the world’s second-largest economy.

Censorship

=> ↺ In Black Lives Matter Protest, Corporate Rights Trump Free Speech

• Minnesotans protesting police violence and institutional racism could face “staggering” fees and criminal charges for a protest at Mall of America, with the City of Bloomington announcing plans to force organizers to pay for the mall’s lost revenue during the exercise of their free speech rights, highlighting important questions about free speech in an era of privatized public spaces.

=> ↺ Does Facebook have an “unsafe” blacklist of sites that criticize it?

• My thanks to John B for giving me a heads up about this, I found his message to be quite fascinating. And if it’s found to be true that Facebook is blacklisting sites that criticize them, then I consider it a badge of honor to be on that list. There’s no way for me to know if Facebook actually is doing that, but I have wondered why I get so much more referral traffic from Twitter and Google+ than I do from Facebook. It seemed quite odd to me and I guess now I know why.

=> ↺ Atkinson defends right to offend

• Rowan Atkinson defended the right of comedians to poke fun at other people’s religion last night as he joined the campaign against Government plans to create a new offence of incitement to religious hatred.

• The star of the BBC’s Blackadder television series lined up with leading barristers, writers and politicians to oppose the proposed law.

=> ↺ Man gets apostasy death sentence in Mauritania

• Mauritanian court issues first death sentence against Mohamed Cheikh Ould Mohamed for writing something blasphemous against prophet.

Privacy

=> ↺ Christmas Eve email asked Oz telcos for metadata retention costs by Jan 9th

• Australian telecommunications companies and internet service providers were given until January 9th, 2015 to offer an estimate of what it will cost them to comply with data retention laws, and some appear to have been told of that deadline on Christmas Eve.

=> ↺ U.S. Spy Agency Reports Improper Surveillance of Americans

• The National Security Agency today released reports on intelligence collection that may have violated the law or U.S. policy over more than a decade, including unauthorized surveillance of Americans’ overseas communications.

• The NSA, responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, released a series of required quarterly and annual reports to the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board that cover the period from the fourth quarter of 2001 to the second quarter of 2013.

=> ↺ ​Ho, ho, ho! NSA reports on its spying naughtiness

=> ↺ NSA Drops Christmas Eve Surprise

=> ↺ NSA’s Christmas Eve confession: We unlawfully spied on you for 12 years, soz

=> ↺ ACLU accuses NSA of using holiday lull to ‘minimise impact’ of documents

=> ↺ Merry Christmas: NSA admits to a decade’s worth of improper surveillance of Americans in holiday document dump

=> ↺ NSA Fesses Up To Improper Surveillance Of U.S. Citizens

=> ↺ Here Are the 13 Creepiest Privacy Violations the NSA Didn’t Want You To See

=> ↺ NSA Spills About Decade of Privacy Violations

=> ↺ In Holiday Document Dump, NSA Declassifies Compliance Errors

=> ↺ NSA waits until Christmas Eve to reveal a decade’s worth of its mistakes

=> ↺ New NSA reports show spy agency routinely collected intel on Americans

• Hundreds of pages of reports previously classified top-secret were released by the National Security Agency on Christmas Eve. They reveal dozens of instances of the NSA unlawfully spying on United States citizens over the last decade.

=> ↺ Suit over Facebook’s practice of scanning users’ messages to go forward

• A US District Court in California has ruled that a suit that targets Facebook’s data-harvesting practices can go forward. The company had attempted to have the whole thing tossed out, but only succeeded in having two relatively minor allegations dismissed.

• There are three plaintiffs to the suit, all of whom allege that various state and federal statutes were violated by Facebook’s practice of scanning private messages in order to target ads more precisely. They also are upset that the mention of any company in these messages ends up counting as a “like.” Their suit [PDF] alleges that Facebook’s messaging service is “designed to allow users to communicate privately with other users,” and the scanning therefore violates the federal Wiretap Act as well as California’s Invasion of Privacy Act.

• Facebook, for its part, wants to see the whole thing thrown out. It claims that it must handle the content of the messages in order to ensure delivery, and therefore it is not possible for it to unlawfully intercept them. Failing that, it suggested that the scans were part of ordinary business practice, and therefore exempt from the law. And, in any case, it stopped the practice back in 2012. For all those reasons, its lawyers argued, the case should not proceed.

=> ↺ Hey, TV Guys! Facebook’s NFL Deal Means Facebook Is Getting Serious About Video.

• But Facebook’s size — it has five times as many users as Twitter — and mountains of user data mean that the site can do some really interesting things for a lot of people.

=> ↺ Is Santa to blame for the surveillance society?

• Perhaps the reason we are not horrified by the surveillance society is because our parents normalised that behaviour by teaching us about Santa.

=> ↺ Wikileaks — CIA officers operating in the EU?

• My inter­view on RT about the recent dis­clos­ure to Wikileaks about how undeclared CIA officers can travel safely into the EU. The big ques­tion is — why would they? Espe­cially when we know from the Edward Snowden dis­clos­ures how much the European intel­li­gence agen­cies col­lude with their coun­ter­parts in the USA…

=> ↺ White hats do an NSA, figure out LIVE PHONE TRACKING via protocol vuln

• Security vulnerabilities in the SS7 phone-call routing protocol that allow mobile call and text message tracking will be revealed this weekend.

=> ↺ NSA Reports Show Agency May Have Violated Laws For A Decade By Spying On Americans

=> ↺ NSA Forced to Spell Out Violations After Suit

• The National Security Agency, responding to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, has released heavily redacted reports detailing its employees’ violations of individual Americans’ privacy in the broad surveillance net cast after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

• The agency was required by executive order to file the reports with the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. But the quarterly and annual reports covering NSA activities from 2001 to 2013 were publicly released Wednesday only after the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit.

=> ↺ The Switchboard: NSA released documents about improper surveillance on Christmas eve

=> ↺ Romanian version of EU cybersecurity directive allows warrantless access to data

• More than a dozen Romanian non-governmental organizations are protesting new cybersecurity legislation passed by the parliament last week that would force businesses to provide the country’s national intelligence agencies with access to their data without a court warrant.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Revealed: Police using pre-charge bail to muzzle protesters

• Police are being accused of trying to muzzle protest movements as figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the widespread use of bail to ban hundreds of innocent people from attending lawful demonstrations.

• The data shows that around 85% of those barred from protesting when bailed have not been subsequently charged with any crime. Civil liberties and protest groups accused police of dealing out their own justice and called for a change in the law.

• The figures show that a least 732 people have been banned by police forces in England and Wales since 2008 but then never charged. They come as the government confirms it is considering overhauling the police bail rules.

=> ↺ American Democracy and Torture

• It’s no secret that former Vice President Dick Cheney has never been one of my favorites. And I will admit that when I saw him rise again on the Sunday morning shows and other television outlets around this torture report a few weeks back, my first reaction was “Why are they talking to him? Shouldn’t he be on trial for violating international law?” So, of course he should have been there. We live in a democracy! And, as he sits square in the middle of this whole controversy I had to admit I was curious as to his reaction.

• There he was in all his glory, in all his arrogance, defending torture, or rather enhanced interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding and rectal feeding — which he said he believed was done for medical reasons. Really? He defended it all. I couldn’t help but think that maybe it’s time Vice President Cheney move from defending his actions on Fox News and Meet the Press, and be asked to defend it in a court of law.

• Let’s face it, turning this kind of microscope on our own actions brings with it a lot of controversy, calls that we are endangering or damaging the CIA, or opening a can of worms that is best left closed. The dilemmas of a free society are many, and this is one of them. And the dilemmas of a free society are messy. But we should never walk away from them because of that.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Boycott the Marriott and other hotels that block Wi-Fi hotspots

• The media has been abuzz with stories recently about how the Marriott hotel has blocked Wi-Fi access in a desperate attempt to get its customers to pay the hotel for Internet access. Yes, the Marriott – a billion dollar corporation – has been attempting to gouge its customers by blocking private Wi-Fi connections, and now the company wants the FCC to give them its blessing. And to make the story even weirder,

=> ↺ Bharti Airtel to charge for using VoIP services

• Bharti Airtel Ltd, India’s largest telecommunications carrier by subscribers, will soon start charging users extra money for using services such as Skype as Indian operators look to boost their data network and revenues.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Pirate Bay’s Fredrik Neij Now “Wanted for Hacking”

• Former Pirate Bay operator Fredrik Neij is currently jailed in Sweden after being captured in Thailand last month. However, according to leaked emails, the MPAA believes that the Swede could also face hacking related charges – and it doesn’t stop there.

=> ↺ The Open Bay helps launch 372 ‘copies’ of The Pirate Bay in a week, becomes GitHub’s most popular project

• isoHunt, the group now best known for launching The Old Pirate Bay, has shared an update a week after debuting The Open Bay. The Pirate Bay, the most popular file sharing website on the planet, still isn’t back following police raids on its data center in Sweden, but its “cause” is very much alive.

• The Open Bay, which lets anyone with “minimal knowledge of how the Internet and websites work” deploy their own version of The Pirate Bay online, is becoming an open source engine of The Pirate Bay website, the group told VentureBeat in an email. “The fate of Open Bay is now in the hands of worldwide community.”

=> ↺ Being a Pirate is OK, But Being a Cheapskate Sucks

• There can be few Internet-savvy people around who haven’t, on occasion, downloaded an MP3 or two. Among those people’s parents, find a person who has never listened to a copied CD or cassette-taped LP and i’ll show you the bar where Bigfoot buys the Loch Ness Monster a beer on Friday nights.

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