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● 01.13.15

● Links 13/1/2015: Galaxy A7, Linux Mint 17.1 Reviews

Posted in News Roundup at 6:06 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Use of Linux system architecture to reinvent glass container pressure testing and volume measurement

• Agr International, Inc. recently unveiled an all-new Sampling Pressure Tester, the SPT2, which pushes the boundaries of throughput, pressure generation, handling versatility and measurement precision to levels previously thought impossible. In this product, Agr has married the rugged and reliable performance of previous Agr pressure testing systems with the latest pressure and volume measurement technology. This combination has resulted in a device that can perform highly accurate, hands-free pressure and volume tests on bottles at a rate of up to 300 bottles per hour.

=> ↺ When the Greatest Generation Can Use Our Help

• Long story a bit more tolerable: I booted into my Linux flash drive and began pulling his pictures and documents into a separate partition. Once he gave me the nod, I wiped his Windows 7 partition out of existence and installed Linux. I then put his pictures and documents in the appropriate folders and left him to discover his new system.

• The next day I found a Home Depot box at my front door and in it was a Makita cordless drill like the one I had coveted from his work bench, accompanied with a short note. “Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I was on the verge of buying a new computer, but now the one I have is as good as the day I first got it. Come on over later today. Mary made a strudel.”

=> ↺ On Relationships… with Computers!

• I started my ZaReason Strata with OpenMandriva today. Instead of the dread that I experienced in my old days when dealing with Windows computers and I feared to see a virus warning or a blue screen, the machine literally started wishing me a happy 2015.

Desktop

=> ↺ Why Mac users don’t switch to Linux

• Linux and Mac users share at least one common thing: they prefer not to use Windows. But after that the two groups part company and tend to go their separate ways. But why don’t more Mac users switch to Linux? Is there something that prevents Mac users from making the jump?

=> ↺ You Can Soon Dual Boot Windows/Mac/Linux on your Chromebook

• Francois Beaufort, a frequent Chrome leaker that was hired by Google to become its new open-source Chromium evangelist, has announced that Chrome OS users will soon get the ability to boot from USB and install an OS image from a USB thumb drive. He doesn’t mention which operating systems will be ‘allowed’, so we’re assuming one will be able to boot Linux, Mac or Windows.

Server

=> ↺ Docker Security Scrutinized as its Popularity Rises

• As 2015 begins, there is good news on the cloud computing and container technology front, given that enterprises everywhere have rapidly gained confidence in platforms and tools such as OpenStack and Docker. On the flipside, though, security concerns about these emerging open tools are on the rise.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Intel’s RealSense Camera Doesn’t Yet Have Proper Linux Support

• Intel RealSense is a Kinect-like 3D camera. The Intel RealSense 3D camera is intended to have a variety of applications from 3D scanning to “immersive collaboration” to gaming, but sadly its Linux support isn’t yet up to scratch.

=> ↺ AMDKFD HSA Kernel Driver Changes Planned For Linux 3.20

• Oded Gabbay of AMD has sent in his latest AMDKFD kernel driver changes that he’s hoping to have integrated for the Linux 3.20 kernel merge window.

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds Says Apple’s HFS+ Is the Worst, Probably Designed by Monkeys

• Linus Torvalds doesn’t usually talk about things he doesn’t know, so it’s probably fair to imagine that, when he says that the HFS+ file system used on Mac OS X is garbage, he’s not wrong.

=> ↺ Why Contributing to the Linux Kernel is Easier Than You Think

• In the first, not really technical article, I will explain that Linux kernel development is super easy especially for those who possess the right attitude. In the second part I’m going to show where to get inspiration and the best angles to approach Linux kernel development for newcomers. And in the third and last part, I will describe some of the things that I wish that I knew before I started.

=> ↺ The Top 10 Linux Foundation Videos of 2014

• The Linux Foundation original video, “How Linux Was Built,” reached a huge milestone in 2014, surpassing 1 million views on YouTube. The video, one of the ten most popular on the Linux Foundation YouTube channel last year, illustrates how thousands of software developers from all over the world contribute collectively to the Linux kernel codebase. It’s the kind of video you can show to your parents and friends that will help them understand what makes Linux such an amazing software project. And its popularity also illustrates just how mainstream Linux and open source software have become.

=> ↺ Why avoid ACPI on ARM (and everywhere else, too)

• Grant Likely published article about ACPI and ARM at http://www.secretlab.ca/archives/151 . He acknowledges systems with ACPI are harder to debug, but because Microsoft says so, we have to use ACPI (basically).

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ AMDKFD Driver Does More Prepping For Carrizo / VI APUs

• Earlier this month I wrote about AMD preparing open-source HSA support for Carrizo APUs that aren’t launching until later this year. Today more patches were published for the AMDKFD kernel driver in preparing for the forthcoming Volcanic Islands APUs.

=> ↺ Open-Source Radeon Driver Reworks Audio Code, Adds DisplayPort Audio

• Sadly there’s nothing new to report on the awaited AMDGPU kernel driver for supporting the R9 285 Tonga and newer GPUs that’s needed for the new AMD unified Linux driver approach. Due to the change last year in how DRM-Next is handled, there’s just one or two weeks left before the 3.20 DRM merge window will close. The AMDGPU driver would also have to go through public review by upstream developers outside of AMD, which already would make this new driver more like a Linux 3.21 (or later) feature. At least for 3.20 there’s other changes worth getting excited over.

=> ↺ AMD Loses Three More Executives

Benchmarks

=> ↺ Fedora 21 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 Power Consumption On An ASUS Zenbook

• In upgrading to the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon Broadwell ultrabook, I’m debating whether to switch back to Fedora after having used Ubuntu for a number of years on my main production system after some falling out with a few less then stellar Fedora Core releases back in the day (of course, on test systems, there’s plenty of Fedora around here but this is just about deciding on my next main OS for business tasks). In waiting for the new Broadwell ultrabook, I’ve been running some fresh Ubuntu and Fedora Linux tests on some other laptops/ultrabooks in the office.

Applications

=> ↺ id3ren: Unfortunately, this will be brief

=> ↺ Productivity on Linux: 7 Apps for Note-Taking

• As a college student, it’s important to be able to write down notes efficiently and find them quickly when needed. As a Linux user, you sadly won’t have access to official desktop clients for Evernote, OneNote, and Simplenote. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t get stuff done, including writing notes.

=> ↺ Note-taking apps for Linux

• Taking notes is something we all do at times. But finding the right application for it can be a pain. Fortunately, MakeUseOf has compiled a helpful list of seven note-taking apps for Linux users.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Getting a Time Without NTP

=> ↺ Bucket Fill Transparency with GIMP

=> ↺ Improving your PuTTY connections

=> ↺ Build your own Raspberry Pi-powered handheld Linux terminal

=> ↺ HOW TO CREATE A HANDHELD LINUX TERMINAL

=> ↺ ESP8266 – little board, lotta Wi-Fi

=> ↺ Giant’s Causeway puzzle

=> ↺ Installing Telnet In CentOS/RHEL/Scientific Linux 6 & 7

=> ↺ Install Gitblit On Ubuntu / Fedora / CentOS

Games

=> ↺ AirMech Has A New Linux Build That Should Run For More Gamers

=> ↺ C4 Engine Drops Linux Support, Developer Says Linux Is Inferior

=> ↺ Devs of the C4 Engine Say Mac OS and Windows Are Superior to Linux, Support Dropped

• Developers of the C4 Engine, a proprietary game engine used in numerous titles, have decided to drop the Linux support because they say the open platform is a nightmare to work with.

=> ↺ Teddy Floppy Ear – Mountain Adventure Is a Linux Games for Kids

• Teddy Floppy Ear – Mountain Adventure is a new game developed and published by Forever Entertainment on Steam. The makers of the game also released a Linux version and it is now available with a 15% discount.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Qt 5.5 Is Packing On New Features, Going Into Feature Freeze Soon

• Qt 5.5 is less than one month away from entering its feature freeze. This half-year update to the open-source Qt tool-kit will bring several new features when its scheduled to be officially released in April.

=> ↺ Kanagram is now 2-player

• I am glad to say that I have managed to implement the feature as proposed by me in Season of KDE. I am yet to update my code in the main Kanagram repository.

Distributions

=> ↺ Linux, Distros, and Open Source

=> ↺ What is your favorite Linux distribution?

=> ↺ Bioinformatics Distro Bio-Linux 8.0.5 Now Available for Download

• Bio-Linux, a fully-featured, powerful, configurable, and easy to maintain bioinformatics workstation built on the Ubuntu operating system, has been upgraded to version 8.0.5 and is now available for download.

Reviews

=> ↺ Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca review – Oops. Nope.

• What happened? I do not know. Maybe I was just being unlucky. Maybe my HP desktop sucks, and you should avoid Broadcom in Linux. But that’s really a lame excuse, if you think about it, because both Qiana and Windows 7, resident on the internal hard disk, behave quite well. Which makes Rebecca a big disappointment.

• I don’t have a good way of glossing over the issues I’ve encountered during the preparation of this review. Mint 17.1 did not perform well in my tests. For a range of reasons, package management and desktop customizations were quite horrible, with crashes and hangs. Not acceptable. Then, there are a few other smaller issues that can and should be easily fixed. Overall, though, I can’t recommend Rebecca. You’d better stay with Qiana. I will be doing some more testing in the future, for sure, but at the time being, you might skip this. Grade, 6/10.

=> ↺ First Impressions of Linux Mint 17.1 Cinnamon Edition

• I generally have good experiences with the Linux Mint distribution. The project puts together a solid desktop operating system, complete with popular open source applications, multimedia support, a friendly system installer and configuration tools which are easy to navigate. Mint makes tasks such as installing third-party drivers, popular software (both proprietary and open source) and alternative kernels easy. Most users will probably be able to sit down and simply start using Mint and its small collection of desktop software with a minimal amount of work.

• Going into this review I was mostly interested in Cinnamon. I was curious to see how it would perform (especially in a virtual machine). I wondered how Cinnamon would compare with MATE and with GNOME 3. I was happy to find Cinnamon has become a polished desktop environment. It has the modern features and extensions of GNOME 3 combined with the classic desktop layout of MATE/GNOME 2. Cinnamon, as it is presented in Mint, has a nice set of defaults. It has a minimum amount of visual effects, it stays out of the way and performs quickly. People who like to tweak their desktop environments will be able to experiment with themes, different icons sets, extensions and widgets. Of the various desktop environments related to GNOME (MATE, GNOME Classic, GNOME Shell and Cinnamon) I think Cinnamon may present the best balance of features, performance and familiarity.

• Mint 17.1 is an incremental evolution from previous versions. The distribution was stable for me, the distribution performed well, offered a lot of functionality out of the box and was beautifully easy to use. I would feel quite comfortable introducing novice users to Mint. I think the distribution has a very gentle learning curve, but enough flexibility to appeal to more advanced users.

Screenshots

=> ↺ Linux Mint 17.1 Xfce Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ ChaletOS 14.04 Screenshot Tour

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Post-Earnings Coverage – Red Hat

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Important OpenSSL Exploits Fixed in All Supported Ubuntu OSes

• Details about OpenSSL vulnerabilities in its Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 10.04 LTS operating systems have been published by Canonical.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 14.10 Users Get a New Kernel Update

• A few Linux kernel vulnerabilities have been found in Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) operating system and they have been corrected.

• The Linux kernel for Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) has been upgraded and a few issues have been fixed by the devs. This is regular update work and it’s unlikely that you were affected by any of these bugs.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Linux Top 3: Pentoo, Linux Mint 17.1 KDE and openSUSE Tumbleweed Security

• There is no shortage of security focussed Linux distributions and you can add Pentoo to that list. Unlike many of the others that typically use some manner of Debian based system as a base, Pentoo is based on Gentoo Linux. So instead of RPM, or a .deb based system, Pentoo leverages the Gentoo Porage system for package management.

=> ↺ ExTix 15.1 Is Now Based on Ubuntu 14.10 and GNOME 3.14 – Gallery

• ExTiX 15.1 64-bit, a distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS that uses the GNOME desktop environment, has been officially released and is now ready for download and testing.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Samsung Tizen Z1 Smartphone could be launched in India New Delhi TOMORROW!!!

Android

=> ↺ Which Android smart watch is right for you?

• In some ways, 2014 might be considered the year of the smart watch. A staggering number of watches – in styles from cool and understated to full on Dick Tracy – hit the market last year.

• On the other hand, smart watches generally haven’t been a hit with consumers yet. Many people are waiting to see Apple’s take on the “wearable.” The Apple Watch, announced in September, is expected to be released in early 2015.

=> ↺ Samsung Introduces Galaxy A7 for a Seamless Social Experience

• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today unveiled the new Galaxy A7, one of the slimmest Galaxy smartphones equipped with premium hardware for a superior social experience. Combining powerful multitasking performance with sophisticated design, the Galaxy A7 expands on the popular services provided by the Galaxy A5 and A3, enabling users to capture and share every moment seamlessly on their social media platform.

=> ↺ Samsung Announces the Galaxy A7

• The smartphone space is not as it was a few years ago. There’s increasing competition from vendors based in countries like China and India who can put out high quality products at a very low price. In a world where vendors are squeezing them on both the high end and the low end, Samsung has been put under significant pressure to improve their mid-range devices moving into the future. We saw the beginning of this with the Galaxt A3 and A5, which had aluminum unibody designs that seemed to defy their low price point. The latest device to continue this strategy is the Galaxy A7, which is the largest and fastest device of the Galaxy A line. I’ve laid out its specs in the table below.

=> ↺ CyanogenMod makes a move on Google’s Android One ‘next billion’

• It’s still unclear how popular Google’s Android One smartphones are, but consumers who’ve bought one of the devices can now install CyanogenMod’s popular ROM.

=> ↺ Google To Update Translate App For Android With Real-Time Translation Of Spoken Language

=> ↺ AH Primetime: Three Questions You Should Be Asking Before Buying An Android TV Device

=> ↺ Lenovo’s Sub-₹10,000 4G Android Smartphone A6000 to Release on 16 January in India

=> ↺ Turn Your Android Phone Into A DIY Portable Game Console

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy A7: A Thin, Sleek Octo-Core Android

• Samsung has just announced the latest in its A series of phones, the A7—and this one might be worth taking seriously. One of Sammy’s slimmest ever, it’s sleek metallic body houses an eight-core slab of silicon.

=> ↺ CyanogenMod brings its custom software to Android One

• The next billion Android users might have a choice of software on their phones thanks to CyanogenMod, the group behind a customized version of Android software of the same name: CyanogenMod is supporting Android One phones.

=> ↺ Xolo One to get Android 5.0 Lollipop update

=> ↺ 22 tips, tricks and shortcuts for Android Lollipop

=> ↺ Ex-Googlers launch Jide Remix “ultra-tablet” with customized Android OS

=> ↺ Quickly view your data usage stats on Android 5.0 Lollipop

=> ↺ HTC One M7 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Video Shows Sense 6

=> ↺ Galaxy S4 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update: 10 Things We Expect

=> ↺ Mobile Threat Monday: Android Malware Looks Safe, Steals Your Photos and Messages

=> ↺ Lollipop coming soon to Motorola 2013 and 2014 devices

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy S5 gets Android 5.0 in the UK

=> ↺ Some Moto G devices starting to receive Android 5.0.2 Lollipop

=> ↺ Android fans vent about what they hate most about Lollipop

=> ↺ Samsung Looks To Rid Galaxy S6 Of Bloatware; May Adopt ‘Pure Android’ In New TouchWiz Interface

=> ↺ A Galaxy S6 With (Almost) Stock Android Sounds Like a Dream Come True

=> ↺ Android 5.0 Lollipop Update: Galaxy S5 Gets New Software In UK; HTC And Motorola Coming Soon

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Open source software platform released by Lockheed Martin

• Lockheed Martin software engineers have created a platform for easing big data analysis for developers and non-developers and are open sourcing the project on GitHub, a well-known web-based hosting service.

=> ↺ 6 excellent open source network monitoring tools

• There are tools that notify users when problems occur as well as when problems have been solved. And others are very good at spotting just about anything out of the ordinary or providing analysis of trends.

=> ↺ Three Pillars Of Open Source Governance

• Open source software has morphed from its underground DIY roots to become a common tool that runs essential parts of many businesses. In turn, commercial companies have sprung up around open source projects. These companies make money offering updates, support, and services.

• The intersection of open source and commercial interests raises questions about authority, authenticity, and culture.

• Is the project driven by the commercial sponsor or outside contributors? Will commercial interests trump the wishes of the community? How and where do you draw lines between a commercial entity and the open source community?

=> ↺ Top 5 open source project management tools in 2015

• Last year, I covered five of the best open source project management tools, like ProjectLibre and OpenProject. The article struck a chord with readers and continues to prove valuable. So, this year I revisited the tools mentioned in last year’s article, taking into account comments and suggestions from readers, and provided an update on where they are today. Next, I share five new open source project management tools for 2015. All in all, this article will give you a good look at 11 of the top open source project management tools out there.

Events

=> ↺ Free embedded computing conference posts agenda

• “Tomorrow’s Internet of Things will be built as an orchestration of hardware and software platforms, many of which will be built on Linux,” states the RTC Group in its RTECC event announcement. Attendees will have the opportunity to grab a copy of the most recent free RTC Magazine, featuring a cover that asks: “Linux: Can it run everywhere?”

=> ↺ Consumer Electronics Show 2015: Open source highlights

• The 48th annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has come and gone, bringing with it some exciting new open source platforms and products. While it’s difficult to capture every open source announcement and unveiling that happened last week, let’s take a look at a few of the highlights:

=> ↺ Linux.Conf.Au 2015 Kicks Off In Auckland

• This year’s LCA 2015 keynotes include Linus Torvalds, Bob Young, and Eben Moglen. For those not down under attending the conference, at least there’s usually top-notch videos of the keynotes and various sessions that are available in the weeks ahead. I’ll also be monitoring for the slides and other presentation assets to analyze and share on Phoronix.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Announcing the Mozilla Science Lab Fellowship Program

• With generous support from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, we are excited to announce the Mozilla Science Lab’s first Open Science fellowship program. The grant is one of the first investments by the Trust’s new funding program dedicated to collaboration, reproducibility, and infrastructure in biomedical sciences.

=> ↺ Firefox 35 Is Ready For Release, Available For Download Now

• In usual Mozilla fashion, Firefox 35.0 is scheduled to be released tomorrow but if you’re so tempted to upgrade to the latest release of this open-source web-browser you can do so tonight.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Munich 2nd public administration in Libreoffice NGO

• The German city of Munich is the second public administration to join the advisory board at the Document Foundation, a non-profit organisation promoting the development of LibreOffice. Munich is joining the advisory board in a meeting this week Thursday, the Document Foundation announced yesterday.

=> ↺ City of Munich Is Now Represented in The Document Foundation Advisory Board

• The city of Munich migrated to an open source infrastructure a few years back and now it’s also part of The Document Foundation Advisory Board, the entity that makes the office suite LibreOffice.

Project Releases

=> ↺ rfoaas 0.1.1

• A brand new and shiny version of rfoaas is now on CRAN. The rfoaas package provides an interface for R to the most excellent FOAAS service–which provides a modern, scalable and RESTful web service for the frequent need to tell someone to f$#@ off.

=> ↺ Early Preview Release Of Git 2.3

• Beyond announcing Git v2.2.2 on Monday with various bug-fixes, Junio Hamano announced the release of Git 2.3.0-rc0 as a preview release towards Git 2.3.

Openness/Sharing

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Meet the open access dinosaurs of the year

• As we enter 2015, it’s a good time to reflect on the state of paleontology and the state of open access. Because I’m a dinosaur paleontologist (my apologies to the other 99% of life that ever lived), this post will of course address that clade in particular!

• Thirty-eight new genera or species of dinosaur were announced in 2014 (according to my count based on a list at Wikipedia and the dinosaur genera list), spanning everything from sauropods to tyrannosaurs to horned dinosaurs. Seventeen of these were published in open access or free-to-read journals. This works out to around 45%.

Open Hardware

=> ↺ Open Source Hardware Advances Science,Technology

• On June 12, 2014 Elon Musk caused a stir by announcing Tesla’s decision to open its patents. To many, Tesla’s bold move signaled the beginning of an era and an open call for open source.

Leftovers

Hardware

=> ↺ making it work

• Linus recently noted that many-core (1000+ core) computing will never happen because software doesn’t work with it. Fortunately for us, Linus is a man of limited vision and is wrong about the inevitability of that outcome because he makes a flawed assumption: we will continue writing software the way we currently do. He is right that if we keep writing software the way we do, many-core will not happen. Even multi-system will run into limits, particularly on the client side. However, we don’t need to keep writing software the way we do.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ Fall in life expectancy raises alarm amid fears that cuts and pressure on NHS may be to blame for earlier deaths

• Health officials are investigating a “statistically significant, sustained” decline in life expectancy among elderly people in some parts of England, amid warnings that cuts to social care and pressures on the NHS may be contributing to earlier deaths.

=> ↺ EU lawmakers pass controversial GMO food law

• EU lawmakers on Tuesday approved controversial legislation to allow EU member states to decide for themselves whether to allow cultivation of Genetically Modified foods after years of bitter dispute.

• “This agreement will ensure more flexibility for member states who wish to restrict the cultivation of the GMOs in their territory,” said Liberal Democrat MEP Frederique Ries who steered the legislation through the assembly.

• For some of the 28 European Union nations such as France, GMO foods are a potential threat to public health and the reputation and integrity of its famed agricultural produce.

Security

=> ↺ Security advisories for Monday

=> ↺ A note about SSL/TLS trusted certificate stores, and platforms (OpenSSL and GnuTLS)

• So, tl;dr: please don’t assume any given location of trusted certs can be relied upon – just because it exists on your dev platform, it doesn’t exist for all your users.

=> ↺ Reports: Google Stops Patching Old Android Browser Vulnerabilities

• When it comes to security issues, though, the issue is the size of the vector affected by a vulnerability, and it sounds like there are going to be a lot of vulnerable Android devices out there.

=> ↺ ‘Spam Nation’: Brian Krebs’ must-read security exposé

• Award-winning cyber crime author Brian Krebs has always written well-researched and engaging stories. His best-selling first book “Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime – from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door” cranks the shocking reality of spam-related cyber crime to 11.

• [...]

• Krebs is probably the most hated person in the world by spammers and online con artists. His website has been attacked so many times by massive DDoS attacks that he doesn’t blink an eye. They’ve physically attacked him and tried to ruin his life more than once. They’ve sent teams of SWAT police to his house after calling in a bogus hostage situation. They’ve sent him illegal drugs and fake currency, then tipped off the authorities to those packages arriving on his doorstep. Still, he prevails — and we are the better for it.

=> ↺ Google Under Fire For Quietly Killing Critical Android Security Updates For Nearly One Billion

=> ↺ Google stopped patching old Android exploits, but don’t panic

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ The Centcom ‘hack’ that wasn’t

• Hackers claiming links to the Islamic State have hijacked several social media accounts belonging to U.S. military’s Central Command. The hacking group, which calls itself “CyberCaliphate,” is tweeting out what the group claims are U.S. military PowerPoints and data on retired Army personnel — seemingly sensitive files that have no business being publicly aired. The images are meant to show that the hackers have penetrated the Pentagon’s network. But the chances of this actually having happened appear rather slim. Here’s why.

=> ↺ Manipulation of Terror

• Nationalists are spreading hate, fanatics are attacking Muslims, governments are capitalizing on this tragedy.

Transparency Reporting

=> ↺ WikiLeaks: not perfect, but more important than ever for free speech

• The secret CIA files appeared just before Christmas. One detailed how CIA operatives could maintain cover, using fake IDs, when travelling through foreign airports. Israel’s Ben Gurion airport was said to be one of the hardest to trick.

• The other document, from 2009, was an assessment of the CIA’s assassination program. It raised doubts about the effectiveness of the program in reducing terrorism. Likewise with Israel’s killing of Palestinians.

• In Afghanistan, the CIA discovered that murdering Taliban leaders could radicalise the militants, allowing even more extreme actors to enter the battlefield. The Obama administration ignored this advice and unleashed “targeted killings” in the country. Unsurprisingly, the insurgency is thriving.

Privacy

=> ↺ David Cameron’s internet surveillance plans rival Syria, Russia and Iran

• What David Cameron thinks he’s saying is: “We will command all the software creators we can reach to introduce back doors into their tools for us.” There are enormous problems with this: there’s no back door that only lets good guys go through it. If your WhatsApp or Google Hangouts has a deliberately introduced flaw in it, then foreign spies, criminals, crooked police (such as those who fed sensitive information to the tabloids who were implicated in the phone-hacking scandal – and like the high-level police who secretly worked for organised crime for years) and criminals will eventually discover this vulnerability. They – and not just the security services – will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications, from the pictures of your kids in your bath you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to co-workers.

=> ↺ WhatsApp and iMessage could be banned under new surveillance plans

• David Cameron could block WhatsApp and Snapchat if he wins the next election, as part of his plans for new surveillance powers announced in the wake of the shootings in Paris.

=> ↺ UK government could ban encrypted communications with new surveillance powers

• Britain’s Prime Minister, David Cameron, is calling for new surveillance powers in the wake of the recent shootings in Paris. Speaking at a public event in the UK this morning, Cameron outlined the government’s stance on secure communications that can’t be read by police or government agencies. “In our country, do we want to allow a means of communication between people which […] we cannot read?” he asked, comparing letters and phone conversations to encrypted communications used online, adding that “we must not” allow a means of communication where individuals can communicate in secret over the internet.

=> ↺ David Cameron Should Worry You

• It should have come as a surprise to nobody that leaders around the world are jumping on the Charlie Hedbo attacks in Paris as a means to justify increased warrantless surveillance.

• What you should take away from his statement is that he’s willing to encroach on the civil liberties of millions of British people in a misguided attempt to increase national security. We know from leaked NSA slides (see left) that this has always been the desire of the surveillance arms of the UK and US governments. Now, they’re using the fear that Paris generated to pass legislation.

=> ↺ Max Hastings embraces ‘der Deutsche Blick’

• It is concerning that, in the midst of citing the “coherent doctrine[s]” of Nazism and the Eastern Bloc, Hastings advocates their “everything about everyone” methods of domestic surveillance. The NSA’s term is “collect it all”. Apparently, Hastings is blind to the danger of history repeating, a history that includes MI5 finding itself with “very little to do” by the early 1970s, and turning (in the 1980s) on the people it was supposed to protect (see: DS19, and F branch) – surveilling for the first time with data banks and networks. By the 1990s, whistleblowers were reporting that Hastings’ “few mavericks, [...] who abuse such power” were a majority within positions of power, and broadly ignoring the Act of Parliament (1989) meant to curtail the agency’s excesses. Without oversight, institutions are as likely to devolve as reform, and Hastings’ outdated deference creates the space for further abuses.

=> ↺ U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron Proposes Banning End-to-End Encryption

=> ↺ What David Cameron just proposed would endanger every Briton and destroy the IT industry

• What David Cameron thinks he’s saying is, “We will command all the software creators we can reach to introduce back-doors into their tools for us.” There are enormous problems with this: there’s no back door that only lets good guys go through it. If your Whatsapp or Google Hangouts has a deliberately introduced flaw in it, then foreign spies, criminals, crooked police (like those who fed sensitive information to the tabloids who were implicated in the hacking scandal — and like the high-level police who secretly worked for organised crime for years), and criminals will eventually discover this vulnerability. They — and not just the security services — will be able to use it to intercept all of our communications. That includes things like the pictures of your kids in your bath that you send to your parents to the trade secrets you send to your co-workers.

• [...]

• Cameron is not alone here. The regime he proposes is already in place in countries like Syria, Russia, and Iran (for the record, none of these countries have had much luck with it). There are two means by which authoritarian governments have attempted to restrict the use of secure technology: by network filtering and by technology mandates.

=> ↺ Why MI5 does not need more surveillance powers after the Paris attacks

• Soon after the attacks in Paris last week, the director general of MI5, Andrew Parker, said of the jihadi threat: “Whenever we lose visibility of what they are saying to each other, so our ability to understand and mitigate the threat they pose is reduced.”

• Few would disagree with this sentiment, or in any way underestimate the enormous responsibility counter-terrorist agencies face after the killings, but the coded suggestion that MI5 needs further sweeping surveillance powers to track down terrorists is more controversial, because it doesn’t take into account the facts.

=> ↺ George Brandis still struggling with metadata

• While it is perhaps unsurprising, the Attorney-General’s latest attempt to use the Sydney siege and recent events in France as justifications for the government’s mandatory data retention laws is as distasteful as it is misleading.

=> ↺ What new snooping powers do PM and MI5 want – and what are the concerns?

=> ↺ In wake of Paris attacks, French surveillance gets a closer look

• French President Francois Hollande chaired an emergency meeting Monday morning with key cabinet ministers and heads of police and security services to discuss how persons known to the country’s intelligence community were still able to coordinate violent raids in Paris. But just days before the attacks on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo left 12 dead and wounded another 11, a controversial new law, broadly expanding the French government’s surveillance powers, went into effect.

=> ↺ MI6 forced to show how it may snoop on privileged lawyer-client exchanges

• MI6 has been forced to reveal documents detailing how it may access legally privileged communications between solicitors and their clients, even if the lawyers are suing the government.

• Policy guidance handed over to the civil liberties organisation Reprieve shows how the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) is attempting to regulate its mass surveillance practices and demonstrate compliance with the law.

• The revelations have emerged from a case brought by lawyers for two Libyans, Abdel-Hakim Belhaj and Sami al-Saadi, who, along with their families, were abducted in a joint MI6-CIA operation and sent back to Tripoli to be tortured by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2004.

• Their complaint about illegal monitoring is being heard before the investigatory powers tribunal and a full trial of the issues is expected this spring.

• Exchanges between lawyers and their clients enjoy a special protected status under UK law. Following exposure of widespread monitoring by the US whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, Belhaj’s lawyers feared that their exchanges with their clients could have been compromised by GCHQ’s interception of phone conversations and emails.

=> ↺ After Paris: More Intelligence, not More Surveillance

• This is the extraordinary thing about mass surveillance. Every time it fails, its supporters use it as evidence that we must have more (even though blanket surveillance is no longer possible in the EU.) If something doesn’t work, you shouldn’t do more of it, but something different and more effective. One of the striking things to emerge from the report on intelligence matters relating to the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, which I wrote about back in November, was that the UK intelligence services simply didn’t have enough people to follow up all the leads they had. So the idea that we need more surveillance data, more false positives, more leads to follow up, is clearly folly.

=> ↺ What you ‘like’ on Facebook gives away your personality

• Be careful what you “like” on Facebook. You’re opening a small window on your soul.

• A machine-learning algorithm can now predict human personality types using nothing but what people like on the Facebook social media site. A team at Stanford University in California and the University of Cambridge used data from a questionnaire filled out by 86,000 people that identified their “big five” personality traits. The results were correlated with their Facebook activity.

• On the basis of between 100 and 150 Facebook likes, the team’s algorithm could determine someone’s personality more accurately than could their friends and family, and nearly as well as their spouse.

=> ↺ Ever liked a film on Facebook? You’ve given the security services a key to your soul

• Why on earth does David Cameron feel the need to call for new digital powers for the security services when they are only beginning to use the ones they already have? Suppose you wanted personality profiles of a quarter of the population of England? Turns out you can mine them from Facebook with publicly published algorithms. About half the adult population of England uses Facebook at least once a month. About a quarter of us have “liked” more than 250 things there. So it’s really disconcerting to discover that completely banal acts on Facebook can add up to a quite detailed psychological profile.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Risen finally off hook in leak trial

• New York Times reporter James Risen won’t be called to the witness stand at a leak trial for one of his alleged sources, but jurors may hear some of the words he uttered at a pre-trial hearing last week, according to lawyers and the judge overseeing the case.

=> ↺ Feds want Risen out of leak trial

• Federal prosecutors who have decided after a seven-year legal battle not to call New York Times reporter James Risen in the leak trial of one of his alleged sources are now intent on making sure the defense in the case can’t call Risen either—or even talk about the government’s decision not to call him.

=> ↺ Psychologists provided legal cover for US torture programs in exchange for status and power, book shows

• James Risen’s new book “Pay Any Price: Greed, Power and Endless War” spells out how the American Psychological Association and the US security apparatus worked together, towards mutually beneficial aims, to cloak the government’s torture programs in a mask of legality. Essentially, the APA gave the military what it wanted—claims that the torture programs were medically sound—in exchange for power and prestige.

• The story is simultaneously pathetic and horrifying.

• Risen describes how in 2002, the APA changed its ethical guidelines to allow members to do things that violate the APA code of ethics, as long as the psychologists were following the law or what they called “governing legal authority.” As long as the US government said it was ok, the APA’s members could engage in torture—its own ethics rules be damned. As Risen observes, the “change introduced the Nuremberg defense into American psychology—following lawful orders was an acceptable reason to violate professional ethics.” Always a bad sign when one begins to take legal cues from Nazis.

=> ↺ “Insider Threat” Program Lags Behind Schedule

• Currently, the anticipated achievement of an Initial Operating Capability for insider threat detection by January 2017 is “at risk,” according to a new quarterly progress report. Meanwhile, the date for achieving a Full Operating Capability cannot even be projected. See “Insider Threat and Security Clearance Reform, FY2014, Quarter 4.”

=> ↺ The Corrupt Philanderer Who Built the CIA’s Black Sites

• Democratic deliberation rests on the premise that ideas, once exposed to the public—unfolded, challenged, tested, and disputed—will stand or fall on their own merit. The bureaucratic drive for secrecy rests, in many cases, on a need to keep information out of the hands of individuals who could use it to harm the bureaucracy. The bureaucrat will invariably say that an enemy could use the information to harm the country, but more often than not the real concern originates with the bureaucrat personally or the office where he or she works.

=> ↺ America’s over-policing bombshell: How new data proves “stop & frisk” critics were right all along

• People are talking about the police a lot these days. The killing of unarmed residents. The killing of cops. Disputes between New York City mayor Bill de Blasio and rank-and-file officers over issues of respect. And yet, a policing issue that totally consumed and divided New York and the nation in recent years now garners little mention: the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy.

• One big reason, of course, is that the tactic is used much less now. But another is that, while few have announced it, the debate over the once hotly divisive practice is effectively over. As new data this week confirmed, when it comes to whether a city can reduce crime without stopping-and-frisking enormous numbers of its residents of color, one side was right and one was wrong.

=> ↺ The VICE News Interview: Joseph Hickman

• According to the US government, three detainees — all imprisoned as part of the global war on terror — hung themselves in their cells that night. But Army Staff Sergeant Joseph Hickman, who was on guard that night at Camp Delta, came to believe something very different: that the three men were murdered in a secret CIA black site at Guantanamo.

=> ↺ Hotter Than Lava

• Every day, cops toss dangerous military-style grenades during raids, with little oversight and horrifying results.

=> ↺ Politicians apply double standard in support of David Petraeus amid FBI leaks inquiry

• Though under investigation by the FBI for unauthorized disclosure of classified information related to an affair with his biographer, David Petraeus counts among his defenders a host of prominent politicians who typically denounce security leaks.

• The former US army general and CIA director has deep ties to a bipartisan host of political heavyweights, from potential Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and a well of media support stemming from his stewardship of the 2007-08 Iraq troop surge. Many have raced to support Petraeus in the days since word emerged that the most acclaimed military officer of his generation might face felony charges.

=> ↺ Obama & Counterterror: The Ignored Record

• Torture, paradoxically, has been the area where Obama’s policy has been both the firmest and the most qualified. By all available evidence, use of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” has stopped. Obama also prohibited further use of secret detention facilities where suspects had “disappeared” in CIA custody for torture. (To be fair, Bush by the end of his presidency seemed to have ended both too.)

=> ↺ Guantanamo Bay: A ‘Battle Lab’ Where Personnel Experimented on Prisoners to Develop Torture Techniques

• On the thirteenth anniversary of the first prisoners brought to Guantanamo Bay, a report from the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research examines how the United States government used the facility as a “battle laboratory.”

• Prisoners were treated like “test subjects” as personnel, including medical officers, engaged in experiments to develop new interrogation techniques. Numerous detainees were drugged upon arrival to help interrogators break them. One prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, was treated like a “lab rat” and monitored closely by medical personnel to determine if his body could continue to be tortured.

=> ↺ “Circus of Hypocrisy”: Jeremy Scahill on How World Leaders at Paris March Oppose Press Freedom

• An estimated 3.7 million people rallied across France on Sunday in response to the Charlie Hebdo shootings and ensuing attacks that left 17 people dead. More than a million people marched in Paris, making it the largest demonstration in French history. More than 40 world leaders traveled to Paris to help lead the march. “What we saw on display on the one hand was very heartening, to see so many people come into the streets,” says Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept. “But on the other hand, this is a sort of circus of hypocrisy when it comes to all of those world leaders who were marching at the front of it. Every single one of those heads of state or representatives of governments there have waged their own wars against journalists.”

=> ↺ The Intercept Found Serial’s Elusive Jay, but Can It Find a Profitable Future? [UPDATED]

=> ↺ Consent of the Governed

• Recent polling data confirms that a majority of Americans — in some cases a vast majority — have very low levels of trust in our ruling institutions. Only about a fifth of the population has a lot or great deal of trust in big business. Americans have an all-time historic low level of trust for the US Congress — a minuscule 7 percent — and distrust in the government as a whole is at an historic high: 81 percent. Though these numbers are abysmal, the troubling aspect of the reporting is that the numbers continue to trend in the wrong direction. Meaning, it will likely get worse without corrective action. This condition is more serious than some realize.

=> ↺ I Helped Create Gitmo. Now I Want It Shut Down.

• Thirteen years ago this month, I arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as the commander, Joint Task Force 160, charged with constructing and operating a detention facility to hold Taliban and al Qaeda detainees. Today the detention facility at Guantanamo is a blight on our history, and it should be closed.

=> ↺ Nigeria’s Horror in Paris’s Shadow

• Why a 10-year-old suicide bomber isn’t front-page news

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ 2015 will be the Year of Linux on the, no wait, of the dot-word domain EXPLOSION

• And those were the people who were aware of the existence of the dot-words. Wolfe sent one of her staffers onto the streets of Cincinnati to ask citizens what they thought about the new gTLDs. No one had ever heard of them.

Intellectual Monopolies

Trademarks

=> ↺ BREAKING NEWS: someone wants to register ‘Je suis Charlie’ as a trade mark

• Albeit an IP enthusiast, Merpel is not at all sympathetic to IP-conscious initiatives of this kind, even if she notes that they have become increasingly frequent.

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