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● 03.12.15

● Links 12/3/2015: Continued Catchup and News

Posted in News Roundup at 9:32 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

=> ↺ Review: Simplicity Linux 15.4 alpha

• Overall I give it 2 Thumbs Up on speed and layout of OS. If you have a computer with low resources, then this is an OS for you to try.

=> ↺ It’s Real: An $89, Green Ubuntu Linux Desktop PC

=> ↺ An $89 Computer With Ubuntu Preinstalled

=> ↺ How Could VARs Use the $89 Ubuntu Linux Symple PC?

=> ↺ Symple PC – Introducing A Low Cost PC Powered By Ubuntu

=> ↺ Google Chromebook Pixel 2 coming soon

=> ↺ Linux Growth Results in High Demand for Linux Talent for Fourth Year in a Row

• Dice and The Linux Foundation today are releasing their annual Linux Jobs Report, which details the responses of more than 1,000 hiring managers and 3,000 Linux professionals about the state of the Linux job market.

=> ↺ Why Linux is still not ready for desktop

• Every three years I install Linux and see if it is ready for prime time yet, and every three years I am disappointed. What is so disappointing is not so much that the operating system is bad, it has never been, it is just that who ever designs it refuses to think of the user.

=> ↺ Best Linux distro for the Macbook Pro?

• Some users love Apple’s hardware and have substituted Linux for OS X on the Macbook Pro. Amazon even sells used Macbook Pros for those who want an Apple laptop without paying top dollar. But which distribution works best on the Macbook Pro?

Server

=> ↺ Rancher Labs builds Linux system for Docker

• As Docker continues to gain popularity, more and more minimalist operating systems are emerging to run the platform in production and at scale. Rancher Labs recently announced a new open-source operating system designed explicitly for Docker.

• While Docker is able run on almost any Linux distribution, RancherOS was conceptualized out of the company?s own needs, according to Sheng Liang, founder and CEO of Rancher Labs.

=> ↺ RancherOS strips Docker and Linux to the essentials

=> ↺ VMware expands desktop virtualization to Linux

• VMware’s VMware Horizon desktop virtualization software suite will soon deliver virtual Linux desktops over a network, in addition to the Microsoft Windows desktops it has long provided for remote workers.

• The company has launched an early access program for customers to test a version of Horizon 6 that can package server-based Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux desktops so they can be accessed from remote computers and mobile devices.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ 15 Questions from Kernel.org SysAdmin Konstantin Ryabitsev’s Reddit AMA

• Linux Foundation System Administrator Konstanin Ryabitsev works on the team that runs the systems behind Linux kernel development on kernel.org. As part of the Collaborative Projects team he’s also responsible for providing IT hosting for projects including Yocto Project; Code Aurora Forum; OpenDaylight; AllSeen Alliance; OPNFV; and Iotivity.

=> ↺ Linux Foundation begins clampdown on Torvalds

• The Linux Foundation has begun an apparent clampdown on Linux creator Linus Torvalds, with a “code of conflict” being drafted and accepted into the kernel community.

=> ↺ Linux kernel devs adopt Bill and Ted’s excellent code of conduct

• The Linux kernel development community and its leader Linus Torvalds are both famously feisty: strong words are often exchanged on the Linux Kernel Mailing List, while Linux Lord Linus Torvalds is seldom shy of speaking his mind.

=> ↺ Open Compute Project embraces Open Network Linux

• The Open Compute Project has accepted Big Switch’s Open Network Linux contribution as the project’s reference network operating system.

=> ↺ ​No reboot patching comes to Linux 4.0

• One reason to love Linux on your servers or in your data-center is that you so seldom needed to reboot it. True, critical patches require a reboot, but you could go months without rebooting. Now, with the latest changes to the Linux kernel you may be able to go years between reboots.

=> ↺ GainSpan Expands Line of Wi-Fi Drivers to Support Linux

=> ↺ The future of Linux storage

• At the Linux Foundation’s new Vault show, it’s all about file systems and storage. You might think that there’s nothing new to say about either topic, but you’d be wrong.

=> ↺ The Linux Kernel’s New ‘Play Nice’ Patch

• In the spirit of Bill and Ted, “be excellent to each other,” urges a new patch in the Linux kernel. The goal is to turn down the heat in exchanges on the Linux Kernel Mailing List. Whether developers will be swayed by the patch’s persuasiveness is anyone’s guess, but as tech analyst Rob Enderle pointed out, “the core problem is that individuals refuse to behave properly.” Much less excellently.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA 346.47 Linux Drivers Launched with Support for New GPUs

• NVIDIA has released a new set of Linux drivers in the Long Lived branch and they have added support for some of the latest chipsets, like GTX 960 or GTX 965M.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ openSUSE Tumbleweed vs. Manjaro vs. Debian 8.0 vs. Fedora 21 vs. Ubuntu 14.10

• The latest Linux benchmarks for your viewing pleasure are a comparison of five Linux distributions tested on the new Intel Core i3 Broadwell NUC with a variety of performance tests.

Applications

=> ↺ Telegram Desktop for Linux Review

• Telegram is an instant messaging service that is best known for its mobile implementation, but a desktop app is also available and it’s even better than what users might expect.

=> ↺ uTorrent installs cryptocurrency miner on user computers

=> ↺ Gnumeric 1.12.21 Spreadsheet Editor Released with Improved ODS and XLSX Support

=> ↺ VLC gets first major release across Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Windows RT, and Android TV

=> ↺ VLC media player 2.2.0 and VLC mobile port releases

=> ↺ Michael Kerrisk (manpages): man-pages-3.81 is released

=> ↺ Foobnix Music Player Ported To GTK3

• For those in need of a new open-source music player, Foobnix is GPLv3-licensed, written in Python, and with its newest release has been ported to using the GTK3 tool-kit.

=> ↺ Nmap—Not Just for Evil!

=> ↺ YouTube Viewer: A Complete YouTube Client For Linux [Ubuntu PPA]

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to create a full backup of your Android device without root

=> ↺ Install Cotonti CMS/CMF on a CentOS 7 VPS

=> ↺ Linux Basics: How To Fix “E: /var/cache/apt/archives/ subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 1″ In Ubuntu

=> ↺ How to Install LAMP (Apache 2.4, MySQL 5.6, and PHP 5.4) on CentOS/RHEL 7

=> ↺ How to install latest Firefox, Chromium and Opera Browser on Ubuntu Linux

=> ↺ How to stop Ubuntu from sending your desktop searches to online retailers

=> ↺ Install Shinken Monitoring Framework On Ubuntu

=> ↺ How to securely store Bitcoins with Electrum [Tutorial]

=> ↺ How to Install the Prestashop Open Source Ecommerce Tool on Linux

=> ↺ How To Monitor Linux Clients Using Shinken

=> ↺ Linux Basics: Create Network Bonding On CentOS 7/6.5

=> ↺ Automate Your Infrastructure with Ansible

=> ↺ How to setup a LAMP development environment in Vagrant

=> ↺ Linux shell Sticky Bit usage and examples

=> ↺ How to make your bash prompts more useful and interesting

=> ↺ dd Utility – Write and Backup Operating System IMG files on Memory Card with Mac OS X

=> ↺ How To Install Ubuntu Phone OS Onto Your bq Aquaris E4.5 Smartphone

=> ↺ Install Oracle Java 9 In Ubuntu, Linux Mint Or Debian Via PPA Repository [JDK9]

=> ↺ How to Use the OpenStack SDK for Go

=> ↺ How to send encrypted messages to iOS, Android devices for free

=> ↺ How to get started with Android Studio on Ubuntu

Games

=> ↺ Steam for Linux: 1,000 games and counting

• The recent GDC 2015, especially the revelation of its own VR ambitions, has thrust Valve and Steam back into the spotlight. Many gamers, especially of the PC kind, might still remember the promise of Steam Machines that have yet to materialize in retail forms. But while part of that equation lies on the hardware, especially the special Steam Controller, the other part is tied to the software. So just how well is Steam doing on Linux today? Well, apparently quite healthy, but it could do with a bit more.

=> ↺ Steam for Linux now offers more than 1,000 games

• The first Steam Machines are set to launch in November, and they’re basically small but reasonably powerful desktop computers design for gaming. They will ship with Steam OS which is a Linux-based operating system developed by Valve, the company behind the popular Steam game platform.

=> ↺ Brace Yourselves: An Influx Of Incredible Games For Linux Are Coming

• Valve had lots to talk about at this week’s GDC, including Steam VR, Steam Link, Steam Controller, and of course, Steam Machines. But as we can now see, it’s not just hardware that’s getting the love. For SteamOS and Linux fans, there are some serious(ly fun) reasons to get excited.

=> ↺ Valve Is Showing That Steam Is Finally Shaking Off the Windows Dependency

• If anyone had any doubts about the commitment of Valve to the Linux operating systems, they should be put to rest with the latest SteamOS sale. It just shows how serious the company really is and that it will carry out its promises, of breaking the Windows monopoly on gaming.

=> ↺ Worms Clan Wars Now Available On Linux

=> ↺ Mad Max From Avalanche Studios Confirmed For Linux

=> ↺ Valve Reveals Evolve Multiplayer Game for Linux by Mistake

=> ↺ Steam Machines Might Run Linux, but They Are Not Aimed at Linux Users

=> ↺ Shelter 2, An Open World Adventure Game Looks Like It Will Get A Day 1 Linux Release

=> ↺ Velocity 2X is coming to Xbox One, PC, Mac and Linux

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ Xfce 4.12 Has Been Officially Released

• After two years of hard work, the Xfce development team had the pleasure of announcing a few minutes ago, February 28, the immediate and general availability of the highly anticipated Xfce 4.12 desktop environment for GNU/Linux distributions.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Getting things back: Comics

• After the system monitor, today another neat little toy that was gone in the KF5 port returned in Plasma for 5.3: The comic applet.

=> ↺ conf.kde.in 2015 – divine

• Building on the success of conf.kde.in 2014 at Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Community Technology (DA-IICT) in the land of Gujarat, the horizon of the KDE Community is broadening and shifting south. conf.kde.in 2015 takes place on the 17th and 18th of April at Amritapuri in Kerala, India. As in previous years of the conference, conf.kde.in 2015 will promote the spirit of free and open source software (FOSS) and offer ideas to build awareness about FOSS culture at the collegiate level, the time when most technology students have their first interactions with Open Source. There will be particular emphasis on KDE technology, and on Qt, the popular cross-platform application framework.

=> ↺ KDE President Lydia Pintscher on the Role of a Nonprofit in Open Source Development

• KDE is among the biggest open source projects which continues to innovate and evolve with the changing times. Often we have seen this particular community create technologies ahead of its time which were later adopted by other projects.

• What makes KDE (K Desktop Environment) different, is that it is not directly related to any major company by ‘blood’. KDE is driven by community which, unlike many similar projects, has a very strong presence in the European market. It also continues to prove that community alone can create sustainable and innovative products.

=> ↺ [KDE] High DPI Progress

=> ↺ KDE Makes More Progress On HiDPI Support

=> ↺ KDE accepted to Google Summer of Code 2015

=> ↺ Calligra 2.9 Brings Biggest Krita Release and New Kexi Partnership

• We are happy to announce the release of final version 2.9 of the Calligra Suite, Calligra Active and the Calligra Office Engine. This version is the result of thousands of changes which provide new features, polishing of the user experience and bug fixes.

=> ↺ Calligra 2.9.0 is Out

• Packages for the release of KDE’s document suite Calligra 2.9 are available for Kubuntu 14.10. You can get it from the Kubuntu Backports PPA. They are also in our development version Vivid.

=> ↺ Photoshop competitor Krita is a true creative tool — and it’s free and open source

• Open source has some of the greatest tools, which continues to prove that you don’t have to lock-down the code behind guarded walls to make a better product. Some popular open source products that don’t have any match in the closed source world include Firefox, Chromium, VLC, Blender, Android, one gem that is, surprisingly, less known but extremely powerful when it comes to creating a work of art.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.15.91 released!

• the second beta release of the GNOME 3.15 development cycle is finally here!

=> ↺ GNOME 3.16 to Feature Redesigned and Superb System Notifications

• GNOME 3.16 promises to be one of the best releases made so far and numerous changes have been already announced. The new notification system is one of them and it’s definitely something to look forward to.

=> ↺ [GNOME] New feature proposals period start

=> ↺ GNOME Shell 3.15.91 Brings A Variety Of Last Minute Changes

=> ↺ GNOME’s Initial Setup Tool Received Several Improvements for GNOME 3.14.x

Distributions

=> ↺ What Linux Distro Do You Use?

• Market share matters, even in the nonprofit world in which most distros live. Most likely, a large user base means more dollars coming in from donations or corporate grants. Also, a popular and much used distro might also prompt more folks with technical skills to volunteer, which might result in an improved user experience — or not. You know what they say about too many cooks in the pot.

=> ↺ ChaletOS Is a Design Tweak in the Linux House

• ChaletOS Linux is one of the closest Windows 7 clone interfaces I have seen. Its refreshing design makes it a good choice for transitioning to the Linux OS.

=> ↺ 5 specialized Linux distributions for computer repair

Reviews

=> ↺ Elementary, my dear penguin: It’s the second beta of Freya

• Elementary follows a somewhat unusual release schedule of major updates every 18 or so months, with two betas at the six- and 12-month marks.

New Releases

=> ↺ KaOS 2015.02 Distro Brings a Unique, Pure KDE Plasma 5 Experience – Screenshot Tour

• The KaOS development team was proud to announce on February 24 the immediate availability for download of the KaOS 2015.02 Linux kernel-based operating system for personal computers and laptops. This is the first ever release of the KaOS Linux distribution with the next-generation KDE Plasma desktop environment, powered by the latest KDE Frameworks 5 technology.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ PCLinuxOS – March 2015 – Issue 98

Ballnux/SUSE

=> ↺ SUSE Explains Why the Future of Enterprise Storage is Open Source

• The storage market is growing rapidly, creating a new market for open source solutions, software-defined storage, and cloud computing. So SUSE’s announcement last month of its new enterprise storage solution based on the open source Ceph project is perfectly timed.

=> ↺ Bright Cluster Manager Now Supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Nucleus Software inks deal with Red Hat

=> ↺ Nucleus Software surges 14% on collaboration with Red Hat

=> ↺ Ceph Open Source Storage Grows With Red Hat Backing

• The Ceph open source software-defined storage platform is taking over the world. Or, at least, it’s taking over Red Hat’s enterprise offerings – and its competitors’ as well.

=> ↺ Red Hat Announces Pathway to Enterprise-Ready Linux Containers

• Industry’s first certified container ecosystem program combines an integrated application delivery platform and open standards support to help drive enterprise adoption of secure containerized applications based on Docker

=> ↺ Red Hat: Traditional virtualisation isn’t going anywhere

• RED HAT HAS announced availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation (RHEV) 3.5, bringing a number of new features including lifecycle management and provisioning, workload performance and scalability, computer resource optimisation and enhanced disaster recovery.

=> ↺ Red Hat Shenandoah boosts Java garbage collection

• Red Hat engineers are moving forward with their Shenandoah garbage collection technology, which would give Java a boost in large-heap applications.

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Alpha Will Be Released Next Tuesday

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Alpha next week, upcoming Council meeting, conference videos, plus new ambassador and contributor tools

• Fedora 22 development is well underway, and just this morning we cleared the F22 Alpha release to ship next Tuesday. Despite a few last-minute issues (which will be documented on the common bugs page), this is already looking to be a very solid release. Thanks to everyone for helping with testing so this can get out the door — and future thanks to everyone who helps in testing the Alpha itself!

=> ↺ An Everyday Linux User Review Of Fedora 21

• The version I will be reviewing is the one provided with the default download link from the Fedora website which includes the Gnome 3 desktop environment.

=> ↺ Fedora community in Mumbai, India celebrates the Fedora 21 release

Debian Family

=> ↺ debian/rake: A Tale of Rubies

=> ↺ Tails 1.3 released

=> ↺ Linux Top 3: Xfce, Quirky and Tails 1.3

=> ↺ Snowden’s favourite Linux – Tails – rushes sec-fix version to market

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu demos its play to control the internet of things

=> ↺ Shuttleworth says Ubuntu’s future is more exciting than space travel

• What now feels like a very long time ago was actually only a handful of years. Back in 2010, Canonical knew exactly what its future would hold and had a plan on how to get there. It wanted to build one OS for all devices: phones, TVs, tablets, the desktop, servers and beyond. It wanted the device to be irrelevant and the OS to be agnostic.

• Unfortunately, while the company knew exactly what it was doing, its loyal Ubuntu desktop user base didn’t.

=> ↺ Introducing the Softpedia Linux Web App for Ubuntu Phone

=> ↺ First peek at the next Ubuntu 15.04 nester line-up

• Ubuntu 15.04 is here ? almost. The first beta of Vivid Vervet has been delivered, and with it have come images of the penguin flock that nestles on this OS.

• I looked at Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME and Ubuntu MATE but there’s also Lubuntu and the China-centric Ubuntu Kylin, which I didn’t test.

• These are beta releases and should be considered for testing purposes only, but the advantage of these early versions is that features have been frozen and you can get an early glimpse of what’s coming for each of the popular flavours in the 15.04 foundation. From this point on, the only changes will be bug fixes.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Linux 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 is here! Which flavor will you savor?

=> ↺ Is Ubuntu’s Lack Of Apps Undiluted Genius Or Tech Suicide?

=> ↺ Ubuntu MATE Donates Money to a Project That Helped Them with Features

=> ↺ Compulab Utilite2 Ubuntu mini PC now available for $192 and up

• CompuLab’s Utilite2 is a tiny computer with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor and support for Ubuntu Linux or Google Android software.

• The company unveiled the 3.4″ x 2.3″ x 1.1″ computer in December, and now it’s available for purchase.

=> ↺ “Can I borrow your phone?” Hands-on with Mark Shuttleworth’s Ubuntu phone

• At the Canonical booth at Mobile World Congress, I had a chance meeting with Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and spiritual leader of Ubuntu. I was actually at the booth to try out the new Ubuntu Edition of the Meizu MX4, a mid- to high-end smartphone, but all of the untethered devices had run out of battery—every phone, that is, except for Shuttleworth’s.

=> ↺ Meizu teases its Ubuntu-powered MX4 for MWC 2015

=> ↺ Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition smartphone coming to MWC 2015

=> ↺ Canonical’s Latest Demo Of Ubuntu Unity 8 Convergence In Action

=> ↺ Ubuntu Kylin 15.04 Makes It Easier for Windows Users to Adapt to the Unity Interface

• The Ubuntu Kylin 15.04 Beta 1 (Vivid Vervet) operating system has also been released alongside the Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, and Ubuntu MATE distributions, bringing a wide range of improvements, numerous updated components, as well as the usual bug fixes. We took the distribution for a test drive and created a nice screenshot tour for all users of the Chinese Ubuntu community.

=> ↺ Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition Is Official, Will Be at MWC In March

• No longer a rumour but fact: Meizu has confirmed the news on its social media accounts this morning, just as the latest flash sale for the Bq Ubuntu Phone was getting underway.

=> ↺ New Ubuntu Phone Separates the App from the Data

• As CIO Journal has noted, Mr. Shuttleworth envisions the rise of an Ubuntu-powered phone that runs desktop grade applications and plugs into peripherals such as large displays and keyboards. In other words, he is working to achieve true mobile-desktop-laptop convergence — the only computer you need, in your pocket, all the time. He tried to raise $32 million to fund development of such a phone, known as the Edge, in a widely publicized crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The campaign ended in 2013, short of its goal.

=> ↺ The Ubuntu Mobile phone you’ve been waiting for will be here next week

=> ↺ Meizu Confirms That The MX4 Will Run Ubuntu, To Be Showcased At MWC

=> ↺ Meizu Pokes Fun at Samsung Reps Impressed by MX4 Ubuntu Edition

• Meizu is now showing the MX4 Ubuntu Edition at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and it looks like Samsung employees are also looking at what Ubuntu has to offer, not just regular fans.

=> ↺ A Closer Look At Canonical’s Ubuntu Phones

• Canonical has finally got skin in the mobile game, putting its first Ubuntu phone on sale in Europe last month.

• It’s been showing off that mid-tier device, made by BQ, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, along with a more premium smartphone made by Meizu, which will be released later this year — targeting the Chinese market.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Will Start Booting With Systemd Next Monday

• This week Ubuntu Cloud switched over to systemd while on Monday is when all other Ubuntu flavors will be migrating to systemd by default over Upstart.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Cloud Switches Over To Using Systemd By Default

• As of last night, the Ubuntu 15.04 Cloud daily ISOs have switched to booting with systemd by default rather than Upstart.

=> ↺ Grab your pitchforks: Ubuntu to switch to systemd on Monday

=> ↺ Juniper Partners Contrail Cloud Platform with Canonical OpenStack

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch Is Being Ported for OnePlus One Phones

• Canonical published its Ubuntu Porting Guide just a week ago and it will help developers bring the operating system to other devices than just Nexus 4 and BQ’s Aquaris, but it looks like an Ubuntu Touch for OnePlus One porting project was started well before that.

=> ↺ Introducing the Softpedia Linux Scope for Ubuntu Phone

=> ↺ Ubuntu 14.04.2 arrives with updated hardware support and a new Linux kernel

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Ubuntu MATE Is One of the Last Major Distros to Officially Support PowerPC

• Ubuntu MATE has been providing PowerPC support for some time now, but the developers have made some serious improvements to this particular feature in the latest 15.04 Beta 1 update.

=> ↺ GNOME 2 is back: Ubuntu MATE is now an official flavor

• Yes, that means Ubuntu is giving a stamp of endorsement to GNOME 2 once again. You don’t need to switch to Linux Mint—just install the Ubuntu MATE disc and get a desktop that works like it did before Ubuntu’s Unity and the GNOME Shell came along.

=> ↺ Ubuntu MATE joins the Ubuntu family

• Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet is set to launch in April, but if you like living on the edge you can try the first beta version of the operating system, which was released today. Well, sort of.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Linux 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta Mate Flavor

=> ↺ Kubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 – Quick Look

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi-Based Cable Shutter Release — Now with DIY Optocouplers

=> ↺ Quad-core MediaTek SoC spins Cortex-A72 into Android tablets

• MediaTek unveiled an “MT8173″ SoC for Android tablets that mixes 2.4GHz Cortex-A72 and -A53 cores with a PowerVR GPU, and also showed an octa-core -A53 SoC.

=> ↺ Cuberox, App-Driven Linux-Based Cube, Has Six Touch Screens

• Vancouver-based startup Cuberox launched a new Kickstarter campaign on Tuesday to raise funds for a Linux-based cube of the same name. This gadget sports a touch-enabled screen on each side and is capable of running six apps simultaneously. The campaign is shooting to acquire $150,000 in funding before the March 29, 2015 deadline.

=> ↺ Linux-powered programmable cube gets touchy-feely

• On Kickstarter, a “Cuberox” project is seeking funding for its Linux-based WiFi- and Bluetooth-enabled cubic PC, with six 256-pixel, touch enabled sides.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi 2 review

• The new Raspberry Pi 2 proclaims that it is 6x faster than the original Pi, taking the original machine to a new level. The big leaps focus on the processor and memory, with the machine now replacing a single core CPU with a quad core Broadcom BCM2836 CPU. The RAM has jumped to a very respectable 1GB.

=> ↺ I/O-rich SBC runs Linux on Cortex-A9 Sitara SoC

• MYIR launched a “Rico” SBC for TI’s Cortex-A9 AM437x SoC, with an open Linux BSP, 4GB of eMMC flash, and coastline GbE, HDMI, and USB host and device ports.

=> ↺ Tiny IoT SBC runs Linux, offers Arduino compatibility

• The credit card sized, open-spec Udoo Neo SBC features Freescale’s Cortex-M4-enhanced i.MX6 SoloX, plus Arduino compatibility, WiFi, Bluetooth, and sensors.

=> ↺ PiJuice – portable solar power for your Pi

• We like to talk about how great the Pi is for portable projects in both the magazine and on the website, however one of the problems we run into when using the Raspberry Pi out and about is getting sufficient power to it for long enough. If only there was a way to harness the power of a natural energy source outdoors.

=> ↺ Pi Glove interview

• Dan Aldred puts the Raspberry Pi camera, the power of Twitter, a music player and a live train timetable under your fingertips

=> ↺ Android ski goggles offer augmented reality display

• It runs Android on a 1.2GHz ARM CPU, and offers hands-free control.

=> ↺ Tiny rugged COM runs Linux on quad-core 2GHz Tegra K1

Phones

=> ↺ The Year of the Linux Smart Phone

• When most people think of Linux on mobile devices their thoughts tend to go right to the current market giant: Google’s Android Operating System. While it is true that Android is powered by a Linux kernel at its core, the software stack on top of that Linux kernel is vastly different than other Linux operating systems.

=> ↺ Jolla shows off Sailfish tablet, promises ultra-secure phone

• Jolla released Sailfish OS 2.0, showed off the first tablet to run the OS, and announced plans with SSH to develop a security-hardened version of Sailfish.

=> ↺ Jolla launches Sailfish 2.0, now with added security

• The special ingredient in version 2.0 is security, achieved via a deal with Finland’s SSH Communications Security, the company which provides internet-based secure end-to-end communications, and best known for the Secure Shell encrypted communications protocol.

Tizen

=> ↺ [Wallpapers] Samsung Z1 Tizen Stock Wallpapers

Android

=> ↺ Blackphone unveils a new phone and tablet running secure, encrypted Android

• Today at Mobile World Congress, the encrypted phone system Blackphone announced a new phone and tablet, along with a new business focus on enterprise. The phone is called the Blackphone 2, a successor to the first Blackphone shown at MWC last year, but adds a new processor, better screen, and a larger profile overall. The tablet, called the Blackphone+, is slated for release in the fall. Both run Blackphone’s secure OS, forked off of Android, which is designed to protect metadata and provide end-to-end encryption throughout.

=> ↺ Google hires engineers to run Android OS on virtual reality gear – report

• Google has padded out a team of engineers to beaver away at an Android operating system to power virtual reality devices, it has been reported.

• According to the Wall Street Journal, the ad giant plans to follow its well-worn OS smartphone path, by releasing a VR version of its platform that will be freely available online.

=> ↺ Prepare your Android device for disasters with this master plan

=> ↺ “First” Ultra-HD Android TV STB launches in France

• French IPTV provider Free unveiled a “Freebox Mini 4K,” claimed to be the first Ultra HD Android TV set-top box, based on a new Broadcom Cortex-A15 STB SoC.

=> ↺ Tapped on phone 7 times. Now an Android developer!

• Nothing has been really tough so far! Just some little tweaks in the build.gradle files I had to make to the sunshine app to make it run, all have been listed in the documentation of the course.

=> ↺ MIcromax teases Android Lollipop update for YU Yureka

=> ↺ Nuntius: Delivering Android Notifications To The GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ A crappy built-in projector can’t save this massive 13-inch Android tablet

=> ↺ Android Pay: Mobile Payment Systems, Unite

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ 5 open source developers tell us how they got started

=> ↺ Midokura Pushes Open-Source SDN Forward

=> ↺ Google shares gRPC as alternative to REST for microservices

=> ↺ Groovy Java guy off for Restlet

• Guillaume Laforge, leader of the Groovy project, is joining Restlet, a small company which supports the open source Restlet framework.

• The Restlet framework is used by Java developers to create web APIs, such as those which provide cloud services to mobile and web applications. It takes its name from REST (Representational State Transfer), a technique for building web services, usually based on HTTP, that are web-friendly and easily called from JavaScript or other languages. The Restlet framework includes a Java client for Android and other platforms.

=> ↺ The GIMP’s bad news could be good news

• This month, the GIMP lost its User eXperience (UX) maintainer.

=> ↺ The future of open source is a better user experience

• Each year, my favorite open source software survey asks “Where is the future of open source taking us?” I like to try to think far into the future. Not next year or the next five, but where can the horizon of open source and its unique mix of collaborative ideals and communal practices take us?

=> ↺ PredictionIO Unveils Open Source Predictive Analysis Suite for E-Commerce

=> ↺ Marvell Eyes IoT Developers by Open Sourcing KinomaJS Code

Events

=> ↺ POSSCON Returns to South Carolina

• After taking a year off so that IT-oLogy, the nonprofit behind the event, could concentrate on launching the Great Wide Open conference in Atlanta, the POSSCON developers’ conference will return to Columbia, South Carolina on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14th and 15th. Last year, regular attendees of POSSCON were urged to attend the Atlanta event instead. This year’s event will take place at various venues in the Vista, Columbia’s arts and entertainment district.

=> ↺ Akademy 2015 Call for Papers and Registration open

• Akademy is the KDE Community conference. If you are working on topics relevant to KDE or Qt, this is your chance to present your work and ideas at the Conference from 25th-31st July in A Coruña, Spain. The days for talks are Saturday and Sunday, 25th and 26th July. The rest of the week will be BoFs, unconference sessions and workshops.

=> ↺ Siemens Commits New Motherboard Support To Coreboot

• While you probably don’t have a Siemens motherboard underneath your desk, the company has committed support for another one of their motherboards to Coreboot.

Web Browsers

=> ↺ FFmpeg 2.6 Out Now, Devs Hope Google and Mozilla Will Use ffvp9 for 1080p Playback

Chrome

=> ↺ 4 things you (probably) didn’t know you can do with Chrome for Linux

Mozilla

=> ↺ Position privacy protection

• Mozilla maintains access points (AP) database

=> ↺ Mozilla Expands Firefox OS Phone Ecosystem With Partners’ Help

• Mozilla is expanding its ecosystem of Firefox OS-powered phones with the help of partners KDDI, LG U+, Telefonica and Verizon, which are all working to build new classes of entry-level smartphones. Firefox OS is now set to power 17 different smartphones that are delivered in 40 different markets around the world.

=> ↺ Firefox OS heading for Africa – and the U.S. too

• Orange announced a $40 ‘Klif’ Firefox OS phone for Africa, and Mozilla says it’s working with Verizon Wireless and others on Firefox OS feature phones.

• There’s still no evidence that Mozilla’s HTML-focused Firefox OS has made much of a dent in the world smartphone market, where it has been focused on low-end devices sold primarily to emerging markets. Yet, Firefox OS still leads the way among upstart, Linux-based mobile operating systems, and will soon be available in more than 40 markets, this year, on a total of 17 smartphones, according to its latest stats. Meanwhile, the very first Tizen (Samsung Z1) and Ubuntu (BQ Aquaris E4.5) phones have only just shipped, and Jolla’s Sailfish OS based Jolla phones are still mostly limited to Europe.

=> ↺ Firefox OS Proves Flexibility of Web: Ecosystem Expands with More Partners, Device Categories and Regions in 2015

=> ↺ Mozilla, KDDI, LG U+, Telefónica and Verizon Wireless Collaborate to Create New Category of Firefox OS Phones

=> ↺ Mozilla’s Really Important News: Thunderbird Lives

• So why does that matter? After all, there are lots of ways of accessing email, so why should we care whether Thunderbird has been semi-abandoned or not? As I wrote at the end of 2013, the world has changed dramatically in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks about massive surveillance of our online activities. That makes using encryption crucial, and that, in its turn, gives Thunderbird a renewed importance, because it is currently one of the most popular ways for using GNU Privacy Guard, the free software version of the core PGP technology, via Enigmail. Indeed, it’s fascinating to see from the Thunderbird blog post on “Active Daily Installations” that privacy-loving Germany headed the list with 1.7 million out of a total of 9.3 million (UK could only manage a rather feeble 254,000.)

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ The three open source projects that transformed Hadoop

=> ↺ Docker hires’n’acquires to cure its security, networking headaches

• Application container firm Docker is staffing up, having brought on new talent to further its security and networking development efforts.

=> ↺ Hadoop gets native C/C++ injection

• Like Hadoop but it’s just a bit too Javary? There’s now an answer for that: MapReduce for C (MR4C).

Business

=> ↺ 10 best uses for open source software in the business world

• Open source offers some compelling benefits for businesses large and small — but you might be surprised at some of the ways it’s being used.

=> ↺ Why large companies use open source ERP

• The main reason larger companies use open source Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is because they are cheaper and easier to customize.

BSD

=> ↺ OpenBSD Sponsors Work For Better Browser Security

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GnuCash selected as “Community Choice” project on Sourceforge

Project Releases

=> ↺ Wireshark, World’s Most Popular Network Analyzer, Receives Numerous Improvements in Recent Update

• Wireshark, the world’s most popular free network protocol analyzer software, has been recently updated to version 1.12.4, a release that introduces a large number of improvements, addresses lots of bugs, and brings updated protocol support, as well as new and updated capture file support.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Open source used to manage Figueres’ environment

• The Spanish town of Figueres is relying on free and open source software to help manage its urban and natural environment. Fisersa Ecoserveis, an environmental company, is using a range of open source solutions to create, update and manage interactive geographic maps, used for monitoring and planning the city’s green spaces.

=> ↺ Cenatic inventories commercial open source support

• Cenatic is making an inventory of commercial technical support for open source software solutions. The open source software resource centre of the Spanish government hopes that the directory will boost the availability of support for enterprise open source applications. The agency has just launched a survey and will be talking to industry experts.

Licensing

=> ↺ Why We Should Welcome and Support This GPL Lawsuit

• We are excited to announce an anonymous match for this campaign, where every dollar donated will be matched up to $50,000. Please donate now: by becoming a Conservancy Supporter or via donate link on the right.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Who’s leading the charge for transparency in democratic elections?

=> ↺ Open Data, Open Opportunity.

• Since our inception, the openness of government has been a key stone of Pirate politics. A democratically run country absolutely requires openness and transparency to exist, in order to make the elected representatives accountable to the electorate. It’s through obfuscation of data, back door deals, and deliberate misuse of facts and statistics that a government manipulates their position of power to their own ends, strengthening their own position, and eroding the ability for the electorate to hold them accountable, creating a vicious circle. The end result of this is a direct route towards absolute power, and, as we all know, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

=> ↺ Why UK politicians could learn a lot from the Pirate party

• Up to now, its obsessions have been grouped around the issues of internet freedom, state surveillance and the monopolisation of intellectual property and communications. But a glance at the Reddit page where the crowdsourced UK manifesto is being assembled reveals a much wider agenda. If you discount the pure techie stuff, the top five policies being discussed right now are publication of all government documents; removal of CCTV from public places; exempting small businesses from EU VAT rules; scaling all fines against a convicted person’s wealth; and – as with the Greens – paying everybody a basic income from taxation.

=> ↺ WhiteBikes gets start in Slovakia, dreams of a city near you

• For the past few months I’ve been working on an open source software project aimed at improving life in a city called Bratislava in Slovakia. It’s an Open Source Bike Share system that I, along with creator Michal Maly and a few others, have been developing for Bratislava’s Cyklokuchyna (Bike Kitchen). It’s community bike share system we call WhiteBikes.

=> ↺ Exploring the world of OpenStack, ensuring successful deployment, and more

=> ↺ Docker supports real life whales, Linux v4.0 decided with a poll, and more

=> ↺ Cyanogen teams with Qualcomm, Thunderbird lives, and more

=> ↺ Make a Twitter-controlled desk lamp with open source tools

Open Data

=> ↺ Open Belgium 2015: data quality the main excuse for not publishing Open Data

Open Hardware

=> ↺ OCP Summit: Passing the Open Hardware Tipping Point

• For the last four years, the Open Compute Project has had that covered. Just as Linux and BSD have blazed a trail in the open source side of things for software, OCP seeks to open hardware the same way, providing standards for open hardware and allowing for hardware makers to use them in creating networking and server works in a way that benefits all.

=> ↺ Why buy from SparkFun instead of a bigbox seller?

• SparkFun Electronics was founded in 2003 as a source for engineers, inventors, prototypers and DIY enthusiasts to find the gear and tools they need to make their electronics projects possible. More than a decade later, SparkFun is still a leader in the world of open source hardware.

=> ↺ Robotics in the classroom with the Hummingbird kit

=> ↺ Why We Need Free Digital Hardware Designs

• To what extent do the ideas of free software extend to hardware? Is it a moral obligation to make our hardware designs free, just as it is to make our software free? Does maintaining our freedom require rejecting hardware made from nonfree designs?

Programming

=> ↺ Bash is more powerful than you think

• Last week I talked a bit about how best to protect against the vagaries of human error, happenstance, and Murphy’s Law in regard to remote devices. Most of that includes trying to anticipate every possible circumstance that may occur and provide some kind of protection against them, such as remote-controlled power distribution devices that can automatically power-cycle a device if network connectivity is lost or scripts that run on remote devices that can make sure that some form of remote access, such Dropbear SSH, is running and available.

=> ↺ ‘R’ is being Turbo-charged by 1010data

• For those unfamiliar with the ‘R’ technology, it’s a programming language and software environment that is used extensively for statistical programming and graphics. It is a favorite of what we are now calling “Data Scientists.” For those interested, as a GNU project, it is freely available under the GNU General Public License.

=> ↺ GitLab acquires Gitorious to bolster its on premises code collaboration platform

=> ↺ Blockly makes it easier to learn to code

=> ↺ Programmers defend the value of refactoring

• If you read my articles here on ITworld, you’ve probably noticed that I like to write about academic research relating to the work of software developers. I’ll often share the results of empirical studies, surveys, and experiments that I feel our readers who work as developers would find interesting, such as ones that found why software builds fail, that your coding style is as unique as a fingerprint, and that happy programmers are better programmers. To that end, last week, I wrote about the results of a recently published experiment which concluded that refactoring doesn’t improve the quality of source code.

Leftovers

Science

=> ↺ Why are women leaving the tech industry in droves?

• Ana Redmond launched into a technology career for an exciting challenge and a chance to change the world. She was well-equipped to succeed too: An ambitious math and science wiz, she could code faster, with fewer errors, than anyone she knew.

• In 2011, after 15 years, she left before achieving a management position.

• Garann Means became a programmer for similar reasons. After 13 years, she quit too, citing a hostile and unwelcoming environment for women.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ 6 Realities of Buying Drugs (While Wearing a Wire)

• In cop movies, any time they want to take down a big-time kingpin, they start small: by arresting some lowly hoodlum and convincing him to “roll over” on his boss by becoming a double agent for the good guys. This street criminal then starts risking his life to feed information to the police, knowing there will be hell to pay if he or she gets caught, and prison if they refuse.

=> ↺ Venezuela installs finger scanners in supermarkets

• Venezuela is due to begin installing about 20,000 fingerprint scanners at supermarkets across the country, as part of its introduction of rationing.

• President Nicolas Maduro said the system would reduce food hoarding and panic buying.

=> ↺ New Study: Homeopathy Not Effective for Treating Any Condition

• Homeopathy is not effective for treating any health condition, Australia’s top body for medical research has concluded, after undertaking an extensive review of existing studies.

=> ↺ More than two thirds of smokers are killed by diseases caused by tobacco use, says study

Security

=> ↺ Domain keywords used to spot phishing sites

=> ↺ Samsung security: How long is ‘too long’ to patch?

• The Dr. Manuel Sadosky Foundation, based in Argentina, disclosed on security list Full Disclosure a vulnerability which impacts Samsung device users. Discovered by Joaquín Manuel Rinaudo, security vulnerabilities in the Samsung SNS Provider application for Android place social media accounts at risk, potentially allowing malicious third-party apps to access photos, status updates, feeds, location and other information — as well as post content on the user’s behalf without consent.

=> ↺ Lax WordPress security, data protection caused by lack of education

• WordPress, used to manage approximately 75 million websites worldwide, is a CMS system known for its easy install and flexible customisation with plugins and custom coding. As the content management system (CMS) is so widely used, it is unsurprising that the system is also one of the most widely-attacked. According to research conducted by Imperva, WordPress is attacked 24.1 percent more (.PDF) than all other CMS platforms combined.

=> ↺ FREAKing hell: All Windows versions vulnerable to SSL snoop

=> ↺ Security advisories for Wednesday

=> ↺ Hackers exploit router flaws in unusual pharming attack

• The technique exploited security flaws in home routers to gain access to the administrator console. Once there, the hackers changed the routers’ DNS (Domain Name System) settings, a type of attack known as pharming.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Why Minsk 2.0 was dead on arrival: U.S. wants war, not peace

=> ↺ Why the Western Media Will Never Show Putin’s Three Hour Press Conference

=> ↺ American exceptionalism is a sick joke

=> ↺ Noam Chomsky on How the Iraq War Birthed ISIS & Why U.S. Policy Undermines the Fight Against It

=> ↺ Noam Chomsky: To Deal with ISIS, U.S. Should Own Up to Chaos of Iraq War & Other Radicalizing Acts

=> ↺ Noam Chomsky: Edward Snowden a True Patriot Who Should be Honored

• Noam Chomsky said that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is a true patriot who revealed vast surveillance programs that have nothing to do with combating terrorism.

=> ↺ Netanyahu’s Campaign Road Show Comes to Washington

• In the end, Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was precisely what was expected from the beginning, from the day that House Speaker John Boehner publicly invited the Israeli prime minister: an Israeli campaign event before a more impressive and much more sycophantic audience than the Israeli prime minister could have found at home; a Republican show designed to use Israel against President Barack Obama; and a blow to the connection between Israel and the United States that Netanyahu and Boehner supposedly hold so dear.

=> ↺ Israeli Claims About Iran Nuclear Program Denied By Own Spy Agency

=> ↺ Maduro Outlines More Evidence of Coup Plot Planned in New York

• Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro revealed new evidence on the coup plot against his administration Tuesday, in his weekly televised show, including that much of it was planned in the United States.

• President Maduro played the audio of a conversation held between Carlos Manuel Osuna Saraco, a man based in New York, and a soldier, in which Osuna dictates the statement that the rebel soldiers should read out during the coup.

• The Venezuelan president explained that in addition to the call from Osuna’s base in New York, there was a second phone call from Miami, which he outlined.

• “This plot has a tag which reads ‘made in the U-S-A,’” said Maduro, adding that a member of the United States embassy in Venezuela also met with opposition leaders, giving them documents to help in the preparation stage.

• The Venezuelan head of state urged U.S. President Barack Obama to abandon his government’s attempts to oust him.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ In Florida, officials ban term ‘climate change’

• The state of Florida is the region most susceptible to the effects of global warming in this country, according to scientists. Sea-level rise alone threatens 30 percent of the state’s beaches over the next 85 years.

=> ↺ Florida banned state workers from using term ‘climate change’ – report

• ‘Global warming’ and ‘sustainability’ among phrases allegedly barred at state’s Department of Environmental Protection, investigative report finds

=> ↺ 750 tons of Fukushima plant water leaked – TEPCO

• In yet another major leak at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) reported that 750 tons of contaminated rainwater have escaped the plant.

=> ↺ ‘Mutant’ animals being bred for hunters to kill in South Africa

• Ranchers in South Africa are breeding “mutant” animals with exotic colours and longer horns to attract wealthy hunters who are willing to pay a premium to kill them.

• This is part of “the latest craze in South Africa’s $1bn high-end big-game hunting industry”, reports Bloomberg.

=> ↺ In South Africa, Ranchers Are Breeding Mutant Animals to Be Hunted

• Finding Columbus in the wild would be a stroke of amazing luck. More than 99.9 percent of all wild gnus, also called wildebeest, from the Afrikaans for “wild beast,” have dark coats. But this three-year-old golden bull and his many offspring are not an accident. They have been bred specially for their unusual coloring, which is coveted by big game hunters.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ National Right to Work Committee Attacks WI Workers with Hypocritical Zeal

• After Scott Walker likened Wisconsin teachers, snowplow drivers, firefighters and cops to terrorists over the weekend, being compared to mere criminals is a step up for union organizers like Eleni Schirmer, who co-chairs the Teaching Assistants Association at UW-Madison.

Censorship

=> ↺ Indian Government Attempts To Censor BBC Gang Rape Documentary; Succeeds Only In Drawing More Attention To It

• Supposedly at the center of the Indian government’s attempted ban is an “illegal” interview with the bus driver, whose comments placed the blame on the rape victim. The bus driver also claimed he didn’t participate in the assault, something disproven later by DNA evidence.

=> ↺ India wants global ban on gang rape documentary video

• Leslee Udwin’s “India’s Daughter” features an interview with Mukesh Singh, one of four men sentenced to death for the rape and torture of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012.

Privacy

=> ↺ What the Hack! 56 Suspected Hackers arrested in the UK

• The UK National Crime Agency arrested 56 suspected hackers, including one 23-year-old male who allegedly attempted to hack his way into the U.S.’ Department of Defense in 2014. Not attempting to minimize the potential risks of hacking but how much does cyber-crime actually cost, what are the risks and what about those who hack the data of billions of internet users per day to, allegedly, “keep all of us safe?”

=> ↺ Beijing Strikes Back in US-China Tech Wars

• China’s new draft anti-terror legislation has sent waves across the U.S. tech community. If there is a brewing tech war between U.S. and China over government surveillance backdoors and a preference for indigenous software, China’s new draft terror law makes it clear that Beijing is happy to give the United States a taste of its own medicine. The law has already drawn considerable criticism from international human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for its purported attempts to legitimize wanton human rights violations in the name of counter-terrorism. Additionally, China has opted to implement its own definition of terrorism, placing “any thought, speech, or activity that, by means of violence, sabotage, or threat, aims to generate social panic, influence national policy-making, create ethnic hatred, subvert state power, or split the state” under the umbrella of the overused T-word.

=> ↺ Canadian risks prison for not giving up phone’s passcode

• A Canadian charged for refusing to give border agents his smartphone passcode was expected Thursday to become the first to test whether border inspections can include information stored on devices.

=> ↺ The Ambassador who worked from a Nairobi bathroom to avoid State Dept. IT

• However, another Obama administration appointee—the former ambassador to Kenya—did do that, essentially refusing to use any of the Nairobi embassy’s internal IT. He worked out of a bathroom because it was the only place in the embassy where he could use an unsecured network and his personal computer, using Gmail to conduct official business. And he did all this during a time when Chinese hackers were penetrating the personal Gmail inboxes of a number of US diplomats.

=> ↺ CIA spends years trying to break Apple security

• Documents obtained by The Intercept reveal the security researchers’ work, presented at an annual gathering called the “Jamboree” at a Lockheed Martin facility in northern Virginia. Attendees of the CIA-sponsored, secretive event — which has run for nearly a decade — discuss the exploitation of vulnerabilities and flaws found in commercial electronics, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad product ranges.

=> ↺ Yahoo exec goes mano a mano with NSA director over crypto backdoors

=> ↺ Data Retention: Mass Surveillance Challenged Across Europe

• On 8 April 2014, the European Union Court of Justice invalidated the 2006 Directive on Data Retention. Through this decision, all the European legislations on data retention were seriously undermined, as the EUCJ considered that the generalised retention of data on non-suspicious individuals, furthermore for an extended period of time, is a form of mass surveillance incompatible with fundamental rights.

=> ↺ NSA Probably Doesn’t Have ALL of Hillary’s Emails … But Maybe Someone Should

• I’m among those who believes Hillary Clinton’s use of a privately run email server is an abuse of power. Doing so appears to have skirted laws ensuring good governance and it may well have exposed her communications to adversaries (including some who would have reason to use the contents of her email to help Republicans win the White House), even if her email would have been just as targeted at State, per reports about persistent hacking of it. While I don’t buy — in the absence of evidence — she did so to hide ties with the Clinton Foundation, I do think she did so not just for convenience, but for control, as I laid out last week.

=> ↺ Encryption Backdoors Will Always Turn Around And Bite You In The Ass

• As you may have heard, the law enforcement and intelligence communities have been pushing strongly for backdoors in encryption. They talk about ridiculous things like “golden keys,” pretending that it’s somehow possible to create something that only the good guys can use. Many in the security community have been pointing out that this is flat-out impossible. The second you introduce a backdoor, there is no way to say that only “the good guys” can use it.

• As if to prove that, an old “golden key” from the 90s came back to bite a whole bunch of the internet this week… including the NSA. Some researchers discovered a problem which is being called FREAK for “Factoring RSA Export Keys.” The background story is fairly involved and complex, but here’s a short version (that leaves out a lot of details): back during the first “cryptowars” when Netscape was creating SSL (mainly to protect the early e-commerce market), the US still considered exporting strong crypto to be a crime. To deal with this, RSA offered “export grade encryption” that was deliberately weak (very, very weak) that could be used abroad. As security researcher Matthew Green explains, in order to deal with the fact that SSL-enabled websites had to deal with both strong crypto and weak “export grade” crypto, — the “golden key” — there was a system that would try to determine which type of encryption to use on each connection. If you were in the US, it should go to strong encryption. Outside the US? Downgrade to “export grade.”

=> ↺ Snowden GCSB revelations: Leaked documents show New Zealand spies on its Pacific friends and sends data to US

• New Zealand’s spies are targeting the entire email, phone and social media communications of the country’s closest, friendliest and most vulnerable neighbours, according to documents supplied by United States fugitive and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

• Snowden’s files reveal a heavy focus on “full-take collection” from the Pacific with nearly two dozen countries around the world targeted by our Government Communications Security Bureau.

=> ↺ Why I’m Saying Goodbye to Apple, Google and Microsoft

=> ↺ Online Privacy Is Worth The Extra Work

• This past week, Laura Poitras’s documentary, Citizen Four, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. When he provided the documents that revealed the details of universal spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA), the subject of the documentary, Edward Snowden, wrote an accompanying manifesto. His “sole motive”, he wrote, was “to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them. The U.S. government, in conspiracy with client states, chiefest among them the Five Eyes – the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand – have inflicted upon the world a system of secret, pervasive surveillance from which there is no refuge.” (1)

Civil Rights

=> ↺ 20% of Germans want revolution, majority say democracy ‘isn’t real’ – study

=> ↺ Ferguson cop won’t face civil rights charges in Michael Brown shooting

=> ↺ Daniel Ellsberg: Petraeus Case Shows Hypocrisy of Whistleblower Crackdown

• The U.S. government’s “hand-slap” treatment of former CIA director David Petraeus, who in 2012 leaked classified military information to his biographer and mistress, Paula Broadwell, stands in stark contrast to the Obama administration’s aggressive crackdown on whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Jeffrey Sterling, and John Kiriakou—and should be the turning point away from such policies.

• So says renowned Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who was charged under the Espionage Act for disclosing secret U.S. military documents related to the Vietnam War in 1971. Snowden, who leaked a trove of classified NSA documents to journalists, now also faces prosecution under the Espionage Act.

• Speaking to Trevor Timm at the Guardian on Thursday, Ellsberg noted that the “actual charges against [Edward Snowden] are not more serious, as violations of the classification regulations and non-disclosure agreements, than those Petraeus has admitted to, which are actually quite spectacular.”

=> ↺ PETRAEUS PLEA DEAL REVEALS TWO-TIER JUSTICE SYSTEM FOR LEAKS

• David Petraeus, the former Army general and CIA director, admitted today that he gave highly-classified journals to his onetime lover and that he lied to the FBI about it. But he only has to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor that will not involve a jail sentence thanks to a deal with federal prosecutors. The deal is yet another example of a senior official treated leniently for the sorts of violations that lower-level officials are punished severely for.

• According to the plea deal, Petraeus, while leading American forces in Afghanistan, maintained eight notebooks that he filled with highly-sensitive information about the identities of covert officers, military strategy, intelligence capabilities and his discussions with senior government officials, including President Obama. Rather than handing over these “Black Books,” as the plea agreement calls them, to the Department of Defense when he retired from the military in 2011 to head the CIA, Petraeus retained them at his home and lent them, for several days, to Paula Broadwell, his authorized biographer and girlfriend.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Jeb Bush Is The Latest Politician To Demonstrate Absolutely No Understanding Of Net Neutrality

• Like many folks, I’m dreading the seeming inevitability of a Clinton-Bush presidential campaign next year involving Hillary Clinton against Jeb Bush. I’m 40-years-old and half of my life has involved a Clinton or a Bush in the Oval Office (and it’s even worse if you count Vice Presidency). Both seem completely out of touch with the real issues of today. Instead, both are so surrounded by political cronies and yes-men that it’s difficult to see either candidate as being willing to actually take on the real challenges facing the world today. Clinton is currently dealing with the fallout from her decision to expose her emails to spies while shielding them from the American public. And Jeb Bush is now spouting pure nonsense on net neutrality.

=> ↺ EU Digital Commissioner: Net Neutrality Is A ‘Taliban-Like’ Issue

• Until recently, most people probably assumed that real net neutrality was more likely to come to Europe than to the US. But in one of those ironic little twists, not only has the FCC voted in favor of net neutrality, but attacks on the idea in Europe have suddenly multiplied, leaving the final outcome there in doubt. Worryingly, one of the strongest verbal assaults on net neutrality comes from the very EU Commissioner who is in charge of the relevant legislation, Günther Oettinger.

=> ↺ Net Neutrality Clears Hurdle & Other Things

• Well, much of the focus for the week was on the Federal Communications Commission vote on increased net neutrality protections, and according to rational news sources reporting on the issue (e.g., just about everyone but Fox News and their wannabes), this is a good thing.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Hollywood’s Anti-Piracy Secrets Must Be Revealed, Court Rules

• All records that are part of the now-closed case between Hotfile and the MPAA will be unsealed in the interests of the public. In a decision that will be a disappointment to the industry group, U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams declined a request from the MPAA who wanted to keep sensitive court filings sealed indefinitely claiming they may benefit pirates.

=> ↺ Movie Group To “Kill Piracy” By Not Releasing Movies For Months

• There have been some radical solutions to online piracy in recent years but one coming out of India today is perhaps the most ‘ambitious’ so far. The Tamil Film Producer’s Council says it is in discussion to stop releasing all films for at least three months which means that pirates will have nothing to copy and will therefore go out of business.

=> ↺ Perceptions on piracy: Pirate Party evangelist Rick Falkvinge on a perennial problem

• We spoke to Pirate Party evangelist Rick Falkvinge to get his take on the current situation.

• He believes that the copyright cops, and the copyright mechanisms that they use, are a “preposterous” failure and that only a global change in perception will make a difference.

• Falkvinge, perhaps unsurprisingly, is low on sympathy for the copyright industry and its messages and solutions.

=> ↺ Aussie Anti-Piracy Plans Boost Demand for Anonymous VPNs

• Australians’ interest in VPN services has skyrocketed after local ISPs announced plans for a three-strikes anti-piracy system. With potential lawsuits against consumers on the table, many subscribers are now planning ahead to stay on the safe side.

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