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● 03.12.15

● Links 12/3/2015: Two-week Catchup

Posted in News Roundup at 5:21 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Virginia Tech’s Linux Laptop Orchestra puts a new twist on orchestral music

• Bukvic and L²Ork have fostered musical progress since 2009. Using relatively cheap but innovative tools, the group built the world’s first Linux-based laptop orchestra.

=> ↺ Linux Learner Bundle: Save 91% on 6 in-depth Linux courses

=> ↺ Up to $1,000 Off All Our March Training Courses

=> ↺ Don’t forget one of Linux’s best features: How to use multiple workspaces

• Windows users have long been jealous of workspaces—also called virtual desktops or multiple desktops—on Linux. But many Linux desktops have hidden this feature by default in recent years. Soon, Windows users will have multiple desktop workspaces enabled by default—and many Linux users won’t.

• That’s crazy! Virtual desktops have long been one of the standout features of the Linux desktop, and it shouldn’t be lost. Here’s how you can get started with workspaces on Ubuntu’s Unity or another desktop environment today.

=> ↺ Seeing The Light

• Whatever the time of illumination, the results are clear. GNU/Linux works for people in any country.

=> ↺ 2015: The Year of Linux?

• I love Linux. In fact, if I could reliably get my Windows games to run on them, I’d drop Windows like a bad habit.

=> ↺ From the Editors: You’ve come a long way, Linux

• This month, as we do every March, we reported on the Who Writes Linux report from the Linux Foundation. Usually, this is a fairly rote affair: Red Hat and Intel contribute tons of code, Greg Kroah-Hartman does a ton of the work, and we learn about some small firm somewhere that’s cranking out kernel code disproportionate to its size.

=> ↺ Download Linux Voice issue 4

• It’s that time again! Issue 4 of Linux Voice is now nine months old, so we’re releasing it under the Creative Commons BY-SA license. You can share and modify all content from the magazine (apart from adverts), even for commercial purposes, providing you credit Linux Voice as the original source and retain the same license.

Desktop

=> ↺ Global Increase In Usage Of Desktop GNU/Linux, February 2015

=> ↺ Linux Remote Desktop Roundup

• Over the years I’ve found that a significant hurdle to getting family and friends to switch to Linux comes from its lack of familiarity. This is especially true when it comes to troubleshooting any issues. Obviously, when a malfunction occurs it’s not always possible to be there in person.

• However thanks to the wonders of broadband Internet and advanced software, we’re now able to do the next best thing. In this article, I’ll share some recommended remote desktop software for Linux. I’ll explore both open source and closed source solutions.

=> ↺ GNU/Linux Makes Another Move In Canada

=> ↺ */Linux Breaks 3% in Canada

=> ↺ So it turns out Windows and Ubuntu really aren’t that different at all

• You know those awful romantic comedies where two would-be suitors accidently bump into each other and form an instant mutual dislike before eventually realising that, gosh, they actually have a huge amount in common?

=> ↺ The Cat That Has Linux’s Tongue

• When I first decided that I wanted to use text to speech on a daily basis, I began researching and testing the available applications. The Mint/Ubuntu repositories showed much promise. The first thing I did was become acquainted with the KDE app Jovie. It’s appeal was that it’s built to work right in KDE, but right out of the gate I ran into a such a high level of complexity and gaping holes in usability that I just shut it down and began searching for other solutions. Apparently, Jovie depends on other voice “synthesisers” to get working.

=> ↺ Help: Linux to the rescue of older operating systems

• As you know, when someone offers free stuff, we give it a few weeks in order to give each group, organization or individual in need a chance to respond. That’s what we’ll do with Mary Greenfield’s generous offer to donate free fabric, so give it another week and then we’ll forward responses to her.

• One of the most rewarding aspects of writing this column is realizing that it generates discussion, and here’s a response to that question about updates for an older computer running Windows ME…

Server

=> ↺ Docker Acquires SocketPlane to Boost Container Networking

• Docker, Inc., the corporate sponsor of the open platform for container-based applications, today announced the acquisition of software-defined networking (SDN) startup SocketPlane. SocketPlane was founded in Q4, 2014 with a vision of delivering Docker-native networking, and it has been an active participant in shaping the initial efforts around Docker’s open API for networking. “The explicit focus of the SocketPlane team within Docker will be on collaborating with the partner community to complete a rich set of networking APIs that addresses the needs of application developers and network and system administrators alike,” reports Docker.

=> ↺ March 2015 Issue of Linux Journal: System Administration

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi python supercomputer

=> ↺ Docker Releases Orchestration Tools to Support Open Source Containerization

• The orchestration tools include Docker Machine, Docker Swarm and Docker Compose. Designed to help system administrators deploy and manage apps running inside Docker containers, the tools provide host provisioning (Machine), clustering support (Swarm) and support for distributed applications that span multiple containers (Compose).

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 4.0-rc2 Kernel Released After Delay Due To Intel DRM Driver

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 4.0 RC2 Released a Little Late Because of Apple Mac Mini Bug

=> ↺ Linux 4.0-rc2

• So rc2 missed the usual Sunday afternoon timing, because I spent most of the weekend debugging an issue that happened on an old Mac Mini I have around, and I hate making even early -rc releases with problems on machines that I have direct access to. Even if it only affected old machines that actual developers are unlikely to have or at least use.

• Today I got the patch from Daniel Vetter to fix it, so instead of doing a Sunday evening rc2, it’s a Tuesday morning one. Go get it. It works better for the delay.

• Other than that little one-liner i915 fix? Not much, actually. It’s been a very quiet week, for being this early in the release process. Sure, 3.19-rc2 was even smaller, so it continues a trend, but that was the xmas week. I hope this low volume is just because the 4.0 merge window itself was somewhat calmer than most recent releases. But I suspect the real reason is that the driver and networking trees from GregKH and davem are pending, and didn’t make rc2.

• We’ll see.

• Anyway, the shortlog is appended, and testing is appreciated,

• Linus

=> ↺ Greg K-H Tries to Code Linus’ Behavior

=> ↺ On the Linux Kernel’s Code of Conflict

• Last week, 60 kernel developers signed off on a small patch called the Code of Conflict that provides guidelines for discourse in the kernel community and outlines a path for mediation if someone feels abused or threatened. The code was written by kernel maintainer Greg K-H, supported by many of the most prolific maintainers and developers of the kernel community and accepted into the kernel by Linus Torvalds himself.

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation wants to rein in its insult-spewing leader

• On Monday, the Linux Foundation kinda sorta slapped him on the wrist when they issued a new “Code of Conflict” policy that declared “personal insults or abuse are not welcome.”

=> ↺ Open Compute Project (OCP) Formally Accepts Open Network Linux (ONL)

• Big Switch Networks to Contribute ONL to Accelerate Adoption of Open, Standards-Based Software Platform, Speed Pace of Innovation in Switch Hardware

=> ↺ Big Switch brings Linux switch OS to OCP

• Big Switch Networks announced that the Open Compute Project (OCP) has formally accepted Big Switch’s contribution of Open Network Linux (ONL) as its reference Network Operating System (NOS). ONL is a Linux-based open source network operating system for bare-metal and branded white-box (“brite box”) switches.

=> ↺ Ouch! Google crocks capacitors and deviates DRAM to root Linux

• Last summer Google gathered a bunch of leet security researchers as its Project Zero team and instructed them to find unusual zero-day flaws. They’ve had plenty of success on the software front – but on Monday announced a hardware hack that’s a real doozy.

• The technique, dubbed “rowhammer”, rapidly writes and rewrites memory to force capacitor errors in DRAM, which can be exploited to gain control of the system. By repeatedly recharging one line of RAM cells, bits in an adjacent line can be altered, thus corrupting the data stored.

=> ↺ ​Linux adopts conflict resolution code

• The Linux development community now has an organized way to deal with the eternal problem of developer conflict.

=> ↺ Linux adds anti-troll dispute resolution code to the kernel

• THE LINUX FOUNDATION has finally twigged that being mean isn’t nice. Up to now, the attitude towards conflict between developers has been very much one of dealing with it, and if you can’t take the flack, take a hike.

=> ↺ A pile of stable kernel updates

=> ↺ Verification Challenge 3: cbmc

• For those of use working in the Linux kernel, it would be nice to have a verification tool that operated directly on C source code. And there are tools that do just that, for example, the C Bounded Model Checker (cbmc). This tool, which is included in a number of Linux distributions, converts a C-language input file into a (possibly quite large) logic expression. This expression is constructed so that if any combination of variables causes the logic expression to evaluate to true, then (and only then) one of the assertions can be triggered. This logic expression is then passed to a SAT solver, and if this SAT solver finds a solution, then there is a set of inputs that can trigger the assertion. The cbmc tool is also capable of checking for array-bounds errors and some classes of pointer misuse.

=> ↺ Understanding The Linux Kernel’s BPF In-Kernel Virtual Machine

• BPF continues marching forward as a universal, in-kernel virtual machine for the Linux kernel. The Berkeley Packet Filter was originally designed for network packet filtering but has since been extended as eBPF to support other non-network subsystems via the bpf syscall. Here’s some more details on this in-kernel virtual machine.

• Alexei Starovoitov presented at last month’s Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Santa Rosa about BPF as an in-kernel virtual machine. The slides have been published for those wishing to learn more about its state and capabilities.

=> ↺ At last, it’s a new version of Linux

=> ↺ Blind Genetics Researcher Wants to Learn Linux But Needs a Tutor

• Complicating matters is that everyone else in his bioinformatics program is using Linux – on Windows he doesn’t have anyone to troubleshoot issues with when he runs into problems.

=> ↺ New kernel releases

=> ↺ Need for Linux Talent on the Rise: Report

=> ↺ Linux Skills in High Demand, Survey Finds

=> ↺ This week’s survey from the Linux Foundation confirms that open source skills are in high demand

=> ↺ Demand for Linux Skills Growing Faster Than Talent Pool: Report

=> ↺ Want an IT job? Brush up on your Linux skills

=> ↺ Dell’s Linux Engineering team is hiring

=> ↺ ​Companies really want Linux-savvy employees and they want them now

• According to the Linux Foundation and tech job company Dice, in the 2015 Linux Jobs Report, “Nearly all hiring managers are looking to recruit Linux professionals.” While programmers and Linux system administrators are in high demand, your chances of landing a great job are greater if you have cloud, security, and/or software defined networking (SDN) skills.

• In particular, “42 percent of hiring managers say experience with or knowledge of OpenStack and CloudStack are having a big impact on their Linux hiring decisions” while “49 percent of Linux professionals believe open cloud will be the biggest growth area for Linux in 2015.”

=> ↺ Developing Linux Is Essential To Intel’s Success

• The dominant position of Intel in the server processor market is likely helped by the company’s consistent strong support for Linux. Based on the W3Techs chart below, Linux is almost as popular as Windows-based servers are.

=> ↺ How the Linux Kernel is Like an Open Source Turducken

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA Finds and Corrects Old Compiz Bug That Caused Windows to Go Black in Ubuntu

=> ↺ Nvidia patches Ubuntu bug that caused black window screen crashes

=> ↺ Valve develops its own Intel graphics driver for Linux

• Valve has developed its own Intel Vulkan GPU graphics driver for Linux that they intend to open-source. The Vulkan API is still being argued about and will not be finalised until later this year, but Valve has been developing their own Intel GPU reference driver for Vulkan to help early adopters boot-strap their code.

Applications

=> ↺ Writebox Review – The Best Distraction-Free Text Editor

• Writebox is a simple text editor that provides almost no features. Despite this, it’s one of the simplest and most trustworthy WYSIWYG text editors around if you just want something simple for writing.

=> ↺ DNSMasq, the Pint-Sized Super Dæmon!

=> ↺ Keep Tabs on Your Stuff with the What’s in My Bag Web App

=> ↺ Climbing the winding stairs of Emacs

• My earlier reports about my interest and use of emacs had mostly focused on editing code or text, mostly CSS, html and org files. I had considered using emacs for email reading and processing, and I had backed away from it although I wanted to give myself the time to consider more options and get even more acquainted with the various tools and modes available for the famous text editor. Today, I’d like to share with you my latest progress and how my choices to invest more on Emacs shape the way I will be using my desktop in the near future.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Vivaldi Web Browser Tech Preview 2 Is Out with Fast Forward and Rewind – Gallery

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to create split screen shots in Kdenlive

=> ↺ A Hitchhikers Guide to Git: Genesis

=> ↺ Monitor network traffic with Cacti

=> ↺ How To Fix ‘Not Enough Free Disk Space On /boot’ In Ubuntu

=> ↺ phpVirtualBox installation on Debian Linux and Apache2 web server

=> ↺ Do You Need A Swap Partition?

=> ↺ How To Create A Bootable Fedora USB Drive

=> ↺ Installation and Usage Guide for CSF firewall

=> ↺ High-Availability Storage with HA-LVM

=> ↺ How to install KDE’s Plasma 5 on Arch Linux

=> ↺ Install Xfce 4.12 In Xubuntu 14.04 Or 14.10 Via PPA

=> ↺ How to burn .iso to USB drive

=> ↺ How to layout and design an infographic in R

=> ↺ Use VLC like a pro: Half a dozen things you didn’t know it could do

=> ↺ How to backup your Ubuntu Desktop with DejaDup

=> ↺ Linux Basics: Convert IMG Files To VDI Format For Oracle VirtualBox

=> ↺ Linux Basics: How To Find Maximum Supported RAM By Your System

=> ↺ Dual-boot Linux Mint 17.1, Windows 7 on a PC with UEFI firmware

=> ↺ Triple-boot Windows 7, Linux Mint 17.1, Kali 1.1 on a PC with UEFI firmware

=> ↺ Configure OSSEC to not email alerts on IPTables denied messages

=> ↺ How to transfer and play unsupported videos on iPad and iPhone

=> ↺ Install Fail2ban on an Ubuntu 14.04 VPS

=> ↺ Audacious 3.6 Released, Install It In Ubuntu Or Linux Mint

=> ↺ 8 guides for cloud building with OpenStack

=> ↺ How to host multiple sites in a single WordPress installation on CentOS 7

=> ↺ How to use grep to search for strings in files on the shell

=> ↺ How to install Prey on Linux Mint 17.1

=> ↺ How to run Linux and Chrome OS on your Chromebook

• Chromebooks are pretty darn handy. Even some hardcore Windows users now acknowledge that a Chromebook might be just what you need for work. But, as great as Chromebooks are, and as much progress as Google has made in getting “Web-only” apps such as Google Docs to work offline, there are still times that you want an application that’s only available off-line such as the LibreOffice office suite or the GIMP photo editor. For those times, it’s darn handy to be able to run a Linux desktop on a Chromebook.

=> ↺ How to integrate Prey into the security posture of your Linux PC

• Prey is a cross-platform (Android, Linux, iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows desktop) anti-theft tracking software that, when installed and activated on a supported device, makes it possible to remotely locate, lock, wipe and recover it, if it’s stolen or missing.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine 1.7.38 Brings New Gecko Engine, Themed Scrollbars, and Support for More Games

Games

=> ↺ Steam for Linux Now Has More than 1000 Games

• The number of Linux games has just passed the 1000 milestone and there is no sign that it’s slowing down. If anything, the rhythm of porting is getting faster.

=> ↺ The Entroware ‘Proteus’ Gaming Laptop, Reviewed For Linux

• Entroware haven’t been around for long, in fact they only surfaced early last year, so I have been keen to see what their products are like since our communication started.

=> ↺ New Age of Wonders 3 expansion and Mac/Linux ports dated

• Dutch developer Triumph has announced a second major expansion for fantasy strategy game Age of Wonders 3, called Eternal Lords.

=> ↺ Steam for Linux Adoption Sees Important Drop in February

• The latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey for February 2015 shows a swift and noticeable decline in the number of Linux users, which somehow contrary to the general trend from the past few months.

=> ↺ HTC & Valve Partnered Up For The Steam VR Headset

=> ↺ Lots Of Big Games Confirmed For SteamOS, Torchlight II Now Out, Payday 2, Mordor And More Coming Too

• A big part of the games featured on the sale are titles that are already on Linux, such as the Aspyr ports Borderlands 2 and Civilization V and indies like Ziggurat and Kerbal Space Program, but as much as we love those games the announcement has something even bigger. Games that apparently are getting ported but have so far been unannounced.

=> ↺ Nvidia’s Shield Takes On Crysis With Confidence

=> ↺ Valve Launches $49 Steam Link, SteamOS-Powered Streaming Device

=> ↺ Source Engine 2, Steam Link And More Announced At GDC

=> ↺ Magicka 2 Linux Release Likely After The Initial Launch

• Magicka is a very popular action/adventure game that is set to have a sequel soon, and the likelihood of Magicka 2 coming to Linux just went up.

=> ↺ Chivalry: Medieval Warfare Exits Beta For Linux, Some Thoughts & A Sale

=> ↺ New Unreal Tournament Pre-Alpha Playable Build Available for Linux

• We announced last year that Epic Games planned to release a new iteration of its acclaimed Unreal Tournament first-person shooter (FPS) video game built with Unreal Engine 4 for GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Mac OS X computer operating systems.

=> ↺ Batman: Arkham Knight, Saints Row IV, and Grid Autosport Announced for SteamOS in Massive Sale

• …a massive Steam sale and revealed that a number of important games are heading for the Linux platform.

=> ↺ Valve Starts Listing The Steam Machines In The Steam Store

• Valve has started showing off the Steam Controller and the many different Steam Machines within the Steam Store.

=> ↺ Steam launches massive Linux game sale to celebrate Steam Machine unveiling

=> ↺ Steam Machines: The Specs, Prices, and Release Dates

• Following Valve’s Steam Machine reveal in 2013, the PC games giant retreated for a year and, at GDC this week, returned to the stage with a robust and detailed line-up of 15 systems.

• This collection of a dozen living-room PCs–each now with their finalised specs, prices and release dates–together encapsulate Valve’s vision for Steam Machines: Scalable, modifiable, attractive units that aren’t the typical desktop setup.

Desktop Environments/WMs

=> ↺ An Everyday Linux User Review Of LXLE

• I have been asked on a number of occasions to take a look at LXLE.

• I downloaded LXLE 14.04.1 a long time ago and for one reason or another it has taken until now to finally sit down and get to grips with it.

• LXLE stands for Lubuntu Extra Life Extension. The purpose of LXLE is to take the base Lubuntu distribution and enhance it so that all the features the average person requires is available from the outset.

=> ↺ A Look At What’s New In Xfce 4.12 [Video, Screenshots]

=> ↺ Xfce Releases Version 4.12

• Evolution, not revolution, to match users’ needs: That is what’s behind the process the Xfce team uses in developing their desktop environment. So, despite what some consider a long time between releases, Xfce released version 4.12 last week, a new stable version that supersedes Xfce 4.10.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ PhotoQt Review – A New Kind of Image Viewer

• PhotoQt is a simple image viewer written in Qt that tries to do things a little bit differently. It succeeds for the most part, but the user also needs to adapt to a new way of doing things. If that is a good thing remains to be determined by the users.

=> ↺ Plasma 5.2 Bugfix Update

• Today KDE releases a bugfix update to Plasma 5, versioned 5.2.1. Plasma 5.2 was released in January with many feature refinements and new modules to complete the desktop experience.

=> ↺ Ultimate guide to Linux desktop environments

=> ↺ Kontact Kolab Now

=> ↺ digiKam Sprint 2014

=> ↺ KDE Applications 14.12.2 and Frameworks 5.7 available in the stable repositories

=> ↺ KDE Applications 14.12.3 Officially Released

• KDE Applications 14.12 has been released by its makers, and it’s a regular maintenance update. It comes with a ton of bug fixes and will be soon available in various repositories.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.15.91 beta tarballs due (and more)

=> ↺ GNOME Music App for GNOME 3.16 Implements Favorite Playlist and Starring

• The GNOME Music app, the default audio playback software of the controversial GNOME desktop environment, has been updated for GNOME 3.16, due for release in March 25. GNOME Music 3.16 Beta 2 is a bug fix release that addresses a number of issues discovered in the previous Beta version of the software.

Distributions

=> ↺ Five Linux Distros for New Users

• Those who’re new to Linux want the best distro out there for new users, which means simple things like ease of use, productivity, speed, and security. But which distros are the best for new users? Actually, there is probably no “best,” but there are many distros that are designed keeping the needs of the inexperienced Linux user in mind.

• Some of them, like Linux Mint, are tried and true – a solid operating system that has proven its mettle over time. Others, such as Elementary OS, provide a beautiful interface which impresses many users. Still, other Linux distributions include Zorin OS, which is designed to look like Windows. So let’s take a look at five of the best Linux distros for new users.

Reviews

=> ↺ Evolve OS Is a Clean and Light Work in Progress

• This initial release leaves much to be added. If the developer remains true to the simplistic design shown so far, the menus and application windows will offer a clean and light look that reminds me of earlier versions of Android. The question at hand is whether a later release will ‘evolve’ enough to include a fully functional desktop interface that is easy to use.

=> ↺ Pearl OS Could Be a Gem in the Making

• Pearl OS is a revival of the discontinued Pear OS distro. Pearl picks up where Pear left off in early 2014.

• Pearl OS has two desktop versions: XFCE and MATE. Both are based on Ubuntu Linux distro version 14.04 Mini release. The two flavors of Pearl OS are customized to look and act like the OS X operating system.

• But Pearl is Linux and not OS X. This distro runs Debian-based Linux applications. It does not run OS X software or have actual OS X functions.

Screenshots

=> ↺ X Distro 1.0 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Lubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 : Video Overview and Screenshot Tours

=> ↺ Ozon OS Alpha Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ eOsFree Linux RC 1 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Ubuntu 14.04.2 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Kubuntu 15.04 Beta 1 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Vine Linux 6.3 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Manjaro Linux 0.9.0 Pre 3 Xfce Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Kali Linux 1.1.0 : Video Overview and Screenshot Tours

=> ↺ Bodhi Linux 3.0.0 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Netrunner 15 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ ezgo 12 RC Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Pardus 3.0 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Quirky 7.0 Screenshot Tour

Arch Family

=> ↺ Arch Linux 2015.03.01 Is Now Available for Download

• A brand-new ISO image of the lightweight, highly customizable and powerful Arch Linux computer operating system has been released today, March 1, 2015, for those who want to deploy the acclaimed distribution on new computers.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 Debuts with Atomic Host and Real Time Editions

• From a new version perspective, Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Real-Time is, as the name says, our Red Hat’s new real-time computing offering. Red Hat had been shipping a real-time kernel version of RHEL as part of its MRG product since 2007.

=> ↺ RHEL 7 Atomic Host Bolsters Container Security

• The open source Docker initiative, which allows applications to be run in containers, offers leaps and bounds in flexibility and mobility. However, security could be the rub. RHEL 7 Atomic Host goes a long way toward addressing security concerns. It “appears to address a number of concerns with broad strokes, and should be very well received,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle.

=> ↺ Telefónica collaborates with Brocade, Cyan, Intel and Red Hat to showcase an orchestrated End-to-End Network Function Virtualization Architecture

=> ↺ Red Hat Adds Cloud Consultation Service to Portfolio

• Red Hat (RHT) entered the cloud consultation and support services market in a major way this week with the launch of its Cloud Innovation Practice, which introduces cloud setup and architecting solutions that go far beyond those provided with the open source giant’s software products.

=> ↺ Red Hat OpenShift Commons Adds Fuel To Cloud Foundry Competition

=> ↺ Red Hat Forms OpenShift Commons to Drive Open Source PaaS Innovation

=> ↺ Red Hat Launches OpenShift ‘Commons’

=> ↺ ​Red Hat invites all to work on its OpenShift PaaS cloud

=> ↺ Red Hat invites all to work on its OpenShift PaaS cloud

=> ↺ Red Hat OpenShift Commons Opens Up PaaS Conversations

=> ↺ Red Hat Introduces OpenShift Commons Community to Drive Innovation in Open Source Platform-as-a-Service

=> ↺ Red Hat Certified Engineer RHCE Exam

=> ↺ Linux Kernel Developer Work Spaces Video: Tejun Heo, Red Hat

• Tejun Heo is a Linux kernel developer and a principal software engineer at Red Hat. In this video he takes us on a tour of his home office and answers a few questions about his work as a kernel subsystem maintainer.

=> ↺ ​Red Hat buys into Docker containers with Atomic Host

• Not much over a year ago, few people knew about containers, and fewer still knew about Docker. Since then, the idea of building server and applications out of container-based micro-servers, has exploded in popularity. Red Hat has been watching this and now with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host (RHELAH) the company has its own operating system/container pairing to offer the business world.

=> ↺ Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 Officially Released with Support for Linux Containers

• Red Hat was proud to announce earlier today, March 5, the availability of the first maintenance release of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 operating system for computers, used in numerous enterprises worldwide. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 contains a great amount of bug fixes and improvements over the previous release, as well as various new features.

=> ↺ Red Hat strips down for Docker

• Reacting to the surging popularity of the Docker virtualization technology, Red Hat has customized a version of its Linux distribution to run Docker containers.

=> ↺ Red Hat eyes Canonical with docker-focused Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host

• RED HAT has announced the launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (RHEL7) Atomic Host, which it describes as a “purpose-built container host for secure and reliable containerised applications across the open hybrid cloud.”

=> ↺ Red Hat Launches Its Docker-Centric Atomic Host Linux Distribution

=> ↺ Red Hat Continues Platform Innovation with the General Availability of the First Minor Release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

=> ↺ Red Hat Launches Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host, Advances Linux Containers in the Enterprise

=> ↺ Red Hat Docker-Centric Atomic Host Linux Distro Debuts

=> ↺ Red Hat Introduces New Linux OS for Containers

=> ↺ Andy Grover: iSER target should work fine in RHEL 7.1

=> ↺ Red Hat Bolsters Support for Containers

=> ↺ Red Hat OpenShift Commons: a friendly way to PaaS time

=> ↺ Red Hat to Launch New Cloud Innovation Practice, But Can A Vendor Successfully Do This?

Fedora

=> ↺ FUDCon Pune 2015 – Open for sponsorship requests

=> ↺ Praveen Kumar: FUDCon Pune 2015 Planning Meeting Minutes

=> ↺ Fedora 22 reaches Alpha — Linux fans, download it now!

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Alpha, Bodhi 3.0 Review, & Ubuntu 15.04 Wallpapers

• The newsfeeds were a virtual cornucopia today with several exciting headlines. First up, Fedora 22 Alpha was announced today and word has it it’s in “great shape.” Ubuntu switched to systemd and made their community wallpaper choices. Jim Lynch reviewed Bodhi 3.0 and Christine Hall spoke with Jeff Hoogland about the release. Justin Pot identified seven signs you may be ready to switch to Linux and Paul Venezia demonstrated how cool Bash still is.

=> ↺ Fedora 22 alpha released

• The next version of Fedora is well underway. Fedora 22 has reached the alpha stage, and you can download it to give it a test in a virtual machine.

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Alpha Officially Released, Includes Xfce 4.12 and Linux Kernel 4.0 – Screenshot Tour

• The Fedora Project proudly announced a few minutes ago the immediate availability of the Alpha version of its upcoming Fedora 22 (Twenty Two) Linux operating system for personal computers and servers, due for release on May 19, 2015.

=> ↺ Fedora 21 Mate Compiz : Video Overview and Screenshot Tours

=> ↺ Quick Containers with Fedora Dockerfiles

=> ↺ Korora 21

• My install went quite well, I had no problems and the install itself was relatively speedy. Bear in mind, however, that I have used the Anaconda installer often in the past. So I’m quite familiar with how it is laid out and what it has to offer. Use the Fedora install guide for Anaconda I linked to above if you’re new to it as it might save you some time when installing Korora 21.

Debian Family

=> ↺ The state of Linux gaming in the SteamOS era

• For decades after Linux’s early ’90s debut, even the hardest of hardcore boosters for the open source operating system had to admit that it couldn’t really compete in one important area of software: gaming. “Back in around 2010 you only had two choices for gaming on Linux,” Che Dean, editor of Linux gaming news site Rootgamer recalls. “Play the few open source titles, Super Tux Kart and so on, or use WINE to play your Windows titles.”

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ I like you, Ubuntu phones, but only as friends

• The mobile ecosystem is dominated by Android and iOS, with several other operating systems fighting for scraps. The battle for third place might already have Microsoft as a winner, but there are plenty of others that could become interesting mobile OS alternatives.

=> ↺ Meet the 10 Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Community Wallpaper

• Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Community Wallpaper available to download. Every new release of Ubuntu are also have new wallpaper by default. The default wallpaper are chosen through a contest in which any user can participate by sending its own wallpaper but it should be according to the various guidelines required by the developer of the Canonical Design team.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 15.04 Flavors Beta 1 Available to Download

• Ubuntu 15.04 flavors have a first beta version, it now available to download and install for testing. In this release, There are only available images for Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Gnome, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu MATE, Xubuntu and ubuntu cloud.

=> ↺ How to Upgrade XFCE 4.10 to XFCE 4.12 in Xubuntu 14.04 and Xubuntu 14.10

=> ↺ The New Ubuntu Music App Looks Amazing, Watch the Behind the Scenes Video

=> ↺ Qbo Is an AI-Driven Ubuntu-Powered Cute Little Robot – Video

• We’ve seen some interesting devices coming out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the small Ubuntu-powered Qbo robot is just one them.

• Linux fans already kind of knew what to expected to see in Barcelona. Many Ubuntu fans were looking to check out the first Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition phone and their curiosity was satisfied, but now we have something that it’s equally interesting, and that is a small robot.

=> ↺ System76 Meerkat Linux PC Sports A Broadwell CPU

=> ↺ Meerkat Linux Mini PC With Intel Broadwell Processor Unveiled By System76

=> ↺ System76 Introduces The Broadwell-Powered, Ubuntu-Loaded “Meerkat”

=> ↺ System76 unveils diminutive Broadwell-powered Meerkat Ubuntu Linux desktop

• Buying a Linux-based PC usually means purchasing a Windows machine and replacing the OS with your favorite distro. While there is nothing terribly wrong with this practice, you are arguably paying for a Windows license that you will never use. In other words, the manufacturer is including the Windows fee into the overall cost. Not to mention, many Linux fans do not like Microsoft, and would prefer to not support the company. I am a Linux fan, but I like Microsoft products too.

=> ↺ Ubuntu finally has the phone it deserves. Now it just needs the apps to match

=> ↺ Ubuntu BQ Aquaris hands-on review at MWC 2015

=> ↺ I Have Zero Coding Skills and I Made an Ubuntu Scope

=> ↺ Meizu teases the MX4 Ubuntu edition for the MWC

=> ↺ Meizu will show off the MX4 Ubuntu Edition at MWC

=> ↺ High-end Ubuntu smartphone coming at MWC 2015 as Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition

=> ↺ Canonical, Juniper Partner on SDN and NFV for Carriers

=> ↺ Ubuntu’s answer to Android is finally here, but it still needs work

• At long last, the first Ubuntu phones are here. It’s been more than two years since Canonical first showed off its Linux-based mobile platform, and fans have been clamoring for consumer devices ever since. The Ubuntu Edge never made its ambitious $32 million crowdfunding target, and the first handsets from BQ and Meizu were delayed last year. But finally, it’s all starting to come together. BQ has started selling its “Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition” in Europe and Meizu shouldn’t be too far behind with its modified MX4.

=> ↺ Meizu to Officially Launch MX4 with Ubuntu at MWC 2015, Will Sell It Internationally

=> ↺ Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition officially teased ahead of MWC 2015

=> ↺ Ubuntu developments: 15.04 Beta 1 and the first Ubuntu phone

=> ↺ Canonical and Juniper team up on carrier-grade OpenStack SDN

• Everyone loves clouds these days. But telecomm companies are understandably cautious about entrusting their technology to the cloud. Wouldn’t you be if a failure mean dropping phone or data services to millions of customers? Still, Juniper Networks and Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company are certain they can devise a carrier-grade OpenStack cloud for virtualizing core networks and network functions.

=> ↺ Meet “The Meerkat Ubuntu Desktop” From System76

=> ↺ System 76 announces Meerkat Ubuntu desktop computer

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Vote Now for Your Favorite Lubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) Wallpapers

=> ↺ Ubuntu MATE 15.04 Vivid Vervet Beta 1 Released, Gets Official Ubuntu Flavor Status

=> ↺ Bodhi Linux 3.0

• The first thing you’ll see when your desktop loads is a browser window that pops up with the Bodhi Linux Quick Start Guide loaded in it. Don’t just close this window if you are new to Bodhi, take a moment to look at what’s listed there as it covers some important things such as how to use the Enlightenment window manager, and how to install software. There are also links to an FAQ and other helpful resources.

=> ↺ A Developer’s Eye View of Bodhi 3.0.0

• After two years of development, the stable version of the latest and greatest version of Bodhi Linux, 3.0.0, was released last month. There’s little doubt that loyal users breathed a sigh of relief with the release, as there had been some question about whether the distro would continue after project founder Jeff Hoogland briefly resigned in September, saying he no longer had the time required by his duties to the project. The good news was that he continued to work with the development team, and in January returned in his old role as lead developer. The long awaited new Bodhi was released less than a month later.

=> ↺ Free Bassel Day, Bodhi Linux Chromebook Giveaway & More…

• “Whenever I am done working with development hardware I picked up for Bodhi Linux, instead of letting it rot in the corner of my basement I would prefer to give it back to our users,” Hoogland writes in a post on the Bodhi website describing the giveaway. “Last year we gave away an ARM powered Samsung Chromebook and this year I find myself with a spare Acer C720 Chromebook after recently upgrading to the i3 based version.”

=> ↺ Bodhi Linux developers giving away Acer C720 Chromebook

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Sitara AM437x dev kit targets Linux-based industrial apps

• TI launched a kit for its Sitara AM437x SoC, focused on multi-protocol industrial communication and motor feedback. with dual PRU-linked Ethernet ports.

=> ↺ Zynq-based SBC runs Linux, offers FPGA-based I/O

• MYIR’s Linux-supported, open-spec “Z-turn Board” uses the hybrid Cortex-A9/FPGA Xilinx Zynq-7010 SoC, and offers sensors, and FPGA expansion connectors.

=> ↺ COM Express module runs Linux on 3.6GHz Bald Eagle

• GE’s rugged, Linux-ready COM Express Type 6 Basic module integrates AMD’s dual- or quad-core R-Series SoCs at up to 3.6GHz, and offers -40 to 85°C support.

=> ↺ 16nm Zynq SoC mixes Cortex-A53, FPGA, Cortex-R5

• The Linux-ready, Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC is part of a major “UltraScale+” overhaul of Xilinx’s Kintex and Virtex FPGA product line, featuring a cutting edge, TSMC 16nm 3D FinFet process. This is much same process that will be used with the new ARM Cortex-A72 processors. Like the all-FPGA UltraScale+ FPGAs, the Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC (Multi-Processing System on Chip) also features new memory block and interconnect technology, among other features. All the UltraScale+ processors, including the Zynq, will begin sampling by year’s end, with volume production in 2016.

=> ↺ COM Express module runs Linux on a 2.3GHz Tegra K1

• Seco is prepping a Linux-friendly COM Express Type 6 Compact module with a quad-core, 2.3GHz Tegra K1 SoC and optional extended temperature support.

• When we covered the Nvidia Jetson TK1 single board computer last March, we didn’t realize the manufacturer was Seco. In addition to the Jetson TK1 (Seco product page here), Seco is now adding a COM Express Type 6 Compact computer-on-module called the SECOMExp-TK1, which similarly runs Linux on an Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC.

=> ↺ Ryanteck Budget Robot Kit Review

• We’ve had some cheap and simple kits in at Linux User over the past few months, each with varying levels of success. Some have been just cheaply made, others using a simple selection of components that allow for expansion at a later date when you feel more comfortable with the robotics behind it. The Ryanteck budget kit takes a slightly different approach to the cheap kit.

=> ↺ Welcome to the MagPi

• The MagPi is now the official Raspberry Pi magazine. It offers the latest news, reviews, features and tutorials dedicated to the world’s favourite credit card-sized PC.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi enthusiasts can now share their little workhorse with Windows, Mac and Linux users

=> ↺ Ryanteck Budget Robot Kit Review

• We’ve had some cheap and simple kits in at Linux User over the past few months, each with varying levels of success. Some have been just cheaply made, others using a simple selection of components that allow for expansion at a later date when you feel more comfortable with the robotics behind it. The Ryanteck budget kit takes a slightly different approach to the cheap kit.

=> ↺ Linux loving SODIMM-style COM dishes up Cortex-A5 SoC

• EMAC’s “SoM-A5D36″ COM runs Linux on a Cortex-A5-based Atmel SAMA5D3 SoC, and offers up to 4GB flash, industrial temperature, and an optional carrier board.

=> ↺ Latest Nvidia Shield player runs Android TV on Tegra X1

• Nvidia’s $199 STB version of Nvidia Shield runs Android TV on a Tegra X1, and boasts 4K video, 50 optimized games, and game streaming from a “Grid” service.

• The 2015 set-top box version of the Nvidia Shield follows two earlier models, including 2013’s original handheld Shield game console, now called the Nvidia Shield Portable, which was based on the Nvidia Tegra 4 system-on-chip. Last year, the chip designer-cum-hardware developer released an Nvidia Shield Tablet built around a more powerful Tegra K1 SoC with Kepler graphics, and featuring new stylus and WiFi Direct gaming controller.

=> ↺ Nvidia announces the new Shield, a 4K Android TV console

Phones

=> ↺ Jolla’s Sailfish OS Spotted Running on the OnePlus One

• OnePlus One is a handset running CyanogenMod 11S, which was most readily adopted by developers around the globe.

• So it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the handset was spotted running Jolla’s own Sailfish OS.

• The photograph showing that the porting was achieved has been shared by Jolla’s own Martin Brook on Twitter.

=> ↺ 6 Linux-y announcements from Mobile World Congress

• I earlier wrote about how Linux invaded CES 2015. The domination continues at Mobile World Congress, which kicked off this week in Barcelona. Here are some of the major announcements from MWC that show that Linux has become an unstoppable force.

Tizen

=> ↺ Samsung Gear Manager updated to version 2.2.15022599, Does it fix your Problem?

=> ↺ Fleksy Gear S App released at Mobile World Congress

• The guys over at Fleksy have been working hard for a while on getting the Fleksy keyboard available and running on the Samsung Gear S and have now silently released it whilst we have been distracted by Mobile World Congress.

=> ↺ Tizen at Mobile World Congress 2015

=> ↺ Samsung Z1 gets Software OTA update version Z130HDDU0BOB3

=> ↺ Samsung 2015 Tizen TV FULL SUHD & UHD, LED LCD TVs Line-up

=> ↺ New Tizen Tools Version Released (15.01)

• A new version of the Tizen development tools has been released, version 15.01, and it is available on download.tizen.org, including the following:

• GBS 0.23.2 MIC 0.24.4 REPA 0.3 BMAP-TOOLS 3.3

=> ↺ Samsung Exynos 7420 will use 14nm tech, with 5nm chipsets in the future

Android

=> ↺ Reversian 2.0: Unicode text processor for Android

• Some time ago, since I have good skills on object oriented programming and java, I started to study a bit of Android development in order to improve my own culture as developer.

• That days, I enjoyed myself writing some little applications for my old Android 2.3 smartphone focusing on learning how to write little basic applications and publishing on my Google Play account.

=> ↺ Excellent: Android Ecosystem is Low-Margin, Fragmenting

• What the figures really show is that Apple is price-gouging its customers, extracting unreasonable levels of profit by virtue of its monopoly. In the world of Android, by contrast, the fierce competition that exists between fungible manufacturers has driven down profit margins to razor-thin levels. Open source, and the level playing field that it creates, is a great way for maximising the benefits to customers, rather than companies.

=> ↺ Hands On With the Android TV-Based Nvidia Shield

=> ↺ Smartphone Thieves Hate This New Android Update

• A new anti-theft feature will make stolen phones less valuable

=> ↺ Smart rear-view mirror runs Android 4.2, has dual cams

• Mobile Safety Accessories unveiled an Android 4.2 rear-view mirror touchscreen with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, backup and DVR cameras, and Google Play support.

=> ↺ 3% of Android devices taste 5.0 Lollipop

=> ↺ How to Pick Your Next Android Phone: 2015 Edition

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ The Open Source Squad at the GSA

• 18F is not interested in replacing proprietary software throughout the federal government with open source alternatives. Instead, the new unit zeroes in on the process of developing its own open source software.

=> ↺ How to make meaningful contributions to open source

• Segregating ourselves into developer and user silos is a cultural hold-over from proprietary software. It’s a mistake to attempt imparting that culture in the world of free and open source software. The community of people working with and on a particular tool is as much of a valuable feature as any of the ones that are coded.

=> ↺ Open Source vs. Proprietary Firms on the IoT Battleground

• Technology wars are predictable. Every new wave of gadgetry brings a fight over who will be the next king of the software hill. The next big battle is brewing over control of the Internet of Things marketplace.

• The IoT is quietly gaining momentum as companies develop software to connect all sorts of consumer products to the Internet. Consumers see only convenience and extensions to their always-on mobile devices. Product makers see a pathway to streaming data that can be monetized from buyers’ connections.

• Could history be ripe for repeating itself as open source begins to take on the current, yet unsustainable, walled-garden core of the IoT? Based on the victories in some early skirmishes, innovations developed by open source start-ups may be the David in the here-again fight against proprietary Goliaths.

=> ↺ Be a responsible open source user

Events

=> ↺ Using FOSS Out-of-the-Box

• It’s a rare thing when I double down on a previous week’s article. Most of the time that second effort is perceived as defensive or argumentative. This is neither. It’s just a rare thing.

=> ↺ Library to host Kansas Linux Fest

• The Lawrence Public Library will host the first Kansas Linux Fest this month.

=> ↺ 2015 Kansas Linux Fest

=> ↺ SCALE 13x in Pictures

=> ↺ FOSDEM videos

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Life-support, Community and Thunderbird

• But wait, there’s more. If Mozilla is really backpedaling on dumping Thunderbird, it needs to do much more than this timid come-back. It needs to do something about Groupware. It needs to port Thunderbird (or develop an email client) for Android. Or Firefox OS. In comparison of the kind of investments Mozilla does in other areas (Firefox OS, Webmaker…) Thunderbird cannot possibly be that demanding. Instead of witnessing this -or am I too impatient?- we still have to deal with the constant half-hearted, nose-blocked attempt at maintaining Thunderbird. I wish we could go beyond this. I wish Mozilla could be clearer. Very few FOSS projects have the knowledge and expertise to derive a product out of their code: Mozilla did this Firefox, and is doing it with Firefox OS, both of them brilliantly. Why it won’t do this with Thunderbird is mind-boggling. But enough wasting everybody’s time with my rant: I’ll go back tinkering with my mails on Emacs.

=> ↺ Thunderbird 31.5.0 Officially Lands in Ubuntu

=> ↺ Firefox 36.0 is here with new features

=> ↺ Firefox 36 available in Fedora 21 and Fedora 20

=> ↺ Webmaker App Takes Fresh Approach to Digital Literacy

• Tomorrow at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mozilla will release an open beta of the Webmaker app: a free, independent web publishing tool. This is an important next step in Mozilla’s effort to dramatically increase digital literacy around the world.

=> ↺ Pocket-watch style smartphone runs Firefox OS

• Monohm unveiled a disk-shaped “Runcible” smartphone running Firefox OS. The camera-equipped device is notable for its chilled-out UI and modular construction.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Progress Extends Rollbase Cloud App Tools to HP Helion OpenStack

Databases

=> ↺ Wikibon view: Open Source NoSQL database vendors face a long, hard slog

• Open Source NoSQL database startups like MongoDB Inc. face “a long, hard slog” to achieving success despite the strong interest in these companies in the financial community, writes Wikibon Big Data Analyst Jeff Kelly. In January, MongoDB announced a successful seventh funding round, raising $80 million, which company CEO Dev Ittycheria said was three times its original target.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Badges for LibreOffice

• The LibreOffice project relies almost entirely on volunteers to work, from running our infrastructure to developing our software suite. It is faire to say we take -or try to take – our community very seriously. If I needed any more proof of this, the first months as a member of the Membership Committee of the Document Foundation offered me the opportunity to review membership applications and try to understand both how people contribute and why they are attracted to LibreOffice, even when they’re not contributors.

=> ↺ Oracle’s piping hot new pot of Java takes out the trash (faster)

=> ↺ Oracle VirtualBox Updates to run on Linux 4.0 Kernel

• The open-source VirtualBox virtualization project is out with its 4.3.24 update today providing a number of important updates and bug fixes.

Funding

=> ↺ Pebble raises $7 million in one day for their next watch

BSD

=> ↺ 5 awesome security features to expect in PC-BSD 10.1.2

• Five of those security and security-related features were announced today and are on track to be included in the next edition, which should be PC-BSD 10.1.2. They are

• PersonaCrypt – a command line utility to backup a user’s home directory to an encrypted external media Tor Mode in System Updater Tray Stealth Mode in PersonaCrypt Ports now use LibreSSL by default instead of OpenSSL Support for encrypted backups in Life-Preserver utility

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GNU Artanis-0.0.3 released [alpha]

=> ↺ GNU wget 1.16.2 released

=> ↺ How To use “wget” behind an Authenticated Proxy

=> ↺ GNU ccd2cue 0.4 released

=> ↺ GNU GNATS

• After 10 years, GNU GNATS has finally released a new version 4.2.0, thanks in large part to the recent efforts of Alexandros Manoussakis at Juniper Networks.

=> ↺ Pulling the plug

• GCC facilitated the portability of Linux and other free operating

Project Releases

=> ↺ LLVM 3.6 Released

=> ↺ IPython 3.0 released

=> ↺ Samba 4.2.0 released

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Open source empowers Sintra health centre

• Open source tools used by ACES Sintra include content management system WordPress, combined with the usual LAMP stack: the MySQL database management system, the Apache web server, Linux for the server host and the PHP web development scripting language. The combination is used for the public website, but also for several internal Intranet project and team sites. The organisation implements Wiki websites, mainly for the IT department but also to maintain a list of frequently asked questions and their answers.

=> ↺ “Governments should have a free software policy”

• Governments must have policies that increase their use of free and open source software solutions, says Professor Dr Wolfgang Finke from the Ernst-Abbe University of Applied Sciences in Jena (Germany). In many countries, the use of proprietary software might be unsustainable in the long-term, he says, “either from a technical or from a financial point of view.”

=> ↺ Eurostat continues to share and use open source

• Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Communities, continues to release as open source its ICT solutions. To date, Eurostat has shared 102 solutions on the European Commission’s Joinup platform.

• The statistical office has been using and sharing open source for more than a decade. Already in 2004 Eurostat’s ICT policy stipulated to consider open source software for all new projects.

=> ↺ Dutch share code and concepts of base registry

• The Dutch government has made available as open source a catalogue of data and concepts used in the country’s ‘System of Basic Registrations’. The aim is to provide users and suppliers a comprehensive view of the system, and to make it available for reuse.

=> ↺ Liège hospitals use open source imaging tool

• This lightweight system, developed at the University Hospital of Liège, helps hospitals to facilitate the exchange between clinical departments, specialists and hospitals. The software allows them to archive and retrieve images, while offering scalability and flexibility.

• “The number and the size of medical images are exploding”, says Sébastien Jodogne, the main developer of Orthanc, who works for the University Hospital of Liège. “Belgian hospitals are now creating over 20 million images per year.” He says that each of these files roughly takes about half a gigabyte.

• Managing all of this data is increasing causing interoperability problems. And that is one of the reasons that the university hospital in 2011 started to work on a robust yet lightweight solution.

• Jodogne describes Orthanc as a robust tool that brings technological independence to clinical departments. Orthanc allows users to automate their own, very specific imaging flows, including across proprietary system and the Internet. It is also lightweight and standalone, he says. This keeps installation straightforward. The only requirement is a basic computer.

=> ↺ MARKOS second Protype Released, take part to the validation trial

• The MARKOS project is aimed to realize the prototype of a service and an interactive application providing an integrated view on the Open Source projects available the on web, focusing on functional, structural and licenses aspects of software code (see the MARKOS Factsheet and the MARKOS Brochure).

VMware

=> ↺ VMware Should Not Be Cheaper Than Red Hat

=> ↺ Open Source Foundation Sues VMware over Linux Code

=> ↺ VMware alleged to have violated Linux’s open source license for years

=> ↺ VMware sued for failure to comply with Linux license

=> ↺ Conservancy Sues VMware Over GPL Compliance

=> sued, accused of ripping off Linux kernel source code ↺ VMware sued, accused of ripping off Linux kernel source code

=> ↺ GNU Parallel encourage Hellwig’s lawsuit against VMware

=> ↺ VMware sued for alleged GPL license infractions

=> ↺ VMware Sued over Alleged Open Source License Violation in Linux

=> ↺ Statement in support of Software Freedom Conservancy and Christoph Hellwig, GPL enforcement lawsuit

=> ↺ VMware heads to court over GPL violations

• The Software Freedom Conservancy alleges that VMware is using GPL-licensed code in its proprietary products

=> ↺ New Lawsuit Targets “Shims” Between Linux and Proprietary Code

• The Software Freedom Conservancy today announced that Christoph Hellwig, a member of its GPL Compliance Project for Linux Developers, has sued virtualization software maker VMware for copyright infringement in the district court of Hamburg, Germany. Till Jaeger, a lawyer with an excellent track record in cases enforcing free and open source software licenses, is representing Hellwig. (Disclosure: Software Freedom Conservancy is a client of my firm, but I am not involved in this case.)

=> ↺ Conservancy Announces Funding for GPL Compliance Lawsuit

• Software Freedom Conservancy announces today Christoph Hellwig’s lawsuit against VMware in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. This is the regretful but necessary next step in both Hellwig and Conservancy’s ongoing effort to convince VMware to comply properly with the terms of the GPLv2, the license of Linux and many other Open Source and Free Software included in VMware’s ESXi products.

=> ↺ $#%%@ Hits The Fan In GPL v VMWare

• Years of negotiation have failed. WMWare would not even discuss a settlement without signature of an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement), for Pity’s sake. They weren’t negotiating seriously and now this goes to court where even more time, money and energy will be wasted in a case VMWare cannot win. They will be forced to cease distribution or rip out their code in some way. They may well have to pay for years of violation and profits in violation of others’ rights. If they did not want to distribute under GPLv2 they should not have used Linux. They got great value from using Linux. It’s the right way to do IT to use Linux so they should comply. They should have complied from Day One but did not. In spite of many of their loyal customers being placed in violation of GPLv2 by their action and pleading from those customers, VMWare stubbornly refused to comply. What were they thinking? They are offending their major suppliers and their major sources of revenue. That’s just not sustainable.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Hungary, the Netherlands publish critical OGP progress reports

• This month, Hungary and the Netherlands published their first progress reports on the implementation of their respective Open Government Partnership (OGP) action plans. These drafts are open for comment, part of which will be worked into the final reports.

=> ↺ Open source and humanities in the digital age

=> ↺ Open source augmented reality headset, Steam’s 125M active accounts, and more

Open Data

=> ↺ Belgian public transport open data project pings peers

=> ↺ EU Trade Secrets Directive Threatens Scientific Open Data

=> ↺ When the United Nations calls, MicroMappers acts

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ CC-BY: What Open Access Can Learn From Open Source

• It’s that commercial re-use that seems to stick in the craw of some. People have problems with seeing their work re-used for profit. Of course, exactly the same concerns were raised in the early years of commercial use of free software released under the GNU GPL: some people were unhappy at the thought of their code being adapted and sold by companies that gave little or nothing back to the community. And yet today, we practically never hear that argument at all. So what happened?

Open Hardware

=> ↺ Facebook Shows its Yosemite Open Source Modular

• At the Open Compute Summit in San Jose, Facebook introduced its “Yosemite” open source, modular chassis for high-powered microservers.

=> ↺ How Facebook Got Even Apple to Back Open Source Hardware

• The idea was that others could use Facebook’s designs to build their own online operations, create a broad market for the gear, and reduce Facebook’s costs even further. But the skeptics saw it as little more a PR stunt: Facebook showing the word how “open” it was. After all, how many others were the size of a Google or a Facebook? How many others would want this gear enough to change the way they’ve always done things? And even if they did, how could it possibly help Facebook?

=> ↺ Open Source, 3D Printed Rocket Engines

Programming

=> ↺ An open source platform for version control hosting

• When it comes to managing revision to source code, Git has quickly become the most prominent tool organizations are using. But the Git command line tool itself is only part of the picture.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Google open-sources HTTP/2-based RPC framework

=> ↺ Vulkan Really Is The Official Name Of The Next Generation OpenGL Initiative

=> ↺ The Khronos Group’s Vulkan, SPIR-V & OpenCL 2.1 Presentations

=> ↺ Khronos announces openGL successor Vulkan

=> ↺ Say Goodbye to OpenGL and Welcome the Next-Gen Vulkan API

=> ↺ Khronos unveils Vulkan: OpenGL built for modern systems

=> ↺ ‘VULKAN’ Could Possibly Be The Official Name Of The OpenGL Successor

=> ↺ Not Everyone Likes The Possible “VULKAN” Name For Next-Gen OpenGL

Leftovers

=> ↺ Apple’s watch is just another data-gathering device

• Whether Apple’s watch fails or not — and that is a relative question — it matters not one whit to the company. This is just another device which will help to boost the company’s data gathering.

=> ↺ Nine reasons only a tool would buy the Apple Watch

=> ↺ Apple Watch May Be DOA As Cook Admits Battery Life As Low As 3 Hours

• The Apple Watch may be pretty… but you are going to need up to 8 of them to make it through a full day. While Tim Cook proclaimed 18 hours of “all-day battery-life” – itself not particularly impressive compared to competing products, hidden deep in Apple Watch’s product page is a little admission that battery life (in use) could be as low as 3 hours…

=> ↺ Apple Watch battery lasts as little as three hours

• Using new device that costs up to £12,000 for phone conversations means it will die after three hours, Apple admits in post buried deep on its product page

=> ↺ Pioneering tech blog Gigaom shuts down after running out of money

• Gigaom, the influential technology website founded by Om Malik nearly a decade ago, is no more. Although Monday saw a lot of new content on the site, including a flood of news and analysis from Apple’s event, the site’s management ended the day at 5.57PM PT by posting a message notifying readers that “all operations have ceased” as a result of the company becoming unable to pay its creditors.

=> ↺ Gigaom shuts down as it runs out of money

• One of the oldest and most prominent technology blogs Gigaom has shut down after running out of money.

=> ↺ Disney’s $1 Billion Bet on a Magical Wristband

• If you want to imagine how the world will look in just a few years, once our cell phones become the keepers of both our money and identity, skip Silicon Valley and book a ticket to Orlando. Go to Disney World. Then, reserve a meal at a restaurant called Be Our Guest, using the Disney World app to order your food in advance.

=> ↺ Noam Chomsky on Life & Love: Still Going at 86, Renowned Dissident is Newly Married

• NOAM CHOMSKY: I’m a very private person. I’ve never talked about my own life much. But, you know, I’ve—personally, I’ve been very fortunate in my life, with—there have been tragedies. There have been wonderful things. And Valeria’s sudden appearance is one of those wonderful things.

• AARON MATÉ: You said, after your first wife, Carol, died, that life without love is empty—something along those lines. Can you talk about that?

• NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, I could produce some clichés, which have the merit of being true. Life without love is a pretty empty affair.

• AARON MATÉ: And your own tireless schedule, keeping up with your lectures, writing extensive articles, and still tirelessly answering the emails, from correspondence from people around the world—when I was in college, I remember I wrote you several times and got back these long, detailed answers on complex questions. And there’s people across the globe who could attest to a similar experience. Do you feel a certain obligation to respond to people? Because nobody would fault you, at the age of 86 now, if you took more time for yourself.

• NOAM CHOMSKY: I don’t know if it’s an obligation exactly. It’s a privilege, really. These are the important people in the world. I remember a wonderful comment by Howard Zinn about the countless number of unknown people who are the driving force in history and in progress. And that’s people like—I didn’t know you, but people like you writing from college. These are people that deserve respect, encouragement. They’re the hope for the future. They’re an inspiration for me personally.

Hardware

=> ↺ How Intel and PC makers prevent you from modifying your laptop’s firmware

• Modern UEFI firmware is a closed-source, proprietary blob of software baked into your PC’s hardware. This binary blob even includes remote management and monitoring features, which make it a potential security and privacy threat.

=> ↺ Easy Way to Get Coreboot

• Replacing the proprietary BIOS firmware on most computers is a process that often can be frustrating. It’s possible that your computer could be rendered unuseable in the process. Back in 2010 I managed to get coreboot working on the Gigabyte GA-6BCX motherboard and although the process went fairly smoothly it did consume a fair bit of time. Fortunately we now have an inexpensive way of obtaining a ready to go coreboot computer.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ Sales of ADHD Meds Are Skyrocketing. Here’s Why.

Security

=> ↺ Security advisories for Monday

=> ↺ Security updates for Tuesday

=> ↺ Tuesday’s security updates

=> ↺ Friday’s security updates

=> ↺ Friday’s security updates

=> ↺ Thursday’s security updates

=> ↺ Security advisories for Thursday

=> ↺ Security advisories for Wednesday

=> ↺ Google’s ‘encrypted-by-default’ Android is NOT encrypting by default

=> ↺ Android Lollipop won’t use default disk encryption due to performance issues

=> ↺ SSL-busting adware: US cyber-plod open fire on Comodo’s PrivDog

=> ↺ Infected with malware? Check your Windows registry

• Auditing your registry can turn up telltale signs on malware infection. Here’s how to monitor the registry keys that matter using Microsoft’s Sysinternals Autoruns

=> ↺ now or never exec

• While getting up to speed with node, I ran into a minor build issue requiring a two line patch. Good news! An important part of this project is getting changes pushed upstream. We could for a short while keep a pile of patches in the OpenBSD ports tree, but such patches inevitably decay and cease applying after their expiration date. Getting to submit a small fix and gauge upstream’s response is probably better than unloading a more intrusive W^X on them. Alas, I was the not the first to discover this bug, but actually the fifth. I’ll be watching this bug and a duplicate. One question answered, anyway.

=> ↺ ​NCC Group to audit OpenSSL for security holes

• OpenSSL, arguably the world’s most important Web security library with its support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) in such popular Web servers as Apache and Nginx, has had real trouble. First, there was HeartBleed and more recently there is FREAK. It’s been one serious security problem after another. Now, the NCC Group, a well-regarded security company, will be auditing OpenSSL’s code to catch errors before they appear in the wild.

=> ↺ ​FREAK: Another day, another serious SSL security hole

• Specifically, the group, which calls itself SMACK, for State Machine AttCKS, discovered that support for the weaker “export-grade” encryption was still baked in to numerous Web servers, browsers and other SSL implementations. Among the millions of sites that were, or still are, vulnerable to “FREAK” (Factoring attack on RSA-EXPORT Keys) attacks are American Express, Whitehouse.gov, FBI.gov, and — oh the irony! — the NSA Website.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Venezuelan Parliament Passes Law to Confront US Aggression

• President Nicolas Maduro said the country’s National Assembly elections must go on “whether the empire wants it or not.”

• The Venezuelan National Asembly passed the enabling law that allows the country’s president to act to protect the peace against recent threats made by the United States government of Barack Obama.

• The bill, which received 99 percent of votes from the Great Patriotic Pole alliance – the largest voting bloc in the assembly, will now move to a second reading for final approval. The move follows a statement by the United States government Monday that declared Venezuela a “threat to the national security” and calling a national emergency.

=> ↺ The Possibility of Escape

• During my four stints in U.S. federal prisons, I’ve witnessed long-term inmates’ unconquerably humane response when a newcomer arrives. An unscripted choreography occurs and the new prisoner finds that other women will help her through the trauma of adjustment to being locked up for many months or years. Halfway through a three-month sentence myself, I’m saddened to realize that I’ll very likely adapt to an outside world for which these women, and prisoners throughout the U.S. prison system, are often completely invisible.

Transparency Reporting

=> ↺ Associated Press sues State Dept. over Hillary Clinton’s emails

• “The Associated Press filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the State Department to force the release of email correspondence and government documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state.”

• Good for the AP. If only more news organizations would do more of this.

• “The legal action comes after repeated requests filed under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act have gone unfulfilled. They include one request AP made five years ago and others pending since the summer of 2013.’

=> ↺ Trade Secrets: We Must Act To Protect Whistleblowers!

• In late April 2015, the “trade secrets” directive will be discussed in the European Parliament. Having already given in to the pressure of journalists to remove the article on trade secrets in the French Macron Bill, La Quadrature du Net, Pila and a number of other organisations now call on president François Hollande and European representatives to defend whistleblowers, to define and protect their status and to ensure the necessary means are provided for judiciary follow-up on the crimes and offences that are revealed. The situation of whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning, is often dramatic and they must be protected and their safety guaranteed in order to safeguard fundamental freedoms.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ US running out of room to store oil; price collapse next?

• Oil glut: US running out of room to store crude; prices for oil and gasoline could plunge

=> ↺ São Paulo – anatomy of a failing megacity: residents struggle as water taps run dry

=> ↺ A Major Surge in Atmospheric Warming Is Probably Coming in the Next Five Years

=> ↺ Academics urge University of Edinburgh to end fossil fuel investment

=> ↺ World’s first lagoon power plants unveiled in UK

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ CMD Submits Testimony on Right to Work

• ALEC has been described as a conduit for corporate interests to access and influence state legislators. ALEC is a way for global corporations to push their preferred policies on the state level, away from public view.

=> ↺ Cookie-Cutter ALEC Right-to-Work Bills Pop in Multiple States

Privacy

=> ↺ Romanian spy chief warns of ‘threat for EU from Hungary’

• Eduard Hellvig, currently a conservative MEP who has been chosen by President Klaus Iohannis to be the next chief of the Romanian foreign intelligence service, has published an article in which he warns of the “threat for the EU” from the rapprochement of Hungary with Moscow.

=> ↺ Can the NSA Break Microsoft’s BitLocker?

• The Intercept has a new story on the CIA’s — yes, the CIA, not the NSA — efforts to break encryption. These are from the Snowden documents, and talk about a conference called the Trusted Computing Base Jamboree. There are some interesting documents associated with the article, but not a lot of hard information.

=> ↺ The CIA Campaign to Steal Apple’s Secrets

=> ↺ Quebec resident Alain Philippon to fight charge for not giving up phone password at airport

• A Quebec man charged with obstructing border officials by refusing to give up his smartphone password says he will fight the charge.

• The case has raised a new legal question in Canada, a law professor says.

• Alain Philippon, 38, of Ste-Anne-des-Plaines, Que., refused to divulge his cellphone password to Canada Border Services Agency during a customs search Monday night at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

=> ↺ America’s real secret revealed: Clinton, Petraeus & how elites protect their legacies

• That’s one of the conclusions American citizens might draw from two stories that broke this week: that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had conducted official State Department business using emails run through her own server, and that former CIA Director David Petraeus had kept 8 notebooks of unbelievably sensitive secrets in a rucksack in his home and, when she asked, had shared them with his mistress, Paula Broadwell.

=> ↺ Canadian Spies Collect Domestic Emails in Secret Security Sweep

• Canada’s electronic surveillance agency is covertly monitoring vast amounts of Canadians’ emails as part of a sweeping domestic cybersecurity operation, according to top-secret documents.

=> ↺ Snowden Calls for Disobedience Against the U.S. Government

=> ↺ DOJ Inspector General Complains About FBI Foot-dragging

• Late last week, the Inspector General (IG) for the Justice Department sent a letter to Congress complaining of the FBI’s refusal to set a timeline for turning over documents related to an IG investigation of the Drug Enforcement Agency’s use of subpoenas to gain access to and use certain bulk data collections.

=> ↺ FBI Now Holding Up Michael Horowitz’ Investigation into the DEA

• Man, at some point Congress is going to have to declare the FBI legally contemptuous and throw them in jail.

• They continue to refuse to cooperate with DOJ’s Inspector General, as they have been for basically 5 years. But in Michael Horowitz’ latest complaint to Congress, he adds a new spin: FBI is not only obstructing his investigation of the FBI’s management impaired surveillance, now FBI is obstructing his investigation of DEA’s management impaired surveillance.

=> ↺ NZ Prime Minister: ‘I’ll Resign If GCSB Did Mass Surveillance’; GCSB: ‘We Did Mass Surveillance’; NZPM: ‘Uh…’

• Back in the summer of 2013 as the various “Five Eyes” countries were still reeling from the initial Snowden disclosures, New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key promised to resign if it was ever proven that the GCSB (New Zealand’s equivalent to the NSA) had engaged in mass surveillance of New Zealanders — but with some caveats. He later said that he meant if it was proven that there was illegal surveillance going on. But of course, what’s legal can vary based on who’s in charge. Either way, late last year there were Snowden documents that proved GCSB regularly scooped up data on New Zealanders, and Key reacted to it by calling Glenn Greenwald “a loser.” Not quite the resignation you might have expected.

=> ↺ UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says it’s time to ‘move on’ from Snowden

• The documents revealed today show how New Zealand’s spy agencies hacked into government-linked mobile phones in Asia to install malicious software to route data to the NSA.

• The disclosure shows how an “Asean target”, or member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was targeted by the GCSB in March 2013.

=> ↺ U.K. Parliament says banning Tor is unacceptable and impossible

• Just months after U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said he wants to ban encryption and online anonymity, the country’s parliament today released a briefing saying that the such an act is neither acceptable nor technically feasible.

• The briefing, issued by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, specifically referenced the Tor anonymity network and its notorious ability to slide right around such censorship schemes.

=> ↺ Germany pushes for widespread end-to-end email encryption

• The De-Mail initiative dates back to 2011, when the German government decided to push for trusted email both as an e-government tool and as a way to cut down on official and corporate paper mail. De-Mail addresses are provided by the likes of Deutsche Telekom and United Internet’s Web.de, and those signing up for them need to show a form of official identification to do so. Receiving emails on a De-Mail address is free but sending them costs money.

=> ↺ Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales slams federal government data retention laws

• Wikipedia co-founder and influential technology entrepreneur Jimmy Wales has slammed the federal government’s plan to make telcos store the metadata of every phone and internet user as a “human rights violation” and is considering the launch of his new mobile service in Australia.

=> ↺ Photo’s from mass surveillance, liberty & activism talk

=> ↺ Privacy, digital rights and social equality.

• Something that doesn’t really get aired very often is that dragnet surveillance can – and should – be flagged as a social issue, with serious implications for social mobility. The tools that are available to circumvent this kind of surveillance are overwhelmingly out of reach of poor, marginalised groups; the ability to buy in to specialist encryption like PGP is, sadly, still overwhelmingly out of reach for many people. Reliable encryption remains firmly in the realm of the IT savvy: people with a certain level of education, money and, to use a hot-button word: privilege (sorry).

=> ↺ Wikipedia Sues NSA Over Dragnet Internet Surveillance

• The lawsuit argues that this broad surveillance, revealed in documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, violates the First Amendment by chilling speech and the open exchange of information, and that it also runs up against Fourth Amendment privacy protections.

=> ↺ CIA ‘tried to crack security of Apple devices’

• The CIA led sophisticated intelligence agency efforts to undermine the encryption used in Apple phones, as well as insert secret surveillance back doors into apps, top-secret documents published by the Intercept online news site have revealed.

=> ↺ You Can Watch ‘Citizenfour’ Online Right Now For Free

=> ↺ THE “SNOWDEN IS READY TO COME HOME!” STORY: A CASE STUDY IN TYPICAL MEDIA DECEIT

• Most sentient people rationally accept that the U.S. media routinely disseminates misleading stories and outright falsehoods in the most authoritative tones. But it’s nonetheless valuable to examine particularly egregious case studies to see how that works. In that spirit, let’s take yesterday’s numerous, breathless reports trumpeting the “BREAKING” news that “Edward Snowden now wants to come home!” and is “now negotiating the terms of his return!”

• Ever since Snowden revealed himself to the public 20 months ago, he has repeatedly said the same exact thing when asked about his returning to the U.S.: I would love to come home, and would do so if I could get a fair trial, but right now, I can’t.

• His primary rationale for this argument has long been that under the Espionage Act, the 1917 statute under which he has been charged, he would be barred by U.S. courts from even raising his key defense: that the information he revealed to journalists should never have been concealed in the first place and he was thus justified in disclosing it to journalists. In other words, when U.S. political and media figures say Snowden should “man up,” come home and argue to a court that he did nothing wrong, they are deceiving the public, since they have made certain that whistleblowers charged with “espionage” are legally barred from even raising that defense.

• [...]

• CNN’s “expert” is apparently unaware that the DOJ very frequently — almost always, in fact — negotiates with people charged with very serious felonies over plea agreements. He’s also apparently unaware of this thing called “asylum,” which the U.S. routinely grants to people charged by other countries with crimes on the ground that they’d be persecuted with imprisonment if they returned home.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden archive aims to ‘piece together the bigger picture’

• A Canadian team has created a searchable database of all the publicly released classified documents leaked by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in hopes it’ll help citizens better understand the complex files trickling out around the world.

• The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and the Politics of Surveillance Project at University of Toronto’s faculty of information revealed the archive on Wednesday before hosting a live Q&A with Snowden, the U.S. whistleblower and subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour.

• “What we’re hoping this database can do is start to piece together the bigger picture,” said Laura Tribe, CJFE’s national and digital programs lead.

=> ↺ EFF, ACLU, Other NGOs Urging U.N. to Create Privacy Watchdog

• A coalition of 63 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world are calling on national governments to support the establishment of a special rapporteur on the right to privacy within the United Nations.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Michigan Attorney General Slaps Reporter With Bogus Subpoenas For Doing Her Job

• That makes no sense at all. Defending the state from lawsuits should never involve sending reporters subpoenas demanding all of their notes. It’s a clear intimidation technique that violates all basic concepts of a free and open press.

=> ↺ Porn and the patrol car—one cop’s 2 hour-a-day habit

• Pornography, though prevalent in the modern world, still isn’t the sort of thing one expects to see while waiting in traffic behind a cop car. That’s especially true at the busiest downtown intersection of a wealthy Chicago suburb like Wheaton, Illinois, best known for being the home of an evangelical Christian college once attended by Billy Graham.

• But pornography is exactly what an irate Wheaton resident named Robin said he witnessed. On the morning of September 18, 2013, while sitting in his conversion van and waiting for a stoplight to change, Robin found himself directly behind Wheaton Police squad car 359. The height of his seat gave him a perfect view through the rear windshield of the squad car, and he could see the car’s mobile data computer displaying “scrolling pictures of completely naked women.”

=> ↺ AG backs off subpoenas over inmates’ allegations

• Attorney General Bill Schuette’s office ordered and then withdrew three subpoenas of journalists reporting on a juvenile prisoner abuse lawsuit against the state, including one seeking a reporter’s notes from interviewing inmates inside two state prisons.

=> ↺ Michigan AG withdraws subpoenas against Michigan Radio, Huffington Post

• Michigan’s Attorney General’s office has decided to withdraw subpoenas it served on news media outlets, including Michigan Radio.

=> ↺ Man who posed for his driver’s licence with a PASTA STRAINER on his head is told he must have his photo retaken… but he claims it’s just discrimination against the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

• A follower of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster claims he was discriminated against when he was told he may no longer wear a colander on his head in a driver’s licence photo.

• Last year, Preshalin Moodley, 20, was issued a provisional driver’s licence by staff at Service NSW Parramatta, in Sydney’s west.

• He was photographed for the licence wearing the spaghetti strainer on his head after asking staff whether it was OK to wear a religious symbol.

=> ↺ Jeff Bezos relies on lowly grunts like me: Life as a cog in the Amazon machine

• In my father’s capitalism, employees were nurtured by their company and encouraged to learn new skills. Today’s major corporations hire disposable temp workers to do the work of a full-time employee, without the obligation of providing benefits. Temp workers are familiar with dead ends: They are hired with a predetermined exit date. The moment they feel comfortable in a role, the contract expires and it’s on to the next job.

=> ↺ Tony Robinson Killing Highlights Wisconsin’s Racial Inequities

• Soon after becoming governor in 2011, Scott Walker eliminated funding for the state’s first program to track and remedy Wisconsin’s worst-in-the-country rate of racial disparities. The program, aimed at monitoring racial profiling during traffic stops, had only taken effect one month earlier, and Walker declared that the repeal “allows law enforcement agencies to focus on doing their jobs.”

=> ↺ How Thatcher’s Government Covered Up a VIP Pedophile Ring

• A newspaper editor was handed startling evidence that Britain’s top law enforcement official knew there was a VIP pedophile network in Westminster, at the heart of the British government. What happened next in the summer of 1984 helps to explain how shocking allegations of rape and murder against some of the country’s most powerful men went unchecked for decades.

=> ↺ Atheist Group Blasts ‘Absurd’ Decision to Censor Its Easter Billboards

• The group American Atheists addressed the controversy surrounding its billboards in Nashville, Tennessee by pointing out that it’s hypocritical of the company to censor the group’s advertising when Christian groups routinely promote antigay, pro-religion messages in their own publicity materials.

• In an interview with Raw Story, American Atheists’ Danielle Muscato said, “This is just absurd. It’s just because we’re atheists. It’s discriminatory.”

=> ↺ Ferguson police report: Most shocking parts

• Summer of 2012. A 32-year-old African-American was cooling off in his car after a basketball game in a public park.

• What comes next is a series of civil rights violations described in the Justice Department report that resulted in the man losing his job as a federal contractor.

• A Ferguson police officer demands the man’s Social Security number and identification before accusing him of being a pedophile and ordering the man out of his car.

• When the officer asked to search the man’s car, the 32-year-old refused, invoking his constitutional right.

• The response? The officer arrested the man at gunpoint, slapped him with eight charges, including for not wearing a seat belt, despite the fact that he was sitting in a parked car. The officer also cited him for “making a false declaration” because he gave his name as ‘Mike’ instead of ‘Michael.’

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ FCC approves net neutrality rules, reclassifies broadband as a utility

• It’s a good day for proponents of an open internet: The Federal Communications Commission just approved its long-awaited network neutrality plan, which reclassifies broadband internet as a Title II public utility and gives the agency more regulatory power in the process. And unlike the FCC’s last stab at net neutrality in 2010, today’s new rules also apply to mobile broadband. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler laid out the basic gist of the plan earlier this month — it’ll ban things like paid prioritization, a tactic some ISPs used to get additional fees from bandwidth-heavy companies like Netflix, as well as the slowdown of “lawful content.” But now Wheeler’s vision is more than just rhetoric; it’s something the FCC can actively enforce.

=> ↺ FCC votes to protect the internet with Title II regulation

• Net neutrality has won at the FCC. In a 3-to-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission today established a new Open Internet Order that implements strict net neutrality rules, including prohibitions on site and app blocking, speed throttling, and paid fast lanes.

=> ↺ Net neutrality is only the beginning of an open internet

• Net neutrality is the principle of making sure that your internet service provider doesn’t make it easier for you to access one service over another – the Guardian over the Telegraph, say – or otherwise distorting your use of internet services just because someone dropped a few extra quid in their pocket.

=> ↺ Latest Net Neutrality proposal in the EU: a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ How Corporate Sovereignty In Trade Agreements Can Force National Laws To Be Changed

• As we noted recently, one of the most worrying aspects of corporate sovereignty chapters in trade agreements is the chilling effect that they can have on future legislation. That’s something that the supporters of this investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism never talk about. What they do say, though, is that corporate sovereignty cannot force governments to change existing laws.

=> ↺ TTIP Updates – The Glyn Moody blogs

Copyrights

=> ↺ Copyright In Brussels: Two Reports, More Than Meets the Eye

• Just as the Julia Reda report (GREEN/EFA – DE MEP) on copyright reform was being discussed this week in the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI), another report was examined today by the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT). The latter concerns the reinforcement of the “Intellectual Property” rights, and contains a number of disturbing points regarding repression and enforcement that bring back to mind highly contested provisions from the ACTA agreement, and encourages an extra-legislative approach to fighting “commercial scale counterfeiting”. Citizens should get ready to mobilise on a large scale, both to support the positive evolutions of the Reda report, and to denounce the dangerous proposals pushed by the European Commission and some Member States, among which France.

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