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● 04.11.15

● Links 10/4/2015: Linux 4.0 Imminent, ZFS On Linux Improved

Posted in News Roundup at 12:13 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

=> ↺ Dell loads Ubuntu Linux onto its best thin-and-light laptop

• The hardware is nearly identical to the Windows version that launched in January, including the edge-to-edge display that essentially fits a 13-inch laptop in an 11-inch body. But instead of Microsoft’s operating system, the XPS 13 Developer Edition comes with Ubuntu 14.04.

• It’s even $50 cheaper than the Windows version when you line up the tech specs, starting at $950 with Core i5-5200U processor, 1080p non-touch display, 8 GB of RAM of and 128 GB of solid state storage. The configuration options are a bit different, though, so let’s walk through them:

=> ↺ ​Dell XPS 13 Linux developer edition available

• Dell has come through again with its latest laptop that’s just for Linux developers: The fourth generation Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition. This model is the latest in Dell’s high-end workstation laptops for programmers.

=> ↺ Dell releases updated XPS-13 Developer Edition in wide variety of configs

=> ↺ 4th gen Dell XPS 13 gets a dev edition with Ubuntu inside

=> ↺ Dell releases Linux-based XPS 13 Developer Edition ultrabook

=> ↺ Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition: Bringing the Pain in a Variety of Flavors

Server

=> ↺ Amazon’s Container Service Goes GA

• Few technologies in the virtualization space are as hyped as Docker containers are today. Many companies have made promises about products and services for Docker, including cloud giant Amazon, and now Amazon is making good on its promise.

=> ↺ Docker in the enterprise: the value and the challenges

• It was the second “best overall open source cloud project,” according to a survey by the Linux Foundation and The New Stack last July. And Google Trends shows Docker accelerating in buzz ahead of OpenStack and virtualization, out of virtually nowhere in 2013.

=> ↺ Varnish API Engine Focuses on Performance Amid Heavy Traffic

• Varnish Software, the Norwegian web-performance company behind the open source project Varnish Cache is releasing Varnish API Engine, focused on managing high call volumes.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ 5 Reasons To Become A Linux Foundation Certified Engineer

=> ↺ Git Success Stories and Tips from Puppet Labs’ Michael Stahnke

• Puppet’s dozens of Git repositories see new code commits every day from more than 200 people, says Michael Stahnke, director of engineering services at Puppet Labs. And he personally uses the open source revision control system several times a day.

• “I can’t think of another tool that changed the way I work, in a positive way, more than git,” Stahnke said.

• In this Q&A celebrating Git’s 10-year anniversary this week, Stahnke shared why Puppet Labs uses Git, their Git success stories, and his top pro tip for using the tool. For more in our “Git Week” series, see our interviews, below, with Git creator Linus Torvalds, and project maintainers from KVM, Qt, Drupal, and Tor.

=> ↺ Let’s Encrypt Becomes Linux Foundation Collaborative Project

• The Linux Foundation has a track record in helping build open-source communities around projects like Let’s Encrypt, which aims to make Internet use more secure.

=> ↺ Linux 4.0 brings Skynet closer to existence, offers reboot-free kernel patching

• Setting aside the head-scratching title, Linux 4.0 isn’t a massive change from Linux 3.19. It would have been named Linux 3.20, but lots of people wanted to see Linux 4.0. As Linus Torvalds himself said, “the strongest argument for some people advocating 4.0 seems to have been a wish to see 4.1.15 – because ‘that was the version of Linux Skynet used for the T-800 Terminator.’”

=> ↺ ZFS On Linux Adds New Kernel Support, Asynchronous I/O

• A new release of ZFS On Linux is available this week for providing the latest capabilities for this Oracle/Sun ZFS file-system implemented as an out-of-tree, native Linux kernel driver.

• The new ZFS On Linux 0.6.4 release is now compatible with kernels up through Linux 4.0. ZFS On Linux 0.6.4 also adds new feature flags of spacemap_histogram, extensible_dataset, bookmarks, enabled_txg, hole)birth, and embedded_data.

=> ↺ OpenZFS on Linux 0.6.4

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ The State of NVIDIA Optimus on Linux

• Simply put, there is no actual official NVIDIA support for Optimus technology for Linux. Or at least, not completely. Until recently, there was none at all. As of 2013, NVIDIA did start to provide initial support for Optimus, but it is extremely barebones and arguably doesn’t actually properly implement the Optimus features as it’s meant to be.

• But let’s look at the current options for running an NVIDIA Optimus-enabled computer with Linux…

Applications

=> ↺ mpfc: Doing everything so right

• Once I knew what mpfc stood for, it made perfect sense — it is, after all, a music player for the console.

=> ↺ boa: Run a server from anywhere

=> ↺ Calibre 2.24 Ebook Viewer and Converter Is Now Available for Download

• Kovid Goyal announced today, April 10, the immediate availability for download of Calibre 2.24, an open-source and cross-platform ebook library management software for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Proprietary

=> ↺ Opera 29 Beta Web Browser Is Now Based on Chromium 42.0.2311.68

• Opera Software, through J. Gladykowski, announced on April 9 the immediate availability of another Beta update for the upcoming Opera 29 web browser, a release that fixes no more that ten issues (details below), based on the latest upstream Chromium Beta channel.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Install Apache Cassandra on a Debian 7 VPS

=> ↺ Configure anonymous Internet browsing on Fedora Linux with tor and privoxy

=> ↺ SSLMate: Buy and install DV SSL certificates from the command line

=> ↺ Install Pagekit on a Debian 7 VPS with Nginx, PHP-FPM and MariaDB

=> ↺ Git commands which you should really know

=> ↺ SSH Passwordless Login Using SSH Keygen in 5 Easy Steps

=> ↺ 7 Command Line Tools for Browsing Websites and Downloading Files in Linux

=> ↺ Run Mejiro without a Server

=> ↺ How To Install TeXstudio 2.9.4 On Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How To Install TeXstudio 2.9.4 On Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS And OpenSUSE And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ How To Install Qmmp 0.8.4 On Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives

=> ↺ How To Install Disk Monitor 0.3.1 On Ubuntu 15.04 And Arch Linux

=> ↺ How To Install Lightworks 12.0.3.L On 64 Bit Ubuntu 14.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ Headless encrypted boot with Fedora Server

• I’ll use Fedora 21 Server, and will have a dedicated encrypted volume group for data but leave the main operating system volume group unencrypted. The encryption key will be stored on a USB memory stick. When it is connected the system will boot normally; otherwise it will wait for a while for it to be connected and finally fall back to emergency mode.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Git Success Stories and Tips from Wine Maintainer Alexandre Julliard

• Wine Maintainer Alexandre Julliard decided to try out the Git revision control system just a few months after creator Linux Torvalds released the first version – that was 10 years ago. Now, he says, “I can no longer imagine doing software development without it.”

• Wine, the open source software used to run Windows applications on Linux, still mostly uses email to exchange and review patches. But Git is the project’s version control system (VCS.) Here, Julliard discusses why they use Git, their Git success stories, and pro tips for using the open source tool.

Games

=> ↺ Daedalic Entertainment’s Puzzle Adventure ‘Fire’ Available On Steam For Linux

• Fire is a puzzle adventure set in the Stone Age about a quest to bring fire back to your village. It’s a game with a simple story, told without words, where the fun is in the enjoyable puzzles.

=> ↺ Let’s Talk About the Steam Machines Failure, the Elephant in the Room

• The Steam Machines from Valve is the proverbial elephant in the room that no one is willing to talk about it. Everybody wants Valve to succeed, and many gamers are rooting for them, but not many people actually believe that it will be a success.

=> ↺ Valve Is Giving Out Their Steam Linux Games To Mesa Developers

• Last year Valve made all of their games free to Debian developers as a thank you since SteamOS is based on Debian. Now Valve is giving out their collection of all current and future games to open-source Mesa developers.

=> ↺ OpenTTD 1.5.0 Is Now Available Via The Default Repositories Of Arch Linux And Manjaro Systems

• OpenTTD (Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe) is a Transport Tycoon clone, working on Linux and Unix systems. Being an old game, it does not have good graphics, but it has a convincing gameplay.

=> Light' PC, Linux Update 1.5.1 Released: Patch Fixes Graphics, Gameplay, Weapons Glitches ↺ ‘Dying Light’ PC, Linux Update 1.5.1 Released: Patch Fixes Graphics, Gameplay, Weapons Glitches

• “Dying Light” has a new 1.5.1 update for Windows PC and Linux. The patch aims to fix graphics performance issues while squashing gameplay and weapons glitches in the process.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ 9 Hidden Features in KDE

• Anyone who has used a desktop environment can be up and running in KDE in a matter of minutes. However, KDE has a way of hiding more advanced features, and some of them can take months or even years to discover.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.16.1 newstable tarballs due

=> ↺ Cinnamon 2.4.8 Desktop Environment Is Now Available for Download

• Clemenent Lefebvre published today, April 9, a new maintenance release of the stable 2.4 branch of the acclaimed Cinnamon desktop environment used in numerous distributions of GNU/Linux, including Linux Mint.

=> ↺ GNOME 3.16.1 Arrives on April 15, Arch Linux Users Can Now Update to GNOME 3.16

• The GNOME development team announced today, April 10, that the first point release of the GNOME 3.16 desktop environment will be published on April 15, 2015. GNOME 3.16.1 is the first maintenance release of the acclaimed desktop interface, bringing several improvements and updated translations.

Distributions

Reviews

=> ↺ Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca KDE review

• If we ignore the touchpad fiasco, Linux Mint 17.1 KDE is a very robust, very elegant release. It comes with all the necessities for a happy, carefree desktop usage. Everything works out of the box, the system is fast and stable, and apart from some small niggles, hardware detection and compatibility is quite good.

• Perhaps this isn’t the most exciting KDE around, but most of them come with a fairly reserved and somewhat bland default presentation, and it takes time digging under the hood to bring all the excitement to the surface. Overall, if you like the Mint family, then this is a very decent offering, and it also works well on modern laptops plagued with evil concepts. So that’s an added bonus, for sure. All in all, 8.81/10. Definitely worth a try.

New Releases

=> ↺ Endian Firewall Community 3.0.5 Is Now In Beta, Fixes More Than 350 Issues

• endian S.r.l. announced the immediate availability for download and testing of the first Beta version of their upcoming Endian Firewall Community 3.0.5 operating system, a minor release that contains numerous improvements and fixes more than 350 issues.

=> ↺ Evolution of Solus and Fedora 22 Delayed

• Last week the former Evolve OS project announced they needed a new name. Suggestions came in and a decision was made. Now under a new name, the project tries to carry on with its original mission. In other news, Fedora 22 Beta was delayed causing a ripple effect throughout the remaining cycle and Red Hat announced their partners of the year.

=> ↺ Introducing Chromixium, an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Distro that Looks Like Chrome OS

• Chromixium is a new distribution of Linux based on the upstream Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system, built around the Chromium web browser, and designed from the ground up to look and act like the Chrome OS operating system created by Google.

=> ↺ Bella OS 2.2 Is a User-Friendly Linux Distro Based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS

• Bella OS 2.2 was announced recently, based on the upstream packages of the Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (Trusty Tahr) operating system. The Bella OS distribution aims to be a beautiful and user-friendly Linux OS tailored for end-users.

=> ↺ Bella OS 2.2 Screencast

=> ↺ Bella OS 2.2 Screenshot Tour

Screenshots

=> ↺ Linux Mint 2 LMDE Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Slackel 6.0.3 Openbox Screenshot Tour

Ballnux/SUSE

=> ↺ Next Week is Hack Week!

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat Announces Winners of Red Hat North American Partner Awards

=> ↺ SDS the trend to watch in storage – Red Hat

• Software defined storage (SDS) is growing, and resellers would be wise to learn more, Ranga Rangachari, VP of Red Hat’s Storage Business Unit, told Channlenomics during the Red Hat’s partner conference this week.

• Rangachari estimates that the SDS market is growing seven times faster than the overall storage market. He added that it has become the macro trend that customers are now asking about.

=> ↺ Zacks Rating Update On Red Hat, Inc.

• Research firm Zacks has rated Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) and has ranked it at 3, indicating that for the short term the shares are a hold. 23 Wall Street analysts have given the company an average rating of 1.41. The counter has received a hold rating based on the suggestion from 4 analysts in latest recommendations. Strong buy was given by 17 Wall Street Analysts. The counter had a buy rating from 2 analysts.

=> ↺ Mark Cook Discloses Insider Selling of Red Hat, Inc. Shares

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Beta Has Been Delayed by a Week Due to Unresolved Bugs

• Fedora Project, through Jaroslav Reznik, announced that the Beta release of the upcoming Fedora 22 Linux operating system will be delayed by one week, due to unresolved blocker bugs.

=> ↺ DNF 0.6.5 and DNF-PLUGINS-CORE 0.1.6 Released

• Good news, everyone. New version of DNF and DNF-PLUGINS-CORE was built for F22 and F23. The documentation of yum and DNF differences was extended by yum plugin alternatives part and erase command was deprecated in favor of remove command name. DNF is getting more and more stable with 20 bug fixes while DNF-PLUGINS-CORE 0.1.6 newly adds Config manager.

=> ↺ DNF Package Manager: “Getting More & More Stable”

• New versions of DNF and DNF-PLUGINS-CORE have been released and there’s pre-built packages for Fedora 22 and Fedora 23.

=> ↺ Fedora 22 beta status, future of DNF and yum

=> ↺ dnf replacing yum and dnf-yum

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Three New Linux Kernel Vulnerabilities Were Patched in Ubuntu 14.10

• Immediately after announcing new kernel updates for the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating systems, Canonical has also published details about a kernel update for its Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicon) distribution, urging users to update as soon as possible.

=> ↺ Bq Ubuntu Phones Now Available Freely on Official Website

• Canonical and Bq have announced that the Bq Aquaris e4.5 Ubuntu Edition is now available for purchase on regular channels, which puts an end to the flash sales.

=> ↺ The BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition Can Now Be Ordered From The EU

=> ↺ BQ Now Openly Selling The Aquaris Ubuntu Phone

• Back when the BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition smart-phone launched in February it was only available in limited numbers via “flash sales” facilitated by the company. At last, now this first Ubuntu smart-phone is available to order by anyone within the European Union.

=> ↺ BQ Ubuntu Phone Now Available For General Purchase

• Quick update: the BQ Ubuntu Phone is now available for general purchase in the European Union. Until now, the phones could only be bought through flash sales.

=> ↺ BQ’s Ubuntu phone is now available for anyone to buy (in the European Union)

=> ↺ BQ Aquaris E4.5, First Commercially Available Ubuntu Phone, Lands In Europe For 170 Euro

=> ↺ You can now buy the first Ubuntu smartphone

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Linux Mint 17.2 codenamed ‘Rafaela’

• The second 17.x point release will be Linux Mint 17.2 codename ‘Rafaela’.

• Rafaela is a feminine form of Raphael, which is of Hebrew origin and which meaning is “God has healed”.

=> ↺ Latest and Greatest or Broken at Best?

• Most people assume that whenever a software update is released they immediately need that upgrade or they are “missing out” something. One of the things I do for the Bodhi project is package software updates for our repositories. Part of this task is not only reading change logs for lots of new software releases, but also helping test those software releases for regressions. When I first started packaging software it was fairly surprising how often a new release for some pieces of software broke features than bugs it fixed.

• After dealing with a number of frustrating regressions over the years I have taken on a “do not fix that which is not broken” attitude when it comes to my own production machines. The less time I spend with my own system having downtime, the more productive I am able to be. It does not matter that I am using version ABC of a software package when version DEF is the latest that exists. If version ABC does not have any security vulnerabilities and is functional for my needs it can stay right where it is!

=> ↺ Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 released

• Linux Mint Debian Edition is not as well known as its Ubuntu-based sibling. But it offers the convenience of a rolling release along with the advantages of using Debian as its base. Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 has finally been released and you can download the Cinnamon or MATE versions today.

=> ↺ LMDE 2 “Betsy” Cinnamon released!

• LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is a very exciting distribution, targeted at experienced users, which provides the same environment as Linux Mint but uses Debian as its package base, instead of Ubuntu.

• LMDE is less mainstream than Linux Mint, it has a much smaller user base, it is not compatible with PPAs, and it lacks a few features. That makes it a bit harder to use and harder to find help for, so it is not recommended for novice users.

=> ↺ LMDE 2 MATE & Cinnamon Editions Released

• The MATE and Cinnamon desktop versions of Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 (LMDE 2) are now available for download.

=> ↺ Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 ‘Betsy’ is here — will you download MATE or Cinnamon?

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Tiny μQseven module aims Baytrail Atoms at IoT

=> ↺ Building Super Small Linux Computers From Scratch

• Conventional wisdom says small, powerful embedded Linux like the Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone, or the Intel Edison are inherently manufactured devices, and certainly not something the homebrew tinkerer can produce at home. [hak8or] is doing just that, producing not one, but two completely different tiny Linux computers at home.

• The first is based on Atmel’s AT91SAM9N12 ARM processor, but the entire board is just about two inches square. On board is 64 MB of DDR2 DRAM, a USB host and OTG port, and not much else. Still, this chip runs a stripped down Linux off of a USB drive.

=> ↺ Intel’s Compute Stick Available For Pre-Order; Costs $110 With Linux And $150 With Windows 8.1

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Forward Air Controller Uses Android Tablet To Rapidly Order Air Strike

• DARPA is working hard on making it easier for Forward Air Controllers to order fast precision air strikes under chaotic and stressful conditions. Under a new initiative, a revolutionary new way of calling in crucial air support includes migrating away from clumsy radios and hardbook laptops to Android tablets and data links.

=> ↺ Google Close to Finishing Android Wear App for iOS

• Earlier this year, news leaked that Google was working on an Android Wear app for the iOS App Store, and it appears that the company’s progress on engineering Android Wear devices to work with iPhones is nearing completion.

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy S5 AT&T Android 5.0. Lollipop Software Update Released

=> ↺ Android 5.1 Lollipop Update For Nexus 7 Rolling Out Soon

=> ↺ How to choose a new Android phone this spring

• Spring has been traditionally known as a time for rebirth. Snow melting, flowers blossoming and for Android manufacturers, a time to release their latest and greatest offerings.

• Friday will see the release of HTC’s newest One M9 and two new Samsung Galaxys, the S6 and S6 Edge.

=> ↺ LG G3 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Problems & Fixes

• Over the past two months LG and its partnering carriers have been busy pushing the LG G3 Android 5.0 Lollipop update out to owners. And while most of the feedback has been positive, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update is also causing problems for many. The update initially started outside of the US, and then hit the AT&T LG G3 in February, and has continued to almost all US carriers.

=> ↺ HTC One M7 and One M8 Begin Receiving Android 5.1 Lollipop Update

=> ↺ Amazon Prime Instant Video app available for Android tablets

• Amazon’s Prime service has proven to be quite popular with its customers. One of the biggest selling points is Prime Instant Video, which lets customers view movies and TV shows. Now Android users can get the Amazon Prime Instant video app on their tablets.

=> ↺ Google adds Chrome OS support to read, write files on Android phones

• Google is continuing to get its Chrome OS platform to work well with its Android-powered mobile devices. Using the latest version Google’s Developer channel Chrome OS, you can manipulate files on a USB-connected Android phone or tablet.

=> ↺ Pre-orders for a ‘reversible’ Android phone open April 21st

• Wondering when you could get your hands on the Alcatel OneTouch Idol 3? You know, the Android smartphone that can take calls upside down? Well, it shouldn’t be too much longer.

=> ↺ Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact get new Android 5.0.2 official builds 23.1.A.0.726 and 23.2.A.0.278 [FTF links]

• Sony is rolling out two new Android Lollipop builds for its Xperia Z3 series devices in select regions.

=> ↺ Should we be worried about Android app permissions?

• If you’re really honest, do you actually read the permissions that Android apps are asking for before you install them? If you do, then there’s little doubt that you’re in the minority. Most of us treat them like terms and conditions, blindly clicking, or tapping, our way through. Is this something we should be taking more seriously? What are we actually giving away here?

=> ↺ The best Android games from March 2015

• Ah, spring time. The evenings are staying lighter for longer, the flowers are coming out, and there’s a fresh, grassy smell in the air.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Opportunities and challenges of Open Source in Enterprise

• Today, open source is pervasive in enterprise IT, forming the foundation of many cloud services and applications.

• The open source community represents a vast pool of collaborative intellectual property, and it has become a fundamental part of businesses around the world and in Australia and New Zealand.

• “Open source is a great fit for any organisation that is looking to innovate more rapidly and effectively, and to save costs and increase the bottom line,” says Colin McCabe, senior manager, Services and Training, Red Hat.

=> ↺ Coders: 5G networks and open source code

• This week on Coders, RCR CEO and Editorial Director Jeff Mucci digs into evolving 5G cellular standards, software and proof of concept deployments with co-host Victor Agreda.

=> ↺ Couchbase CEO: the real rationale for enterprise open source

• Open source allows for a more natural adoption approach within the enterprise. It is free and generally easy to download, install, and get started with. This allows easy exploration of and experimentation with new technologies and allows enterprises to get comfortable with the software on smaller, non-mission-critical projects before any financial commitment is required.

=> ↺ Sirius: an Open Source Competitor to Siri, Cortana, Google Now

• Sirius is an open source, customizable system that can be commanded through vocal input. It has been built by University of Michigan researchers and is similar to Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, and Google Now. According to University of Michigan, Sirius “is designed to spark a new generation of intelligent personal assistants” for wearables and other devices.”

=> ↺ How the Syria Airlift Project is Using Open Source Dronecode for Humanitarian Aid

• In March of 2014 I found myself on the Turkish-Syrian border, doing research among Syrian refugees. The stories I heard were horrific. Mass sieges were in effect; the Syrian government and brutal militias were starving out entire neighborhoods, and the government appeared to be deliberately targeting hospitals and doctors. Smuggling medical supplies into opposition-held areas was punishable by torture and death. Syrians were besides themselves, trying to find some way to get food and medicine into these besieged areas. They asked me why the US did nothing.

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Chrome Web Store Gives Bad Extensions the Boot

• Google has given its Chrome Store a spring cleaning, ridding it of more than 200 browser add-ons and extensions that may have been delivering spyware and malware to users. “Obviously, they need to put more work into screening of uploads to the Chrome Store if it should be considered a trusted source,” noted Martin Zetterlund, founder of ScrapeSentry.

=> ↺ Google Chrome Will Soon Work Better For Linux HiDPI Systems

• A few months back I wrote about the poor state of Chrome/Chromium HiDPI support on Linux but fortunately with the latest unstable web browser code these issues appear to have been resolved.

Mozilla

=> ↺ Firefox helps you cover your assets with latest Tracking Protection feature

• Did you know that not all websites honor Do Not Track? If privacy while browsing is at the top of your priority list, Jack Wallen offers up a Firefox tip that just might allow you to sigh a breath of private air.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ A community distribution of OpenStack

• In this interview with Red Hat’s Alvaro Lopez Ortega, we learn a little bit about RDO, a community distribution of OpenStack which is designed to make it easy to install on operating systems like Fedora and CentOS. Alvaro is presenting at OpenStack Live next week, where he’ll share both some technical details on RDO as well as a little bit about the community that makes it happen.

=> ↺ Connectors to Hadoop Promise to Simplify Big Data Tasks

• Over time, it only had to become easier to leverage the open source Hadoop project, which has been the driving technology behind much of the Big Data trend. At one point, the Big Data trend–sorting and sifting large data sets with new tools in pursuit of surfacing meaningful angles on stored information–remained an enterprise-only story, but now businesses of all sizes are evaluating tools that can help them glean meaningful insights from the data they store.

=> ↺ First OpenStack Kilo RCs Debut

• The first Release Candidate (RCs) for the upcoming OpenStack Kilo release are now out. I’ve seen the RC for Nova (https://github.com/openstack/nova/tree/proposed/kilo), and the RC for Trove at: https://github.com/openstack/trove/tree/proposed/kilo with more set to follow.

=> ↺ PLUMgrid Launches Cloud Networking for OpenStack Kilo

• The OpenStack Kilo milestone release is several weeks away, but networking vendor PLUMgrid is already prepared for it. This week, PLUMgrid announced the release of its ONS (OpenStack Networking Suite) 3.0, compatible with OpenStack Kilo. The new ONS 3.0 platform also provides new tools for enabling networking in OpenStack clouds.

=> ↺ Piston Pivots Beyond OpenStack with CloudOS

• One size rarely fits all. That’s a lesson OpenStack vendor Piston Cloud Computing is showing it understands quite well with its CloudOS 4.0 release. Prior to CloudOS 4.0, Piston’s primary cloud server platform was called Piston OpenStack, with the most recent update being the 3.5 release, which debuted in September 2014.

=> ↺ 55.555 downloads of ownCloud in a box

• Recently I passed a magic number with my ownCloud in a box appliance. It hit the five fives, 55.555 total downloads, on SUSE Studio. It is the most popular download there. I would never have imagined that so many people would be interested in it and use it when I started with this. Amazing.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ ODF in the age of Big Data

• One may notice that the points listed above loosely match the main points usually mentioned when discussing the benefits of ODF in the more standard settings of the desktop. This is not surprising, but it was not necessarily intended; if anything this is a testimony to the value of a standard like ODF and its importance. The key point here is that when it comes to the cloud and big data, ODF is both a factor of transparency and innovation. This is something worth promoting and is a potential path to renewed success of ODF in the future.

=> ↺ One year old: Document Liberation Project

• The Document Liberation Project only was founded last year officially and now can see at least it’s first birthday. Not yet picked up much steam from new contributors so far, but then already serving e.g. users of Calligra, with libraries like LibRevenge, LibOdfGen, LibWpd, LibWpg, LibWps, LibVisio, LibEtonyek etc., to read in data from files in WordPerfect, MS Works, MS Visio, and Keynote formats.

CMS

=> ↺ What’s New for You This April in Open Source CMS

• WordPress is the world’s largest open source CMS.

BSD

=> ↺ LLVM’s LibFuzzer Is Uncovering New Bugs With Fuzzing

• LibFuzzer was recently added to LLVM as a library for in-process fuzzing. LibFuzzer combined with other open-source fuzzing capabilities make it easy for uncovering new bugs within LLVM and other projects.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Open source applied to how movies are made

• Before leaving Technicolor, I developed an interest in the open source concept and started researching it in more depth. It seemed to me that if open source could be applied to film and television production, there was the possibility to really revolutionize the industry and encourage creativity in an entirely new way.

=> ↺ 10 years of Git, an Open Business Models Initiative, and more news

=> ↺ Mashape Releases Mockbin, an Open Source API Mocking Tool

• This week, API management platform and marketplace Mashape unveiled Mockbin, a service that helps developers log, debug and simulate API calls made over HTTP.

Open Hardware

=> ↺ PLEN2 – Open-Source Printable Humanoid Robot

• Natsuo Akazawa wants humans to have a better understanding of robotics. He believes that this will change the relationship between robots and humans. His company PLEN Project Company Ltd is running a Kickstarter campaign to fund their PLEN2 robot and billing it as the first printable open-source humanoid.

Programming

=> ↺ JavaScript All the Way Down

• JavaScript originally was developed at Netscape in 1995, first under the name Mocha, and then as LiveScript. Soon (after Netscape and Sun got together; nowadays, it’s the Mozilla Foundation that manages the language) it was renamed JavaScript to ride the popularity wave, despite having nothing to do with Java. In 1997, it became an industry standard under a fourth name, ECMAScript. The most common current version of JavaScript is 5.1, dated June 2011, and version 6 is on its way. (However, if you want to use the more modern features, but your browser won’t support them, take a look at the Traceur compiler, which will back-compile version 6 code to version 5 level.)

Leftovers

=> ↺ The Trouble With SEO

• Here’s an example. Let’s say I’m writing an 800 word article about Microsoft — which I’ve been known to do on occasion. Well, to make sure that search engines understand that the article is about Microsoft, I have to name the company, and frequently, within the article. According to SEO experts, I would need to use the word “Microsoft” at least eight times within the article to obtain a keyword density of one percent — just to make sure the search engines understand that this article is indeed about our buddies in Redmond. I’d also need to make sure that the title also contains the word “Microsoft,” as search engines give extra weight to keywords included in the title.

=> ↺ No, Rand Paul didn’t ‘storm out’ of an interview

• You’ll notice that both Paul and Lewis agreed to one more question, and Paul left when Lewis asked a second “last question.” But that Paul walked off quickly and that the lights were turned off made it look that he left in the middle of it. Optics!

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Treating Jack Straw Differently

• A UKIP candidate has been obliged to report to the police for breaking the law on “treating” for providing sausage rolls at an event. Yet Jack Straw at elections in 2005 and 2010 held rallies for the Muslim community in Blackburn at which the Labour Party provided hundreds of voters with full sit down meals, free of charge, and Police refused to take any action – indeed they were protecting the event. This is yet another example of the political elite being above the law.

=> ↺ In FBI Terrorism Sting Against Mentally Ill Kansas Man, Informants Built Bomb & Provided List of Materials

• In a terrorism sting operation, the FBI arrested a twenty year-old man from Topeka, Kansas, who United States government officials claim attempted to “detonate a vehicle bomb at Fort Riley military base near Manhattan, Kansas.” He also apparently suffers from mental illness.

• John T. Booker Jr., who also goes by the name Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

• “Thanks to the efforts of the law enforcement community, we were able to safely disrupt this threat to the brave men and women who serve our country,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John P. Carlin declared. “Protecting American lives by identifying and bringing to justice those who wish to harm U.S. citizens remains the National Security Division’s number one priority.”

• But, according to an affidavit [PDF] by an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Topeka, Booker had no direct interaction or communication with any terrorists or terrorist organizations prior to the FBI targeting him. He had obtained no explosives to carry out any sort of attack. He lacked the resources or capabilities act and told one of the informants in the case that he wanted to join the Islamic State but “didn’t know anyone who could help him do so.”

• An informant (CHS 1) introduced Booker to a second informant (CHS 2), who claimed to be a “high ranking sheik planning terrorist acts in the United States.” CHS 1 provided the list of materials that Booker needed to have in order to build a vehicle bomb. The two informants built the vehicle bomb, not Booker.

=> ↺ Army Recruit Charged With Helping ISIS Watched by FBI, Given Clearance by Army

• A Kansas man arrested and charged Friday morning for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State was under surveillance by the FBI last year when he checked himself into a mental institution and was not regarded as an immediate threat, according to a document obtained by The Intercept.

• In fact, the U.S. Army had approved the new recruit for a Secret clearance.

• John T. Booker Jr., who also goes by the name Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, was arrested Friday and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction, and planning to destroy property with an explosive.

=> ↺ Exclusive: U.S. expands intelligence sharing with Saudis in Yemen operation

• The United States is expanding its intelligence-sharing with Saudi Arabia to provide more information about potential targets in the kingdom’s air campaign against Houthi militias in Yemen, U.S. officials told Reuters.

=> ↺ Secrecy Shrouds Unknown Role Of Top UK Government Official

• The British government is refusing to disclose the job title and taxpayer-funded salary of one of the most senior law enforcement officials in the United Kingdom, claiming the details have to be kept a secret for security reasons.

• Cressida Dick (pictured above) was formerly one of the highest ranking officers at London’s Metropolitan Police, the largest police force in the U.K., where she headed the Specialist Operations unit and oversaw a controversial criminal investigation into journalists who reported on Edward Snowden’s leaked documents.

=> ↺ Trapped in Yemen, Americans File Lawsuit Against US Government

• Despite the ongoing danger to their lives, Awnallah says that his family has received no assistance from the U.S. government. “[My family] has tried to get in touch, but no one is helping them,” he said. “They are asking me all the time if they are going to die here.”

• On April 9, Awnallah’s family and dozens of other Yemeni-Americans filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government on behalf of American citizens trapped in the country. Citing Executive Order 12656, which obligates “protection or evacuation of U.S. Citizens and nationals abroad” in times of danger, the lawsuit further alleges that the U.S. government’s refusal so far to conduct evacuation operations in Yemen represents the continuation of longstanding policies that effectively deny full citizenship rights to Yemeni-Americans.

=> ↺ If Chuck Schumer kills the Iran nuclear deal, he should not be Senate minority leader

• The framework for the Iranian nuclear deal is about as good as anyone could reasonably expect. If it were solely up to the negotiators, it would likely be finalized in June. But they are not the only players, and it’s become clear that the biggest danger to the deal are hawks in Iran and the U.S.

Finance

=> ↺ Greens throw support behind Tax Dodging Bill

• In the wake of the HSBC, Swiss Leaks and LuxLeaks tax avoidance scandals the Green Party has pledged to introduce a Tax Dodging Bill in the first 100 days after the election. The campaign for such a Bill is being widely supported by a network of NGOs, cooperatives, faith groups, MPs and Unions [1].

=> ↺ Big tech companies lack one thing – shame

• Like, do these adults — at least physically, the three are in that stage of life — have no shame? Tony King of Apple, Maile Carnegie of Google, and Bill Sample of Microsoft were not in any way fazed by the fact that the companies they head locally cheat on their taxes.

PR/AstroTurf/Media

=> ↺ CNN Wants to Believe: White House ‘Russian Hackers’ Go From Suspects to Perps

• Unnamed “investigators”–who may come from the “FBI, Secret Service [or] US intelligence agencies,” we learn earlier in the piece–“believe” there are “tell-tale codes and other markers” that “point to” Russian government employees–how much fuzzier does evidence get? Yet immediately CNN is talking about the “Russian hack” as though it’s proven fact,,,

=> ↺ WSJ Ignores Conservative Spending Behind WI’s New Judicial Amendment, Remembers To Blame Soros

• In its analysis of an unprecedented change to how the chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is selected, The Wall Street Journal ignored the significant financial contributions a right-wing group made in support of the move, which would strengthen conservative control of the court before it examines possible illegal campaign coordination between that same group and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R). Instead, the editorial board focused on the fact that the current chief justice has a lawyer who is on the board of directors of a judicial election reform group founded by George Soros.

=> ↺ Hillary Clinton Team Holds Off-The-Record Journalist Dinner Ahead Of 2016 Announcement

• Hillary Clinton’s campaign team held an off-the-record dinner Thursday night in Washington, D.C., for roughly two dozen journalists and staff members at John Podesta’s house, according to sources familiar with the matter.

• The dinner signals that the Clinton team is trying to engage with top reporters in the days before the Democrat’s expected announcement of a 2016 presidential run. It also suggests the new campaign team is looking to change course from the toxic relationship with the press that plagued the 2008 race. The Clinton team is also holding a private event in New York on Friday night for journalists, according to sources.

=> ↺ Attorney Responds To Times Of Israel Genocide Post: ‘I Didn’t Write That S**t’

• Lawyer and writer Josh Bornstein demanded an explanation from The Times of Israel on Thursday after the site published an op-ed under his name that advocated genocide of Palestinians.

• The post, which sparked outrage across social media and was quickly taken down by the site, called Palestinians “cockroaches” and said that Israel should “exterminate them.”

• The Times of Israel tweeted that it was “looking into” the post and noted that it did not endorse its content. The article ran under Bornstein’s byline, although several people noted that it looked nothing like anything else he had ever published.

• At about 6 p.m.. EDT, Bornstein took to Twitter from his home in Australia to clarify that not only had he not written the “racist” pro-genocide post, but that he had never started an account at the Times in the first place.

• “I didn’t write that shit,” he said. He noted he was a “secular atheist,” contrary to the religious tone of the piece. He later added that he suspected the site was hacked.

• Bornstein said he wanted an explanation from the Times of Israel.

Censorship

=> ↺ China’s Great Cannon

• On March 16, GreatFire.org observed that servers they had rented to make blocked websites accessible in China were being targeted by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. On March 26, two GitHub pages run by GreatFire.org also came under the same type of attack. Both attacks appear targeted at services designed to circumvent Chinese censorship. A report released by GreatFire.org fingered malicious Javascript returned by Baidu servers as the source of the attack. Baidu denied that their servers were compromised.

Privacy

=> ↺ Git Success Stories and Tips from Tor Chief Architect Nick Mathewson

• Tor, the free and open source software for anonymous web communications, has been using the Git revision control system for more than six years. The tool is so ingrained in the project’s development that Director and Chief Architect Nick Mathewson’s daily work flow is built around Git, he says.

• “Git’s the eighth version control system I’ve had to use, and the first one I’ve seriously trusted,” Mathewson said. “Many thanks to the Git developers for all their hard work.”

=> ↺ Privacy International calls on Europe’s top human rights court to rule on British mass surveillance

• Privacy International and several other human rights organisations are taking the UK Government to the European Court of Human Rights over its mass surveillance practices, after a judgement last year found that collecting all internet traffic flowing in and out of the UK and bulk intelligence sharing with the United States was legal.

• The appeal, filed last week by Privacy International, Bytes for All, Amnesty International, Liberty, and other partners, comes in response to a ruling in December by the UK’s surveillance court, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, dealing with the industrial-scale spying programmes TEMPORA and PRISM revealed by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

=> ↺ Our SecureDrop System for Leaks Now Uses HTTPS

• We’re happy to announce that sources can now access our SecureDrop document-submission website using HTTPS. Although SecureDrop connections were already encrypted previously, our new setup provides leakers with additional assurance that they are connecting with the authentic Intercept SecureDrop and not an impostor.

=> ↺ A Guide to the 5+ Known Intelligence Community Telecommunications Metadata Dragnets

• I’ve been laying this explanation out since USA Today provided new details on DEA’s International Dragnet, but it’s clear it needs to be done in more systematic fashion, because really smart people continue to mistakenly treat the Section 215 database as the analogue to the DEA dragnet described by USAT, which it’s not. There are at least five known telecommunications dragnets (some of which appear to integrate other kinds of metadata, especially Internet metadata).

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Montreal professors stare down riot cops

• It’s been a tough week for the student movement in Quebec. A fractious congress that resulted in the resignation and firing of the entire executive of the Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante, the largest student federation in the province, led into a week where schools already on strike have struggled to win votes to maintain that strike, and few if any new schools have joined them. Facing a growing consensus that the strike should be postponed until the fall in order to join public sector unions in a common front, striking students are vulnerable.

=> ↺ Greenpeace bank accounts frozen by Indian government

• The Indian government has frozen bank accounts of Greenpeace after accusing the international environment campaign group of encouraging “anti-development” protests in the emerging economic power.

• The Union Home Ministry on Thursday suspended the official registration for foreign funding of Greenpeace India for six months and froze seven bank accounts connected with the organisation, The Hindu, a local newspaper, reported.

• Samit Aich, the executive director of Greenpeace, said the move was “an attack on democracy”.

=> ↺ Middle school student charged with cybercrime in Holiday

• The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office has charged Domanik Green, an eighth-grader at Paul R. Smith Middle School, with an offense against a computer system and unauthorized access, a felony. Sheriff Chris Nocco said Thursday that Green logged onto the school’s network on March 31 using an administrative-level password without permission. He then changed the background image on a teacher’s computer to one showing two men kissing.

=> ↺ New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez Signs Civil Forfeiture Abolition Bill

• A quick and happy update from New Mexico: Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has signed HB 560, which I detailed here, into law. New Mexico has thus effectively abolished civil asset forfeiture by requiring a criminal conviction before the government can seize property.

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