This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2015/08/03/linux-4-2-rc5/.

● 08.03.15

● Links 3/8/2015: Linux 4.2 RC5, Korora 22

Posted in News Roundup at 3:35 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Server

=> ↺ Fotoxx 15.08 Is a Free and Powerful Image Editor for Linux

• Fotoxx, a free, open source Linux photo editing application that is useful both beginner and experts alike, has been upgraded to version 15.08 and is now available for download.

=> ↺ Computing at full capacity

• Jisto’s unobtrusiveness is largely due to its use of Docker containers. “Docker has nice APIs and makes the process much easier, both for us as developers and for Jisto customers,” Biberman explains. “Docker is very portable—if you can run it on Linux, you can run it on Docker—and it doesn’t care if you’re running it on a local data center, a private cloud, or on Amazon. With containers, we don’t need to do something complicated like run a VM inside another VM. Docker gives us a lightweight way to let people use the environment that’s already set up.”

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Torvalds 2.0: Patricia Torvalds on computing, college, feminism, and increasing diversity in tech

• At 18, Patricia is a feminist with a growing list of tech achievements, open source industry experience, and her sights set on diving into her freshman year of college at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering. She works for Puppet Labs in Portland, Oregon, as an intern, but soon she’ll head to Durham, North Carolina, to start the fall semester of college.

=> ↺ The Companies That Support Linux: Solace Systems

• Solace Systems makes messaging middleware technology that moves data between distributed applications, devices and users to enable big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Solace is expanding its involvement with The Linux Foundation through new corporate membership with The Linux Foundation and participation in the OpenMAMA project, a Linux Foundation Collaborative Project that provides a high-performance messaging API that interfaces with a variety of message-oriented middleware systems. Their technology is well-suited to the demands of OpenMAMA-based market data distribution systems used in banking and trading systems.

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds warns he’s in no mood to be polite as Linux 4.2 drags

• Linus Torvalds’ regular Sunday night missive on the state of kernel development has labelled version 4.2 as a bit of a problem child and warned he “might not react politely” to some developer requests.

• Announcing the release of release candidate five (rv5), Torvalds says “it’s looking like 4.2 might be one of the releases needing more than the usual seven rc releases.”

=> ↺ Linux 4.2 rc5

=> ↺ Linux 4.2-rc5 Is Now Available

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 4.2 RC5 Is Out for Grabs, Linus Torvalds Wants Things to Calm Down

• On August 2, Linus Torvalds announced the release and immediate availability for download and testing of the fifth RC (Release Candidate) version of the forthcoming Linux 4.2 kernel series.

=> ↺ Kernel 3.18.19 LTS Brings Fixes

• As a reminder, Kernel 3.18 is a LTS (long term release) version and gets constantly updated, receiving security patches and stability enhancements.

=> ↺ Kernel 3.19.8 CKT3 Is Now Available

=> ↺ DisplayLink USB 3.0 Device Support Is In The Works

• DisplayLink’s line of USB display adapters is known to be Linux-friendly and backed by open-source support, but this is only for their USB 2.0 devices. Fortunately, it appears that DisplayLink is finally working on USB 3.0 device support for Linux.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ NVIDIA 355 Beta Linux Driver Released, Closer To Supporting Wayland/Mir

• NVIDIA this morning released their first public Linux driver beta in the 355.xx series, and it’s quite an exciting update!

• In stepping closer toward supporting Wayland and Mir, there’s a lot of EGL improvements in the 355 series! There is now experimental full OpenGL support under EGL, the EGL_KHR_swap_buffers_with_damage and EGL_NV_stream_consumer_gltexture_yuv extensions are now supported, and other changes.

=> ↺ AMD Publishes Open-Source Fiji GPU Support For AMDGPU

• AMD has published the initial patches for supporting the “Fiji” GPU with HBM memory, a.k.a. the new Radeon R9 Fury graphics cards, by the open-source “AMDGPU” Linux driver stack.

• Alex Deucher today sent out the initial patches for adding Fiji support. “This patch set adds Fiji support to the open source amdgpu driver. The relevant mesa and ddx changes have also been sent out the their respective mailing lists.”

=> ↺ The New AMDGPU Patches Show More AMD Developer Involvement

Benchmarks

=> ↺ 8-Way Linux Desktop OpenGL Comparison Atop Fedora 22

• Beyond last week’s Debian GNU/Hurd vs. GNU/Linux comparison, another set of updated benchmarks sought by some Phoronix Premium members have been a fresh cross-desktop environment comparison when running various games / OpenGL benchmarks across desktops / window managers.

• I haven’t run any cross-desktop OpenGL performance comparisons recently, but with the request coming in from the premium bunch, I did some modern tests on Fedora 22 x86_64. With an Intel Core i7 5775C system sporting Iris Graphics Pro 6200, I tested the following desktops from their F22 packages with their out-of-the-box settings.

Applications

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ CloudStats.me – Easy Server and Website Monitoring from the Cloud

=> ↺ Dual-booting Linux with Windows: What you need to know

=> ↺ Live migration failures with KVM and libvirt

=> ↺ 3 Best Free Clojure Books

• Clojure is a dialect of the Lisp programming language. It is a dynamic functional general purpose programming language that uses the Java Virtual Runtime as its platform, combining the approachability and interactive development of a scripting language with an efficient and robust infrastructure for multithreaded programming. Clojure features a rich set of immutable, persistent data structures, first-class functions and dynamic typing. Clojure programs are composed of expressions and written in terms of abstractions.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine 1.7 Series Turn Two Years Old, No Sign Of Wine 1.8

• Today marks two years since the start of the Wine 1.7 development series. While it’s been two years of doing bi-weekly development releases, there’s no sign of Wine 1.8.0 being ready for release in the near future.

Games

=> ↺ Vendetta Online 1.8.346 MMORPG Available Now for Linux, OS X, Windows, iOS, and Android

• Guild Software announced this past weekend the release and immediate availability of a new maintenance version of their popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Vendetta Online 1.8.346.

=> ↺ Software company Autodesk is launching its own game engine

=> ↺ Steam for Linux User Decline Finally Stops, According to Hardware Survey for July

• A new Hardware Survey has been released by Valve, and it looks like the Steam for Linux decline has finally stopped. We still need a few more months to confirm this, but July seems to be the first month that doesn’t register drops in user numbers.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Evolving KDE – recommendations

=> ↺ git-worktree

=> ↺ [Krita] Tangent Normal Brush Merged.

• A small detour was made into the world of improving the Krita manual, and with some hard work we managed to make a really nice crash-course into the basic concepts of using Krita.

=> ↺ Monthly Drawing Challenge August 2015

=> ↺ Akademy 2015: Photo report

=> ↺ [Akademy] Painting on a rotating disc

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Ubuntu Devs Willing to Work on GNOME Software to Replace Ubuntu Software Center

• The Ubuntu Software Center managed to be the center of news stories after the Ubuntu MATE project decided to ditch it as default (still available in the repos), and discussions about a possible replacement in the regular Ubuntu desktop have started once more.

Distributions

=> ↺ Linux Distro: Your Best Choice?

• I believe one of the biggest advantages to running a Linux distro on your desktop is the number of choices available. Linux enthusiasts enjoy a wide range of desktop environments, file managers, terminals, GTK vs Qt software, and of course the distributions themselves.

• On the flip side of this coin, however, all of these choices can seem overwhelming. Regular folks that are trying to switch from other platforms to Linux are bombarded by conflicting advice and often it just leads to information overload. In this article, I’ll offer up some helpful guidelines to cut through the noise. I’m going to provide my tips on selecting the best distribution for you based on your needs, not the needs of others.

New Releases

=> ↺ Antivirus Live CD 13.1-0.98.7 Uses ClamAV 0.98.7 to Protect Your PC Against Viruses

• Zbigniew Konojacki, the creator of the independent 4MLinux GNU/Linux distribution, announced recently that version 13.1-0.98.7 of his Antivirus Live CD project is now available for download, based on the 4MLinux 13.1 series.

=> ↺ Simplicity Linux 15.7 Officially Released, Based on LXPup and Linux Kernel 4.1 LTS

• As reported at the beginning of July, David Purse, the developer of the Simplicity Linux distribution, announced the release and immediate availability for download of the final version of his Simplicity Linux 15.7 operating system on July 30, 2015.

Arch Family

=> ↺ Arch Linux-Based BlackArch Penetration Testing Distro Now Using Linux Kernel 4.1 LTS

• The development team behind the BlackArch project, a GNU/Linux distribution derived from Arch Linux and designed to be used for penetration testing and security analysis operations, released an updated installation media, BlackArch 2015.07.31.

=> ↺ Manjaro 0.8.13 Gets the Latest NVIDIA Drivers with the Seventh Update, and Much More

• The Manjaro developers are on a roll, and they’ve just released yet another update for Manjaro 0.8.13, bringing numerous Linux kernel updates and quite a few other packages.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Company Shares of Red Hat, Inc. Rally 0.15%

Fedora

=> ↺ Korora 22 (Selina) available

• It has been a long road to the Korora 22 (codename “Selina”) release and we’re sorry that it has taken so long. However, it is now finally available for download (we strongly recommend using BitTorrent).

=> ↺ Linux Top 3: Korora 22, Zorin 10 and Oracle Linux 6.7

=> ↺ Korora 22 Linux Officially Released Based on Fedora 22, Drops Support for Adobe Flash

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ Debian-Based Clonezilla Live 2.4.2-29 Is Out with Partclone 0.2.81 and Lots of Bugfixes

• On the first day of August 2015, Steven Shiau has released a new testing version of his popular Clonezilla Live CD, which can be used for disk cloning and imaging operations, version 2.4.2-29.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch and Ubuntu Desktop to Have Similar Boot Animations Soon

• Ubuntu Touch is always receiving updates, and all sort of improvements and regular users get to experience those changes when new OTA update is made available. From the looks of it, one the changes that will come shortly is a new boot screen.

=> ↺ Canonical Closes SQLite Vulnerabilities in All Supported Ubuntu OSes

• Canonical has published details in a security notice about a number of SQLite vulnerabilities that have been found and fixed in Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS OSes.

=> ↺ Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition Is Now Back in Stock

• The new Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition is now back in stock after being absent for a few days. It looks like the decision to make it freely available actually led to being sold out.

=> ↺ Unity 8 and KDE Will Be Able to Coexist on the Same Ubuntu OS

• Unity 8 promises to be an evolution over the current Unity version, and it’s a profoundly different piece of software. Yes, it brings a lot of new features and improvements, but it will also create a lot of issues. Like the ability to install a different desktop environment alongside, such as KDE.

=> ↺ Ubuntu drone puts robotics in the classroom

• The company has created a DIY kit for building an Ubuntu drone. It is a Linux-based platform with Erle’s Ubuntu core running on the APM Autopilot hardware platform from 3DRobotics. It sells for €299.

• This is an all-in-one drone controller with point-and-click programming, command modes, failsafe programming and 3-axis camera control.

• It uses the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework for writing robot software. It is a collection of tools, libraries created by the Open Source Robotics Foundation.

=> 15.10: Wily Werewolf alpha 2 released ↺ The Ubuntu developers have been hard at work on the next version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 15.10 (code named Wily Wereworld) alpha 2 has been released.

=> ↺ An Ubuntu Developer Has Proposed To Replace The Ubuntu Software Center With The GNOME Software Center

• As a reminder, Ubuntu MATE’s Martin Wimpress has announced that Ubuntu MATE 15.10 will not come with any software center installed by default and will permit the users to choose the one they prefer, between the Ubuntu Software Center and App Grid.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Ubuntu MATE Projects Donates Money to Debian, MATE, and Syncthing Developers

• The Ubuntu MATE project does something very admirable each month. Its makers contribute financially to other open source projects that are being used in the operating system, and that is something that doesn’t happen all the often in the FOSS universe.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Featured: Top New Android Apps Of The Week – August 2nd

=> ↺ Lava goes the Android One way with Pixel V1

• Indian mobile phone manufacturer, Lava, has introduced the Pixel V1, an Android One device at a price of Rs.11, 350 in collaboration with Google. The Pixel V1 has been developed by close coordination between product R&D teams at Lava & Google. Aimed at those users who have value for money in mind, Lava has provided the right hardware specifications and the promise of the Android One platform making Pixel V1 a solid offering.

=> ↺ Android Headliner: Chinese Handsets Need Better Software

• That being said, Chinese OEMs have been known for pretty poor quality products for quite some time. Many of them still are, but a number of China-based OEMs improved in that regard, a lot. Manufacturers like Xiaomi, Huawei and Meizu have great hardware, and they’ve also improved a lot on the software front, but some other, smaller companies have real issues on the software side of things. Don’t get me wrong though, not all of them have such issues, but a number of them just can’t get that part right. Many of us in the tech business actually appreciate stock Android and what it brings to the table, and luckily, many of these smaller companies don’t skin Android all that much. Why is that a good thing? Well, the performance tends to be good for the most part, and the UI also looks really great. So, what’s wrong then? Well… read on.

=> ↺ Best Android smartphones for work and play: August 2015 edition

• There’s never been a better time to buy an Android smartphone. Not only is there a huge array of different handsets from a multitude of manufacturers to choose from, but what you get for your money is simply incredible.

=> ↺ ExtremeTech explains: Why you should (or shouldn’t) root your Android device

• Android is based on the Linux kernel, so right from the start, tinkerers and power users were interested in gaining root access to make changes and graft on new features. In the early days, this was a fairly simple procedure on most devices. There were several apps and tools that could root almost any Android phone or tablet, and you’d be ready to truly master your device in mere minutes. As Android became more capable, the allure of rooting has diminished somewhat — and it’s also much harder than it used to be.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ A call to policy makers: Open source is where innovation is happening

• There are multiple lists to be found detailing the ways in which open source is besting—or “eating”—proprietary offerings. But to understand the significance of this, it’s useful to return to Andreessen’s original argument. They key to his 2011 thesis is that “all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.” The very characteristics that are allowing software to “eat the world”—a networked world enabling faster innovation, scalability, customization, and collaboration—are the same characteristics that put open source ahead of proprietary. Open source means quality, security, and cost-effectiveness. And, most importantly, it means genuine interoperability to fully enable the networked world.

=> ↺ Open Source Players Show Dedication To Heightening Security Measures

• The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Core Infrastructure Initiative, a group formed last year after the Heartbleed bug targeted vulnerabilities in OpenSSL encryption software, has invested $500,000 in three new projects aimed at improving the security of open source code. Participants in the Core Infrastructure Initiative include large corporations such as Microsoft, Facebook, and Cisco Systems; it is managed by the nonprofit Linux Foundation. This collaboration demonstrates a desire from both the open source community and technology leaders to preserve free and open standards while continuing to make security a top priority.

=> ↺ Brocade CEO: Transition To Open Source Will Be Difficult For Cisco

• Communications CEO Lloyd Carney said traditional vendors like Cisco will have a tough time adapting to a more software-defined, open source space.

• That’s because traditional vendors like Cisco’s revenue streams are tied to closed architectures, Carney said.

=> ↺ Facebook ‘LIKES’ Google FlatBuffers, ups performance on Android

=> ↺ Axis of evil: Facebook uses Google code to slash page load times

=> ↺ Kim Dotcom says he will build an open-source rival to ‘unsafe’ Mega

• Entrepreneur, hacker, and aspiring politician Kim Dotcom has said that he intends to launch an open-source, non-profit cloud storage service that will follow in the footsteps of his previous file-sharing sites Megaupload and Mega. In a user-led Q&A on Slashdot, Dotcom said that since leaving Mega he doesn’t trust the service anymore, alleging that the site suffered “a hostile takeover by a Chinese investor” whose shares were subsequently seized by the New Zealand government, putting them in control of the site and putting users’ data at risk.

=> ↺ IBM Looks to Jumpstart a Development Community for the Internet of Things

=> ↺ Common values unite journalism and open source

• My internship at Red Hat began one week after I graduated from the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I was nervous because I wasn’t sure if my journalism skills would be a good fit for a technology company. The extent of my software knowledge came from a class I took one semester in which we learned the basics of HTML. Little did I know, however, that studying journalism was a great way to prepare me for working in an open organization.

=> ↺ Dotcom’s FOSS Cloud Plans

• Down near the bottom of the interview, a Slashdot reader using the moniker “Anonymous Coward” asked a question about Mega’s alleged lack of security because the platform isn’t open source: “I’ve seen some criticism from open source advocates and hackers that Mega can’t be trusted because the source isn’t available. What assurance could you give someone to the point that their files may not be kept secret while hosted on your platform?”

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ 7 Best Chrome Apps and Extensions for Coders

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Our Latest Interviews with Cloud and Big Data Influencers

=> ↺ Summit voting by the numbers, technical committee highlights, and more OpenStack news

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ LibreOffice 5.0 RC Brings More DOCX Improvements, Final Version in Two Days

• The Document Foundation has released the fifth and final Release Candidate for LibreOffice 5.0, which should be identical to the stable edition that will be made available in a couple of days.

BSD

=> ↺ FreeBSD 10.2 Release Candidate 2 Adds Better Hyper-V Support on Windows Server 2012

• While not a GNU/Linux operating system, FreeBSD is an imperative open-source project, the most acclaimed BSD distribution on the market. Today, we announce the availability for download and testing of the second RC (Release Candidate) version of FreeBSD 10.2.

Project Releases

=> ↺ qBittorrent Open Source Torrent Downloader Gets Massive WebUI Improvements, More

• The qBittorrent project announced on the first day of August 2015 that the second maintenance release of their cross-platform and open-source BitTorrent client, qBittorrent 3.2, is available for download with major improvements.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ “What If This Went Open Source?”: Colin Trevorrow Teases ‘Jurassic World 2′

=> ↺ Colin Trevorrow Teases Jurassic World Sequel and ‘Open Source’ Dinosaur Creation

=> ↺ Jurassic World 2 Could Make Dinosaurs into an Open Source Technology

=> ↺ The Catalonian government publishes two Open Government eBooks

• The Generalitat de Catalunya, the political body in charge of the independent community of Catalonia, has made two eBooks (PDF) available that deal with open data, transparency and open governance, and some key principles of Open Government. Those documents are part of an Open Government series, hosted on the website of the organisation.

=> ↺ Do you know the Digital Humanities? 3 easy ways to learn more

• Open source software is changing academic research, enabling new discoveries and innovation in ways that were previously impossible. In academia, scholars in the humanites are using technology to conduct research that would have been an extremely laborious undertaking before the advent of computers. This meeting of technology and the humanities is called the digital humanities. In my final monthly Digital Humanities column, I share three resources that will help you learn about this exciting and interesting field.

Leftovers

=> ↺ A College Without Classes

• Had Daniella Kippnick followed in the footsteps of the hundreds of millions of students who have earned university degrees in the past millennium, she might be slumping in a lecture hall somewhere while a professor droned. But Kippnick has no course lectures. She has no courses to attend at all. No classroom, no college quad, no grades. Her university has no deadlines or tenure-track professors.

• Instead, Kippnick makes her way through different subject matters on the way to a bachelor’s in accounting. When she feels she’s mastered a certain subject, she takes a test at home, where a proctor watches her from afar by monitoring her computer and watching her over a video feed. If she proves she’s competent—by getting the equivalent of a B—she passes and moves on to the next subject.

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ Aging Pipes Are Poisoning America’s Tap Water

• In Flint, Michigan, lead, copper, and bacteria are contaminating the drinking supply and making residents ill. If other cities fail to fix their old pipes, the problem could soon become a lot more common.

• [...]

• In the past 16 months, abnormally high levels of e. coli, trihamlomethanes, lead, and copper have been found in the city’s water, which comes from the local river (a dead body and an abandoned car were also found in the same river). Mays and other residents say that the city government endangered their health when it stopped buying water from Detroit last year and instead started selling residents treated water from the Flint River. “I’ve never seen a first-world city have such disregard for human safety,” she told me.

Security

=> ↺ DNS server attacks begin using BIND software flaw

• Attackers have started exploiting a flaw in the most widely used software for the DNS (Domain Name System), which translates domain names into IP addresses.

• Last week, a patch was issued for the denial-of-service flaw, which affects all versions of BIND 9, open-source software originally developed by the University of California at Berkeley in the 1980s.

=> ↺ Researchers Create First Firmware Worm That Attacks Macs

• The common wisdom when it comes to PCs and Apple computers is that the latter are much more secure. Particularly when it comes to firmware, people have assumed that Apple systems are locked down in ways that PCs aren’t.

• It turns out this isn’t true. Two researchers have found that several known vulnerabilities affecting the firmware of all the top PC makers can also hit the firmware of MACs. What’s more, the researchers have designed a proof-of-concept worm for the first time that would allow a firmware attack to spread automatically from MacBook to MacBook, without the need for them to be networked.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Hiroshima: 70 years on, one survivor remembers the horror of the world’s first atomic bombing

• As Japan marks 70 years since the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombs, Yukiko Nakabushi talk about her crusade against nuclear weapons

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ A Haven From the Animal Holocaust

• There are mornings when Susie Coston, walking up to the gate of this bucolic farm in her rubber boots, finds crates of pigs, sheep, chickens, goats, geese or turkeys on the dirt road. Sometimes there are notes with the crates letting her know that the animals are sick or injured. The animals, often barely able to stand when taken from the crates, have been rescued from huge industrial or factory farms by activists.

• The crates are delivered anonymously under the cover of darkness. This is because those who liberate animals from factory farms are considered terrorists under U.S. law. If caught, they can get a 10-year prison term and a $250,000 fine under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. That is the punishment faced by two activists who were arrested in Oakland, Calif., last month and charged with freeing more than 5,700 minks in 2013, destroying breeding records and vandalizing other property of the fur industry.

Finance

=> ↺ Jimmy Carter: U.S. Is an ‘Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery’

• Former President Jimmy Carter had some harsh words to say about the current state of America’s electoral process, calling the country “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” resulting in “nominations for president or to elect the president.” When asked this week by The Thom Hartmann Program (via The Intercept) about the Supreme Court’s April 2014 decision to eliminate limits on campaign donations, Carter said the ruling “violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system.”

=> ↺ Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery”

• Former president Jimmy Carter said Tuesday on the nationally syndicated radio show the Thom Hartmann Program that the United States is now an “oligarchy” in which “unlimited political bribery” has created “a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors.” Both Democrats and Republicans, Carter said, “look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves.”

=> ↺ Charles Koch calls for unity against ‘corporate welfare’

• As top GOP presidential candidates arrived at a hotel here to court the influential donors of the Koch network, Charles Koch called on retreat attendees to unite with him in a campaign against “corporate welfare” and “irresponsible spending” by both political parties.

• Speaking on the hotel’s grassy lawn with the Pacific Ocean shimmering behind him, Koch opened the gathering hosted by Freedom Partners by noting that the theme of the weekend would be “Unleashing Our Free Society.” Koch network donors and politicians alike must work toward “eliminating welfare for the wealthy,” he said.

=> ↺ Fox Analyst Compares Donald Trump To St. Augustine And Mr. Smith Goes To Washington

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ At NY Observer, Trump’s Too Close to Cover–but Promoting Publisher’s Real Estate Is No Problem

• The Huffington Post‘s Michael Calderone (7/28/15) had a piece on the ethical dilemma posed for the weekly New York Observer by the fact that its owner and publisher, Jared Kushner, is married to Ivanka Trump, daughter of real estate mogul and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. One would expect the Observer to be all over the Trump story, given that its self-proclaimed mission is to cover “the city’s influencers in politics, culture, luxury and real estate who collectively make New York City unique,” but instead the paper has had next to nothing to say about Trump’s controversy-fueled presidential bid.

Censorship

=> ↺ Anti-Web Blocking Site More Popular in the UK than Spotify & Skype

• A service that helps users circumvent web-blocking injunctions handed down by the UK High Court has grown to become one of the country’s most popular websites. Unblocked.pw provides instant access to dozens of otherwise blocked domains and is currently ranked 192nd in the UK, ahead of both Spotify and Skype.

=> ↺ David Cameron Wants To Shut Down Porn Sites Because Kids Are Clever Enough To Defeat Age Restrictions

• UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been using “porn” moral panics as a wedge issue to ramp up censorship and control over the internet in the UK. He’s been pushing aspects of it for years, including demands for the impossible: filters that block “bad content” but allow “good content.” Yes, it does seem bizarre that someone in as powerful a position as David Cameron sees the world in such a black and white way, but remember, this is the same guy who bases his defense of more spying powers on what happens in fictional TV crime dramas.

• His latest plan? Well, he’s insisting that he’s going to shut down porn websites if they don’t guarantee to keep out everyone under the age of 18. Yes, many sites have some age controls, but kids aren’t stupid and can usually figure out a way around them. And that’s always going to be the case. And it’s been the case since pornography existed. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that it’s quite likely that David Cameron himself first came across pornographic material long before his 18th birthday.

=> ↺ The Pirate Bay Will Be Blocked in Austria

• Following a European trend, an Austrian Court has ordered a local ISP to block access to The Pirate Bay. The legal action, brought by copyright holders, resulted in an injunction which orders the ISPs to block access to several popular torrent sites and also affects Isohunt.to, 1337x.to and h33t.to.

Privacy

=> ↺ GCHQ and Me

• Events were about to take me on a different journey. Behind me, sharp footfalls broke the stillness. A squad was running, hard, toward the porch of the house we had left. Suited men surrounded us. A burly middle-aged cop held up his police ID. We had broken “Section 2″ of Britain’s secrecy law, he claimed. These were “Special Branch,” then the elite security division of the British police.

• For a split second, I thought this was a hustle. I knew that a parliamentary commission had released a report five years earlier that concluded that the secrecy law, first enacted a century ago, should be changed. I pulled out my journalist identification card, ready to ask them to respect the press.

=> ↺ I’m Quitting Social Media to Learn What I Actually Like

• Three years ago, I began taking August off social media. I wasn’t alone. That was the year everyone started writing about digital detoxes, smartphone-free summer camps, and Facebook cleanses. One writer at the Verge took a year’s vacation from the Internet.

• I don’t seem to see those stories as much anymore. To figure out why, I decided to ask my 1,868 Facebook friends. I pulled up the site, but before I could properly articulate the question, I noticed a guy I met briefly five years ago had posted hiking photos from the same place I went hiking last week. We had both been in Oregon!! What a coincidence! I clicked on the photo and saw he’d been there with a woman I knew from high school. Well, how do they know each other? I clicked on her photo and up came a profile pic of three tiny children, all adorable. The youngest had a Brown University shirt on. A little bit of digging revealed that, in fact, her husband had gotten a job at my alma mater and they’d all moved to Providence. I’d learned so much in just five minutes, but what was it I’d wanted to know from Facebook?

=> ↺ Supporter Newsletter: July 2015

• And now, after taking legal action, the High Court has ruled that DRIPA was indeed inconsistent with EU law.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Police in Norway Haven’t Killed Anyone in Nearly 10 Years

• Police in Norway hardly ever use their guns, a new report released by the Scandinavian country’s government shows. In fact, it’s been almost 10 years since law enforcement shot and killed someone, in 2006.

• Perhaps the most telling instance was when terrorist Anders Breivik opened fire in 2011 and killed 77 people in Utoya and Oslo. Authorities fired back at him, all right, but only a single time. In 2014, officers drew their guns 42 times, but they fired just two shots while on duty. No one was hurt in either of those instances.

=> ↺ Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later

• Dr. Lewinski and his company have provided training for dozens of departments, including in Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Milwaukee and Seattle. His messages often conflict, in both substance and tone, with the training now recommended by the Justice Department and police organizations.

• The Police Executive Research Forum, a group that counts most major city police chiefs as members, has called for greater restraint from officers and slower, better decision making. Chuck Wexler, its director, said he is troubled by Dr. Lewinski’s teachings. He added that even as chiefs changed their use-of-force policies, many did not know what their officers were taught in academies and private sessions.

=> ↺ Spanish Cops Use New Law To Fine Facebook Commenter For Calling Them ‘Slackers’

• On July 1st, the Spanish government enacted a set of laws designed to keep disruption within its borders to a minimum. In addition to making dissent illegal (criminal acts now include “public disruption” and “unauthorized protests”), Spanish legislators decided the nation’s law enforcement officers should be above reproach. This doesn’t mean Spanish cops will be behaving better. It just means the public will no longer be able to criticize them.

=> ↺ German Netzpolitik journalists investigated for treason

• Press freedom is under threat in Germany — two journalists and their alleged source are under investigation for potential treason for disclosing and reporting what appears to be an illegal and secret plan to spy on German citizens.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Why ISPs still take forever to install business Internet service

• Dealing with telcos and carriers for enterprise circuit installation is still a royal pain. Haven’t we been doing this long enough to do it well?

=> ↺ The Web We Have to Save

• Blogs gave form to that spirit of decentralization: They were windows into lives you’d rarely know much about; bridges that connected different lives to each other and thereby changed them. Blogs were cafes where people exchanged diverse ideas on any and every topic you could possibly be interested in. They were Tehran’s taxicabs writ large.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Killing Spotify’s Free Version Will Boost Piracy

• Spotify is generally hailed as a piracy killer, with music file-sharing traffic dropping in virtually every country where the service launches. However, much of this effect may be lost if recent calls to end Spotify’s free tier are honored.

=> ↺ Google Asked to Remove 18 ‘Pirate Links’ Every Second

• Copyright holders continue to increase the number of copyright takedown requests they send to Google. As a result the company is currently asked to remove a record breaking 18 links to “pirate” pages from its search results every second, a number that is still increasing at a rapid pace.

=> ↺ Kim Dotcom claims deal offered

• He says the offers included one which was conditional on him leaving New Zealand, where he has been a thorn in the side of the government since he and three colleagues were arrested at the request of the FBI in January 2012.

=> ↺ Copying And Sharing Was Always A Natural Right; Restricting Copying Never Was

• In the still-ongoing debate over sharing it’s paramount to realize that sharing and copying was always the natural state, and that restricting of copying is an arbitrary restriction of property rights.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.