This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2015/09/04/acer-predator-8/.

● 09.04.15

● Links 4/9/2015: Acer Predator 8, GNOME 3.17.91 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 5:14 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop/Tablets

=> ↺ 13 Ways You Can Help Desktop Linux To Grow

• This is the condition when there are over 300 Linux distributions with a number of them being desktop focused. Linux was (and still) considered to be the “geek only” zone with the biggest misconception that one need to know the command line to use Linux.

• Times have changed. Linux is a lot more user-friendly than what it used to be in late 90’s or early 2000. The chances for Linux to gain market share is now and you definitely could help in this cause.

=> ↺ Xiaomi is rumored to be working on a Laptop… running Linux!

=> ↺ Xiaomi aims to knock Apple off its branch with move into computers

=> ↺ Xiaomi’s Macbook Pro killer will run Linux

• Xiaomi is known for its popular clones of Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Now the Chinese company is rumored to be working on a Linux-based alternative to Apple’s Macbook Pro laptop.

=> ↺ Acer Announces Predator 8 Gaming Tablet With Intel Atom x7 And Android 5.1

=> ↺ Acer Predator 8: A $299 Android gaming tablet

• Acer is launching its first Android tablet designed for gaming. The company’s been showing off the device for months, but now it’s official: the Acer Predator 8 is a tablet with an 8-inch IPS display, an Intel Atom x7 Cherry Trail processor, and a $299 price tag.

=> ↺ Acer Launch New $299 Convertible Chromebook

=> ↺ Acer offers convertible Chromebook for $299

• Chromebooks have been burning up the sales charts on Amazon. And now convertible Chromebooks seem to be where the market is headed. Acer has jumped on the convertible bandwagon by announcing the Chromebook R11. This new model offers notebook and tablet functionality built into one Chromebook.

=> ↺ Linux Foundation is giving away Chromebooks

• The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization that sponsors Linus Torvalds and runs many programs to accelerate the growth of Linux, is now giving away free Chromebooks to those who enroll in one of its training courses during September.

• Free Chromebook. To everyone. Throughout September.

• The foundation has chosen Dell’s Chromebook 11 for this program. The $299 Chromebook features a 11.6″ display, is powered by 1.4Ghz processor, and comes with 4GB of RAM.

Server

=> ↺ Announcing dex, an Open Source OpenID Connect Identity Provider from CoreOS

• Today we are pleased to announce a new CoreOS open source project called dex: a standards-based identity provider and authentication solution.

=> ↺ CloudRouter now live

• The collaborative open-source CloudRouter project has come out of beta.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ The Linux Test Project has been released for September 2015

• Good news everyone,

• the Linux Test Project test suite stable release for September 2015 has been released.

• Since the last release 272 patches by 27 authors were merged.

• Notable changes are:

• • Network namespace testcases were rewritten from scratch

• • New user namespaces testcases

• • New testcases for various virtual network interfaces

• • New umount2() testcases (for UMOUNT_NOFOLLOW, MNT_EXPIRE and MNT_DETACH flags)

• • New open() testcase (for O_PATH flag)

• • New getrandom() testcases

• • New inotify, cpuset, futex_wake() and recvmsg() regression tests

• • The usual number of fixes and enhancements

=> ↺ Linux Kernel Engineer opportunity at Collabora!

• Collabora is a software consultancy specialising in bringing companies and the open source software community together and it is currently looking for a Core Software Engineer, that works in the Linux kernel and/or all the plumbing around the kernel. In this role the engineer will be part of worldwide team who works with our clients to solve their Linux kernel and low level stack technical problems.

=> ↺ DevOps: An Introduction

• Not too long ago, software development was done a little differently. We programmers would each have our own computer, and we would write code that did the usual things a program should do, such as read and write files, respond to user events, save data to a database, and so on. Most of the code ran on a single computer, except for the database server, which was usually a separate computer. To interact with the database, our code would specify the name or address of the database server along with credentials and other information, and we would call into a library that would do the hard work of communicating with the server. So, from the perspective of the code, everything took place locally. We would call a function to get data from a table, and the function would return with the data we asked for. Yes, there were plenty of exceptions, but for many application-based desktop applications, this was the general picture.

=> ↺ The Comparison and Context of Unikernels and Containers

• Talk about unikernels is starting to gain momentum. Still, these are such early days for this technology that implements the bare minimum of the traditional operating system functions. Its functionality is a topic we discussed last month in a post by Russell Pavlicek of Citrix. As Pavlicek wrote, unikernels implement the bare minimum of the traditional operating system functions — just enough to enable the application it powers.

Applications

=> ↺ FISH – A smart and user-friendly command line shell for Linux

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to set up AirPlay Mirroring on a Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ Collecting Ubuntu Linux System Information

=> ↺ How to Auto Install All Kali Linux Tools Using “Katoolin” on Debian/Ubuntu

=> ↺ RDO Juno DVR Deployment (Controller/Network)+Compute+Compute (ML2&OVS&VXLAN) on CentOS 7.1

=> ↺ How to install Suricata intrusion detection system on Linux

=> ↺ How to stitch photos into a panorama with Hugin Panorama Creator on Linux

=> ↺ How I organize my photos

=> ↺ Add power to your terminal with powerline

=> ↺ How to install Odoo ERP Software on Ubuntu 15.04

Games

=> ↺ Where to Download the Best Linux Games Without Any Hassle

• Not even a decade ago, native gaming on Linux was barely a conceivable reality save for a few open source cross-platform games. Today, it’s clear that the “no games on Linux” myth is dead.

=> ↺ Twin Stick Shooter Assault Android Cactus To Be Released Sept 23rd, Plus Some Early Access Reflections

• On September the 23rd, Australian developer Witchbeam will be releasing their intense sci-fi twin stick shooter Assault Android Cactus on Steam and Humble Store for Linux, Mac and Windows. The release date trailer below unveils the game’s opening cutscene in which Jr Constable Cactus calmly and professionally boards the Genki Star to take command of the situation.

=> ↺ Illuminascii, A Weird FPS With An ASCII Text Based Visual Style

• I do love my FPS games, but I’m not entirely sure about Illuminascii. It mixes traditional graphics with ASCII for a really cool effect, but the gameplay isn’t all that great.

=> ↺ Linux game development in 2015

• There are so many articles about how to do games using Windows with engines such as Unity and flipping art from assets stores. But really there are not many articles about alternative development processes such as building under Linux using a cheap and open-source approach.

=> ↺ Unity devs can now experiment with making games on a Linux machine

• The folks at Unity have made good on a summer promise to port the Unity Editor to Linux by releasing an experimental build last week that runs on 64-bit Linux distros and exports games to a subset of Unity’s supported platforms.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ This is what we do if someone offers us some constructive criticism

• We in KDE don’t ignore constructive feedback, so at Akademy, we set out to find solutions to the issues he pointed out. In order to maximize the reach of our efforts’ documentation, I decided to write a two-part series about it over at Linux Veda, a “web-magazine to share and spread knowledge about Linux and Open Source technologies” which has always been very interested in – and generally supportive of – KDE.

=> ↺ Calligra 2.9.7 Open-Source Office Suite Adds Multiple Kexi and Krita Improvements

=> ↺ [Krita] Updating the Shop!

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.17.91 released!

=> ↺ GNOME 3.18 Beta 2 Officially Released, Final Version Coming on September 23

• The GNOME Project sent an email to Softpedia a few minutes ago, informing us of the release of the second Beta build of the upcoming GNOME 3.18 desktop environment, due for release on September 23, 2015.

Distributions

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Large Inflow of Money Witnessed in Red Hat, Inc.

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) dropped -0.84% or -0.59 points to trade at $69.68 per share. As per the latest trading data available, the net money flow stood at $3.03 million as the shares received $22.45 million in upticks and gave away $19.42 million in downticks. The final up/down ratio was at 1.16. On a weekly basis, the stock has appreciated by -5.66%.During the course of the session, the shares witnessed a block trade with an up/down ratio of 3.14. $6.17 million was the inflow in upticks and $1.97 million was the outflow in downticks. For the block trade, the net money flow was $4.2 million.

=> ↺ RHEL 7.2 beta brings security, manageability and container enhancements

=> ↺ Red Hat Debuts New Linux Networking and Security Tools in RHEL 7.2

=> ↺ ​Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 beta is out

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ DebEX Barebone Distro Now Uses Linux Kernel 4.2, Based on Debian 8.1 and Xfce 4.12

• After announcing the release of the DebEX GNOME and KDE Editions, Arne Exton had the great pleasure of informing us about the immediate availability for download of a new build of his DebEX Barebone distribution.

Canonical/Ubuntu

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Elementary OS: Freya 0.3.1 is Here!

• After just a few months, we’re excited to announce a major upgrade for elementary OS Freya! This new version 0.3.1 closes about 200 reports and brings new features, tons of fixes, better hardware support, visual polish, and enhanced translations.

• We’re very proud to share some elementary OS download stats as well! So far, elementary OS has been downloaded an estimated 5 million times. Of those downloads, we’re seeing that almost 70% are coming from Windows and OS X. So, “Welcome and congratulations!” to the over 3 million new users of an open source operating system!

=> ↺ elementary OS 0.3.1 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ elementary OS Has Been Downloaded 5 Million Times, Freya 0.3.1 Out Now – Gallery

• The developers of the popular and gorgeous elementary OS Linux distribution were proud to announce a few minutes ago the immediate availability for download of the first maintenance release to Freya.

=> ↺ Kernel panic on Linux Mint 17.1

=> ↺ Upgrade the kernel on Linux Mint 17.2

=> ↺ Configurable mintMenu stops working after upgrading to Linux Mint 17.2

=> ↺ ChaletOS, New & Beautiful Linux Distribution Based On Xubuntu And A Clone Of Windows

• Now when Linux is becoming more & more popular among non-Linux users, there is a Linux distribution dedicated for such users who are blank about Linux. ChaletOS is a new, sleek & beautiful operating system that is very much Like modern Windows. ChaletOS aims for making ease in learning Linux, taking away from complexities for new users. Personally I think about their aim, “Great!”. Let’s take a look at this new & sleek Linux distro.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Samsung rolls out a round, Tizen-based Gear S2 watch

• Samsung debuted its gen 2 smartwatch: a round, 11.5mm thick “Gear S2″ device with a 1.2-inch 360×360 pixel AMOLED display. As expected, it runs Tizen.

=> ↺ Why Samsung’s new smartwatch doesn’t run Android

• Samsung has released some more information on its next generation of smartwatches, the Gear S2. Unlike most of the spate of non-Apple watches being released this week, it’s not running Android Wear. Instead, Samsung has opted to continue using Tizen, the Linux-based operating system that powers its smart TVs and some phones in India.

Android

=> ↺ The most exciting Android announcement of the week may not matter for Americans

• A curious thing happens almost every year in the land of Android announcements: We hear about some of the most interesting Android phones around — devices that not only are beautifully designed and a pleasure to use but also fill an important gap in the current Android ecosystem — and then…nothing.

=> ↺ Sony, ZTE Have the Small Premium Android Phones We Want But Can’t Have

• Smaller, high-quality Android smartphones have gotten disturbingly hard to find. While Apple sells millions of 4.7-inch iPhone 6 units, Android phone makers often seem to think “small” means “cheap,” as they scale their flagship phones up to 5.5 inches and beyond.

=> ↺ Android Wear: New watch styles and sizes

=> ↺ The New Moto 360 Might Be the Prettiest Smartwatch Yet

• In just the past two days, we’ve seen a telling trend in the next generation of smartwatches. As their capabilities improve, they’re looking a lot less like wrist-computers. They’re actually starting to look like fashionable timepieces that just happen to have built-in computers.

=> ↺ Hands-on with Marshall’s rock’n’roll Android smartphone

• Earlier this year, Marshall surprised the tech community by unveiling the London smartphone — a conventional Android device with quite unconventional styling. At the time, Marshall was lauded for doing something different in the rather staid smartphone world (or rather, the Swedish firm Zound Industries was praised for not messing up the brand they’d licensed), but how does the London stand up to closer scrutiny?

=> ↺ Android Candy: Copay—the Next-Generation Bitcoin Wallet

=> ↺ Withings finally makes its entire product lineup compatible with Android

=> ↺ CyanogenMod Update Brings Android 5.1.1 Lollipop And Security Patch For Stagefright

=> ↺ Walk on the mild side: Android Wear comes to iOS

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Android 6.0 Release: 5 Things to Know

=> ↺ Smart touchscreen dev kit runs Android on quad-core i.MX6

• Gateworks announced a 7-inch touchscreen Android development kit, with a quad-core i.MX6 SoC, GbE, WiFi, BT, GPS, USB, serial I/O, and dual mini-PCIe slots.

• The Gateworks “GW11036″ Embedded Android Development Kit is aimed at easing the process of developing smart touchscreen-interfaced systems for use in a wide range of applications, including those requiring extended temperature operation. The kit builds on the company’s GW5224 single board computer, adding a 7-inch, 1024 x 600-pixel TFT display, capacitive touchscreen, wireless modules, and a customized, microSD-bootable, Android KitKat operating system.

=> ↺ Deal alert – Android TV Box for only $70

• The Android TV box looks more like a router than it does a TV box, but that might help it blend into your TV tablet. Thanks to its neat and new software, the Emish X800 is a pretty good device. Considering its rather low price tag, this TV box can become a crowd favorite for those who like portability, even though this one doesn’t work with a battery. Maybe the next one will.

=> ↺ Motorola Moto X Pure Edition review

• As it turns out, in 2015, a really good mid-range smartphone is also a really good overall smartphone, and the Moto X Pure Edition is the best mid-range smartphone you can get.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ New Cyber Threat Detection Tool Made Open Source

• Lockheed’s move points to the power of open source, particularly when it comes to big overreaching issues such as cybersecurity. Rather than Lockheed keeping their tool as internal proprietary software and requiring others to license or purchase it, they recognized the potential their innovation holds for the greater good. This represents a huge step for both the open source and cybersecurity communities.

=> ↺ Why Does the Government Use Open Source Code?

=> ↺ Twitter open-sources Diffy, a tool for automatically spotting bugs in code

• Twitter is today announcing the availability of Diffy, a new piece of open-source software that developers can use to spot bugs when they’re making updates to certain parts of code.

• Twitter uses the code internally. Now the social networking company is releasing it to the rest of the world.

=> ↺ We wrote an open source bank parser

• Our first project is something I was already working on, an extensible parser to chew bank statements and shit out transaction sheets. We made a gem, made an API and learnt a lot in the process. (We even wrote a java API to unlock pdf files given a password. Whew!). We currently have a meager three bank support, but we’ve managed to build a framework that makes it super easy to add other banks and statement formats.

Events

=> ↺ Ada Initiative runs out of puff, shuts its doors

• This manifested itself largely in attempts to force conference organisers to adopt draconian codes of conduct. In 2013, Aurora was very much in the public eye when she forced the organisers of the Security BSides conference in San Francisco to cancel a talk that she deemed unsuitable.

• The presenter was well-known speaker Violet Blue and the talk was titled “sex +/- drugs: known vulns and exploits”.

• Though Aurora tried her level best to make out that she had been asked to look over the conference programme by the organisers, it became apparent that she was the one who had poked her nose into the whole affair and tried to muscle the organisers into cancelling the talk.

=> ↺ Australian Linux conference back in the black, says Linux Australia president

• The Australian national Linux conference has not made a loss in 2015 after a disastrous 2014, according to the president of Linux Australia, Joshua Hesketh.

• Hesketh said LCA 2015, which was held in Auckland earlier his year, was expected to return to profit once the books were fully closed and audited.

Web Browsers

Chrome

=> ↺ Google Chrome Turns Seven, Advances with Security and Performance Gains

• After seven years of development, Google continues its rapid pace of release and enhancement for its Chrome browser. On the seventh anniversary of the first Chrome public release on September 2, Google released Chrome stable version 45 and Chrome beta 46.

=> ↺ Google Patches Critical Vulnerabilities in Chrome 45

=> ↺ Chrome Browser Nearing 30 Percent Market Share

=> ↺ Microsoft-connected firm

• It’s no secret that Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox–both open source browsers–were locked in a neck-and-neck market share battle for a long time. The two browsers have remained on rapid release cycles, and for years they tended to leapfrog each other for market share in small increments each month.

Mozilla

=> ↺ FossaMail Open-Source Mail Client Launches Update

• FossaMail is built on the Mozilla Thunderbird client but without all the will-they-or-won’t-they of the rumors that Mozilla has done with Thunderbird. Even better, FossaMail is compatible with both Windows and Linux, while offering a 64-bit download in Windows to up the speed, address more memory, and perform other 64-bit operations.

• At the same time, FossaMail looks and feels just like Thunderbird, despite the oval tab fiasco. It still offers a contacts list, calendar, and chat, just like most users have come to expect from their email platforms. It’s so close to Thunderbird, in fact, that the developers didn’t bother with an extensive tutorial or FAQ, but instead just point users to the Thunderbird help section if they have any problems.

Databases

=> ↺ Five Ways Open Source Databases Are Limited

• Two of the reasons to deploy an open source database are cost and philosophy. Philosophically, the open source movement subscribes to the notion that having community-developed product creates a better product, and/or “contributes to the world in a better way.” The other reason is cost, which usually means “free,” or at least no-charge for the software database license.

CMS

=> ↺ Proprietary vs. open source WCM

• As it turns out, open source software is not always so free, proprietary software is not necessarily closed, and help from the open source community isn’t nearly as comprehensive as the level of support you get from a professional vendor.

Project Releases

=> ↺ Releases 1.19.1 of Tioga and 0.13.1 of ctioga2

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Open source-distributions for Romanian public administrations

• Advocates of free and open source have tailored two Linux-distributions, motivating the country’s public administrations to use this type of software solutions. The distributions were presented on 29 August at events in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, the country’s most-populous cities. The Ministry of Education is the first to take an interest.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ ORNL Building Efficiency Software Available as Open Source Code

=> ↺ Autotune Code from ORNL Tunes Your Building Energy Efficiency

=> ↺ ORNL Offers Automated Calibration Software for Building Efficiency Studies as Open Source Code

=> ↺ Book cover for the Free Culture book finally done

• Creating a good looking book cover proved harder than I expected. I wanted to create a cover looking similar to the original cover of the Free Culture book we are translating to Norwegian, and I wanted it in vector format for high resolution printing. But my inkscape knowledge were not nearly good enough to pull that off.

Open Data

=> ↺ Hacker proves with Open Data that Microsoft license costs don’t matter

• goes against one of the arguments used more frequently to promote Free Software (which, in and by itself, is intrinsically weak, and therefore not used as the main one by the most experts) that is licensing costs. The graph clearly show that such costs (the leftmost column) are only a small part of the total. From left to right the columns show “software license costs”, “immaterial goods” (whatever that means…), “software acquisition and development”, “litigation and other legal expenses” (as much as licenses..), “software assistance and maintenance”

=> ↺ M$’s Licensing Costs Are Only The Tip Of The Iceberg Of IT – Look Below

Leftovers

Security

=> ↺ How to Make Unbreakable Passwords In Your Head Using Mental Cryptography

• You’re supposed to have distinct passwords for every one of your different accounts, and, what’s more, those passwords are supposed to be difficult. Use some numbers and symbols and weird capitalization, they tell us. But it’s hard, and so we wind up just using the same password for everything and taking the risk.

=> ↺ Thursday’s security advisories

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Action Alert: NYT Gives a False Pass to US on Cluster Bomb Sales

• The New York Times‘ Rick Gladstone (9/3/15) has an article on the use of cluster bombs—aptly described as the “widely outlawed munitions that kill and maim indiscriminately”—in conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, five countries that have not signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which banned the production, sale and use of these weapons in 2010.

• [...]

• This is just wrong: The Convention not only bans the use of cluster bombs—which the US military used against Serbia, Afghanistan and Iraq before the treaty went into effect, but did not use subsequently in its air attacks on Libya—it also mandates that signatories are “never under any circumstances to…develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, cluster munitions.”

=> ↺ The New York Times: Diplomats Agree That Iran Deal “Is As Good A Deal As You Could Get”

• Diplomats from the UK, China, France, Germany and Russia told Congress that the Iran nuclear deal is the best deal possible, according to a report from The New York Times.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Web of Secrecy Surrounding Federal Half-a-Billion Handout to Charter Schools

• Secretary Duncan has previously called for “absolute transparency” when it comes to school performance, but that’s just a talking point unless he releases the applications, or even a list of the states that are in the running, before they are given the final stamp of approval.

=> ↺ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Calls Out Trump For Bullying The Press

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called out Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for the “insidious political crime” of increasingly “attacking the First Amendment’s protection of a free press by menacing journalists.”

• In an essay for The Washington Post’s PostEverything section, Abdul-Jabbar detailed Trump’s increasingly hostile attacks on the press. On two separate occasions, Trump has thrown Hispanic journalists out of his press conferences.

Privacy

=> ↺ Snowden: Clinton’s email server ‘a problem’

• “If an ordinary worker at the State Department or the Central Intelligence Agency … were sending details about the security of the embassies, which is alleged to be in her email, meetings with private government officials, foreign government officials and the statements that were made to them in confidence over unclassified email systems, they would not only lose their jobs and lose their clearance, they would very likely face prosecution for it,” he added.

• Snowden also set his sights on GOP White House front-runner Donald Trump for calling him a “total traitor” earlier this summer.

• “It’s very difficult to respond in a serious way to any statement that’s made by Donald Trump,” he said of the outspoken billionaire.

• Clinton’s voter support is fading amid controversy over her technology habits while serving as secretary of State. Critics say her use of a personal storage device prevented accountability of her actions and jeopardized national security secrets.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Ukip candidate blames ‘greedy parents’ for death of Syrian boy

• Wimbledon Ukip candidate Peter Bucklitsch sparked anger by calling the parents of the Syrian child whose body washed up on the shores of Turkey yesterday “greedy”.

• Writing from what appears to be his account on Twitter, he said the parents of the boy are responsible for his death for their attempts to “queue jump” into Europe for “the good life”.

=> ↺ Ukip Parliamentary Candidate, Peter Bucklitsch, Says Drowned Toddler Aylan Kurdi Is ‘Queue Jump Cost’

=> ↺ EU migrant crisis: Father describes moment children slipped away as Cameron says UK will take Syrian refugees – latest

DRM

=> ↺ There’s still a chance to save WiFi

• You may not know it, but wifi is under assault in the USA due to proposed FCC regulations about modifications to devices with modular radios. In short, it would make it illegal for vendors to sell devices with firmware that users can replace. This is of concern to everyone, because Wifi routers are notoriously buggy and insecure. It is also of special concern to amateur radio hobbyists, due to the use of these devices in the Amateur Radio Service (FCC Part 97).

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.