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● 02.21.16

● Links 21/2/2016: Linux Mint Web Site Breaches, MWC 2016

Posted in News Roundup at 8:59 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ The top Wi-Fi pen testing tools in Kali Linux 2.0

• Last August Offensive Security released Kali Linux 2.0, the Linux distro that’s pretty much everybody’s favorite penetration-testing toolkit (if it’s not your favorite, let me know what you prefer). This release was, to borrow a word from the kool kids, epic.

• Kali Linux 2.0 is based on Debian 8 (“Jessie”) which means that it’s now using the Linux 4.0 kernel which has a sizable list of changes. The biggest change in version 2.0 is arguably the addition of rolling releases which means that all of the latest versions of the included packages will be available as normal updates thus future point releases will really be snapshots rather than completely new builds.

=> ↺ Software Piracy Hurts Linux Adoption, Research Finds

• New research suggests that software piracy has a detrimental effect on the adoption of Linux desktop operating systems. Piracy is one of the reasons why Windows has been able to maintain its dominant market position, making open source alternatives “forgotten victims” of copyright infringement.

Desktop

=> ↺ Reviewing the Lenovo 11e: A sub-$300 Thinkpad with great Linux support

• The laptop is delightfully old-school feeling. The 11-inch screen has a relatively large bezel around each of the edges. And the screen itself, while being absolutely fine, has somewhat limited viewing angles compared to nicer display panels. The keys on the keyboard all have a satisfying “click” to them. Add to this the fact that this machine has an actual Ethernet port… and it almost makes you feel like you’ve traveled back in time to the late 1990’s. In the best possible way.

=> ↺ District goes digital, with one laptop for every student

• The ConVal School District will provide every middle school and high school student a Chromebook laptop by the 2017-18 school year, as textbooks, homework and lessons all go digital.

=> ↺ Another USAian School District Goes To ChromeBooks

=> ↺ Google to shut down Play for Education in March

• Google has been running a small segment of its Play Store designed specifically for educational users for the past two years, as part of the tech giant’s efforts to increase tablet adoption in schools. However, the Play for Education initiative will be coming to an end sometime next month, as there simply isn’t that much demand for the service.

=> ↺ Revisiting The Google Pixel C – Better, But Not There Yet

=> ↺ Is Google’s Pixel C worth buying?

• A writer at AnandTech did a full review of Google’s Pixel C a while back, but now he’s gotten a more up to date unit from the company. Has the Pixel C gotten better than when it was first reviewed? Or does Google still have room for significant improvements?

=> ↺ Neverware Brings Windows Into Its Anti-Aging Fold

• The heart of the CloudReady OS is the Chromium OS, Google’s open source version of the Chrome OS.

=> ↺ Experimenting with Hardware

• The computer turned on with absolute disregard of my fears. After pretty much the same lines that Linux shows upon start, my familiar GRUB2 greeted me, asking if I wanted to boot Mageia, PCLinuxOS, OpenMandriva, or Windows XP (the OS that I haven’t booted in maybe three years).

Server

=> ↺ Univention & TecArt publish app bundle with Docker integration

• In our App Center the new TecArt app, the first application based on the state-of-the-art “Docker” container technology for operation in UCS is now available. The app is stored in an isolated container, making it possible to run different software applications in the same server environment without conflicts.

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 4.3.6 Is the Last in the Series, Users Urged to Move to Linux 4.4

• After announcing the release of the long-term supported Linux 4.4.2 and Linux 3.14.61 kernels, Greg Kroah-Hartman informs the Linux community on February 19, 2016, about the imminent end-of-life (EOL) for the Linux 4.3 kernel branch.

=> ↺ Two new stable kernels

• Greg Kroah-Hartman has announced the release of stable kernels 4.3.6 and 3.10.97. Both contain important updates throughout the tree. In addition, 4.3.6 is the last release for the now end-of-life 4.3 kernel branch; users will need to migrate to the 4.4 series.

=> ↺ Linux Kernel 3.10.97 LTS Out Now with Updated Drivers and PA-RISC Improvements

=> ↺ The Internet Of Things Goes Open Source With Linux Foundation’s Zephyr Project

=> ↺ Linux Foundation releases Zephyr

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds Announces Linux Kernel 4.5 Release Candidate 5, Things Remain Calm

• Surprise, surprise! It looks like Linus Torvalds has made an early release of the next RC (Release Candidate) build of the upcoming Linux 4.5 kernel series, as announced on Saturday, February 20, 2016.

• Linus Torvalds makes his usual RC announcements for the next major kernel release late Sunday or every week, but for some reason, he decided to drop the fifth Release Candidate build a day earlier than expected, which sounds very good to us.

=> ↺ Linux 4.5-rc5 Kernel Released A Day Early

=> ↺ Kernel prepatch 4.5-rc5

=> ↺ Linux 4.5 Intel Skylake DRM Graphics Performance Tests

• We have already covered AMD Linux 4.5 graphics tests and Nouveau graphics tests from this latest in-development version of the Linux kernel. If you’ve been wondering about any Intel HD Graphics performance changes out of Linux 4.5, here are some benchmarks.

• In this article are some benchmarks of Linux 4.3 vs. 4.4 vs. 4.5 Git when using an Intel Core i5 6600K “Skylake” processor with HD Graphics 530. The test system was running Ubuntu 15.10 but aside from swapping out the vanilla kernel build there was also Mesa 11.2-devel running on the system and Intel DRI3 was enabled.

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds: Linux 4.5-rc5

=> ↺ Linux Founder Linus Torvalds: “I Don’t Really Love Other People. I Love Computers”

• Do you know that the development of Linux was never started with the intention of making it an open source kernel?

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Open-Source AMDGPU Linux Driver Gets Its First Point Release for Mesa 11.2

• As you may know, xf86-video-amdgpu is the open-source X.Org driver for GNU/Linux operating system, which has been forked from the open-source xf86-video-ati AMD Radeon graphics driver to support the AMDGPU kernel driver introduced in Linux kernel 4.2.

=> ↺ X.Org Appears To Be Back Up

=> ↺ Khronos’ Vulkan Webinar Video Now Online

=> ↺ The Wayland Issues Still Ahead Of Fedora 24

=> ↺ Planning Starts For Mesa/Wayland/X.Org Projects This Summer

=> ↺ Initial AMDGPU Features Lining Up For The Linux 4.6 Kernel

=> ↺ Mesa NVC0 Lands Fermi Compute Shaders

Benchmarks

=> ↺ What Skylake Xeon Benchmarks Have You Been Dreaming About? A 9-Way Comparison Coming

=> ↺ Mesa 11.0.2 vs. Mesa 11.2-devel Benchmarks On Intel Skylake

• For those currently running Ubuntu 15.10 or other similar Linux distributions powered off Mesa 11.0, here are some performance benchmarks comparing that release to the about-to-be-branched Mesa 11.2.

• From an Intel Core i5 6600K system I conducted some benchmarks of Mesa 11.0.2 as available by default on Ubuntu 15.10 compared to Mesa 11.2-devel when enabling the Padoka PPA on the same installation with the exact same hardware.

=> ↺ DRI2 vs. DRI3 Benchmarks With Intel Skylake HD Graphics 530

• While DRI3 appears to be in good shape with the latest X.Org Server series and Direct Rendering Infrastructure 3 is even mandated by the Intel Mesa Vulkan driver, DRI2 is still the default with the xf86-video-intel DDX driver, similar to the situation in the Radeon DDX driver as well.

• For those wondering about the performance impact of enabling DRI3 rather than using the default DRI2, there are some benchmarks in this article of DRI2 vs. DRI3 rendering using an Intel Core i5 6600K “Skylake” system with HD Graphics 530. Besides potentially faster performance and being a requirement for the Intel Vulkan driver on X11, DRI3 can reduce tearing and provide other benefits too.

Applications

=> ↺ Ardour 4.7 Open Source DAW Improves the Mackie Control Support, Adds Fixes

=> ↺ Ardour 4.7 released

• Ardour 4.7 is now available, including a variety of improvements and minor bug fixes.

=> ↺ Official Linux Packages for Sync Now Available

• We’ve received many requests from the Sync community to be able to install Sync on a Linux family OS in the “Linux way” — using packages and a standard tool (yum or apt-get) to get the package downloaded and installed.

=> ↺ BitTorrent’s Sync Now Offers Official Linux Packages

• BitTorrent Sync, the P2P file synchronization tool for many different platforms, finally has official Linux packages.

=> ↺ Gnocchi 2.0 release

• A little more than 3 months after our latest minor release, here is the new major version of Gnocchi, stamped 2.0.0. It contains a lot of new and exciting features, and I’d like to talk about some of them to celebrate!

=> ↺ Announce: Entangle “Top” release 0.7.1 – an app for tethered camera control & capture

• The this is mostly a bug fix release, but there was a little feature work on the film strip viewer widget. It has been rewritten to dynamically scale thumbnails according to the available space, and caches thumbnails at 256px size instead of 128px.

=> ↺ Run This Single Command In Terminal To Get Geeky Weather Reports

=> ↺ Kodi 16.0 Now Available

=> ↺ Kodi 16.0 “Jarvis” Massive Update Has Finally Arrived

• After a rich development cycle that saw the addition of a large number of fixes and new features, the final version of Kodi 16.0 “Jarvis” has finally arrived. This is a massive upgrade, and most users will find something interesting.

=> ↺ PHP 7.0 (and 5.6) on Ubuntu

• PHP 7 is here! Running Ubuntu? Don’t want to wait for the official distro package? Check out this PPA for Ubuntu that allows both PHP 5.6 and PHP 7.0 to be installed and run side-by-side!

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to install WebGoat on Ubuntu 14.04, 15.04 and 15.10

=> ↺ Minecraft NFC – How one man took Minecraft to the next level

=> ↺ How to Run or Repeat a Linux Command Every X Seconds Forever

=> ↺ How to install ImpressCMS on Ubuntu 14.04

=> ↺ Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically

=> ↺ Generating C++ from a DTD with Jinja2 and lxml

=> ↺ GitLab install/configure and integrate with Domain Controller

=> ↺ How to setup and run a penetration testing (pentest) lab on AWS or Google Cloud with Kali Linux, Metasploitable and WebGoat

=> ↺ Install Microweber on Ubuntu 14.04

=> ↺ How to enable ELRepo repository on CentOS or RHEL

=> ↺ Setup Swift as Glance backend on RDO Liberty Multi node deployment (CentOS 7.2)

=> ↺ How to install ImpressCMS on Ubuntu 14.04

=> ↺ How to compile virt-manager on Debian or Ubuntu

=> ↺ How To Install & Use VeraCrypt In Linux An Alternative To TrueCrypt [COMPLETE TUTORIAL]

• VeraCrypt is a free, open source and cross platform data encryption tool. It’s an alternative to TrueCrypt(project discontinued), the popular encryption tool for all Operating systems. VeraCrypt is an easy to use tool. In this article I will walk you through the complete process of installing & using VeraCrypt in any Linux distributions such as Debian, Arch, Ubuntu, Linux Mint etc. So let’s get started.

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine Announcement

• The Wine development release 1.9.4 is now available.

• What’s new in this release (see below for details): - Support for color glyphs and font fallbacks in DirectWrite. - Improvements to the WebServices reader. - Support for more formats in Direct3D 11. - Simplified syntax and clean up of tests marked todo. - Various bug fixes.

=> ↺ Wine 1.9.4 Works On More D3D11 Support, Better WebServices Reader

=> ↺ Wine 1.9.4 Released for Linux with Support for More Formats in Direct3D 11

• The Wine development team announced today, February 19, 2016, the release and immediate availability for download and testing of the fourth milestone in the development cycle of the Wine 1.10 software.

Games

=> ↺ Talos Principle On Linux Should Now Expose Vulkan To All

=> ↺ Early OpenGL vs. Vulkan Linux Benchmarks With Talos Principle

=> ↺ Looks like Dota 2 with Vulkan isn’t too far away

=> ↺ Vulkan open standard API support, new games out for Linux, and more gaming

• Hello, open gaming fans! In this week’s edition we take a look at support for the new open standard API, Vulkan, as well as, new games and expansions out this week for Linux.

=> ↺ Dying Light patch released

=> ↺ LinuxGameCast Benchmarks Vulkan on Linux

• Venn continued to benchmark and came across a few extra discoveries. For example, he disabled VDPAU and jumped to 89.6 FPS in OpenGL and 80.6 FPS in Vulkan. Basically, be sure to read the whole thread. It might be updated further even. Original post below (unless otherwise stated).

=> ↺ How to play the Android 6.0 hidden Flappy Bird game

=> ↺ Thoughts on first-person exploration game ESSENCE prototype, Linux crowdfunding roundup

• ESSENCE is a surreal first-person exploration adventure which had me mesmerized when I first saw it on Kickstarter last year. Developer ONEVISION (yes, that’s all caps too) is back on Kickstarter with a much lower goal and has now made a Linux prototype available.

=> ↺ Looks like Evolve might still come to Linux & SteamOS

• Thanks as usual to SteamDB (Note the build changes to the Linux & Mac depots), it looks like the Linux/SteamOS and Mac ports of Evolve might still be happening.

• Evolve is a bit of a mystery, as it was only confirmed by Valve on one specific page which they have since updated with an entirely new layout removing the games section. It was listed along with a bunch of other games in March of last year.

=> ↺ How SteamOS could become a better console competitor

• SteamOS is the console OS from Valve to turn PCs into consoles, but with PC things you love such as the ability to mod and use PC software. But it puts them in an easy to use package with a controller on the TV and removes some hassle that operating systems like Windows, Mac, Ubuntu (or other Linux distributions with a desktop GUI) and FreeBSD includes.

=> ↺ SteamOS Already Adds In NVIDIA Vulkan Support

• SteamOS 2.0 “Brewmaster” saw a new update today.

• The changes listed for this SteamOS 2.63 update are mostly dominated by package updates to fix the recent glibc security issue that’s been making the rounds. However, aside from that, it also has a NVIDIA proprietary driver update.

=> ↺ Steam Client Adds Vulkan Support, Controller Improvements

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Call to Co-maintainers of Cantor

• Cantor, the software to scientific programming in worksheet-style interface, had (and has!) several developers working in different parts of the code along the years. Thanks to the plugin-based architecture of Cantor, a developer can to create a new backend to communicate with some new programming language, an assistant, or some other piece of software, requiring just the knowledge of Cantor API.

=> ↺ Where are my noble gases? I need MORE noble gases!

• As KDE software (be it the Frameworks libraries, the Plasma 5 workspace, or the Applications) develops during a normal release cycle, a lot of things happen. New and exciting features emerge, bugs get fixed, and the software becomes better and more useful than it was before. Thanks to code review and continuous integration, the code quality of KDE software has also tremendously improved. Given how things are improving, it is tempting to follow development as it happens. Sounds exciting?

=> ↺ KDE Applications 15.2.2 and Frameworks 5.19.0 now available

• The latest updates for KDE’s Applications and Frameworks series are now available to all Chakra users, together with several other package updates.

• Applications get updated to 15.12.2 and according to the official announcement ‘more than 30 recorded bugfixes include improvements to kdelibs, kdepim, kdenlive, marble, konsole, spectacle, akonadi, ark and umbrello’.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ Alexander Larsson: Building an xdg-app – part 2

• Welcome back to this multi-part tutorial in how to create xdg-app applications. In part 1 we installed everything we needed and manually created our first application. In this part we will build a more complex application, using the basic xdg-app tools.

=> ↺ Die dbus-glib, die!

• dbus-glib debuted in 2002 and was the first usable D-Bus client library for GLib-based applications. NetworkManager used it since the earliest commits in mid-2004.

=> ↺ GNOME Shell & Mutter Do Their Betas For 3.20, Add More Wayland Changes

• Being released a bit late today past the official GNOME 3.20 Beta is the v3.19.90 releases for the GNOME Shell and Mutter.

• The Mutter 3.19.90 release adds basic startup notification support on Wayland. There is also now pointer motion, locks, and confinement support on Wayland.

=> ↺ Outreachy Applications Open For Summer Of 2016

• As alternative to Google Summer of Code, applications are being accepted for the next season of Outreachy. Outreachy is open to “women (cis&trans), trans men, genderqueer ppl world-wide & ppl of color underrepresented in US tech.”

=> ↺ Building Your Own XDG-App Packages For GNOME App Sandboxing

• XDG-App is the GNOME-backed design for sandboxed applications to allow third-party applications to better work across multiple distributions and for running applications with minimal access to the host.

• XDG-App is designed around cgroups, Wayland, SELinux, namespaces, and more for delivering a modern Linux sandbox’ed experience. If this is your first time reading about XDG-App, see the GNOME Wiki for more details.

=> ↺ Building an xdg-app – part 1

• Welcome to part 1 in this multi-part tutorial in how to create xdg-app applications.

=> ↺ Endless challenges

• If you do not know about Endless, its mission is to provide computers to the other half of the world, the part that desperately needs access to technology and knowledge but doesn’t happen to be in the minds, hearts or plans of the big software corporations.

Distributions

=> ↺ 5 Live Linux Desktop Distributions You Should Know

• First, let me warn you that AV Linux is not currently available. The developer has removed version 6.0.4 and is getting ready to release AV Linux 2016. It will be worth the wait. Even though I said I wasn’t including task-specific Linux distributions, this one is a bit different. AV Linux is a distribution specifically designed to be, as you might have guessed, an audio/video/graphics content creation platform.

New Releases

=> ↺ RapidDisk / RapidCache 3.7 now available.

• RapidDisk is an advanced Linux RAM Disk which consists of a collection of modules and an administration tool. Features include: Dynamically allocate RAM as block device. Use them as stand alone disk drives or even map them as caching nodes to slower local disk drives.

=> ↺ Webconverger 34 Linux Kiosk Now Based on Mozilla Firefox 44

• Webconverger is a Linux distribution based on Debian that’s designed to be used in fully controlled settings like offices or Internet cafes. A new major update has been released and is now available with a new version of Firefox.

Screenshots/Screencasts

=> ↺ ReactOS 0.4.0 Screencast and Screenshots

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ Trinity Desktop on PCLinuxOS

• Do you long for the days when your desktop was simple and easy to navigate while being light on resources?

Arch Family

=> ↺ Latest Manjaro Linux 15.12 Update Pack Adds Linux Kernel 4.4.2, LibreOffice 5.1

• Earlier today, February 21, 2016, Philip Müller and the Manjaro Development Team were proud to announce the general availability of the ninth update of Manjaro Linux 15.12 (Capella).

Ballnux/SUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE offers choices for KDE Git builds

• Gravitational waves might be the cause of two new live image, spin off projects released today by members of the openSUSE community.

• The release of Argon, which is a live installable image based on openSUSE Leap, and Krypton, which is a live installable image based on openSUSE Tumbleweed, offer packages built for KDE Git using stable and tested openSUSE technologies to track the latest development state of KDE software.

=> ↺ New openSUSE Tumbleweed and Leap Live Images Give Users the Latest KDE Updates

• After informing the openSUSE Tumbleweed user base on February 17 about the fact that the development of snapshots is going a bit slow, which turned out to be something temporary, Douglas DeMaio now talks about some cool new features.

=> ↺ openSUSE and PCLOS Highlight Community Builds with KDE

• Douglas DeMaio today blogged of two community distributions based on openSUSE that offer the latest in KDE Plasma and Applications. openSUSE has commonly been a showcase for cutting-edge KDE builds, so this just seems fitting. In other news, the PCLOS project highlighted a community build featuring KDE 3 fork Trinity and a high-profile Ubuntu developer addressed concerns over ZFS licensing issues.

=> ↺ OpenSUSE Is Making It Easier To Try Out The Latest KDE Stack

• While KDE Neon was recently announced as an effort providing bleeding-edge KDE packages for Ubuntu, openSUSE developers have launched Krypton and Argon as their own similar initiatives.

• OpenSUSE’s Argon is about providing the very latest KDE Git builds atop an openSUSE Leap base. The OpenSUSE Krypton build is about a live, installable image based on openSUSE Tumbleweed.

=> ↺ openSUSE Tumbleweed – Review of the week 2016/6 & 7

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ That Linux flaw may be fixed, but what about your containers?

• Countless patching efforts are now under way for the years-old bug discovered in the GNU C Library this week, but organizations that use container technology shouldn’t relax just yet.

• “As patches are being delivered by Linux vendors and community distributions, there’s one glaring issue at play: Who’s fixing containers?” wrote Red Hat’s Gunnar Hellekson, director of product management, and Josh Bressers, security strategist, in a blog post Friday.

=> ↺ Docker, Red Hat & Linux: How containers can boost business and save time for developers

• Container technology is in a period of explosive growth, with usage numbers nearly doubling in the last few months and vendors increasingly making it available in their portfolios.

• Docker, which has popularised the technology, reported that it has now issued two billion ‘pulls’ of images, up from 1.2 billion in November 2015.

=> ↺ Red Hat’s Ansible brings networking to devops

• A new release issued this week from Red Hat Ansible – an open source project and commercial product for creating a devops environment – is enabling developers to control network infrastructure.

=> ↺ Red Hat’s (RHT) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at Credit Agricole

• Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by equities researchers at Credit Agricole in a report released on Thursday, Analyst Ratings Network.com reports.

=> ↺ Top Stocks of the day: Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)

=> ↺ Microsoft Azure Adds RHEL, Linux Containers and Other Open Source Options

=> ↺ Microsoft adds Red Hat Linux to Azure Marketplace

=> ↺ Red Hat, Microsoft partner to run RHEL in Azure

=> ↺ Microsoft brings Red Hat Enterprise Linux to Azure

=> ↺ What Won’t Change Now That Red Hat Has Bought Ansible

• If someone were to conjure a word cloud describing how Red Hat sums up future plans for Ansible, which it just purchased for as much as $150 million according to some reports, the phrase “no change” would dominate.

• So would the words “integration” and “expansion.”

• On Thursday, Joe Fitzgerald, who is Red Hat’s vice president of management, and Todd Barr, Ansible’s senior vice president for sales and marketing, hosted a webcast to explain what the acquisition means for both Red Hat and Ansible users.

=> ↺ Red Hat Ansible Extends IT Automation to the Network

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc (RHT) Stake Boosted by R. M. Davis

=> ↺ Stanley Laman Group Ltd. Increases Position in Red Hat Inc (RHT)

• Stanley Laman Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) by 6.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 126,035 shares of the open-source software company’s stock after buying an additional 8,069 shares during the period. Red Hat accounts for approximately 1.8% of Stanley Laman Group Ltd.’s holdings, making the stock its 2nd largest position. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.07% of Red Hat worth $10,437,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

=> ↺ The Market View On Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)’s

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc (RHT) Upgraded to “Buy” at Citigroup Inc.

• Citigroup Inc. upgraded shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, The Fly reports. The firm currently has $79.00 price objective on the open-source software company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $82.00.

=> ↺ Google Brings Red Hat Gluster Storage To Its Cloud Platform

=> ↺ Red Hat unveils flexible and portable cloud storage with Red Hat Gluster Storage on Google Cloud Platform

=> ↺ ExxonMobil Investment Management Sells 1,146 Shares of Red Hat Inc (RHT)

• ExxonMobil Investment Management decreased its stake in shares of Red Hat Inc (NYSE:RHT) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 40,974 shares of the open-source software company’s stock after selling 1,146 shares during the period. ExxonMobil Investment Management’s holdings in Red Hat were worth $3,393,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Fedora

=> ↺ State of Fedora 2016, F24 Schedule, Flock notes, Wayland, and Outreachy

• As mentioned in the “release train!” slide of the talk above, we’re on track for a June release for Fedora 24. The next milestone is the branch from Rawhide, which is scheduled for next week. “Rawhide” is the always-moving master development version of Fedora, each numbered release starts its life as Rawhide, and then is split into its own track. So, after next Tuesday, changes that go into Rawhide will be aimed at next November’s Fedora 25 release, and Fedora 24 development (and stabilization) will happen on its own branch.

=> ↺ Fedora 18 To Fedora 23 Linux Performance Benchmarks

• Earlier this month I posted Radeon Gallium3D open-source graphics driver benchmarks from Fedora 18 to Fedora 23 while in this article are the complementary F18 to F23 tests looking at other areas of the system performance.

=> ↺ Linux 4.4 Is Soon Coming To Fedora 23

• For users of Fedora 23 you will soon be able to enjoy Linux 4.4 as a stable release upgrade.

=> ↺ Fedora Has A New Live USB Creator Coming For F24

• Fedora 24 is set to feature a new Live USB Creator and it will become a primary download method for those wishing to download a new Fedora release.

• The Fedora Wiki page pertaining to the new feature explains, “The new Fedora Live USB Creator that is being finished has an overhauled, more user friendly interface. Because USB sticks are the most common way to install Fedora, it should be the primary download option. It cover the whole installation media creation, it lets the user pick the right flavor of Fedora, downloads its image, and copies it to a USB drive.”

=> ↺ PHP version 5.6.19RC1 and 7.0.4RC1

• Release Candidate versions are available in remi-test repository for Fedora and Enterprise Linux (RHEL / CentOS) to allow more people to test them. They are available as Software Collections, for a parallel installation, perfect solution for such tests. For x86_64 only.

=> ↺ Rawhide: notes from the trail, 2016-02-21 edition

• Just a bit over two weeks ago we had a mass rebuild event in rawhide. This one was for gcc6 which just landed in rawhide. The actual rebuilding took (much like the last one we did) about 36 hours, but thats just the tip of the iceberg. From the devel-announce post about the mass rebuild completing: “16129 builds have been tagged into f24, there s currently 1155 failed builds that need to be addressed by the package maintainers.” Dealing with those failed builds is always the intensive part of any mass rebuild cycle, since it takes maintainer time to sort out whats going on (and often upstream communication) to fix.

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ more than 50000 binary packages in sid main amd64

• So in the last weeks every morning I looked at this graph and yesterday for the first time I finally saw it exceed 50k binary packages…

=> ↺ Expedient ABIs

• The biggest change we’ve seen in the Linux kernel for ARM over the past few years has been the transition to providing descriptions of the hardware in systems via device tree. This splits out the description of the devices in the system that can’t be automatically enumerated from the kernel into a separate binary instead of being part of the kernel binary. Currently for most systems that are actively used upstream the device tree source code is kept in the kernel but the goal is to allow people to use device trees that are distributed separately to the kernel, especially device trees that are shipped as part of the board firmware. This is something that other platforms have done for a long time, PowerPC Macs and Sun SPARC systems use device tree as the mechanism for describing the hardware to the operating system.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) Enters Feature Freeze

• The Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) development cycle hit a very important milestone today, the feature freeze.

=> ↺ Canonical Presents Sony Xperia Z1 and OnePlus One as Ubuntu Phones

• Canonical welcomed today a couple of new community Ubuntu ports for Sony Xperia Z1 and OnePlus One.

=> ↺ Ubuntu trademark nonsense

• Each time Matthew brings this up, and as evidence continues to mount that Canonical either actually intends their IP policy to be read that way, or is intentionally keeping the situation unclear to FUD derivatives, I start wondering about references to Ubuntu in my software.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS Officially Released, How to Update?

• A developer from Canonical Ltd said yesterday that the latest version of the Ubuntu 14.04 OS has been released. Ubuntu 14.04 is a LTS version of the OS which means that it will receive support for a long time. Users who are still using the previous versions can download the Live and install-able ISO images and update it to the latest version. The update has not only been rolled out for Ubuntu 14.04. Users of Kubuntu 14.04 LTS, Edubuntu 14.04, Mythbuntu 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 14.04 LTS, Ubuntu Studio 14.04 LTS, Lubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Xubuntu 14.04 LTS can also make use of the downloadable images.

=> ↺ Canonical to bake in OpenZFS to Ubuntu 16.04

• Canonical is planning to build ZFS, the resilient combined file system and logical volume manager originally developed by Sun Microsystems, into its forthcoming 16.04 release of the Ubuntu operating system, codenamed “Xenial Xerus”.

• Support for OpenZFS was added as a technical preview to Ubuntu 15.10, which was formally released at the beginning of May 2015. Users will still need to download and install the appropriate package, though – zfsutils-linux.

=> ↺ Fingerprint Login Proposed for Ubuntu Phones, Meizu PRO 5 Should Support It

• Support for fingerprint logins in Linux remains a mystery even to this day, in the way that at it is there, implemented in the kernel, but no one talks about it, and it has almost never been publicized by any distribution.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) to Get the OpenStack Mitaka Treatment

• Corey Bryant, a software engineer at Canonical, reports last week that the OpenStack team is preparing to release the second Beta build of the Mitaka series of the open-source cloud computing software for private and public clouds.

=> ↺ Ubuntu to Show Off Community Ports on OnePlus One & Sony Xperia Z1 at MWC 2016

=> ↺ Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition Announced, Comes with Samsung Exynos 7420, 5.7-Inch Display, 21.16MP Camera

• Chinese consumer electronics company Meizu is picking up their Pro 5 smartphone and repackaging it to create another version which is the Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition. According to a report by Slash Gear, the Chinese OEM has teamed up with Canonical, which is the developer of the Ubuntu mobile platform.

• It’s not the first time though that Meizu has introduced a mobile device packed with the Ubuntu operating system. Tech Radar reported that Meizu has built four already. And despite the fact that Android and iOS are the leaders in the operating system world, Canonical isn’t shying away in presenting their product to the world.

=> ↺ Sony Xperia and OnePlus One will get convergent Ubuntu images soon

• Just days after announcing the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition high-end smartphone, Canonical has announced that Sony Xperia Z1 and OnePlus One devices will be getting a ROM which users can flash to those devices, the ROMs will come with support for convergence – meaning you can transform your phone into a full-fledged desktop by plugging in a monitor or keyboard and mouse. Both devices running Ubuntu will be shown off at Mobile World Congress (Hall 3 Booth 3J30).

=> ↺ Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Beta 1 Launches February 25, Remains Based on Linux Kernel 4.4.1

• On February 19, 2016, Canonical’s Joseph Salisbury reports for the Ubuntu community the latest news from the Ubuntu Kernel Team, which just released their weekly newsletter with information about the latest kernel work for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

=> ↺ Mobile World Congress 2016 Starts Tomorrow for Canonical and Ubuntu

• The Mobile World Congress 2016 starts tomorrow, February 22, in Barcelona and Canonical promises that it’s going to be one of the biggest years for Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Meizu unveils PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition with 5.7-inch 1080p display and 21.6 MP camera

• Chinese smartphone maker, Meizu is yet again helping Canonical to integrate its Ubuntu OS in smartphones. Both the companies have come together to unveil Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition, ahead of MWC next week.

=> ↺ Meizu Launches New Ubuntu Linux-Based PRO 5 Smartphone

=> ↺ Ubuntu Phone to Add Fingerprint Unlocking

• Ubuntu is to work on adding support for a new fingerprint authentication API in mobile builds

• The feature would allow future Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition owners to unlock their devices using their finger print, and open the doors

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Linux Mint Website Hacked, Users Tricked Into Downloading ISOs with Backdoors

• Just a few moments ago, Clement Lefebvre, leader of the Linux Mint project, informes users of the popular, Ubuntu-based distribution that the servers where the Linux Mint website is hosted have been hacked to point the download links to specially crafted ISOs.

• According to Mr. Lefebvre, it appears that a group of hackers created a modified Linux Mint ISO, which included a backdoor. Then, they hacked into the Linux Mint website and modified the download links to trick users into downloading the malicious ISO image.

=> ↺ Linux Mint hacked, ISO images compromised

• The Linux Mint team revealed today that compromised ISO images of Linux Mint have been distributed from the official website on February 20th, 2016.

=> ↺ Linux Mint website hacked, malicious ISO offered on Saturday

• In a surprising announcement, Clement Lefebvre — head of the Linux Mint project — said that the Linux Mint website had been compromised and that the hackers were able to edit the site to point to a malicious ISO of Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition on Saturday 20th, February.

• If you downloaded the Cinnamon edition prior to Saturday or downloaded a different version/flavour (including Mint 17.3 Cinnamon via torrent or direct HTTP link) you aren’t affected. It’s worth mentioning that since the issue was caught, everything has since returned back to normal now so it’s safe to download the Linux Mint ISOs again.

=> ↺ Beware of hacked ISOs if you downloaded Linux Mint on February 20th!

• We were exposed to an intrusion today. It was brief and it shouldn’t impact many people, but if it impacts you, it’s very important you read the information below.

=> ↺ Linux Mint downloads (briefly) compromised

=> ↺ Pay Attention! Linux Mint 17.3 ISOs Were Hacked On 20th February - Check If You Are Infected Or Not

• Here is a bad news coming from Linux Mint. Today Clem, member of Linux Mint community posted that ISOs of Linux Mint 17.3 were hacked on 20th of February, 2016. Yes! You heard that right. It’s something that teaches lesson to all those who don’t check MD5 hash to confirm that the image they downloaded are original and not hacked one. Well if you downloaded Linux Mint 17.3 then you should immediately do the following things to be safe.

=> ↺ Linux Mint Forums Completely Compromised, Users Need to Change Their Passwords

=> ↺ Target: Linux Mint

=> ↺ Linux Mint Hacked: ISO for 17.3 Cinnamon Edition Modified

• Linux Mint project leader Clem Lefebvre revealed in a blog post today that the popular Linux distribution’s servers were hacked on Saturday. During the “brief” intrusion, the hackers modified the ISO of the Cinnamon edition of Linux Mint 17.3 (Rosa) and also gained access to the distro’s forum database. Only this particular ISO is affected; other editions or releases are considered safe. Only ISO’s downloaded Saturday are potentially vulnerable.

=> ↺ Linux Mint website hacked, ISO downloads replaced with backdoored operating system

=> ↺ Linux Mint website hacked to trick users into downloading “backdoor”

=> ↺ Linux Mint falls victim to attackers

=> ↺ Linux Mint’s Website Hacked, ISOs Compromised

=> ↺ Linux Mint website hacked – operating system download replaced with backdoored ISO

=> ↺ Attackers hack Linux Mint website to add ISO with backdoor

=> ↺ Linux Mint website hacked; Users downloaded compromised versions of Linux Mint OS

=> ↺ Hackers Distributed a Backdoored Version of Linux Through an Official Site

=> ↺ Warning! Linux Mint hacked — operating system compromised

=> ↺ Linux Mint hacked: malware-infected ISOs linked from official site

=> ↺ Linux Mint Website Hack: A Timeline of Events

=> ↺ Linux Mint Backdoor Puts Users and Bitcoin Miners at Risk

=> ↺ Hackers hack Linux Mint website and make users download ISOs with backdoors

=> ↺ Linux Mint site under attack, Cinnamon sticks contaminated; forums compromised

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Gets OpenGL Support

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation continues to push the limits of single-board computing. This month, it has added experimental OpenGL support to its Raspbian OS.

• OpenGL is an advanced graphics API that is used by a wide range of applications. It’s used in games, image editors, CAD applications, Web browsers and many other places. And, it’s a cross-platform specification. It’s popular in Windows programs, on Macs, on Linux and on handheld devices.

=> ↺ 10 awesome Raspberry Pi upgrades – Part 2

• Home automation is all the rage at the moment – perhaps it is because people are inherently lazy or maybe it’s just because this tech is extremely fun to play with! Either way it doesn’t really matter, as it can make our lives easier and quicker and can automate tasks that would often be boring and monotonous, like fiddling with heating controls and turning off the lights before you go to bed.

=> ↺ Samsung commercialises ARTIK chip in IoT push

=> ↺ Samsung launches Artik Partner Program

=> ↺ Canonical to release Snappy Ubuntu Core Linux image for Samsung ARTIK IoT platform

=> ↺ Samsung announces commercial availability of Artik IoT open platform to support growing ecosystem of developers

=> ↺ Samsung launches ARTIK platform to make home electronics ready for IoT

=> ↺ Samsung Advances Open IoT Ecosystem with New Partner Program and Commercial Availability of the SAMSUNG ARTIK Platform

=> ↺ Samsung advances open IoT ecosystem with new partner program and commercial availability of the SAMSUNG ARTIK platform

=> ↺ Samsung aims to build IoT ecosystem via new module

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation’s Zephyr Project: A custom operating system for IoT devices

• The Linux Foundation has unveiled Zephyr, an open-source project aimed at the creation of a real-time operating system suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) and connected devices.

=> ↺ Plex Media Server on the Raspberry Pi 2 – Joy and Anguish

• Over the years, I have been collecting DVDs, backing up the movies to a desktop computer for playback on its big screen. Recently, projects like Kodi and Plex media server came along and promised to not only offer those same movies in a pleasing GUI, but to gather metadata about the movies and to save my place when I access them from different places. I would love to have a dedicated server so I don’t need to continuously run my desktop computer, but I’m too cheap to spring for a dedicated NAS. The raspberry pi 2 promises an easy way to accomplish this goal without first having to earn a degree in computer science.

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Samsung Connect Auto is a New Tizen based Driving Experience

• While Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto aim to provide connectivity and smartness for the current and future generations of Cars being launched, Samsung wants to show some love to existing cars and has brought down the covers ahead of the Unpacked event at MWC 2016, Barcelona to unveil its new Auto solution called Samsung Connect Auto. The Connect Auto will be making use of the OBD II (short for On-Board-Diagnostic) Port that can be found on all light duty vehicles made since 1996, medium duty vehicles since 2005 and even heavy duty vehicles since 2010. To those unaware of what an OBD II port is, it is through this exact port that the car service professional plugs in a laptop to see what exactly has gone wrong with the vehicle and provide necessary solution.

=> ↺ App: CalPlus for Samsung Z1 and Z3 Tizen Smartphone

• CalPlus for Tizen smartphones like the Samsung Z1 and Z3 is a financial calculator. Actually no it isn’t, in-fact it is a set of financial calculators that lets you do some crazy financial number wizardry.

=> ↺ Samsung Z1 Tizen 2.4 Firmware / Software update hits Bangladesh

• The Z1 originally launched with Tizen 2.3, but following the launch of the Tizen 2.4 Beta Software Test Program in India, users have been looking forward to getting the final Tizen 2.4 release for their device. The Z1 has currently been released in several countries including India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. There is no Information at present when the latter mentioned countries will get this update.

Android

=> ↺ Shashlik 0.9 Released For Running Android Apps On Linux

• Shashlik is the KDE-aligned project for running Android apps on Linux outside of a traditional Android environment. A new version of this open-source project is now available.

=> ↺ What are the Vulkan APIs, and what do they mean for Android?

• There’s a new technology being played with by developers all around the world right now, and if you’ve been paying attention to the Desktop gaming world you’ve probably heard the world Vulkan tossed around recently. Folks excited about Vulkan aren’t talking about Spock, but are actually excited about a new set of APIs with the lofty goal of making it possible to build a single game for multiple platforms and have that game outperform the current industry standard by leaps and bounds.

=> ↺ Lenovo has a lot of cheap Android tablets

• In addition to unleashing Windows 10 fury on an unsuspecting Spanish public, Lenovo is also introducing a new line of Android tablets named “TAB3″ here at MWC 2016.

=> ↺ Lenovo’s new $229 Windows tablet and $99 Android tablet aim for the budget-conscious

• Lenovo has three new budget Yoga notebooks at Mobile World Congress this year. After aiming for the premium crowd with the Yoga 900S at CES last month, the trio of refreshed Yogas today are designed to bring Windows 10 to the more budget conscious. Lenovo is catering for everyone with two 14-inch models, a 15-inch version, and even a new 11-inch Yoga.

=> ↺ Lenovo Vibe K5 and K5 Plus Budget Android Smartphones

=> ↺ LG G5: The First Modular Smartphone From LG Makes Android Exciting Again

• Smartphone maker LG has launched its new flagship Android device LG G5. The phone is inspired from the modular approach and the company gives you a choice to add extra modules that act as a clear differentiator against other smartphones.

=> ↺ What If San Bernardino Suspect Had Used an Android Instead of an iPhone?

=> ↺ Android 6.0 Marshmallow Now Rolling Out To Honor 7 In India

• Huawei has introduced quite a few compelling devices last year, and the Honor 7 is certainly one of them. The Honor 7 might not be the highest-end devices Huawei has introduced in 2015, but it certainly is quite compelling. This mid-ranger has been introduced back in July, and it has been selling really well for Honor, Huawei’s subsidiary. That being said, Honor released a statement on February 15th which claimed that the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update will land on the Honor 7 within 2 weeks, and that’s exactly what happened now, read on.

=> ↺ Rumor: BlackBerry might introduce new Android phone at MWC

=> ↺ BlackBerry rumored to unveil their second Android phone at MWC

=> ↺ LG’s New Android Smartphone Is Great for Taking Wide-Angle Photos

=> ↺ Android N could ditch the app drawer for good

=> ↺ Play Android Games on Your PC Using Nox App Player

=> ↺ ZTE’s Spro Plus smart projector runs on Android and lasers (pictures)

=> ↺ Meet ZTE’s Spro Plus, an Android-powered smart projector: Mobile World Congress 2016

=> ↺ LG Announces Modular Android Phone, VR Headset

=> ↺ LG’s G5 is a radical reinvention of the flagship Android smartphone

=> ↺ App for children with severe, non-verbal autism available on Android

• SPEAKall!, a tablet application developed at Purdue University that facilitates communication and language development for children and families affected by severe, non-verbal autism, is now available on android tablets.

=> ↺ Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow lands for the Galaxy Note 5

=> ↺ Android 6.0 Marshmallow Updates: Verizon And T-Mobile HTC One M9, Verizon LG G4 And G3 Released

=> ↺ BlackBerry’s Second Android Phone Tipped to Launch at MWC 2016

• BlackBerry’s second Android-based smartphone may launch at MWC 2016 next week in Barcelona, according to a new report. The company in December had hinted at another Android phone launch in 2016.

=> ↺ Two Weeks Later, NVIDIA Resumes The Android 6.0 Upgrade For The SHIELD Tablet, This Time With Working Wi-Fi

=> ↺ Android Xbot trojan poses as banking app, nicks your login creds

=> ↺ 25 best Android tips to make your phone more useful

=> ↺ Android How to: Switch Media Apps in Android Auto

=> ↺ Android Circuit: New Galaxy Leak Is Bad News, Samsung Confirms S7 Edge, Google Defeats Apple Music

=> ↺ Popular Display-Tweaking App f.lux Is Coming To Android, Available Now In Beta (Root Required)

=> ↺ Android device updates: Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and HTC One M9 lead busy week of new software

=> ↺ Opinion: Besides tablet improvements, where is Google going with Android N?

=> ↺ Facebook Messenger for Android now officially supports multiple accounts

=> ↺ BlackBerry And Android: License And Chill?

=> ↺ OnePlus X: Dinky little Android smartie with one or two minuses

=> ↺ Android N rumors and news: No app drawer, stylus support, and more

=> ↺ Review: Sony’s Xperia Z5 Compact is the best small Android phone you can buy

=> ↺ ZTE’s Spro Plus is a smart projector with an 8.4-inch Android-powered touchscreen

• The latest addition to ZTE’s smart projector family is the Spro Plus, which features a larger Android-powered touchscreen and more. Following in the footsteps of the Spro 2, the Spro Plus builds upon the previous success and makes it even better. ZTE has bumped the touchscreen up to 8.4-inches with a 2K display, and it now comes with a 12100mAh battery inside.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Tencent and Why Open Source is About to Explode in China

• One of the pioneers of the internet in China gave a highly provocative talk – asking the audience why China had yet to birth a major open source project. The consensus in the audience (polled via WeChat platform) was that China’s culture inhibited open source. I heard this in my travels throughout China.

• Frankly I can see this both ways. While I see the cultural challenges everyone was telling me about, their awareness of the challenge is so tangible that it is driving leaders in the community like Tencent’s Marty Ma and TethrNet’s Kevin Yin to try just a little harder. Even if the majority of Chinese tech workers don’t quite fully get open source now, we’re seeing leaders emerge in the country willing to invest of their time and energy to change things. I wouldn’t bet against them.

=> ↺ IoT industry leaders announce open source standard group

• On Friday, a group of industry leaders making headway in the Internet of Things (IoT) market announced a cross-industry collaboration effort aimed at unlocking the massive opportunities for consumers and business with IoT devices, and ultimately a way to quickly get everyone to adopting a single open standard.

=> ↺ Coreboot Now Supports U-Boot As A Payload

=> ↺ Coreboot Receives Initial POWER8 Support

=> ↺ New Businessweek Comic Uses Open-Source Al Jazeera Code

• Businessweek just published a comic strip online by Peter Coy and Dorothy Gambrell, which also appeared in print today. It argues against Fed Chair Janet Yellen introducing negative interest rates. For online readers that find their view of the strip too constricted, the site offers a way to focus on one digestible bit at a time. Open-source software released by Al Jazeera America (AJAM) last year under the MIT license, called Pulp, allowed Bloomberg to better the reading experience without writing new code.

=> ↺ AquaJS framework for Node.js is open source and in beta

• AquaJS is a framework for Node.js that was created at Equinix, which provides carrier-neutral datacenters and Internet exchanges for interconnection. AquaJS was developed to provide a way to start microservice-based application development. It is built with open-source modules, along with a few in-house modules, such as including architecture and design, programming best practices, technology, and deployment and runtime.

=> ↺ Learn Why Node.js is an Open Source Juggernaut

• The Node.js Foundation was created last year to support the open source community involved with Node.js, which offers an asynchronous event driven framework designed to build scalable network applications.

Events

=> ↺ What Should We Stop Doing? (FLOSS Community Metrics Meeting keynote)

• One trend I see underlying a big chunk of FLOSS metrics work is the desire to automate the emotional labor involved in maintainership, like figuring out how our fellow contributors are doing, making choices about where to spend mentorship time, and tracking a community’s emotional tenor. But is that appropriate? What if we switched our assumptions around and used our metrics to figure out what we’re spending time on more generally, and tried to find low-value programming work we could stop doing? What tools would support this, and what scenarios could play out?

=> ↺ Comparing Codes of Conduct to Copyleft Licenses (My FOSDEM Speech)

• I will briefly mention my credentials in speaking about this topic, especially since this is my first FOSDEM and many of you don’t know me. I have been a participant in free and open source software communities since the late 1990s. I’m the past community manager for MediaWiki, and while at the Wikimedia Foundation, I proposed and implemented our code of conduct, which we call a Friendly Space Policy, for in-person Wikimedia technical spaces such as hackathons and conferences.

=> ↺ What to expect from QCon London 2016

• Actually, it’s mostly more of the same (in a good way)… but perhaps at a slightly amplified level — the only change we have reflected here is to profile QCon London in the open source blog category.

• Okay yes there will be your proprietary players there too, but open source will be especially strong this year… as it is everywhere.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Open Source Interview: Former Mozilla President Li Gong on the HTML5 OS

• In this article, I introduce our new series—the Open Source interview—inviting you to suggest questions to ask our interviewees in a follow-up email interview. The first candidate is Li Gong, former president of Mozilla, who is now heading Acadine Technologies. They are busy launching H5OS, an open source platform for mobile and IoT.

=> ↺ Servo Lands Its New GPU-Accelerated Rendering Backend

• Mozilla’s experimental Servo web layout engine written in Rust has landed its new “WebRender” back-end that leverages GPU rendering.

• WebRender is an experimental GPU rendering back-end for Servo. WebRender tries to offload as much of the rendering work to the GPU rather than having to draw the web content via the CPU.

=> ↺ Mozilla: Real Data Encryption Requires Political Action, Not Just Code

• Mozilla took a strong stance on online privacy this week by reiterating the need for more encryption — but also noting that, in our age of government backdoors, encryption software alone may not be enough to keep data secure.

• In a blog post, Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox and other popular open source software, declares that “encryption isn’t a luxury — it’s a necessity.” And it plays up the importance of projects like Let’s Encrypt, a partnership Mozilla helped launch in 2014 to create an open certificate authority for encrypting websites.

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ Analysts Find Hadoop Now Entrenched in Banking, Government

• The open source Hadoop Big Data platform is not only on the rise, but it is becoming more entrenched in important sectors, including business and government. That is just one of the findings in a Research and Markets report titled “World Hadoop Market – Opportunities and Forecasts, 2014 – 2021″.

• The report also finds that the global Hadoop market is expected to garner revenue of $84.6 billion by 2021, registering a CAGR of 63.4% during the period 2016 to 2021. That is nothing to shake a stick at.

• North America accounted for around 52% share of the overall market revenue in 2015, according to the report, owing to higher rate of adoption in industries such as IT, banking, and government. Europe is anticipated to witness the fastest CAGR of 65.7% during the forecast period.

Databases

=> ↺ SQLite Release 3.11.0 On 2016-02-15

=> ↺ SQLite 3.11 Brings New Features, More Optimizations

• SQLite 3.11.0 was released this week as the newest version of this widely-used, embedded SQL database library.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Joining The Document Foundation Board

• At the end of 2015 I was honoured to be elected to serve as a director of The Document Foundation — the charity that develops LibreOffice — for two years. The new Board commenced yesterday, February 18 and immediately started conducting business by selecting a Chair – Marina Latini from the LibreItalia community – and a vice-chair, the redoubtable Michael Meeks of Collabora.

• While some doubted when it was formed, with a few even mounting campaigns to undermine it for reasons I still don’t understand, The Document Foundation has quickly developed into a model for new open source community charities.

=> ↺ Pondering the future of the Document Foundation

• This past week we had had the pleasure to welcome both our new marketing assistant and the new board of directors of the Document Foundation. I would like to say a few words on where the Document Foundation stands now – and I must stress that I’m confident the new board has the right people to handle the future of the foundation.

• The Document Foundation is still a small entity compared to the Mozilla or OpenStack Foundation. However, with several hundreds of thousands of euros/dollars of resources, it just happens to stand just behind these behemoths. It is not an easy task. Commonly held opinions often do not apply with us: “pay X to code feature Y”. That is somewhat possible, but we tend not to do it, unless there is a strategic reason (and enough money) to do it. We do fund, however, our entire infrastructure, the release management process, infrastructure and tools that help the community develop, improve and release LibreOffice. As the Document Foundation is now four years old, we are adjusting our internal processes and decision making structure in order to scale up and be more effective. There is no easy answer, because most of the ones that could be made were already found during the past four years.

CMS

=> ↺ Remember WordPress’ Pingbacks? The W3C wants us to use them across the whole web

• Something called Webmentions – which looks remarkably like the old WordPress pingbacks, once popular in the late 2000s – is grinding through the machinery of the mighty, and slow-moving, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

• But don’t be deceived. Lurking behind that unassuming name lies something that might eventually offer users a way of ditching not just Facebook and Twitter but also those other massive corporations straddling the web.

Google Openwashing

=> ↺ Google Opens Its Cloud Vision API To All Developers

=> ↺ Google Rolls Out Smart, Open Image Analysis Tools

• There has been a lot of discussion in the tech arena about a next wave of applications that incorporate the capability to understand and process components within images. This has a lot of useful potential. For example, ecommerce sites could use that capability to create better associations between the blue sweater you are looking at online and other similar sweaters that you might like.

IBM

=> ↺ IBM Delivers Open Source Streaming Analytics at the Edge for Internet of Things Devices

=> ↺ IBM Open-Sources Quarks IoT Service to Its Own Gain

• Observers say while IBM open-sources its Quarks IoT analytics technology, the move may best serve IBM’s own systems, services and software needs.

• IBM this week announced it was open-sourcing Quarks, a very interesting technology that enables organizations to analyze Internet of things (IoT) data locally, on gateways or at edge devices.

=> ↺ IBM Delivers Open Source Streaming Analytics at the Edge for Internet of Things Devices

=> ↺ IBM open sources its blockchain code – the non-crazy part of Bitcoin

• IBM has open sourced a significant chunk of the blockchain code it has been working on, putting its weight behind the Linux Foundation and its Hyperledger project.

=> ↺ IBM Watson offers $5m for an AI to save the world

BSD

=> ↺ Features Of The LLVM / Clang 3.8 Compiler

=> ↺ The Release Of LLVM 3.8 Is Being Slightly Held Up

• LLVM 3.8 release manager Hans Wennborg sent out a release status update to say that the release hasn’t been tagged but they’re running slightly behind schedule. However, he remains optimistic that they will be able to get the 3.8 release done soon.

=> ↺ Intel Cannonlake Added To LLVM’s Clang

=> ↺ bsdtalk262 – LightZone with Tex Andrews

• An interview with Tex Andrews from Lightzoneproject.org. LightZone is open source digital darkroom software.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ When OpenOrg and OpenGov collide

Licensing

=> ↺ Kuhn’s Paradox

• I believe this paradox is primarily driven by the cooption of software freedom by companies that ostensibly support Open Source, but have the (now extremely popular) open source almost everything philosophy.

• For certain areas of software endeavor, companies dedicate enormous resources toward the authorship of new Free Software for particular narrow tasks. Often, these core systems provide underpinnings and fuel the growth of proprietary systems built on top of them. An obvious example here is OpenStack: a fully Free Software platform, but most deployments of OpenStack add proprietary features not available from a pure upstream OpenStack installation.

• Meanwhile, in other areas, projects struggle for meager resources to compete with the largest proprietary behemoths. Large user-facing, server-based applications of the Service as a Software Substitute variety, along with massive social media sites like Twitter and Facebook that actively work against federated social network systems, are the two classes of most difficult culprits on this point. Even worse, most traditional web sites have now become a mix of mundane content (i.e., HTML) and proprietary Javascript programs, which are installed on-demand into the users’ browser all day long, even while most of those servers run a primarily Free Software operating system.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Android ROM goes open source, new IoT app, and more news

Open Hardware

=> ↺ ATtiny Watch is Tiny

• (Chen Liang) is in the middle of building the ultimate ring watch. This thing is way cooler than the cheap stretchy one I had in the early 1990s–it’s digital, see-through, and it probably won’t turn Liang’s finger green.

Programming

=> ↺ GitHub is proprietary, therefore it is evil

• There has been a lot of noise recently on how GitHub is bad, and how developers should stop using it.

=> ↺ Hello, Kotlin: Another programming language for JVM and JavaScript

• Why Kotlin? JetBrains is a developer tools company whose IntelliJ IDEA IDE has been adapted by Google for Android Studio, and the short answer seems to be that the company wanted something better than Java with which to build its own products.

=> ↺ A Programmer’s Dream: This Is What Your Code Actually Looks Like On GitHub

• Codeology is an online visualization program that allows you to see your GitHub project in front of your eyes.

=> ↺ The RedMonk Programming Language Rankings: January 2016

• It’s been a very busy start to the year at RedMonk, so we’re a few weeks behind in the release of our bi-annual programming language rankings. The data was dutifully collected at the start of the year, but we’re only now getting around to the the analysis portion. We have changed the actual process very little since Drew Conway and John Myles White’s original work late in 2010. The basic concept is simple: we periodically compare the performance of programming languages relative to one another on GitHub and Stack Overflow. The idea is not to offer a statistically valid representation of current usage, but rather to correlate language discussion (Stack Overflow) and usage (GitHub) in an effort to extract insights into potential future adoption trends.

Leftovers

=> ↺ How the BBC Abandoned Investigative Reporting

• The BBC has more journalists than any other media outlet in Britain, but out of those 4,000 men and women, yes 4,000, precisely none of them work in an investigations unit. The Sunday Times, Guardian, Telegraph and Mail have far less journalists between them but they all maintain centralized investigations units.

• At the same time the BBC thinks it right to employ between 150 and 200 press officers. Yes, the BBC’s budget is being squeezed mercilessly, but it is about priorities. Newspaper hacks are judged by their ability to find news. They complain that many BBC journalists go through whole careers without breaking a story.

=> ↺ I’m The Voice Of Siri: And No, Apple Didn’t Pay (Or Warn) Me

• There are over 700 million iPhones in the world, and since 2011 they’ve all come with Siri, a virtual personal assistant who can help you do everything from check weather forecasts to drunk-dial your ex (hey, she’s here to help, not judge). In America, Siri’s voice was provided by Susan Bennett, in a role that catapulted her from successful but obscure voice actor to slightly more successful and slightly less obscure voice actor. (That’s about as much as voice actors can strive for.) Susan told us all about the weird lessons she’s learned from having her voice come out of everyone’s pocket.

Security

=> ↺ Linux security threats on the rise

• Security threats to Linux, an open source computer operating system (OS), have been increasing over the past few years.

• This is according to security solutions vendor, Trend Micro, which says Linux PCs, servers or devices running Android KitKat 4.4 and higher are at risk due to a previously undiscovered Linux flaw.

• It adds that with the explosion of Linux-based Android devices, the mobile OS has become the most attractive target for attackers.

=> ↺ Running Linux? You’ll want to patch your system right now

=> ↺ Linux Vulnerability Rattles Open Source Community

=> ↺ #codeforaubrey, WebKit Linux Risk & More…

=> ↺ Friday’s security updates

=> ↺ A few words about the glibc vulnerability, CVE-2015-7547

• On February 16th, news reached ISC about CVE-2015-7547, a serious defect in the getaddrinfo() library call in glibc. This defect allows an attacker to cause buffer overflow to occur, creating the possibility of remote code execution in some circumstances. ISC has been asked by several of our customers and partners to comment on whether this vulnerability should be of concern to operators using our products.

=> ↺ Change direction, increase speed! (or why glibc changes nothing)

• The conclusion I came up with is we are basically the aliens from space invaders. Change direction, increase speed! While this can give the appearance of doing something, we are all very busy all the time.

=> ↺ Glibc 2.23 Released With Many Changes

• The GNU C Library 2.23 adds Unicode 8.0.0 support, a fix for a defect in malloc going back a number of years, some optimized functions for the IBM z13, a number of security related changes, and a whole lot of bug fixing.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ NSA’s SKYNET Program May Be Killing Innocent People

• In 2015, The Intercept published documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden which detailed the National Security Agency’s SKYNET program. These documents detail how SKYNET engages in mass surveillance of Pakistan’s wireless network, and then uses an algorithm on the cell network metadata in an attempt to rate every member of the population regarding their likelihood of being a terrorist.

=> ↺ Evaluating Michael Hayden’s Defense of CIA Drone Strikes

• Former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Gen. Michael Hayden has an op-ed in today’s New York Times: “To Keep America Safe, Embrace Drone Warfare.” The two-thousand-word piece provides some unique insights into the process by which CIA directors authorize—including over the phone—individual drone strikes and even order the specific munition to be used. Moreover, Hayden provides a more plausible and granular defense than those offered by other former CIA chiefs, including George Tenet, Leon Panetta, and Michael Morrell. He even makes some effort to engage directly with certain prominent criticisms of these lethal operations.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ TACD’s recommendations on the proposed food safety chapter in TTIP

• Last November the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), a trade and investment agreement between the U.S. and 11 other countries of the Pacific Rim was published. Finally, there is a proxy for the U.S. position in the TTIP negotiations on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), i.e. the food safety and animal and plant health rules and enforcement practices that must protect consumers. Since the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) prohibits release of its draft TTIP negotiating positions to the public, we are forced to use the TPP SPS chapter as a next best alternative for constructing a ‘dialogue’ between the negotiating proposals of the European Commission and the SPS chapter that the USTR is likely to propose for the TTIP.

=> ↺ Scientists attack their ‘muzzling’ by government

• The proposal – announced by the Cabinet Office earlier this month – would block researchers who receive government grants from using their results to lobby for changes to laws or regulations.

• For example, an academic whose government-funded research showed that new regulations were proving particularly harmful to the homeless would not be able to call for policy change.

• Similarly, ecologists who found out that new planning laws were harming wildlife would not be able to raise the issue in public, while climate scientists whose findings undermined government energy policy could have work suppressed.

=> ↺ Saudi Arabia is running out of water

• Saudi Arabia has started taxing water for residents to try and address the soaring cost of debt as oil revenues decline.

• The water tariff comes amid warnings that Saudi Arabia’s groundwater will run out in the next 13 years.

• Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, a faculty member at King Faisal University, warned that groundwater was running out after the World Bank issued a report on global natural water scarcity.

Finance

=> ↺ Big data on big money: billions sent via digital hongbao

• The tradition of giving hongbao, or gifts of money in red envelopes, is increasingly going digital due to efforts by Internet giants and the popularity of mobile payments, data from China’s Lunar New Year holiday shows.

=> ↺ Hedge Fund Billionaires Fund Super PAC Ad Against Bernie Sanders and Minimum Wage Hike

• Future 45 is run by Brian O. Walsh, a longtime Republican operative who has in the past served as political director for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Most recently, he was president of the American Action Network, a dark money group that was the second-largest outside spender in 2010.

• Over the last year, Future 45 has been funded primarily by hedge fund managers. Two billionaire Rubio-backers — Paul Singer, who runs Elliott Management, and Ken Griffin, who runs Citadel — have each contributed $250,000.

• During his career, Sanders has frequently called attention to the wealth amassed by hedge funds, noting that in 2013, “The top 25 hedge fund managers made more than $24 billion, enough to pay the salaries of 425,000 public school teachers. This level of inequality is neither moral or sustainable.”

=> ↺ Fruit and vegetable prices hike overall food costs

• Fruit and veggie lovers have seen their pocketbooks pinched over this past year as the precious produce spiked in price, prompting an overall increase in food costs.

• “Well, obviously the weak loonie has had an impact on produce and fruit prices,” said Sylvain Charlebois, professor of marketing and consumer studies at the University of Guelph Food Institute. “They’ve gone up significanty.”

=> ↺ Fixing Society

• Much too little thought is given to fundamental ways of fixing society’s most pressing problem, which is massive inequality of wealth. Banking regulation is an important part of the problem. But to attack the root cause of corporatism, you need to look at the make-up of corporations.

Censorship

=> ↺ Copyright As Censorship: Popular Twitter Account Keeps Getting Deleted Over Trollish DMCA Claims

• Amazingly, there are still some people out there who insist that copyright is never used for censorship. But an even bigger concern is how more and more people are looking at the ability to censor via copyright as a feature, not a bug, and are interested in expanding that right. Most bizarre of all, we’ve seen a number of people, who insist that they’re “online activists” who want to stop bullying and trolling, advocating for expanding DMCA style takedowns to trollish behavior.

• What they don’t realize is that this will only make the trolling and abuse much worse, because it puts a new tool for abuse into the hands of the abusers.

=> ↺ NYPD Says It Has No Record Of Asking Disney To Use Copyright To Shut Down Times Square Characters, Despite Public Admission

• It’s hard to imagine in the depths of this frigid New York winter, but last summer the city seemed to be in the grips of a Times Square Problem. Costumed characters — and the relative newcomers, painted topless women — were declared a public enemy, begriming the otherwise idyllic tourist mecca of midtown. But the NYPD, tasked with enforcing this mandate, had a problem: with only about one crime reported per day in Times Square, there’s not a lot to actually enforce.

=> ↺ EFF wants your DMCA takedown censorship horror stories

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation is preparing its comments to the US Copyright Office on the notoriously abuse-prone DMCA takedown process, which is widely used to commit Internet censorship with perfect impunity.

• They want to hear your personal stories of copyright takedown, to use in the filing. Please read the brief carefully (it’s short!) and submit stuff that matches it!

=> ↺ Mark Zuckerberg and his unfeasibly strict censorship

• Social-network scandals flare and fade at a speed that makes the lifespan of a mayfly look like Methuselah’s. So you may have missed the ephemeral squall that greeted Facebook’s blocking of Viz magazine from its site this week.

• Fans of grubby and puerile comics brandished their none-too-hygienic fists online, especially as Viz feared not just temporary suspension but “permanent deletion”. Eager to fit in with Facebook’s “welcoming, respectful environment”, the comic then tweeted pictures of a kitten, a puppy and some flowers.

=> ↺ China tightens its censorship grip on foreign content

=> ↺ China set to ban all foreign media from publishing online

=> ↺ Chinese Government Says Media Companies Must Get Approval Before Putting Content Online

=> ↺ Chinese government will ban foreign media from publishing online in China

=> ↺ China to ban foreign firms from “online publishing”

• China is to ban foreign firms from “online publishing” under new rules issued this week, as the country increasingly seeks to minimise Western influence.

• Chinese websites are already among the world’s most censored, with Beijing blocking many foreign Internet services with a system known as the “Great Firewall of China”.

=> ↺ China Requires Approval for Foreign Firms to Publish Online

=> ↺ china bans foreign companies from online media business

=> ↺ China issues ban on ‘online publishing’ from foreign firms

=> ↺ China to Ban Online Foreign Media After March 10 – Statement

=> ↺ Xi tours Chinese top state media, demands total loyalty

=> ↺ China adds more hurdles to keep foreign companies from publishing directly online

=> ↺ China is Banning Foreign Comapnies from Publishing Anything Online

=> ↺ 9 Questions We Still Have About China’s New Ban On Foreign Media Publishing Online

=> ↺ China to make permanent residency easier for outsiders

=> ↺ China Bans all Foreign Firms From Publishing Online

=> ↺ China bans foreign companies from digitally publishing ‘texts, pictures, maps, games, animations, audios, and videos’

=> ↺ China Goes ‘Full Mao,’ Bans Foreign Online Publishing

=> ↺ China moves to ban foreign media from publishing online content

=> ↺ Beijing is banning all foreign media from publishing online in China

=> ↺ China set to ban online content from foreign publishers

=> ↺ China’s New Online Publishing Rules Show It’s Not Loosening Its Death Grip on the Internet

=> ↺ China Bans Foreign Firms From Publishing Directly Online

=> ↺ Online Publishing in China Just Got a Lot More Complicated

=> ↺ China Set to Block All Foreign Media From Publishing Without Permission

=> ↺ New Chinese Rules on Foreign Firms’ Online Content

=> ↺ China expected to bar all foreign media companies from publishing ‘creative works’ online

=> ↺ China’s New Online Content Rules May Pressure Foreign Media

=> ↺ China to ban foreign firms from “online publishing”

=> ↺ Citizens Should Resist Online Censorship, Advocates Say

=> ↺ Today’s student activists only reflect the censorship of our Government

• Too many students at our universities and colleges are censorious and absurdly touchy. Public figures have to meet strict and ever-changing student union compliance standards before they are permitted to talk on campus. Those who fail these capricious tests are rudely disinvited, stalked and verbally abused online. Some of these cases reach the media, most do not.

• Last week the neurobiologist Dr Adam Perkins of King’s College London was informed by the LSE that his planned lecture could not go ahead (for now) because concerns about “negative social media activity”. Activists object to his book, The Welfare Trait, in which he claims that welfare dependence causes generational dysfunction and reduces motivation. I personally hate the thesis already, but I do think he should be asked back to make his case and then be grilled by smart, sharp students.

=> ↺ Don’t censor A-rated movies: Change.org petition

• With a message echoing that Indian cinemagoers can handle mature content and a plea to release A-rated movies without any cuts, a petition has been started by Change.org, a technology platform, to submit before the Shyam Benegal Committee on censorship.

• Vignesh Vellore, the co-founder of Bengaluru-based digital news platform – The News Minute, has started a petition after a disappointing experience with plenty of “beeps” in an A-rated superhero movie ‘Deadpool’, read a statement.

=> ↺ Twitter Stands With Apple, Releases Transparency Report

• A day after Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey expressed support for Apple decision not to help the FBI unlock the iPhone of the San Bernardino shooter, Twitter has released its transparency report.

• The report shows a large increase in the number of content removal requests the company receives from governments, law enforcement, and other authorized organizations, copies of which Twitter publishes on Lumen for public review.

=> ↺ Turkey tops censorship list in Twitter transparency report

• The latest transparency report released by the microblogging website Twitter shows that Turkey is the country that has issued the highest number of content removal requests to the social media site.

• According to the biannual “Twitter transparency report,” during the July-December period of 2015, 95 percent of withheld accounts and 90 percent of withheld tweets from around the world were from Turkey.

• Of the 432 Twitter accounts withheld in the second half of 2015, Turkey had 414 withheld, while out of the 3,353 withheld tweets, Turkey had 3,003.

Privacy

=> ↺ Why Carriers Want to Delete WhatsApp

• Two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at the Mobile World Congress, an annual industry gathering held in Barcelona, to reassure phone companies that Facebook is their natural ally. He’d just announced the $22 billion purchase of the WhatsApp messaging service and was touting an initiative called Internet.org, a low-bandwidth suite of basic services carriers would offer in conjunction with Facebook to get hundreds of millions of people online for the first time. He pledged to “build what is going to be a more profitable model with more subscribers for carriers.” By sticking together, the Facebook founder said, both sides could benefit handsomely.

=> ↺ Companies with Real Online Privacy Guarantees Will Succeed, Survey Says

• Judging from the level of online privacy and digital security available from most companies today, it may seem that few Americans care much about these things. But it turns out that online privacy is the top concern of 68 percent of them, or so a recent survey suggests.

=> ↺ Indiana man sues ‘smart TV’ maker over claims his television ‘is secretly spying’ on him and selling private information to advertisers

• An Indiana man is suing the manufacturer of his smart television over claims the box is ‘secretly spying’ on him and passing private information on to third parties.

• Trent Strader filed a 27-page class action complaint at the US District Court in Indianapolis where he alleges his smart television has been monitoring his viewing habits.

• The complaint claims the TV has also collected information about his IP address through which he connects to the internet and identified other web-enabled products he has been using to get online.

=> ↺ Just how much access does the NSA have to all unencrypted communications?

• In case you haven’t been following the news, the encryption wars are back and a huge Apple vs. FBI clash is the latest major conflict. The FBI wants access to the iPhone that belonged to one of the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre, and Apple is refusing to offer it.

• But long before this week’s big battle, there was a debate over the role that encryption played in the deadly terrorist attacks in Paris last November. The NSA now says that the Paris attacks “would not have happened,” without encryption.

• So does that mean the NSA can listen to everything except encrypted chats and communications?

=> ↺ Trump Wants You To Boycott Apple, Snowden Says Let’s Boycott Trump Instead

• The Apple Vs. FBI battle is getting nastier each day as more details are surfacing on the horizon and new people taking part in the debate.

=> ↺ How Apple will fight the DOJ in iPhone backdoor crypto case

=> ↺ Apple: We tried to help FBI terror probe, but someone changed iCloud password

• Both sides will square off in federal court in Riverside, California next month. On Friday, an Apple executive explicitly confirmed what was stated in a government court filing earlier in the day: that in the early hours of the San Bernardino terrorism investigation, county officials may have inadvertently compromised their ability to access the data on the seized iPhone 5C.

=> ↺ Apple takes on the FBI: What’s really at stake

=> ↺ A Technical Perspective on the Apple iPhone Case

• The legal dispute between Apple and the FBI might prove pivotal in the long-running battle to protect users’ privacy and right to use uncompromised encryption. The case has captured the public imagination. Of course, EFF supports Apple’s efforts to protect its users.

=> ↺ iPhones and Encryption: Does Apple Really Care about Online Privacy?

• The talk of the online privacy world this week is Apple’s vow to resist government demands to build a backdoor into iPhones. That’s ironic — and, for people who buy blindly into Apple PR, sad — since using an iPhone has long been one of the worst ways to stay private online. Here’s why.

=> ↺ Apple’s encryption dilemma explained – does giving the FBI access matter?

• Apple calls the FBI demands tantamount to creating a backdoor. But this would be something odder still – security’s first public ‘frontdoor’

=> ↺ Encryption isn’t at stake, the FBI knows Apple already has the desired key

=> ↺ Explaining Apple’s Fight With the F.B.I.

=> ↺ Should the Authorities Be Able to Access Your iPhone?

=> ↺ DA Cyrus Vance Throws Encrypted Phones On Table And Hands In Air As Criminals Take Over New York City

• Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance can’t stop griping about phone encryption. He’s basically a one-issue politician at this point. His creaky platform is the coming criminal apocalypse, currently being ushered in by smartphone manufacturers. The only person complaining more about phone encryption is FBI Director James Comey, but in Comey’s defense, his jurisdiction is the whole of the United States. Vance has only his district, but it encompasses the NYPD — a police force that often seems to view itself as the pinnacle of American policing.

=> ↺ California judge rules EFF can collect evidence against NSA in mass surveillance case

=> ↺ EFF scores a blow against the government’s domestic spying

=> ↺ EFF Scores Major Win In NSA Mass Surveillance Case, Granted Discovery To Get Factual Evidence

=> ↺ Jewel Order Lifting Stay of Discovery

=> ↺ Eleven years and counting: EFF scores a major victory in its NSA mass surveillance suit

=> ↺ Big Victory: Judge Pushes Jewel v. NSA Forward

• We won a groundbreaking legal victory late Friday in our Jewel v. NSA case, which challenges the NSA’s Internet and telephone surveillance. Judge Jeffrey White has authorized EFF, on behalf of the plaintiffs, to conduct discovery against the NSA. We had been barred from doing so since the case was filed in 2008, which meant that the government was able to prevent us from requesting important information about how these programs worked.

=> ↺ Is Our Judiciary in Bed with the NSA?

=> ↺ Dissecting And Dismantling The Myths Of The DOJ’s Motion To Compel Apple To Build A Backdoor

• While everyone’s waiting for Apple’s response (due late next week) to the order to create a backdoor that would help the FBI brute force Syed Farook’s work iPhone, the DOJ wasted no time in further pleading its own case, with a motion to compel. I’ve gone through it and it’s one of the most dishonest and misleading filings I’ve seen from the DOJ — and that’s saying something.

=> ↺ Snowden to speak via web-link at B.C.’s Simon Fraser University

• A man considered everything from a heroic whistleblower to a traitor is making a cyber visit to British Columbia.

• Edward Snowden will make the keynote presentation, via web link, as part of a Simon Fraser University program examining the opportunities and dangers of online data gathering.

• The presentation, at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre on April 5, will be followed by a moderated discussion with expert panellists from SFU and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden to speak in Vancouver via web link

• A man considered everything from a heroic whistleblower to a traitor is making a cyber visit to British Columbia.

=> ↺ Ex-NSA head asks court to toss out lawsuit

• The former head of the National Security Agency (NSA) on Friday asked a federal court to toss out a lawsuit accusing him of personally violating Americans’ constitutional rights.

• Keith Alexander filed a motion with the U.S District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of himself, President Obama and other top administration officials, claiming he had never been properly served as part of a sweeping lawsuit over the NSA’s powers.

=> ↺ Former NSA and CIA director on Apple, Trump and Hillary

=> ↺ Former Director of CIA and NSA Says FBI is Wrong about Apple’s Encryption

=> ↺ Why I’ve Still Got Tape Over My Webcam

=> ↺ Ex-NSA, CIA chief sides with Apple over FBI in iPhone encryption fight

=> ↺ Former NSA Director: In Apple vs. FBI, Many Top Gov’t Officials Side With Apple

=> ↺ Ex-NSA chief backs Apple on iPhone ‘back doors’

=> ↺ Former intel head Michael Hayden on stealing others’ secrets

=> ↺ Footnote Reveals That The San Bernardino Health Dept. Reset Syed Farook’s Password, Which Is Why We’re Now In This Mess

• We already discussed the many issues with the DOJ’s motion to compel Apple to create a backdoor to let them brute force the passcode on Syed Farook’s iPhone. However, eagle-eyed Chris Soghoian caught something especially interesting in a footnote. Footnote 7, on page 18 details four possible ways that Apple and the FBI had previously discussed accessing the content on the device without having to undermine the basic security system of the iPhone, and one of them only failed because Farook’s employers reset the password after the attacks, in an attempt to get into the device.

=> ↺ Justice Department Calls Apple’s Refusal to Unlock iPhone a ‘Marketing Strategy’

=> ↺ Don’t Believe The Hype: No, Apple HAS NOT Done What The FBI Now Wants ’70 Times’ Before

• In the past couple of days, you may have heard various claims regarding the whole Apple encryption backdoor debate saying things like “but Apple has unlocked iPhones 70 times before.” I’ve seen a bunch of people tweeting and linking to such claims, and it keeps coming up. And it’s bullshit. The 70 times that Apple helped law enforcement before were totally different situations involving unencrypted information where Apple had the ability to extract from the phone because it wasn’t encrypted. That’s kind of the whole point here. Yes, of course, Apple can and does provide access to information that it can easily access. In fact, in this very case the FBI submitted a warrant and was able to get all of the information from the unencrypted aspect of Farook Syed’s iCloud account…

=> ↺ Basically Every Single Presidential Candidate Is Totally Clueless As To What’s At Stake In The Apple / FBI Fight

• I guess this isn’t that surprising, but as the big legal fight heated up this week between Apple and the Justice Department over whether or not Apple can be forced to create a backdoor to let the FBI access the contents of Syed Farook’s iPhone, all of the major Presidential candidates have weighed in… and they’re all wrong. Donald Trump is getting the most attention. Starting earlier this week he kept saying that Apple should just do what the FBI wants, and then he kicked it up a notch this afternoon saying that everyone should boycott Apple until it gives in to the FBI. Apparently, Trump doesn’t even have the first clue about the actual issue at stake, in terms of what a court can compel a company to do, and what it means for our overall security.

=> ↺ Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Film About Snowden, NSA Gets Delayed By Oliver Stone

=> ↺ Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Edward Snowden movie delayed

=> ↺ Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s ‘Snowden’ Release Date Pushed Back

=> ↺ NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden says fixing US is his first duty

=> ↺ Liberty Forum attendees weigh Edward Snowden’s actions

=> ↺ Ray Duckler: You can’t go home again, especially when you’re Edward Snowden

=> ↺ Edward Snowden willing to return to US if he gets a fair trial

=> ↺ Whistleblower Edward Snowden who fled to Russia will RETURN to US if he gets a fair trial

=> ↺ Will return to US if guaranteed a fair trial, says NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

=> ↺ NSA whistleblower appears via a video link from Russia

=> ↺ Edward Snowden speaks remotely to Liberty Forum crowd in Manchester

=> ↺ NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden: I Would Return to US With Guarantee of Fair Trial

=> ↺ Intelligence whistleblower Snowden says would return to US if given fair trial

=> ↺ Edward Snowden would be willing to be extradited if he is entitled to a fair trial

=> ↺ Edward Snowden Says He’ll Return To The US If Promised A Fair Trial

=> ↺ Snowden says he wants fair trial before returning to US

=> ↺ Could Edward Snowden get a fair trial if he returned to the US?

=> ↺ Would Return To US With Guarantee Of Fair Trial: Edward Snowden

=> ↺ Edward Snowden says willing to return to US with guarantee of fair trial

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: Willing to return to US with guarantee of fair trial

=> ↺ Will return to US if guaranteed a fair trial, says Edward Snowden

=> ↺ Snowden: ‘I would return to US if fair trial guaranteed’

=> ↺ I would return to US for fair trial: Snowden

=> ↺ Snowden: Would return to US with guarantee of fair trial

=> ↺ Snowden willing to return to U.S. with guarantee of fair trial

=> ↺ Edward Snowden says he’s willing to return to U.S. if guaranteed fair trial

=> ↺ Snowden tells supporters he will return to US for a fair trial

=> ↺ Edward Snowden would be willing to return to US for fair trial

• Edward Snowden has told supporters he would be willing to return to the US if the government could guarantee a fair trial.

• The former National Security Agency contractor, who has been living in Russia since June 2013, said he would present a public interest defence of his decision to leak thousands of classified intelligence documents if he appeared before a US jury. “I’ve told the government I would return if they would guarantee a fair trial where I can make a public interest defence of why this was done and allow a jury to decide,” Snowden told the libertarian conference, the New Hampshire Liberty Forum.

=> ↺ Is an NSA algorithm really killing ‘thousands of innocent people’…probably not

• Questions surrounding the use of metadata have continuously plagued the NSA. The agency has repeatedly come under fire for its controversial collection and use of metadata.

=> ↺ Judge In Child Porn Case Says FBI Must Turn Over Details On Its Hacking Tool

• In California, the FBI is hoping to force Apple to write a hacking tool for it so it can access the contents of an iPhone. Further up the coast in Washington, the compelling force is moving in the opposite direction. The attorney representing a man swept up during the FBI’s two-week stint as sysadmins for a child porn server has just had a motion granted that would force the agency to turn over details on the hacking tool IT deployed.

=> ↺ FBI vs. Apple: Doesn’t the NSA Already Have a Way In?

=> ↺ ‘Trust Us With More Data,’ Say Government Agencies Hacked By A 16-Year-Old

• We live in a world where a 16-year-old who goes by the handle of “penis” on Twitter can dive into the servers of two of America’s most secure federal agencies and fish out their internal files.

• This 16-year-old is allegedly part of the same crew that socially engineered their way into the inboxes of CIA director John Brennan, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and the administration’s senior advisor on science and technology, John Holdren.

• We also — somehow — live in a world where these same agencies are arguing they should be entrusted with massive amounts of data — not just on their own employees, but on thousands of US citizens.

• The DHS, FBI and NSA all want more data to flow to them — and through them. The cybersecurity bill that legislators snuck past the public by attaching it as a rider to a “must pass” appropriations bill contains language that would allow each of these affected agencies to partake in “data sharing” with private companies. This would be in addition to the data these agencies already gather on American citizens as part of their day-to-day work.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Police Department Thinks ‘Two Bullet Limit’ Will Prevent Questionable Shootings

• Two months ago, five San Francisco police officers surrounded a man armed with a knife and shot him 21 times. In response, the police department has introduced reforms meant to keep this sort of “interaction” to a minimum in the future. On the positive side, the reform efforts include training that will hopefully lead to fewer tense situations being resolved by officers emptying their weapons in the direction of their target.

=> ↺ Being neutral about Brexit

• I used to be a Eurosceptic and in large part I remain one; I am now just as wary of the bullshit from Westminster and Whitehall as I ever was of the bullshit from Brussels.

• There is a lot for a small “l” liberal to dislike about the European Union.

=> ↺ French Constitutional Council Rejects Data Copy During House Raids

• In a decision published today, the French Constitutional Council rejected a provision on digital searches in the law on the state of emergency. The Council decided that copying the data on a device without a previous court decision is against the French Constitution and French Law. La Quadrature du Net welcomes this decision and calls on the French government to return the judiciary judge to the center of the process.

• After a priority preliminary rulings on the issue of constitutionality initiated by the League of Human Rights, the Constitutional Council partially rejected the law on the state of emergency passed in November 2015. The rejected provision allowed the police to copy entierly the data on an informatic device (computer, server or mobile phone) during a house search, without the need to seize the material, nor to have the consent of the searched individual, nor to register an infraction beforehand.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Kanye West is mad at the Pirate Bay

• RAPPER AND SELF-SPOKESMAN Kanye West is having quite a week. First he tapped Mark Zuckerberg for $1bn and released a new album, now he has challenged himself to shutting down the Pirate Bay, something that even media companies with serious money behind them have failed to do.

=> ↺ Final revision of TPP covertly expands criminal penalties for copyright infringement

• During a review of the “legally verified” version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) released Jan. 26th 2016, Jeremy Malcom, the Senior Global Policy Analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has discovered a significant change in the text which will reintroduce criminal penalties for the violation of copyrights protecting intellectual property (IP).

• In the document published by the government of New Zealand post legal scrub, the text “paragraph” was changed to “subparagraph” in Chapter 18, Article 18.78: Trade Secrets.

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