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● 06.22.16

● Links 22/6/2016: PulseAudio 9.0, GNOME 3.21.3 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 6:14 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Whiskey, Linux and RAM

• Right now, I was planning on grabbing zRAM from the MATE Software Boutique as wisely suggested by Don Nadie to see what a little software magic might be able to do for me until I can maximize my hardware. Alas, it doesn’t seem to be available by that avenue, so I’ll have to find an alternative route. Adventure, ho! If all goes as disastrously as hoped, I should have much more to report next time around. Additionally to this purpose, I plan to avoid any and all friends who might try to intrude on my experiments between today and then. Ubuntu MATE’s my new girlfriend, now!

Desktop

=> ↺ Black Lab Software Announces the Cloudbox Pro and the Cloudbook Pro

• Today, June 22, 2016, Black Lab Software’s CEO Robert J. Dohnert has informed Softpedia about the general availability of new hardware powered by the netOS Enterprise Linux operating system.

Server

=> ↺ Sony’s PS3/Linux Lawsuit Closing In On Settlement

• After around six years, it looks like we might see the final judgment in Sony’s infamous PlayStation 3 and Linux operating system incident.

=> ↺ Sony Killed Linux OS On PS3 In 2010, And Now It Has To Pay Millions To Gamers

=> ↺ Sony Closing in On Settlement for PS3 Linux Debacle

• Sony is finally closing in on a settlement for the infamous court case involving PlayStation 3 and the Linux operating system.

• That’s according to Ars Technica, revealing that after six years of litigation the platform holder reached a deal with lawyers on Friday.

• Citing security concerns, the option to ‘install another OS’ was officially pulled from the last-gen hardware all the way back in 2010 and, as a result, early adopters who purchased their PlayStation 3 anytime between November 1, 2006, and April 1, 2010 could be entitled to some repayment.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Intel chips in with blockchain code for Hyperledger

• The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Project has another big name on board: Intel.

• The project was announced in December, but got its first serious impetus back in February when IBM slung its blockchain code into the effort.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Trying Various OpenGL 4.x Games On Linux With An Intel Skylake Core i5

• With the imminent Mesa 12.0 release there is now OpenGL 4.3 compliance for Intel Broadwell graphics hardware and newer, rather than OpenGL 3.3 as was the upper limit in the Intel Mesa driver to this point. Now having OpenGL 4.x support with this open-source Intel driver, I decided to see how various OpenGL 4.x games are running with the Intel driver when using a Skylake CPU sporting HD Graphics 530.

=> ↺ AMDGPU Fixes For Polaris Queuing Up For Linux 4.7

• Yesterday I mentioned how the AMDGPU driver needed some important last minute fixes for the soon-to-launch Radeon RX 480 “Polaris” support. Those patches are now pending to be pulled as part of the next round of DRM fixes heading into Linux 4.7.

=> ↺ Intel Submits Another Batch Of DRM Graphics Driver Updates For Linux 4.8

• Just weeks after their first round of DRM updates for Linux 4.8 were submitted, the Intel crew has their second — of a possible three — feature updates readied for the Linux 4.8 kernel via DRM-Next.

=> ↺ Mesa 3D Graphics Library 12.0.0 Is Just Around the Corner, Last RC Is Out Now

• As expected, the fourth and last RC (Release Candidate) build of the upcoming Mesa 3D Graphics Library 12.0.0 has been announced on June 21, 2016, by Collabora’s Emil Velikov.

• Mesa 3D Graphics Library 12.0.0 Release Candidate 4 incorporates the latest fixes and improvements that the development team behind the open-source Mesa 3D project managed to introduce during the last week, since the release of the third Mesa 3D 12.0.0 RC build.

Applications

=> ↺ PulseAudio 9.0 is out

=> ↺ PulseAudio 9.0 Sound System Released, Supports Sample Rates Up to 384 kHz

• Just a few minute ago, June 22, 2016, Arun Raghavan proudly announced the debut of the PulseAudio 9.0 sound server for GNU/Linux operating systems, a major release that introduces several improvements and new features.

• Prominent features of PulseAudio 9.0 include support for sample rates up to 384 kHz, the implementation of a memfd-backed shared memory transport, significant improvements to the automatic routing functionality, as well as the adoption of the C11 C standard instead of C99.

• Furthermore, it looks like PulseAudio 9.0 comes with LFE (Low-frequency Effects) remixing disabled by default, which was enabled as part of the PulseAudio 7.0 release, the module-role-ducking and module-role-cork modules received various enhancements, and webrtc-audio-processing 0.2 or later is now required.

=> ↺ PulseAudio 9.0 Released With Many Audio Improvements

• Version 9.0 of the once-controversial PulseAudio sound server is now available for your open-source audio needs.

• First off, PulseAudio 9.0 brings the memfd transport support for Linux systems. This lets PulseAudio use Memfd on newer Linxu kernel versions rather than POSIX SHM shared memory.

=> ↺ PacketFence v6.1 released

• The Inverse team is pleased to announce the immediate availability of PacketFence 6.1. This is a major release with new features, enhancements and important bug fixes. This release is considered ready for production use and upgrading from previous versions is strongly advised.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Gawking Text Files

=> ↺ Putting Together a Video Book Review

• To show other people what is possible, here is a screencast-style video book review I recently created on my Linux laptop. The book I’m reviewing is titled “NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity,” a history of autism published in 2015.

=> ↺ Linux Lexicon: Linux Man Pages And Their Navigation

=> ↺ Profiles and RC Files

=> ↺ How To Repair Grub Boot Loader On Ubuntu Linux 16.04 /15.10 / 15.04

=> ↺ Install Snap packages in Arch Linux, and Fedora

=> ↺ Ping Indicator: A GNOME Shell Extension

=> ↺ How to Upgrade Fedora 23 to Fedora 24 Workstation

=> ↺ How to Use Compound Expressions with Awk in Linux – Part 5

=> ↺ How to Use ‘next’ Command with Awk in Linux – Part 6

=> ↺ How to Read Awk Input from STDIN in Linux – Part 7

Games

=> ↺ So I Played… RymdResa

=> ↺ Ashes of the Singularity still plans Vulkan and Linux & SteamOS support

• A developer of Ashes of the Singularity has stated very clearly that both Vulkan and Linux/SteamOS are still planned for the big RTS game.

=> ↺ Play as a ghost in point & click adventure game Goetia now on Linux & SteamOS

=> ↺ LIMBO is free on Steam for 24 hours, grab it while you can

• Not free to play for 24 hours, actually free. If you install it you get to keep it. LIMBO is actually a pretty great platformer you all need to try.

• A few people messaged me about it and I agree it’s worth a quick shout out. Not much to say another than hooray a free game, go check it out.

=> ↺ VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action released for Linux, some thoughts

• VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action has been released for Linux and thanks to the guys at GOG I have been sent a copy to play with. Here’s some thoughts.

• If you buy it from GOG, be aware that you will need to install specific libs to get it running, as GOG games do not bundle the libs you need with it.

=> ↺ Operator Overload, a fantastic looking puzzle game with a ton of levels needs help on Steam Greenlight

• I personally think Operator Overload looks fantastic and the developer email me to let me know it’s fully Linux supported and needs help on Greenlight.

=> ↺ Megapolis, a classic city simulator is now on Steam with Linux support

• Megapolis is an older title, but positively rated and it’s now on Steam with Linux support. It’s a small city building simulator, something more casual than say Cities Skylines.

• Never tried it myself, but I’ve heard of it, any of you tried it?

=> ↺ Indie turn-based board strategy game ‘UFHO2′ is now FREE on Steam

=> ↺ Street Fighter V has passed the initial Linux & SteamOS release window

• I sincerely hope none of you pre-ordered Street Fighter V on the promise of the Linux version, as it has shown yet again how silly it is. Street Fighter V is now officially late.

=> ↺ PAC-MAN 256, a surprise Steam release with day-1 Linux support

• I have to say it has been a long time since I played any form of PAC-MAN, now maybe I will. PAC-MAN 256 was released on Steam with day-1 Linux support.

=> ↺ Platformer On Rusty Trails now DRM free on GOG, it’s really cool

• The colourful and colour changing platformer On Rusty Trails is now available DRM free on GOG. We already covered the Steam release with flesk, but here’s a look at the GOG version.

=> ↺ In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor is releasing on 5th of July

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Wayland in Plasma 5.7

• Last week we released the beta version of Plasma 5.7 which means we know what this release will have for better Wayland support. First of all I need to mention what didn’t make it: unfortunately I missed the freeze of Frameworks 5.23 to land support for xdg-shell. I have a working implementation, but was not yet satisfied with the API. This is a difficult interface to provide an API for due to the unstable nature of the interface. Due to lack of xdg-shell support GTK applications are still going to use X11 on Wayland (like the Firefox window I’m just typing this blog post in).

=> ↺ The State Of Wayland For KDE Plasma 5.7

• There are a lot of Wayland support improvements to find in the upcoming release of KDE’s Plasma 5.7.

• Wayland advancements for KDE Plasma 5.7 include the improved task manager, virtual keyboard support, sub-surface support, improved input device support, and more. However, missing from Plasma 5.7 is their XDG-Shell support as the API wasn’t stabilized in time.

=> ↺ Qt 5.6.1-1 Released

• The problem with Qt 5.6.1, reported in QTBUG-53761, is that certain Qt Quick applications crash after some time. The problem occurs with code that loads more than 64 components (.qml or .js files) without instantiating objects from all of them. The components that initially don’t get instantiated will then be removed from the type cache, which causes problems if you later try to instantiate objects from them. Reason for the problem is too aggressive trimming of the QML type cache, which ends up deleting some QML types even though they were still in use by the application.

=> ↺ Qt 5.6.1-1 Released To Fix A Critical Problem

• Qt 5.6.1 was released earlier this month to fix outstanding issues with the Qt 5.6 tool-kit release while today the 5.6.1-1 hot-fix release is available to fix a critical problem.

• Slipping into Qt 5.6.1 was a regression that prevented certain types of Qt Quick applications from working correctly. This issue with Qt 5.6.1 would cause Qt Quick applications to crash but did not affect the newer Qt 5.7.0 release.

=> ↺ Call for submissions for the 2016 Art of Krita Book

• The Krita Foundation is going to publish a glossy, shiny book of art created with Krita! This book will be sent out to the seventy Kickstarter backers who selected the artbook as their reward, and it will be available from the Krita shop. We’ll also try and make sure it’s available through online bookshops! It’s the very first time the Krita Foundation will publish a book, and we’re really excited about it.

=> ↺ Interview with Jennifer Reuter

• If you had to pick one favourite of all your work done in Krita so far, what would it be, and why?

=> ↺ Farewell to the Mountains

• So the last train has left Randa, and we can look back at a — judging from the bugs that were fixed and the ideas that were traded and the code that was written — successful sprint. The last two days were characterized by the authentic Randa Internet experience, in which a mountain goat eats 18% of the packets, but that doesn’t stop KDE developers from writing code and sharing AppImages.

=> ↺ KDE neon Press Coverage and Comments

• KDE neon User Edition 5.6 came out a couple of weeks ago, let’s have a look at the commentry.

=> ↺ My LaKademy 2016

• In the end of May, ~20 gearheads from different countries of Latin America were together in Rio de Janeiro working in several fronts of the KDE. This is our ‘multiple projects sprint’ named LaKademy!

• Like all previous editions of LaKademy, this year I worked hard in Cantor; unlike all previous editions, this year I did some work in new projects to be released in some point in the future. So, let’s see my report of LaKademy 2016.

=> ↺ Doxyqml 0.3.0 released

• The master branch of Doxyqml, a QML input filter for Doxygen, had been waiting for a release for a long time. Olivier Churlaud, the new KApidox hero, reported that it did not work with Python 3 and submitted a patch to fix this.

=> ↺ Cutelyst 0.12.0 is out!

• Cutelyst a web framework built with Qt is now closer to have it’s first stable release, with it becoming 3 years old at the end of the year I’m doing my best to finally iron it to get an API/ABI compromise, this release is full of cool stuff and a bunch of breaks which most of the time just require recompiling.

=> ↺ Peruse 1.0 “The Birthday Release”

• One day, about half a year or so ago, it came up in a discussion that while we in KDE have a lovely document viewer named Okular, we don’t have something that is well suited to actually reading things, comic books in particular. So, a project was hatched to fix this. I’ve blogged about it before, and made a few tweets on the topic, but today is special. Today, 1.0 happens.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME 3.21.3 released

• Hello all,

• GNOME 3.21.3, the third snapshot of the GNOME 3.21 cycle, is now available. You want it!

• To compile GNOME 3.21.3, you can use the jhbuild [1] modulesets [2] (which use the exact tarball versions from the official release).

• [1] https://developer.gnome.org/jhbuild/ [2] https://download.gnome.org/teams/releng/3.21.3/

=> ↺ GNOME 3.21.3 Offers an Early Taste of What’s Coming to the GNOME 3.22 Desktop

=> ↺ GNOME 3.22 to Offer Usability Improvements to IMAP and SMTP Providers, More

=> ↺ GTK+ GUI Toolkit Updated for GNOME 3.21.3 with More Wayland Improvements

• Now that the GNOME 3.21.3 desktop environment is out the door for public testers and early adopters who can’t wait for the GNOME 3.22 release this fall, it’s time for us to take a look at other upcoming GNOME and GTK+ technologies.

=> ↺ Mutter Receives Wayland Improvements, Memory Leak Plugged from GNOME Shell

• We reported earlier on the release of the GNOME 3.21.3 desktop environment, which was made available for early adopters and public testers who want to see what’s coming to GNOME 3.22 later this year.

• The GNOME Shell user interface and Mutter window and compositing manager have been updated to version 3.21.3 as well, and we would like to tell you all about the improvements and new features that landed in these new development releases.

Distributions

=> ↺ Linux distributions: Recommendations for a novice

• So, there you have it. Please keep in mind that these recommendations are based only on my own experience, on the specific Samsung N150 Plus target system, and on the variety of Linux distributions I currently have installed on my own N150 Plus. I did not consider a few others which I currently use on other systems (Sparky, Korora, KaOS and a few others), and I did not consider anything that I do not personally install and use.

=> ↺ Comparing more live version upgrade methods

• At the end of May I set out to discover how well a handful of popular Linux distributions (and FreeBSD) would handle a live upgrade between major versions. The results were mostly positive with four of the five open source operating systems successfully upgrading to their latest version.

• Following that article, some people asked if I would perform similar upgrade tests on other projects. This past week I set out to perform live upgrades on four more open source operating systems and report on the results.

New Releases

=> ↺ Antergos Linux One Of Best Arch Based Distros

• One of the most difficult tasks for Linux newbies is to install Arch Linux. Unlike most of other Linux distributions, Arch Linux does not have graphical installer. It’s completely CLI. Users have always been interested to use Arch based distros and luckily there are many. Antergos Linux is one the best, beautiful and sleek Arch based distros available.

=> ↺ Slacko 6.3.2 is released!

• I am excited to announce the release of Puppy Linux Slacko 6.3.2. It is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions.

• This might be called a bugfix release to Slacko 6.3.0 but it is so much more than that!

• This is the first ever official puppy to support UEFI booting for both for 32 and 64 bit versions and the same ISO image will boot legacy BIOS PCs as well. And there is so much more that is improved, such as the theming, sound detection, firewall, default application management plus our home grown apps such as pMusic.

=> ↺ News: Devil Linux 1.8.0-rc1 released.

• About linux distros then this news come with the new Devil-Linux 1.8.0-rc1 released. You can download it from here.

Screenshots/Screencasts

=> ↺ Point Linux 3.2 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Ultimate Edition 5.0 Screencast and Screenshots

OpenSUSE/SUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE Leap 42.2 Alpha 2 Released with a Full GNOME 3.20 Update, Mesa 11.2

• openSUSE Project’s Ludwig Nussel was happy to announce the release of the second Alpha milestone towards the openSUSE Leap 42.2 operating system, just in time for the openSUSE Conference.

=> ↺ openSUSE Leap 42.2 Alpha2 released

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat Composes Ansible to Help Build Containers

• Red Hat expands its DevOps platform to enable developers to more easily build their own containers.

• Red Hat is expanding its open-source Ansible platform with a new module called Ansible Container that enables organizations to build and deploy containers. Ansible is a DevOps automation platform technology that Red Hat acquired in October 2015.

=> ↺ Solving user experience problems with PatternFly

• Michael Dyrynda is a web developer at Hostworks, a freelance developer, and a blogger. He’s working on his first open source project in Confomo with Matt Stauffer and podcasting the journey on briefs.fm. He also writes about web development and solving day-to-day problems with no readily available solutions. Michael’s web development skills extend to front-end aspects of web development, including JavaScript, LESS/Sass/CSS, designing databases, as well as building applications that can scale.

=> ↺ 3 Indian women among finalists of Red Hat’s 2016 open source awards

• Three Indian women made it to the list of finalists after taking part in the 2016 ‘Women in Open Source’ competition, organised by Red hat.

• The finalists in the academic category include three women from India who are full-time students pursuing computer science and engineering degrees.

• Now in its second year, the ‘Women in Open Source Award’ was created to honor women who make important contributions to open source projects and communities, or make innovative use of open source methodologies.

=> ↺ Red Hat Announces Ceph Storage 2

• Today Red Hat, Inc. announced the next generation of its open software-defined storage platform, Red Hat Ceph Storage 2. The latest version of Red Hat Ceph Storage is based off of the Ceph Jewel release and introduces new capabilities that enhance support for object storage workloads and promote greater ease of use.

=> ↺ Red Hat Unveils Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 with Enhanced Object Storage Capabilities, Improved Ease of Use

=> ↺ Red Hat Summit 2016: How to watch all the interviews from theCUBE

Finance

=> ↺ Is Red Hat Inc’s Fuel For Real? The Stock Just Increased Again

=> ↺ Red Hat Shooting For $5 Billion In Sales With Expansion Into Cloud Services

=> ↺ Can This Tech Company Compete With Amazon Web Services?

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc. (RHT) is Trading Higher on Unusual Volume for June 20

=> ↺ Earnings Reaction History: Red Hat Inc., 70.0% Follow-Through Indicator, 6.5% Sensitive

Fedora

=> ↺ What’s new in Fedora 24 Workstation

• Fedora 24 Workstation is the latest release of our free, leading-edge operating system. You can download it from the official website here. There are several new and noteworthy changes in Fedora Workstation.

=> ↺ New Documentation Site

• The Pulp team is happy to announce the availability of a new documentation site for Pulp and its plugins: https://docs.pulpproject.org/

=> ↺ Upgrading Fedora 23 Workstation to Fedora 24

• Fedora 24 just became available and is officially released. You’ll likely want to upgrade your system. If you’ve upgraded from past Fedora releases, you may be familiar with the dnf upgrade plugin. This method is the recommended and supported way to upgrade from Fedora 23 to Fedora 24. Using this plugin will make your upgrade to Fedora 24 simple and easy. Note also that shortly after the release of Fedora 24, you will also be able to update to Fedora 24 Workstation using the Software app.

=> ↺ Announcing Flatpak – Next Generation Linux Applications

• The Linux desktop has long been held back by platform fragmentation. This has been a burden on developers, and creates a high barrier to entry for third party application developers. Flatpak aims to change all that. From the very start its primary goal has been to allow the same application to run across a myriad of Linux distributions and operating systems. In doing so, it greatly increases the number of users that application developers can easily reach.

=> ↺ Flatpak brings standalone apps to Linux

• The development team behind Flatpak has just announced the general availability of the Flatpak desktop application framework. Flatpak (which was also known during development as xdg-app) provides the ability for an application — bundled as a Flatpak — to be installed and run easily and consistently on many different Linux distributions. Applications bundled as Flatpaks also have the ability to be sandboxed for security, isolating them from your operating system, and other applications. Check out the Flatpak website, and the press release for more information on the tech that makes up the Flatpak framework.

=> ↺ Announcing Flatpak

=> ↺ Fedora Workstation 24 is out and Flatpak is now officially launched!

• This is a very exciting day for me as two major projects I am deeply involved with are having a major launch. First of all Fedora Workstation 24 is out which crosses a few critical milestones for us. Maybe most visible is that this is the first time you can use the new graphical update mechanism in GNOME Software to take you from Fedora Workstation 23 to Fedora Workstation 24. This means that when you open GNOME Software it will show you an option to do a system upgrade to Fedora Workstation 24. We been testing and doing a lot of QA work around this feature so my expectation is that it will provide a smooth upgrade experience for you.

=> ↺ Say hello to Fedora 24, a Linux OS for a containerized world

• The MATE desktop is another option for Fedora 24 Workstation users as an alternative to GNOME 3.20. Shown here is the software’s built-in file manager. Other desktop choices include KDE, LXDE, and Xfce.

=> ↺ Review of Fedora 24

• We run out of time to have a play around and do any kind of serious testing of the Boxes application. But we have been reading about it and understand it is a virtual machine package, designed to run sandboxed virtual machines. Yes, similar to Oracle VM VirtualBox. We intend to look more into the Boxes feature a little later down the track. So we will bring you more information on it soon.

=> ↺ Fedora 24, openSUSE 42.2 Alpha, Snappy Coverage

• Fedora 24 was released today to many headlines and LinuxConfig.org posted the first official review. openSUSE 42.2 saw an alpha release today giving users a bit of a sneak peek. Interestingly, Matt Asay and Bruce Byfield both authored stories today on the press coverage of Canonical’s Snap announcement – both saying the press believed the hype hook, line, and sinker.

=> ↺ Fedora 24 Workstation Review: All Work and Very Little Play

• Fedora 24 brings with it a number of technical improvements, software upgrades, and under the hood. It’s clear that the Fedora developers have been working closely with upstream sources to tightly integrate advances in everything from the kernel to GNOME, Systemd, NetworkManager, and GCC6 which have all been forged into a powerful core. However, that’s about where it ends.

• When it comes to a being a full fledged desktop distribution, Fedora 24 falls a bit short, and that’s mostly due to the Fedora project’s limited repositories.

=> ↺ Fedora 24 Released With New Features, Download ISO Files Here

• The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 24 Linux distribution.

=> ↺ Fedora 24 Screenshot Tour

=> ↺ Fedora 24 Screencast and Screenshots

=> ↺ Flatpak Officially Announced For “Next Generation Linux Applications”

• Coinciding with today’s release of Fedora 24 is the official debut of Flatpak, formerly known as XDG-App.

Debian Family

=> ↺ Appelbaum banned from Debian events after sexual misconduct charges

• The Debian GNU/Linux project says that former Tor developer Jacob Appelbaum is no longer welcome at its events, after charges of sexual misconduct were levelled against him.

=> ↺ Reorganizing the autopkgtest code

• The very-first alpha-quality release of reprotest is now in Debian’s NEW package queue, so it should soon be available for install through apt.

=> ↺ twenty years of free software

• etckeeper was a sleeper success for me. I created it, wrote one blog post about it, installed it on all my computers, and mostly forgot about it, except when I needed to look something up in the git history of /etc it helpfully maintains. It’s a minor project.

=> ↺ Linux Australia adopts wait-and-see approach on Appelbaum

• Linux Australia has predictably chosen to take the safe option in the case of well-known privacy advocate Jacob Appelbaum who has been chucked out of various free software projects and associations after sexual misconduct charges were levelled at him.

=> ↺ A Statement from Linux Australia

Derivatives

=> ↺ Point Linux 3.2 MATE & Xfce Editions Land Based on Debian GNU/Linux 8.5 “Jessie”

• The development team behind the Point Linux project, a desktop-oriented GNU/Linux operating system based on the Debian’s Stable branch, has announced the general availability of Point Linux 3.2.

=> ↺ Linux AIO Brings All the Debian Live 7.11.0 Editions Into a Single ISO Image

• Today, June 22, 2016, Softpedia has been informed by the Linux AIO developers about the immediate availability for download of the Linux AIO Debian Live 7.11.0 ISO images.

• Linux AIO is a non-profit project whose main goal is to create Live, bootable ISO images that contain all the essential Live editions of various popular GNU/Linux distributions. For example, you’ll find Live ISOs with all the official Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Fedora, Zorin OS, or PCLinuxOS Live flavors.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Linux’s RPM/deb split could be replaced by Flatpak vs. snap

• Ubuntu’s “snap” applications recently went cross-platform, having been ported to other Linux distros including Debian, Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo. The goal is to simplify packaging of applications. Instead of building a deb package for Ubuntu and an RPM for Fedora, a developer could package the application as a snap and have it installed on just about any Linux distribution.

=> ↺ Canonical changes the game by announcing universal snap packages

• Every so often, I get to sit in on a phone call, video chat, or conversation that absolutely blows my mind. Tuesday, June 14 was one such occasion. I was invited to hear Mark Shuttleworth (founder of Canonical, which produces Ubuntu Linux) discuss a major announcement. Naturally, I assumed the announcement had something to do with Ubuntu Touch (maybe they’d found a major US carrier for the Ubuntu Phone). Little did I know the announcement would be so profoundly game changing.

=> ↺ Ubuntu’s Snappy Packages: Smoke and Little Fire

• When Canonical Software, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, announced that developers from other distributions were working on Snappy packages, the media pumped a minor announcement into a major story.

• The headlines alone tell the story: “Snap! Ubuntu 16.04 Just Made Installing New Apps MUCH Easier;” “Goodbye apt and yum? Ubuntu’s snap apps are coming to distros everywhere;” “Snap Packages Become Universal Binary Format for All GNU/Linux Distributions;” and “Ubuntu bids to eliminate Linux fragmentation by making Snap packages available to all.”

• If this story were true, the headlines would have been announcing the most important news in Linux for several years. However, like much that seems too good to be true, the news was.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi Zero IoT adapter adds Grove modules and more

• Dexter’s $17 “GrovePi-Zero” IoT expansion board for the Raspberry Pi Zero features analog, digital, and serial ports that support Grove modules.

• Back in 2014, robotics specialist Dexter Industries released a GrovePi expansion kit for the Raspberry Pi equipped with ports that support SeeedStudio’s catalog of hundreds of Arduino-compatible Grove sensors and I/O modules. This was followed up with a $30 GrovePi+ board. The company has now spun a smaller, simpler GrovePi-Zero I/O kit specifically for the miniscule Raspberry Pi Zero.

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi controls Linux devices without the hassle

• A developer in Latvia has come up with a clever but simple control interface for your Linux devices which can be embedded Raspberry Pi designs.

• Dubbed pyLCI, the software framework runs on the Raspberry Pi as long as it is connected to a suitable display and will control and configure a Linux system in headless mode.

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Developer: Tizen SCM Tool Released – 16.02

• Hey Tizen Devs, as you know you can use the Tizen SDK to develop your Tizen apps. Now, the Tizen tools team are happy to announce the release of the latest Tizen SCM Tools. You can find the major changes and known issues below:

=> ↺ Samsung Powers their SMART Signage Portfolio with Tizen

• Samsung Electronics showcased their digital signage and visual display solutions portfolio at the InfoComm 2016 trade show, which was held last month at the Las Vegas Convention Center. InfoComm is the largest annual global conference for the professional AV industry and is expected to welcome more than 40,000 attendees from nearly 110 countries.

• A unique feature of these signages is that they are powered by the Tizen Operating System (OS). By utilising the OS the signs are able to be used for advertising, content delivery, and information display management in corporate, hospitality, public, retail and at-home environments.

Android

=> ↺ 7 open source Android apps for chess players

• The game of chess has challenged and entertained players for centuries. From the courts of medieval royalty to modern after-school chess programs, the game has widespread appeal and has withstood the test of time. Chess is easy to learn but difficult to master. Each player controls 16 pieces on a board consisting of 64 squares. There are six different types of pieces: Pawn, Bishop, Knight, Rook, Queen, and King—so learning the basics can take an hour or so.

=> ↺ How well do Android apps run on Chromebooks?

=> ↺ This Android malware secretly roots your phone and installs programs

=> ↺ This Android malware can secretly root your phone and install programs

=> ↺ VLC for Android now plays videos from your local network

=> ↺ VLC for Android 2.0 merges Android TV and mobile builds together, offers network disk browsing and performance improvements

=> ↺ PlayStation Vue will launch for Android phones and tablets next week (with Cast support!)

=> ↺ PlayStation Vue Coming to Android Next Week

=> ↺ Android Pay UK release date: Android Pay Day announced, provides UK users with monthly discounts on food and drink

=> ↺ Barclays launches its answer to Android Pay

=> ↺ Barclays Android app makes £100 contactless payments

=> ↺ Android Pay will tell you where it works nearby

=> ↺ Google and Udacity launch a new Android programming course for beginners

=> ↺ How to make Android look like a PC: Turn your Android Tablet into a PC-like productivity machine

=> ↺ BlackBerry Q1 Preview: Software Business & Android Strategy In Focus

=> ↺ BlackBerry: Expect A Mid-Priced Android Phone

=> ↺ 5 useful things you can do with your Android phone and Chrome on your computer

=> ↺ How to make your Galaxy S7 feel more like stock Android

=> ↺ Android TV now unofficially supports x86 PCs

=> ↺ How to take better photos with your Android phone

=> ↺ PlayStation Vue live TV service now available on Roku, hits Android phones next week (hands-on)

=> ↺ Android Pay: How to get a FREE Starbucks and takeaway tonight using your smartphone

=> ↺ Google bumps up bounty on Android bugs

=> ↺ Android N brings back popular feature following complaints

=> ↺ You can watch picture-in-picture videos on Android with VLC now

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Building a business on a solid open source model

• Since we announced Nextcloud, an ownCloud fork, many people have asked me how we plan to build a sustainable, healthy open source business. My short answer is that it requires a strong focus on maintaining a careful balance between the needs of all stakeholders: users, contributors, employees, customers, and—of course—investors. Building a solid open source business requires that management has confidence in the abilities of your company, stakeholders must be on board with the business model, and everyone must understand that balance is important for the ecosystem. Like a rising tide lifts all boats, a strong ecosystem benefits all stakeholders.

=> ↺ Why I must use Free Software – and why I tell others to do so

• My work colleagues know me well as a Free/Libre software zealot, constantly pointing out to them how people should behave, how FLOSS software trumps commercial software and how this is the only way forward. This for the last 20 odd years. It’s a strain to argue this repeatedly: at various times, I have been asked to set out more clearly why I use FLOSS, what the advantages are, why and how to contribute to FLOSS software.

=> ↺ BusyBox 1.25 Released

• This latest update to the widely-used BusyBox software features a new blkdiscard applet, new options for gunzip/gzip, new nsenter / unshare / ubirename applets, build system changes, fixes for unzip, updates to ntpd, Ash additions, and a wide variety of other changes.

=> ↺ Altair Adds Open-Source Licensing to PBS Pro

• One of the problems that continues to hinder HPC is that, by and large, there’s a greater demand for computing cycles than there are CPUs and GPUs available. With researchers and engineers lining up to have their calculations crunched, it’s critical that HPC schemes have effective job management software that can keep track of a queue or jobs and assign the appropriate hardware to each project.

=> ↺ ClusterHQ’s Mohit Bhatnagar Talks Flocker, Docker, and the Rise of Open Source

• Container technology remains very big news, and if you bring up the topic almost everyone immediately thinks of Docker. But, there are other tools that can compete with Docker, and tools that can extend it and make it more flexible. CoreOS’s Rkt, for example, is a command-line tool for running app containers. And, ClusterHQ has an open source project called Flocker that allows developers to run their databases inside Docker containers, leveraging persistent storage, and making data highly portable.

Events

=> ↺ openSUSE Conference 2016 Day 1

• The first day of this year’s openSUSE Conference went well and the keynote speaker team of SaltStack Chief Technical Officer and technical founder Thomas Hatch along with Senior SaltStack Engineer David Boucha and SUSE’s Joe Werner showed how powerful Salt is for IT automation.

• Boucha gave a live demo and Hatch talked about the evolution of Salt and even talked a little about Salt’s Thorium Reactor, which was added to Salt as an experimental feature in the 2016.3.0 release. Werner discussed how SUSE uses Salt with SUSE Manager.

=> ↺ Building a better LibrePlanet: What we learned from the conference surveys

• Our samples are usually about sixty to seventy respondents, and self-selecting — from their responses, we can say with confidence that LibrePlanet attendees feel we’re doing a decent job organizing the conference. The questions “How much did you enjoy the sessions you attended, compared to those at other conferences you have attended?” and “How likely is it that you will return to LibrePlanet next year?” received an average of about 3.5 out of 4 each of the last three years.

=> ↺ Do you GNU? Attend the GNU Hackers’ Meeting in France this summer!

• The GNU Hackers’ Meeting is a friendly, semi-formal forum to discuss technical, social, and organizational issues concerning free software and GNU. This is a great opportunity to meet GNU maintainers and active contributors.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Mozilla is updating its brand identity, “and everyone’s invited”

• Mozilla has announced that it is updating its brand identity “so that people may know and understand us better”. True to its open source spirit, it’s inviting its community to take part in that process, saying that “everyone’s invited”.

=> ↺ Mozilla Open-Sourcing New Logo: A Model Other Nonprofits Should Watch

• The nonprofit behind Firefox is looking to get a fresh new look to make its brand more distinctive and is reaching out to its community for input.

=> ↺ Mozilla’s Brand Identity Is Up For Redesign

• The worldwide web may be aware that Firefox is the second most popular browser on the Internet, but the number of people who’ve heard about Mozilla, the not-for-profit company behind this success, is miniscule.

=> ↺ Mozilla’s next logo will be shaped by its users

=> ↺ Fedora Users Now Have An Experimental Firefox Wayland Package

• While Fedora 24 made great inroads on their Wayland support plans for running GNOME by default off this next-generation technology compared to X11, the Firefox package in Fedora currently relies upon Wayland.

• However, if you are an early adopter of Firefox on Wayland, there is a new package available for experimenting with native Firefox GTK3 on Wayland without resorting to XWayland. Red Hat’s Martin Stransky has published a Copr repository that offers Firefox for Wayland.

SaaS/Back End

=> ↺ CI and CD at Scale: Scaling Jenkins with Docker and Apache Mesos

=> ↺ Get networking out of the way for app development

• The modern tech business is all about networking infrastructure. For a leading company, the power to communicate effectively with its IT assets is vital. However, that same networking can be a wall to development process; how does a team develop for an environment that is always shifting and changing? Removing the networking concern is a top priority for any business that wants to be efficient and agile.

=> ↺ Docker launches a new marketplace for containerized software

• At its developer conference in Seattle, Docker today announced the private beta of the Docker Store, a new marketplace for trusted and validated dockerized software.

• The idea behind the store is to create a self-service portal for Docker’s ecosystem partners to publish and distribute their software through Docker images — and for users to make it easier to deploy these applications.

=> ↺ Docker 1.12 Orchestration Features Mean Fewer Channel Partner Options

• Docker’s partner relationships are likely to change following the announcement this week of Docker Engine 1.12, which builds more orchestration features into the core Docker container platform.

=> ↺ Docker Store Announced @dockercon / So What Happens to Hub? #dockercon

• Docker announced a new beta effort for Docker container images at Dockercon today, called the Docker Store.

=> ↺ Docker Tunes Up Engine Orchestration

• Docker on Monday announced Docker Engine 1.12 with built-in orchestration, which allows automated deployment and management of Dockerized distributed applications and microservices at scale in production.

=> ↺ Docker and OpenStack are Grabbing the Headlines This Week

• Containers and cloud services remain much in the news, and open source tools such as Docker and OpenStack remain red hot at organizations of all sizes. Docker is running its developer conference in Seattle this week and there are many container tools being shown there.

• Meanwhile, Bright Computing, focused on vendor-independent cluster and cloud management software, is coming out with Version 7.3 of Bright Cluster Manager and Bright OpenStack, scheduled for release in July.

• Microsoft has been increasing its focus on Docker and is even building support for it into Windows Server. The effort is part of the company’s focus on incorporating more open source technologies. This week, the company is showing off the upcoming Linux version of SQL Server that can run in containers on Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Running Distributed Applications at Scale on Mesos from Twitter and CloudBees

=> ↺ Successful DevOps Deployment Involves Shift in Culture and Processes

=> ↺ Finagle, linkerd, and Apache Mesos: Magical Operability Sprinkles for Microservices

=> ↺ Hadoop Summit: How to Get Highlights Even if You Can’t Attend

OPNFV

=> ↺ Nokia moves into OPNFV testing with a new Lab and dedicated cloud platform

=> ↺ OPNFV Project scales up network functions virtualisation ecosystem

=> ↺ OPNFV Is ‘Critical’ For Telecoms Industry, But Skills Shortage Persists

=> ↺ Survey Reveals 93 Percent of Network Operators View OPNFV as Important to Success of NFV

=> ↺ Cloudify Unveils Telco-Tailored Version of Open Source Orchestration Platform, Targeting NFV Deployments

=> ↺ OPNFV Project Gathers in Berlin, Expands Global NFV Ecosystem

Healthcare

=> ↺ Dysfunction and Sabotage: Why Large Hospital EHR Costs So Much

• Years ago I read the cannon of the classic medical book “House of God” by Samuel Shem which reads: “…the House of God was sad and sick and cynical…like all our doings in the House…” At first, before I had worked in an actual hospital I thought the book itself was sick and cynical. After working in an actual hospital I re-read the book. I then found it hilarious for its uncomfortable truths, and did not think it was sick or cynical enough. Therein likes the crux of the matter with regard to very expensive large hospital EHR’s.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GCC Compiler Adds Support For ARM’s Cortex-A73

• The latest GCC 7 development code now has support for the ARM Cortex-A73 processor.

• Support was added today for handling the Cortex-A73 with the GNU Compiler Collection as a target exposed as cortex-a73.

=> ↺ GNU Parallel 20160622 (‘Orlando’) released

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

=> ↺ ‘Steal My Tool’ showcases open source tools for journalists at IRE conference

• Robert Gebeloff, database projects editor at The New York Times, demonstrated how to use XML Grid to access and interpret a website’s data. Using these tools and techniques, Gebeloff showed how one can find which Trader Joe’s stores sell beer by simply scraping the site’s XML code. Gebeloff has published detailed instructions for web scraping without programming on his GitHub page.

Open Data

=> ↺ The current state of open data in the US government

• The S.2852 OPEN Government Data Act aims to require true open data access at the federal level. In this article I will discuss the importance of open data in government, the current state of open data in government, and what we need to do to implement true open data.

Open Hardware/Modding

=> ↺ VR Care is Frog’s open source VR headset for hospital patients

• VR is pretty good at distracting us from the outside world – take off the headset you’ve been wearing and you’ll see that it’s gone dark/everyone has left/you really need to shower.

=> ↺ 2048 DIY Open Source Game Console Hits Kickstarter (video)

• Anyone looking to learn more about coding and creating video games may be interested in the new DIY open source games console called 2048 which has been created by 2048.

• The name refers to the special screen that the game console is equipped with that is constructed from 2048 individual LED bulbs that are placed in a matrix form offering a 64 x 32 resolution.

• Learn more about what is possible using the open source games console from the developers at Creoqode. Who was taken to Kickstarter this week to raise the £20,000 they require to take the hardware into production. Early bird pledges are available from just $99 with delivery expected to take place during December 2016 with worldwide shipping available if required.

Leftovers

Security

=> ↺ Security updates for Tuesday

=> ↺ Google Hacker Donates His $15,000 Bug Bounty Cash Award To Charity

• Google’s leading security engineer Tavis Ormandy recently won a bug bounty challenge run by security solutions firm Bromium and decided to donate the money to charity. Following his gesture, Bromium matched Ormandy’s donation and donated $15,000 to Amnesty International organization.

=> ↺ TOR Project And Security Experts Making A “Hardened” Version Of TOR To Defeat FBI

• The TOR Project is working closely with security researchers to implement a new technique to secure the TOR Browser against the FBI’s de-anonymization exploits. Called “Selfrando”, this technique will fight the FBI’s “Code Reuse” exploits and create a “hardened” version of TOR.

=> ↺ Mozilla Awards $385,000 to Open Source Projects as part of MOSS “Mission Partners” Program

• For many years people with visual impairments and the legally blind have paid a steep price to access the Web on Windows-based computers. The market-leading software for screen readers costs well over $1,000. The high price is a considerable obstacle to keeping the Web open and accessible to all. The NVDA Project has developed an open source screen reader that is free to download and to use, and which works well with Firefox. NVDA aligns with one of the Mozilla Manifesto’s principles: “The Internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.”

=> ↺ Mozilla MOSS ‘Mission Partners’ makes it rain $385,000 on open source project developers

• Open source is very important nowadays, especially from a privacy and security standpoint. Look, closed source ideology is not inherently bad — it is a good way to protect a company’s code. The problem, however, is that users are increasingly suspicious of software since Edward Snowden’s leaks. There is no telling what kind of back doors or other malicious things are hiding in the code.

=> ↺ Severe flaws in widely used archive library put many projects at risk

• n a world where any new software project is built in large part on existing third-party code, finding and patching vulnerabilities in popular open-source libraries is vital to creating reliable and secure applications.

• For example, three severe flaws in libarchive, recently found by researchers from Cisco Systems’ Talos group, could affect a large number of software products.

• Libarchive is an open-source library first created for FreeBSD, but has since been ported to all major operating systems. It provides real-time access to files compressed with a variety of algorithms, including tar, pax, cpio, ISO9660, zip, lha/lzh, rar, cab and 7-Zip.

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ ‘I grabbed my assault rifle and ran’: An officer’s account of the critical early minutes in Orlando

• After an initial burst of fire between Omar Mateen and a security guard at the Pulse nightclub, a group of five to six police officers arrived on the scene within minutes, broke through a large glass window and entered the club as the killing of 49 people was underway inside, according to a Belle Isle police officer who was among the first responders.

Transparency/Investigative Reporting

=> ↺ Ecuador ‘fed up’ with Assange embassy ‘under siege’

• Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Guillaume Long says there is concern about the health of Julian Assange, who has now been in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for four years.

• He told Zeinab Badawi: “We are concerned about his health. He doesn’t have access to good health care. We are very worried about this. After four years, there is a clear deterioration.”

• The Wikileaks founder sought refuge in the embassy in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden to face accusations of sexual assault, which he denies.

=> ↺ Julian Assange Just Began His 5th Year Inside the Ecuadorian Embassy

• This past Sunday, June 19, Julian Assange began his fifth year inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he was granted asylum from the United States in 2012. The date was marked with simultaneous worldwide events—with 60 prominent supporters, including Noam Chomsky, Ai Wei Wei, Patti Smith, and Michael Moore, demanding Assange’s release. The theme of the day was “First They Came for Assange,” an allusion to Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem warning of the dangers of staying silent in the face of rising state repression.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ NSA rejects ‘inappropriate’ invitation to assist with design of lynx introduction programme

• Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive, says: “Our understanding is the Project Advisory Group will design the trial that will only go ahead if Lynx UK is successful in gaining a licence from Natural England and/or Scottish Natural Heritage. We feel it is inappropriate for NSA to provide guidance to Lynx UK ahead of that licence application, as we remain opposed to any pilot taking place. In addition, we are not prepared for someone from NSA to be part of the group when the terms of reference state members would not be there to represent the views of any particular organisation.”

=> ↺ The lynx effect: Plans to release wild animals in Britain abandoned

• But two more sites on either side of the border are still under consideration and one will ultimately be chosen to have lynx released to start breeding colonies.

• Alarmed farmers say it could lead to savage attacks on livestock and even children by the hungry beasts, which became extinct in Britain around 700 AD, almost 150 years before King Alfred the Great was born.

=> ↺ Bloodthirsty lynx to be released into UK for breeding for first time

• One of two sites will be chosen where the Eurasian lynx will be reintroduced.

• Alarmed farmers warn the decision could lead to savage attacks on livestock and even children by the beast.

• Now the Lynx UK Trust hopes to release the wild cat to somewhere in Aberdeenshire or Northumberland.

=> ↺ Lynx return ruled out in Cumbria and Norfolk

• Plans to reintroduce the lynx to the wild in Cumbria and Norfolk have been scrapped.

• The Lynx UK Trust said the animal, which has been extinct in Britain for 1,300 years, would help control deer populations and attract tourists.

• But it has now ruled out Ennerdale in the Lake District and Thetford Forest in Norfolk, as too small to support populations of the big cat.

Finance

=> ↺ Banks Warn Of Trading Issues Over EU Vote

• Banks and money transfer services are warning that a surge in market volatility surrounding Thursday’s EU referendum may impact electronic trading platforms.

• As holidaymakers flock to cash in on the strong pound, and buy their travel money ahead of the vote, a number of money transfer companies are suspending services.

• Azimo and rival website Transferwise, have both announced they will be suspending trading on Thursday morning.

=> ↺ Michael Gove compares experts warning against Brexit to Nazis who smeared Albert Einstein’s work as he threatens to quit David Cameron’s Cabinet

• Michael Gove has compared economic experts warning about Brexit to Nazis who smeared Albert Einstein’s scientific findings during the 1930s.

• Mr Gove, who chairs the Vote Leave campaign, also suggested that he may quit the Government if Britain votes to stay in the EU because David Cameron will not be able to meet his pledge to control migration.

=> ↺ Eddie Izzard: Comedian Gets Serious with ‘Remain’ Campaign

• English comedian Eddie Izzard is a passionate European who has been vigorously campaigning for young people to vote Remain in the Brexit referendum. Ahead of his last speech before the vote, he told Handelsblatt about his vision for a positive, unified European future.

=> ↺ A Brexit won’t stop cheap labour coming to Britain

• The Unite union is fighting all the way for a remain vote and for British workers to build their future in unity with workers in the rest of Europe. But I refuse to lecture or to patronise those working people who take a different view. After all, who can be surprised that in so many industrial areas, voting for the status quo is not a popular option?

=> ↺ Brexit: James Dyson is lone, pro-Leave voice among UK tech superstars

• British tech firms overwhelmingly support the UK remaining part of the European Union, even at the eleventh hour before Thursday’s referendum vote.

• In fact, the vacuum cleaner innovator Sir James Dyson is the only really big name among the country’s tech players to publicly come out and back Brexit—he believes that leaving the EU might help him recruit top engineering talent from outside Europe to come and work in the UK, and says “we will create more wealth and more jobs by being outside the EU.”

• Aside from him, the British tech sector appears to be very pro-European Union.

=> ↺ Why Mining Corporations Love Trade Deals

• From the salmon-spawning waters of Alaska to the cloud forests of Ecuador, communities are standing up to mining projects that threaten their health, environment, and livelihoods.

• But mining corporations are fighting back with a powerful tool buried in trade and investment agreements: the ability to go to private, unaccountable tribunals and sue governments that act to protect communities from mining.

• In these private tribunals, which sit outside of any domestic legal system, corporate lawyers – not judges – decide whether governments must pay corporations for halting destructive mining projects. To date, mining corporations have used these private tribunals to sue over 40 governments more than 100 times.

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Hillary Clinton Criticizes Donald Trump for One of the Few Things He Is Right About

• Deficit hawks often raise the specter of hyperinflation to scare people who disagree with them. And that’s exactly what Hillary Clinton did on Tuesday.

• Speaking in Columbus, Clinton criticized Donald Trump for saying last month that the U.S. can never default on its debt obligations “because you print the money.”

• “We know what happened to countries that tried that in the past, like Germany in the ‘20s and Zimbabwe in the ‘90s,” Clinton said. “It drove inflation through the roof and crippled their economies.”

• But printing money — otherwise known as increasing the money supply – is a routine occurrence for governments that control their own currency. The Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by over $3 trillion since the financial crisis, explicitly to support the economy. (The Fed does this by buying stocks and bonds with electronic cash that didn’t exist before.)

• In fact, an increasingly influential school of economics, known as Modern Monetary Theory, argues that deficit spending, including through money printing, is critical to promote full employment.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ The New Censorship

• How did Google become the internet’s censor and master manipulator, blocking access to millions of websites?

=> ↺ Cleveland Bans Soapboxes and Sleeping Bags, Not Guns, Near Republican Convention

• Anyone venturing into a 3.3-square-mile “event zone” surrounding next month’s Republican National Convention will be prohibited from carrying tennis balls, tape, rope, bike locks, sleeping bags, or any object they could stand on to rise above the crowd and speak. They won’t be allowed to carry swords or water guns. But if they have a license, they’ll be permitted to openly carry real guns, including assault weapons.

• As Cleveland gears up to host one of the most controversial GOP conventions in decades, Ohio’s permissive gun policy isn’t the only red flag raised by prospective protesters and civil rights advocates. Many also warn that the regulations put in place by the city place “unacceptable restrictions on free speech” and risk escalating conflict, rather than diffusing it, by forcing rival groups of demonstrators to share tight quarters and schedules while keeping them out of sight and earshot of delegates and the media.

• The restrictions imposed on the large event zone drawn around Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena — known locally as “The Q”— have earned the city a lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Ohio and widespread criticism across the spectrum of groups planning to show up at the convention to make their voices heard.

=> ↺ Egyptian and Lebanese film festivals censor ‘I Say Dust’ because of a same-sex kiss

• In making her short film “I Say Dust,” Darine Hotait wanted to explore Arab American identity from her perspective as a New York-based American Lebanese writer and director. It just so happened that her two lead characters would be women in their 20s who share a kiss. That kiss, however, has put “I Say Dust” at the center of a long-standing discussion about censorship after it was recently banned from two film festivals in the Middle East.

=> ↺ Sex Party forced to remove posters in ACT

• The Sex Party says it will reluctantly take down posters around Canberra deemed offensive by the ACT government.

• The party’s Senate candidate Steven Bailey says he will on Thursday remove signs reading “Screw the major parties – Vote for the Sex Party” and “Tax the Church – Vote for the Sex Party”.

• He said a city ranger on Monday gave the party 48 hours to remove the signs or face potential prosecution.

=> ↺ Election 2016: Sex Party hits out at ‘censorship’ after election signs taken down

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ NSA Designates UTEP as a National Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) in Cyber Operations

=> ↺ Author Stephen Budiansky adds perspective to NSA’s covert activities

• Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon used the CIA and NSA for personal projects

=> ↺ American Intelligence Agencies Lag Behind in Diversity

• For decades, intelligence agencies like the CIA and NSA that have been tarred with accusations of sexism and racial profiling have worked hard to clean up their images and present a friendlier, more inclusive face to the world. Unfortunately, despite these efforts, similar scandals continue to hound the intelligence community, from the CIA’s hand in helping the NYPD monitor “ancestries of interest” to a culture within the NSA that condones violations of women’s privacy.

=> ↺ DOJ Insists That Rule 41 Change Is Not Important, Nothing To See Here, Move On Annoying Privacy Activist People

• We’ve been talking a lot about Rule 41 lately around here. As we’ve discussed, the DOJ had pushed for an update to the rule, basically granting the FBI much greater powers to hack into lots of computers, including those abroad (possibly creating diplomatic issues). We’ve been discussing the problems with the DOJ’s proposed change for years, and we haven’t been alone. Civil liberties groups and tech companies have both blasted the plans, but to no avail.

• Back in March, a judicial panel approved the DOJ’s proposed changes, and the Supreme Court gave its blessing a month later. The rule changes are set to go into effect on December 1st if they’re not stopped. Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul have introduced a bill to block them, while the EFF, Tor and friends have kicked off a big No Global Warrants campaign, encouraging Congress to block this change.

=> ↺ Firm pays $950,000 penalty for using Wi-Fi signals to secretly track phone users

• A mobile advertising company that tracked the locations of hundreds of millions of consumers without consent has agreed to pay $950,000 in civil penalties and implement a privacy program to settle charges that it violated federal law.

• The US Federal Trade Commission alleged in a complaint filed Wednesday that Singapore-based InMobi undermined phone users’ ability to make informed decisions about the collection of their location information. While InMobi claimed that its software collected geographical whereabouts only when end users provided opt-in consent, the software in fact used nearby Wi-Fi signals to infer locations when permission wasn’t given, FTC officials alleged. InMobi then archived the location information and used it to push targeted advertisements to individual phone users.

=> ↺ Senate Narrowly Rejects Controversial FBI Surveillance Expansion—For Now

• A controversial amendment that would expand the FBI’s surveillance power was narrowly defeated in the Senate Wednesday.

• The final tally was 58 to 38, two votes shy of the 60 needed for the amendment to move forward. The issue will likely surface again soon, however, as Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., immediately filed for a motion to reconsider the amendment.

=> ↺ Dashcam and bodycam undermine reasonable suspicion in two cases

• These two make one wonder how many times officers have just fabricated reasonable suspicion and courts have bought it:

• The dashcam video supports the defendant’s argument that he was stopped without reasonable suspicion of driving with lights off when they should have been on. The stop for following too close is also unsupported. The highway was nearly empty. Suppressed. United States v. Dominguez-Fernand, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76368 (S.D.Ind. June 13, 2016).

=> ↺ Court Refuses To Uphold Evidence Seized During A Completely Bogus Traffic Stop

• Very rarely does anyone want to believe a defendant in a criminal prosecution. They have the most to lose, are often presumed guilty by all involved, and if they’d done nothing wrong, they wouldn’t be here defending themselves, right? None of that is how the system is supposed to work. But that’s how it often does.

• Law enforcement officers, on the other hand, are often treated as unimpeachably credible, even when their recollections of events are less than accurate. Sometimes they get called out for it. Most times they don’t. About the only way their dishonesty is called out if if there’s another set of eyes on the scene — like dashcams or body-worn cameras. (This, too, is far from a sure thing.)

• That’s what happened here. A bogus traffic stop that morphed into a drug bust began with zero traffic violations — even though the officer performing the stop claimed at least two violations had occurred. (via FourthAmendment.com)

• Victor Dominguez-Fernand was pulled over for allegedly driving with his headlights off and following too close to the vehicle ahead. Unfortunately for Deputy Nicholas Ernestes, his dashcam showed both claimed violations were bogus.

• First off, the supposed violation of “driving with headlights off” was only a presumed violation. Deputy Ernestes testified that he “believed” headlights were required because of the weather conditions (overcast and raining) but couldn’t actually assert that such a requirement exists.

=> ↺ GCHQ sets out ‘operational case’ for bulk collection

• A GCHQ document has put forward the ‘operational case’ for bulk collection.

• Authored by the UK’s signals intelligence agency, which is also the principal agent of bulk collection in the UK, the report sets out the manner in which “bulk powers provide vital intelligence that cannot be generated from any other source”.

• It goes on to draw out scenarios, some real, some hypothetical, in which bulk powers were or could be useful.

=> ↺ EFF Urges Senate Not to Expand FBI’s Controversial National Security Letter Authority

• The controversial National Security Letter (NSL) statute could be significantly expanded under two separate bills currently being debated by the Senate. Every year, the FBI issues thousands of NSLs to telephone and Internet companies, demanding records about their customers and gagging the companies from informing the public about these requests. NSLs are inherently dangerous to civil liberties because their use is rarely subject to judicial review. But NSLs are not magic, and they don’t require recipients to do whatever the FBI says. Above all, the type of information available to the FBI with an NSL is quite limited, reflecting the need to tightly control the extrajudicial nature of this controversial power.

=> ↺ Jewel v. NSA Moves Forward—Time For NSA To Answer Basic Questions About Mass Surveillance

• It’s time to lift the cloak of secrecy that has until now shielded the NSA from judicial scrutiny. EFF served the agency with information requests late last week in Jewel v. NSA, EFF’s signature case challenging government surveillance. Since we filed the case in 2008, leaks about government spying—much of which have been confirmed by intelligence agencies—have vindicated our claims that the U.S. government is and was illegally spying on millions of innocent Americans. Now, we are seeking answers to basic questions about the nuts and bolts of the government’s Internet and telephone mass surveillance programs.

• Not only does this mark the first opportunity to obtain evidence since the case was filed nearly eight years ago, but it’s also the first time any party has been allowed to gather facts about the programs’ inner workings from the NSA in a case involving the agency’s warrantless surveillance.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Customs Agents, Local Doctor Subject 18-Year-Old To Vaginal, Rectal Probing In Search Of Nonexistent Drugs

• The police obtained no drugs, but Eckert obtained a $1.6 million settlement.

• Perhaps that sort of payoff is in 18-year-old Ashley Cervantes’ future. Cervantes did nothing more than cross the border to eat breakfast in Nogales, Mexico. Upon her return, things went from bad to worse to nightmarish.

=> ↺ Guy In Australia Pleads Guilty To Criminal Trolling On Facebook, Faces 3 Years In Jail

• Let’s start off with this: there’s no legitimate way to defend Zane Alchin, a guy in Australia who appears to be an all around horrible person. He went on Facebook, and after seeing a friend of his post (and mock) a woman’s Tinder profile, proceeded to post a whole bunch of pretty horrible and misogynistic posts on Facebook, including some pretty horrifying statements about “raping feminists.” I won’t post any of his other comments, though they’re covered in some of the articles written about the case. Alchin, who now claims he was just drunk and trolling, and also insisted he wasn’t breaking any laws, has since discovered that apparently he was breaking a weird Australian law…

=> ↺ Sydney labourer Zane Alchin switches to guilty plea over Tinder shaming case

• A Sydney labourer, who unleashed a torrent of explicit abuse online after a screen shot of a woman’s Tinder profile was uploaded to Facebook, told police he was drunk and unaware that trolling was a crime, court documents show.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ As OECD Gathers, Call For New Internet Social Compact – With Some Open Questions

• The GCIG report is here. Information on the OECD Ministerial is here.

• Information Society (ISOC) background on Ministerial is available here.

• Insurance companies for example are asked in the report presented in Cancun today to “rise to the challenge of ensuring that best practices for data protection and security are appropriately rewarded.” Governments are requested “to ensure their taxation policies do not bias the market for internet services or related equipment.”

=> ↺ Study Finds That T-Mobile’s Binge On Is Exploitable, Unreliable, And Still Violates Net Neutrality

• For a while now we’ve warned how “zero rating” (letting some content bypass usage caps) is a creative way for ISPs to tap dance around net neutrality –potentially to public applause. Comcast, for example, exempts its creatively-named “Stream” streaming video service from caps, but claims this doesn’t violate net neutrality because the traffic never technically leaves Comcast’s network. Verizon exempts its own Go90 video service from caps as well, and to date doesn’t even bother justifying the move. Both AT&T and Verizon let companies pay for cap exemption.

• And while these programs all laugh in the face of neutrality, many users still tend to applaud the horrible precedent because they believe — despite paying an arm and a leg for wireless data — that they’re getting something for free.

• T-Mobile has been perhaps the most creative in exploiting this belief and implementing zero rating, now exempting some 90 video services from user usage caps and throttling these services to 1.5 Mbps (or 480p) unless a user opts out. But neutrality advocates have repeatedly noted this idea still violates net neutrality given that thousands of startups, educational orgs, and non profits still aren’t whitelisted — and may not even realize they’re being discriminated against.

=> ↺ Northeastern researchers find T-Mobile’s Binge On doesn’t live up to the hype

• Want to watch unlim­ited videos from Net­flix, YouTube, and other providers on your mobile device for free? Make us your internet ser­vice provider, says T-​​Mobile. Our Binge On ser­vice allows you to do just that.

• Not so fast, says Northeastern’s David Choffnes, assis­tant pro­fessor in the Col­lege of Com­puter and Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence. New research by Choffnes and his col­leagues shows that what T-​​Mobile promises is not what you, or con­tent providers, may actu­ally get.

Intellectual Monopolies

Trademarks

=> ↺ No Man’s Sky Settles With Sky TV So It Can Have ‘Sky’ In Its Name

• As you may or may not be aware, Sky TV is a European cable television network owned by Rupert Murdoch. Sky TV is also a company that has trademarked the word “sky” and enjoys bludgeoning anyone who uses the word “sky” in business into the ground. This has resulted in exceptionally silly disputes, such as Sky TV suing Skype, despite there being not a lick of competition between a messaging/calling system and television.

• This past week, gaming enthusiasts learned that the much anticipated open universe space exploration game No Man’s Sky had been battling with Sky TV over the inclusion of the word “sky” in its title. This case of trademark bullying can act as a wonderful barometer, because if you don’t think this is ridiculous, then you are ridiculous.

=> ↺ Cinemark Files Trademark Infringement Lawsuit Against Roblox Over User-Generated Content

• Today’s misguided IP infringement lawsuit comes from Cinemark USA, one of the largest theater chains in the United States. Its target is Roblox, a multiplayer online sandbox game where users can create their own “worlds” using blocks — putting it somewhere between Minecraft and Second Life.

• Cinemark is accusing Roblox and a few dozen of its users of trademark infringement, thanks to the latter’s creations. According to the lawsuit [PDF], various users have created versions of Cinemark theaters (complete with branding) and placed them in their own worlds, or uploaded for others to use in theirs.

Copyrights

=> ↺ MPAA Happily Gets Into Bed With Russian State Censor Agency… To Protect Copyright!

• Roskomnadzor is the Russian “telecommunications regulator” or “watchdog,” but it could just as easily be described as the Russian internet censor, because that appears to be a large part of its role in the country. In the past, we’ve written about Roskomnadzor blocking all of Wikipedia over a single reference to hashish (really) and also a plan to block all of CloudFlare because the company made it difficult for Russia’s internet censorship plans to work. Earlier this month, Roskomnadzor made news for blacklisting a Vice article, claiming that it would encourage shoplifting.

• So, who better to support such a censorship regime than… Hollywood! The MPAA has now proudly signed an agreement with Roskomnadzor to cooperate on protecting copyright online. The linked article is unfortunately horribly written. The title implies that the MPAA represents the government of the United States (while sometimes true in practice, that’s not how it’s supposed to work…) and then provides frightfully few details on what the agreement really is), beyond “protect copyright!”

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