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● 05.06.17

● Links 6/5/2017: Docker 17.05.0, FreeNAS 11.0 Release Candidate

Posted in News Roundup at 4:04 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Sex, Love & Software: History of Free Software, Linux and Open Source

• A few weeks back, when we featured Brian Lunduke’s interview with Richard Stallman, we lamented the fact that most users who come to GNU/Linux these days seem to have little knowledge of the history of free software, Linux and open source. This is not good, for without a community of supporters, free tech cannot survive.

• This is much different than it was 10 or 15 years ago, when the main reason for adopting Linux was because of its connection with the free software movement, which began in the 1980s under Richard Stallman, and spurred on by the GNU Project which he founded.

Desktop

=> ↺ Windows vs Linux: what’s the best operating system?

• Linux is frequently overlooked by the general public and doesn’t get much attention outside of hardcore enthusiasts. Some people perceive it to be overly complicated and unintuitive, while some simply aren’t really aware of its existence.

=> ↺ The Return of the Asus Eee PC 900 — with PicarOS!

• The reason why I jumped into the Linux train was a tiny Asus Eee PC 900 that I bought in 2007. This 8.9 inch netbook came with Linux pre-installed and I intended to change the OS to Windows XP, but the latter made the netbook a real snail. In addition, my wife had already grown fond of the cute Frozen Bubble game on Xandros, the netbook’s original OS, so I went back to Linux, but put Mandriva on the machine instead.

• It was an amazing little machine that helped me get my tenure at the University where I work, but that I gave away later to a person who needed it to keep studying.

• Last month, by pure serendipity, I saw another Asus Eee PC 900 sitting on the display window of a computer repair shop.

• I bought it for my daughter, expecting to change the Windows OS to Sugar since her school decided not to lend the OLPC XO computers for take out.

• Even though I had my pendrive ready with Sugar, my plan did not work because I failed to consider that the machine is very old and, hence, its architecture is 32 bit. Most Linux distros abandoned 32 bit to concentrate on 64 bit. Sugar does not support 32 bit.

Server

=> ↺ Docker 17.05.0 Adds Multi-Stage Build and Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty Zapus) Support

• Docker 17.05.0 was released today as part of the new Moby project, a collaborative effort to assemble container-based systems for the container ecosystem, a release that brings a great number of improvements and new features.

=> ↺ Heptio’s Joe Beda: Before embracing cloud computing, make sure your culture is ready

=> ↺ China hits milestone in developing quantum computer ‘to eclipse all others’

• A team of scientists from eastern China has built the first form of quantum computer that they say is faster than one of the early generation of conventional computers developed in the 1940s.

• The researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China at Hefei in Anhui province built the machine as part of efforts to develop and highlight the future use of quantum computers.

• The devices make use of the way particles interact at a subatomic level to make calculations rather than conventional computers which use electronic gates, switches and binary code.

=> ↺ Tracking NFV Performance in the Data Center

• Network function virtualization (NFV) is clearly on the rise, with an increasing number of production deployments across carriers worldwide. Operators are looking to create nimble, software-led topologies that can deliver services on-demand and reduce operational costs. From a data center performance standpoint, there’s a problem: Traditional IT virtualization approaches that have worked for cloud and enterprise data centers can’t cost-effectively support the I/O-centric and latency-sensitive workloads that carriers require.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Episode 46 – Turns out I’m not a bad guy

=> ↺ S10E09 – Elfin Moaning Wine

• This week we’ve been teaching kids to program, tinkering with GNOME and Microsoft released Windows 10 S. Intel have a security vulnerability in it’s Active Management Technology and Google have EOL’d all their Nexus devices.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Intel RealSense SR300 Camera Support Added To Linux 4.12

• The media subsystem updates were submitted earlier today for the Linux 4.12 development cycle.

• There are some media updates this time around that get us interested at Phoronix. New to Linux 4.12 is a new driver for JPEG hardware codec support with Mediatek SoCs, some CEC drivers leaving staging for formal mainline, a new Virtual Media Controller driver, improvements to HDMI CEC core, and support for the Intel SR300 camera.

=> ↺ USB Type-C Port Manager Heads Into Linux 4.12

• As expected, the Linux 4.12 kernel will finally have a USB Type-C port manager.

=> ↺ New features and fixes in Linux 4.11

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Possible Vega GPU details revealed in Linux driver

• A big update to the Digital Rendering Manger (DRM) in Linux 4.12 kernel, which adds initial Radeon Vega support, has left us with possible specifications for that same upcoming AMD flagship GPU.

Benchmarks

=> ↺ Radeon RX 550 Linux Benchmarks: $89 Polaris GPU On Open-Source

• For those curious how AMD’s sub-$100 “Polaris 12″ graphics processors perform in the context of the recently-launched Radeon RX 550, here are some benchmarks of this low-end graphics card.

Applications

=> ↺ You Can Now Install Discord App as a Snap on Ubuntu, Other GNU/Linux Distros

• Canonical’s David Callé announces that the widely-used Discord app, a free voice and text chat client for gamers on Linux, macOS, and Windows platforms, is now available for installation as a Snap from the Snappy Store.

=> ↺ Simplenote, the popular note-taking app, is now available as a Snap on Linux

• Simplenote is one of the most popular note-taking services around, and it’s just gotten easier to use on Linux.

• Launched last year, the official Simplenote Linux app is available as a Snap on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.

• The simple, straightforward note-taking service offers cloud sync and backup across devices, boasts some minor collaborative sharing features, and throws in fast search and note tagging for efficient organisation.

=> ↺ Calibre 2.84 Ebook Management App Updates Kindle Driver, Improves Conversion

• It’s been nearly three weeks since the last Calibre update hit the streets, and it’s now time to get your hands on a brand new version that adds several features and improves existing functionality.

• Calibre 2.84 was launched today by developer Kovid Goyal, who managed to update the Kindle driver to allow users to also delete the thumbnails of the books that are deleted from the system directory, and improved conversion by making use of the same regexp (regular expression) engine that’s being used by the Edit Book tool, which appears to offer better support for Unicode characters.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ GNOME Dash Fix – Automatically Organize Apps By Categories in Gnome Desktop

=> ↺ GNU nano: a minimalist console editor

=> ↺ Yarn architecture discussion

=> ↺ Be careful: Upgrading Debian Jessie to Stretch, with Pacemaker DRBD and an nested ext4 LVM hosted on VMware products

=> ↺ My Xubuntu Customization Guide

=> ↺ How to Add a New Disk Larger Than 2TB to An Existing Linux

=> ↺ How to convert xls file to csv file in Linux and vice versa

=> ↺ How to Install the Latest AMDGPU-PRO Drivers on Ubuntu

=> ↺ Introducing Minishift – Run OpenShift locally

=> ↺ Automate MySQL Database Backups with Backupninja

Games

=> ↺ Stellaris is the new early unlock for the Humble Monthly bundle

=> ↺ Albion Online to revamp the Hell Gate battles

• Albion Online [Official Site], the MMO that supports Linux has detailed some changes coming to their Hell Gates feature, a feature that combines PvP with PvE battles.

=> ↺ The Long Dark to leave Early Access on August 1st, story mode is coming

• The Long Dark [Steam, GOG] is a strikingly beautiful survival game and it will finally leave Early Access on August 1st, they have also announced that the first two story episodes will release then too.

=> ↺ White Noise 2 officially released with Linux support, along with some major updates

• Horror game White Noise 2 [Steam, Official Site] which I’m quite fond of recently released out of Early Access as a full game, they also did a few updates recently.

=> ↺ The latest HITMAN Elusive Target is now live on Linux

• As usual, Feral Interactive have kept the Linux version on-par with the Windows version, so we have access to the latest target right away. This is one of the last three special targets for the first season of HITMAN.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Google Summer of Code students are announced today

• For Cantor, Rishabh Gupta will “Port all backends of Cantor to Q/K process.” For Digikam, Yingjie Liu will make “Face Management Improvements,” Ahmed Fathy will enable “Database export to remote network devices using DLNA/UPNP,” Swati Lodha will create “Database separation for Similarity” and Shaza Ismail Kaoud will make a “Healing clone tool for dust spots removal.”

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME Recipes growing team

• With the big push towards 1.0 now over, the development in GNOME recipes has moved to a more relaxed pace. But that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening! In fact, our team is growing, we will have two interns joining us this cycle, Ekta and Paxana.

Distributions

OpenSUSE/SUSE

=> ↺ openSUSE Tumbleweed Users Get GNOME 3.24.1, KDE Plasma 5.9.5 and Linux 4.10.13

• openSUSE Project’s Douglas DeMaio reports today on the latest updates and security fixes that landed in the software repositories of the openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling operating system.

• No less than seven snapshots were released for openSUSE Tumbleweed users during the last few days, which rebased the rolling operating system on the recent Linux 4.10.13 kernel and updated various widely-used applications and components to their latest versions.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ [INTERVIEW] ‘Red Hat not just Linux provider’

• When people look up Red Hat on search engines, they would find that it is the world’s leading provider of Linux, the best-known and most-used open source operating system.

• That is a widely accepted explanation on Red Hat. But its representative in Korea said that the firm is not content with the status quo as it is becoming one of the most successful open source software providers in the world.

=> ↺ News Bits: Toshiba, NetApp, Druva, Cisco, Red Hat, Datrium, Datos IO, Unitrends, & More

=> ↺ Red Hat eyes Africa expansion

• Enterprise open source software provider Red Hat has seen large growth in SA and hopes to see this continue further and possibly to other markets on the continent.

• Red Hat is not exclusive to, but mainly focuses on, the public sector, financial services and telecommunications industries.

• Lee Miles, Red Hat CEMEA regional manager, says when he joined two years ago, there was a team of three based in SA, which has since grown to 16.

=> ↺ Image Gallery: Red Hat Summit

=> ↺ Red Hat Is The Gatekeeper For ARM In The Datacenter

• If any new hardware technology is going to get traction in the datacenter, it has to have the software behind it. And as the dominant supplier of commercial Linux, Red Hat’s support of ARM-based servers gives the upstart chip makers like Applied Micro, Cavium, and Qualcomm the leverage to help pry the glasshouse doors open and get a slice of the server and storage business that is so utterly dominated by Intel’s Xeon processors today.

=> ↺ Red Hat Picks SevOne for Service Assurance

• Service assurance provider SevOne said today that its platform was chosen to provide automated insight and analytics into Red Hat’s network functions virtualization (NFV) solution.

=> ↺ Red Hat Exec: Start Gradually, And Use The Cloud To Streamline Your Business

=> ↺ Red Hat OpenShift.io puts the entirety of app development into your browser

=> ↺ Red Hat Summit 2017: Big banks weave DevOps and security

=> ↺ Red Hat Summit 2017 Reporter’s Notebook: OpenShift by Red Hat takes center stage

=> ↺ Red Hat Summit 2017 Focuses on Future of Containers

=> ↺ Open-source team-ups navigate the vast universe of hybrid cloud

=> ↺ Freedom of choice: why Red Hat’s business model works

=> ↺ Open source is a two-way street for British Columbia and developers

=> ↺ Open source helps break tool silos to automate whole systems

=> ↺ Red Hat CEO: Planning is Dead

=> ↺ Cloud is not strategic, it’s tactical, says infrastructure expert

=> ↺ Red Hat Virtualization updates pave way for hybrid cloud, automation

=> ↺ Signs point to cloud future at Red Hat Summit 2017

=> ↺ Is the enterprise finding value in containers?

=> ↺ Red Hat nicely positioned for the turn to cloud

=> ↺ Six highlights of Red Hat Summit 2017

=> ↺ Life imitates tech: Red Hat awards women’s open-source social and education efforts

• Open source is more than technology. It’s a mentality and a set of principles that may, in fact, be applied to realms outside of technology. Open-source technology and philosophy together may be a potent combo for attacking real-world issues, as this year’s Red Hat’s Women in Open Source Award winners suggest.

=> ↺ A closer look at the AWS-Red Hat partnership for hybrid, on-prem cloud

=> ↺ Cavium to Demonstrate Leading Datacenter, HPC and Next-generation Cloud Infrastructure Solutions at Red Hat Summit 2017

Finance

=> ↺ Priming the Pump: What Are Analysts Saying About Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT)?

=> ↺ Recent Analysts Ratings of Stock: Red Hat, Inc. (RHT)

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc (RHT) EVP Delisa Alexander Sells 311 Shares of Stock

Fedora

=> ↺ Full MP3 Support Being Added To Fedora Linux

• Fedora Workstation last year enabled support for MP3 decoding on this Red Hat Linux distribution while now they are enabling MP3 encoding support too.

• With the last of the MP3 patents expiring, there is MP3 encoding support being added to Fedora to finally provide a full MP3 support experience atop this distribution.

=> ↺ Full MP3 support coming soon to Fedora

• Both MP3 encoding and decoding will soon be officially supported in Fedora. Last November the patents covering MP3 decoding expired and Fedora Workstation enabled MP3 decoding via the mpg123 library and GStreamer. This update allowed users with the gstreamer1-plugin-mpg123 package installed on their systems to listen to MP3 encoded music.

=> ↺ Bodhi 2.6.2

Debian Family

=> ↺ Guido Günther: Debian Fun in April 2017

Derivatives

=> ↺ Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0 “Jessie” to Support Raspberry Pi 3, Acer Chromebook Devices

• The final release of the Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0 “Jessie” operating system is almost here, and a second Release Candidate (RC) milestone just hit the streets today with a great number of improvements and bug fixes.

• The Devuan GNU/Linux 1.0.0 “Jessie” RC2 release is here only two weeks after the first Release Candidate to solve various issues with signing keys, as well as to add non-free and free firmware packages in both minimal-live and desktop-live ISO images, along with a script that lets users remove all non-free firmware packages.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu Insights: Discord is now available as a snap for Ubuntu and other distributions

=> ↺ Canonical’s support for Kubernetes 1.6.2 released!

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Open source NAS, offered as a device or bare PCB, runs Linux on MIPS

• The “GnuBee Personal Cloud 1” open-source NAS device, featuring dual GbE ports and up to six internal 2.5-inch SSDs and/or HDDs, has funded at Crowd Supply.

• GnuBee designed its $168 “GnuBee Personal Cloud 1” (GB-PC1) NAS device to provide all the functionality of a commercial, proprietary NAS, “but at a much lower cost and with the transparency, reliability, and accessibility advantages that come with using FLOSS.” The GB-PC1 has just funded at Crowd Supply, and is expected to begin shipping by September.

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ TrueLock app now arrived for Tizen Smartphones with a highly secure pattern

=> ↺ Tizen 4.0 development is in full swing as Samsung aims for September 2017 release

• While the wait for the mobile version of Tizen 3.0 is still on, the launch of Tizen 4.0 is right around the corner as the development of the OS is in full swing for mobile devices, smart glasses and other wearables. The first beta release of Tizen 4.0 is expected to be available by June 2017 according to Tizen.org who have currently posted a Roadmap on their website about the development phase for Tizen.NET. According to the roadmap, “the first official version of Tizen .NET will be released in September 2017 as a part of Tizen 4.0.” which gives us a more clear hint on the development timeline of Tizen 4.0.

Android

=> ↺ “Forget Windows Use Linux” (FWUL) — A Linux Distro For Android Enthusiasts

• A senior XDA-developer member has created a new Linux distribution for Android enthusiasts. Based on Arch Linux, Forget Windows Use Linux or FWUL comes with a Windows 10-like theme and lots of pre-installed Android tools. Some of the popular tools are Simple ADB, JOdin, Heimdall, etc. Detailed instructions for installing and using Forget Windows Use Linux has been provided on the XDA-developers forum.

=> ↺ Quickly View RAM, Data Usage & More in Your Android’s Quick Settings Menu

=> ↺ Android Circuit: New Galaxy S8 Issues, Microsoft’s Android Solution, Pixel 2 Versus Galaxy S8

=> ↺ The BlackBerry KeyOne: A surprising phone with a hardware keyboard

=> ↺ New Android security report is alarming, but not because of the amount of malware

=> ↺ Motorola may be working on its first Android tablet in years

• Motorola appears to be working on its first tablet in more than five years. Android Police reports that a 9-to-10-inch tablet with a “premium look and feel” is in development, and the site published a single photo of the device’s screen as evidence.

• The photo isn’t very revealing, but it does show that the tablet will have a version of the multitasking features introduced on the Yoga Book, made by Motorola parent company Lenovo. The feature, called “productivity mode,” allows apps to be run side by side, with still-running apps being displayed in the black strip at the bottom of the screen beside Android’s navigation buttons. It essentially turns that area into a dock, which is a smart way to take advantage of the extra screen space.

=> ↺ Best Android phones you can buy [May 2017]

• Looking for a new smartphone? There are dozens upon dozens of great options on the market today, but finding the best of the best can be a bit difficult. We’ve seen some great launches through the year and more should be coming soon too, so let’s take a look at the best Android smartphones you can buy as of May 2017.

=> ↺ This tiny 4G smartphone runs Android 7.0 Nougat and costs just $59

=> ↺ Google brings the Force to Android Pay

=> ↺ BlackBerry KeyOne: Loyal users will love this Android phone

=> ↺ New Android malware found every 10 seconds, report says

=> ↺ Refurbished Note 7 clears FCC certification as Korean launch draws near

=> ↺ Gmail for Android now features better phishing protection

=> ↺ More Android phones than ever are covertly listening for inaudible sounds in ads

=> ↺ Fossil’s Latest Watch Gets Even Smarter With Android Wear 2.0

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ MyRepublic sharpens competitive edge with open source

• Like any rapidly growing business, Singaporean internet service provider (ISP) MyRepublic faced bottlenecks with its legacy infrastructure that hampered its ability to enter new markets quickly.

=> ↺ Now build your digital business with Open Source

• Enterprise digital transformation, in many ways, is a race against time. Today’s ‘connected’ consumers and technologies are evolving faster than an enterprise can adapt. The old ways of delivering digital experience ought to be replaced by more agile and all-embracing newer methods.

• Increasingly, businesses are turning to Open Source to facilitate this change, as it outperforms proprietary technologies on quality, cost, customization, and security.

=> ↺ [GSoC 2017] 3D Hardware Acceleration in Haiku

• My name is Vivek (Trac: vivek-roy, IRC: vivu). I have been selected for Google Summer of Code 2017 to work with Haiku on the project 3D Hardware Acceleration in Haiku.

• The Mesa renderer in Haiku presently ventures into software rendering. Haiku uses software for rendering frame buffers and then writes them to the graphics hardware. The goal of my project is to port Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) Driver for i915, from the Linux kernel to Haiku with the help of DragonflyBSD’s Linux Compatibility layer, so that those drivers can be later extended to add OpenGL support (Mesa3D) for hardware accelerated 3D rendering.

=> ↺ Haiku’s Plans For OpenGL Hardware Acceleration On Intel

• One of the interesting 2017 Google Summer of Code projects is a student developer attempting to enable hardware OpenGL/3D acceleration support under the BeOS-inspired Haiku OS.

=> ↺ Does open source still matter?

• The message to the thousands of participants was clear: the open source development model that brings together creators and users of software to solve business and societal problems is winning.

• From Singapore’s myResponder app that activates volunteers within the vicinity of those suffering from heart attacks to the transformation of government services in Mexico, open source software has sparked some of the world’s most inspiring innovations.

• While these open source powered initiatives are laudable, will they still accomplish their goals if the underlying technologies they are using aren’t open source?

=> ↺ Open-source tech disruptive force in computing industry, says IBM

• In today’s world, going alone has few benefits. This is doubly true in the tech industry, as companies who do their own thing don’t just have to reinvent the wheel, but also maintain it forever after. Collaboration and partnerships are key to doing effective business, and a common meeting ground for such collaboration is open-source technology, according to Jim Wasko (pictured), vice president of open systems development at IBM.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ Welcome, GSoC’17 students!

• Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program focused on bringing more student developers into open source software development during their holiday break. The Document Foundation and LibreOffice participate every year, and we are happy to announce three accepted projects aimed to improve usability.

Funding

=> ↺ Seneca Open Source researcher’s $1-million grant renewed for five years

• With funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Seneca Professor Chris Tyler will build on five years as an Industrial Research Chair for Colleges (IRCC) with expanded research into open source software that can run on low-energy, high-performance computers.

BSD

=> ↺ FreeNAS 11.0 Open-Source Storage Operating System to Be Based on FreeBSD 11

• iXsystems’ Kris Moore announced the general availability of a first Release Candidate (RC) milestone of the upcoming FreeNAS 11.0 open-source storage operating system.

• It appears that this Release Candidate is also the first public development build of FreeNAS 11.0, as the team thoroughly tested the operating system for the past several months and decided that it’s stable enough to be promoted straight to the RC state. As its version number suggests, development is currently based on the FreeBSD 11-STABLE operating system.

=> ↺ FreeNAS 11.0 Release Candidate Up For Testing

=> ↺ FreeNAS 11.0-RC now Available

=> ↺ pfSense 2.3.4 Open-Source Firewall Update Brings System Stability Improvements

• A new maintenance update was released for the pfSense 2.3.x stable series of the open-source and free firewall distribution based on the latest FreeBSD technologies.

• pfSense software version 2.3.4 comes more than two months after the pfSense 2.3.3 update, and promises to bring even more system stability improvements and bug fixes, security patches, as well as a bunch of new features. First off, this release is based on FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p19.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Open source growth in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté

• Nearly half of all municipalities (960 out of 2000) in France’s former Bourgogne (Burgundy) region (now Bourgogne-Franche-Comté) are relying on open source-based services for several administrative tasks. The services are attracting many other public administrations, including schools, hospitals and government-run retirement homes.

=> ↺ Majority of towns in Wallonia now use open source

• The majority (75%) of municipalities in the Walloon region of Belgium are now using open source software and services. In the region 261 cities, towns, villages and other public administrations are using 8 open source-based solutions that are centrally managed and maintained by Intercommunale de Mutualisation Informatique et Organisationnelle (IMIO), an IT service provider set up in 2011 by the Walloon government.

=> ↺ Finland’s Oskari GIS platform aims to go global

• Oskari, the online geographic map-building tool that was originally developed by the National Land Survey of Finland, is joining the OSGeo foundation, hoping to become one of the world’s standard open source Geographic Information Solutions. “The Oskari network now includes 33 members, mostly public administrations but also 13 companies, and the software is translated into 14 languages”, said Jani Kylmäaho, head of development at the land survey.

=> ↺ Italy creates digital transformation team

• On 24 March, the government of Italy started ‘Developers Italia’ a digital government transformation team and software development community focusing on open source software development. Software solutions and software libraries are to be published on GitHub, published under the MIT licence.

Openness/Sharing/Collaboration

=> ↺ 4 ways to measure success in open source communities

Open Data

=> ↺ Editing Your Own OpenStreet Maps

• JOSM (Java OpenStreetMaps) editor is a tool you can use to create your own maps. This tool allows you to build your own maps based on data from OpenStreetMaps, other online sources or your own data. You can make edits, add annotations and upload your results back on to the OpenStreetMaps server.

Programming/Development

=> ↺ Java modular battle heats up as Oracle criticizes Red Hat, IBM

• Amid a budding controversy surrounding the module system planned for Java, Oracle’s chief Java architect, Mark Reinhold, lashed out today at Red Hat and IBM’s opposition, saying the companies are simply guarding their own interests.

• In an open letter to the Java Community Process (JCP) Executive Commitee published Friday morning, Reinhold was highly critical of the two rival vendors. The current disagreement centers on Java Specification Request 376, which focuses on the module system featured as part of Project Jigsaw. Red Hat Middleware initially agreed to the goals and requirements of the JSR, but then worked consistently to undermine them, Reinhold said.

=> ↺ Oracle rethinks modular Java plan after Red Hat’s objections

• Oracle’s chief Java architect has proposed tweaks to Java’s modular plan. The revisions were said to be not in response to recent objections by Red Hat and IBM, but they do appear to address one of the concerns.

• In a post to an openjdk mailing list on Thursday, a proposal by Oracle’s Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java platform group, centers on an “AutomaticModuleNames” feature. He also referenced the plan on his twitter feed, tweeting, “Module names should be reverse-DNS and so automatic modules can be given stable names.” An Oracle representative said the proposal was just ongoing work on issues that continue to be under discussion and was separate from Red Hat and IBM’s issues.

=> ↺ Declarative vs. Imperative paradigms

• At first glance you will notice that one of these remotes is dark, and the other is light. You might also notice that my photography skills are terrible. Neither of these facts is very important to the discussion at hand. Is there anything interesting that you can infer?

=> ↺ NASA wants YOU (to make its Fortran code run faster)

• NASA has teamed up with two technology crowdsourcing organizations in an effort to put some of its supercomputer code into afterburner mode. In an announcement on May 2, the director of NASA’s Transformative Aeronautics Concepts Program (TACP) launched the High Performance Fast Computing Challenge, an effort to accelerate NASA’s Modern Fortran-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, FUN3D.

=> ↺ RcppEigen 0.3.3.3.0

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition

=> ↺ At FDA, TVs now turned to Fox News and can’t be switched

• Attention viewers at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Televisions will now be tuned to Fox News.

• CBS News has confirmed an email was sent to researchers at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research responding to apparent efforts to change the channel on internal television screens. The email from “[White Oak] Digital Display” sent on Wednesday, May 3, was sent to inform the researchers of the “reason for the change from CNN to Fox.” White Oak is the name of the FDA’s campus.

=> ↺ There’s a federal law to lower drug prices—and Louisiana may just use it

• An obscure federal patent law that has been on the books for more than a century gives the government the power to drag down soaring drug prices, Kaiser Health News reports.

• Dr. Rebekah Gee, Louisiana’s health secretary, is trying to rally bipartisan support to use the law—US Code Section 1498 under Title 28—to bring down the staggering prices of patented hepatitis C drugs for the state. The price of these drugs alone could cripple the state’s budget. If she’s successful, the legal maneuver could bring down prices for all 50 states—and be used to help reduce the price of other drugs. But to get there, she’ll not only need state support but a sign-off from the Trump administration.

Security

=> ↺ SELinux and –no-new-privs and the setpriv command.

=> ↺ Qualcomm study says sure, you can control a drone over LTE

• Internet-connected drones will be necessary if you’re going to see fliers that can communicate when they’re delivering packages, livestreaming video or otherwise coordinating with the outside world. But how well can you control them over an LTE data connection when they’re soaring hundreds of feet above the ground? Quite well, if you ask Qualcomm. The chip maker has published the results of a trial run using LTE-linked drones, and it believes that they’re ready for prime time… mostly.

• The dry run (which included over 1,000 flights) showed that existing cellular networks are up to the job. Drones will still get a strong LTE signal at altitudes as high as 400 feet, and they get “comparable” coverage. In fact, they have an advantage over the phone in your pocket — they don’t have to hand over connections as often as ground-based devices.

=> ↺ Fake Google Docs phishing deluge hits Gmail

=> ↺ 7 Steps to Fight Ransomware

• Perpetrators are shifting to more specific targets. This means companies must strengthen their defenses, and these strategies can help.

• Ransomware can be a highly lucrative system for extracting money from a customer. Victims are faced with an unpleasant choice: either pay the ransom or lose access to the encrypted files forever. Until now, ransomware has appeared to be opportunistic and driven through random phishing campaigns. These campaigns often, but not always, rely on large numbers of emails that are harvested without a singular focus on a company or individual.

=> ↺ Open Source Security Audit ‘Should Be a Wake-Up Call’

=> ↺ Microsoft-connected Black Duck

=> ↺ Security updates for Friday

=> ↺ Security updates for Thursday

=> ↺ Snake cyberespionage malware is ready to bite Mac users

Defence/Aggression

=> ↺ The CIA has a long history of helping to kill leaders around the world

• Some of the most notorious of the CIA’s operations to kill world leaders were those targeting the late Cuban president, Fidel Castro. Attempts ranged from snipers to imaginative plots worthy of spy movie fantasies, such as the famous exploding cigars and a poison-lined scuba-diving suit.

• But although the CIA attempts proved fruitless in the case of Castro, the US intelligence agency has since 1945 succeeded in deposing or killing a string of leaders elsewhere around the world – either directly or, more often, using sympathetic local military, locally hired criminals or pliant dissidents.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife/Nature

=> ↺ Green Activists Beaten While Investigating Pollution in Shandong

• Two environmental volunteers were attacked on Wednesday while attempting to investigate a possible case of industrial pollution in eastern China.

• Xiao Jiang and Zhang Wenbin, volunteers at the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, a national environmental protection nonprofit, were followed, surrounded, and beaten by more than a dozen men. The volunteers had received a tip from a villager that a factory in Sishui County, near Jining City in Shandong province, was responsible for two large pits of waste water that had contaminated the environment.

• Xiao told Sixth Tone that when they were driving in the area, they suspected they were being followed. When they tried to turn their car around, several men on electric bikes blocked the road and attacked them when they got out of their vehicle.

Finance

=> ↺ The six Brexit traps that will defeat Theresa May

• “It’s yours against mine.” That’s how Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, put it to me during our first encounter in early 2015 – referring to our respective democratic mandates.

• A little more than two years later, Theresa May is trying to arm herself with a clear democratic mandate ostensibly to bolster her negotiating position with European powerbrokers – including Schäuble – and to deliver the optimal Brexit deal.

• Already, the Brussels-based commentariat are drawing parallels: “Brits fallen for Greek fallacy that domestic vote gives you stronger position in Brussels. Other countries have voters too,” tweeted Duncan Robinson, Brussels correspondent of the Financial Times. “Yep,” tweeted back Miguel Roig, the Brussels correspondent of Spanish financial daily Expansión. “Varoufakis’ big miscalculation was to think that he was the only one in the Eurogroup with a democratic mandate.”

=> ↺ Theresa May’s Brexit Britain can no longer be considered a serious country

• For many years now the logo “Keep calm and carry on” has been a huge hit across Europe. You can find it on posters, T-shirts and mugs – both the original text as distributed in 1939, to steel the British people for the war to come, as well as many “funny” variations. The slogan’s popularity is easy to understand as it unites the most important positive stereotypes about Britain in Europe: a pragmatic and liberal island people who were on the right side in the second world war.

=> ↺ Germany proposed charging Britain for EU single market access: magazine

• German government officials have proposed giving Britain access to the European Union’s single market in return for a fee, Focus magazine said on Saturday citing a Finance Ministry report.

• The 35-page report on the potential costs of Brexit to Germany said Britain’s departure from the EU risked “serious economic and stability relevant consequences; effects in particular on the real economy.”

AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

=> ↺ Macron campaign emails appear to be leaked online

• A large trove of emails purporting to be from the campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron was posted online late on Friday, 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose the country’s next president in a run-off with Marine Le Pen.

=> ↺ French election: Macron takes action over offshore claims

• The frontrunner in the race for the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron, has filed a lawsuit over online rumours that he has a secret bank account in the Caribbean.

• Prosecutors in Paris have opened an investigation following his complaint.

• The news came after the centrist, pro-EU candidate was regarded as having come out on top in the final TV debate ahead of Sunday’s run-off vote.

• His far-right adversary, Marine Le Pen, referred to the claims in the debate.

• He replied: “That is defamation.”

=> ↺ Macron campaign says it was the victim of ‘massive hacking’

• The political party of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said its computer systems were hacked, after thousands of emails and electronic documents purporting to come from the campaign were posted anonymously on the internet Friday evening.

• The files had been obtained several weeks ago from the personal and work email accounts of party officials, according to a statement from Macron’s party, En Marche!, or On the Move. The file dump comes less than two days before the final round of France’s presidential race, which pits Macron against far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen.

=> ↺ Macron condemns ‘massive’ hacking attack as documents leaked

• The campaign of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron says it has been the target of a “massive hacking attack” after a trove of documents was released online.

• The campaign said that genuine files were mixed up with fake ones in order to confuse people.

• It said that it was clear the hackers wanted to undermine Mr Macron ahead of Sunday’s second round vote.

• The centrist will face off against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

=> ↺ French Presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign says it has been the victim of a massive hacking operation

• French Presidential favourite Emmanuel Macron’s political movement claimed it has been the victim of “massive and co-ordinated hack”.

• A large trove of emails from the campaign were posted online. They were among around nine gigabytes of data posted by a user called EMLEAKS to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting.

• Researchers from a Japanese anti-virus firm claim the centrist politician has been targeted by Russian hackers.

=> ↺ Hours Before French Election, Macron Claims to Be Victim of Hack

• A significant leak containing tens of thousands of emails, pictures and file attachments from French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has been publicized for the world to see, roughly 36 hours before the people of France select their next president.

=> ↺ Macron team blasts ‘massive hacking attack’ on eve of vote

• The campaign team of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron on Friday confirmed it had suffered a “massive and coordinated hacking attack” after internal documents were released online, slamming an attempt at “democratic destabilisation”.

• “The files circulating were obtained several weeks ago due to the hacking of the personal and professional mailboxes of several party officials,” Macron’s En Marche! (On The Move) party said in a statement, just as campaigning officially ended ahead of Sunday’s election.

=> ↺ As bitter French campaign ends, Macron’s team hit by hack

• Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said Friday she believes she can pull off a surprise victory in France’s high-stakes runoff Sunday, while independent front-runner Emmanuel Macron suffered a document leak that his team called a bid to throw the vote.

• In an interview with The Associated Press in the final hours of a hostile, topsy-turvy campaign, Le Pen said that win or lose, “we changed everything.” She claimed an “ideological victory” for her populist, anti-immigrant worldview in an election that could change Europe’s direction.

=> ↺ Macron’s French presidential campaign emails leaked online

=> ↺ Macron campaign blasts ‘massive hacking attack’ ahead of French presidential election

• Former economy minister Macron’s team has already complained about attempts to hack it systems during a fraught campaign, blaming Russian interests in part for the cyber attacks.

• On April 26, the team said it had been the target of a series of attempts to steal email credentials since January, but that the perpetrators had so far failed to compromise any campaign data.

=> ↺ French presidential frontrunner Macron’s emails leaked after alleged hack

• Private emails from the campaign of the leading candidate in France’s presidential election, Emmanuel Macron, have been posted online by an unknown source. The politician confirmed the leak in a statement, warning that this was, like other recent hacks, an attempt to interfere with the election and that fabricated content was mixed in with genuine emails.

=> ↺ Macron team blast ‘massive cyber attack’ ahead of French presidential election

• It accused those behind the attack of trying to destabilise Sunday’s presidential run-off, comparing it to emails leaked from Hillary Clinton’s US presidential campaign.

• “Their publication makes internal documents public but has no reason to worry us as far as the legality and conformity of the documents is concerned,” Mr Macron’s campaign said in a statement.

=> ↺ Emmanuel Macron’s campaign confirms ‘massive’ email hack days before French presidential election

• The French did invent the phrase déjà vu.

• Large troves of emails from French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron appeared to have leaked online Friday, two days before the country heads to one of its most important elections in decades.

• A user named EMLEAKS posted nine gigabytes of data to a document-sharing site, though it is unclear who is behind the breach that accessed the emails.

• The centrist Macron’s party En Marche! (Onwards!) confirmed what is said was a large-scale attack.

=> ↺ Macron’s team says it suffered ‘massive’ cyber attack

• French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team says it has been the target of a “massive and coordinated” hacking attack.

• His campaign said in a statement late Friday night that some campaign emails and financial documents were hacked a few weeks ago and are now being circulated on social media, but that they have been mixed with false documents.

=> ↺ Macron’s French presidential campaign emails leaked online

• French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign said on Friday it had been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign mails online 1-1/2 days before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

=> ↺ Macron’s French Presidential Campaign Emails Leaked Online

=> ↺ Hackers emit 9GB of stolen Macron ‘emails’ two days before French presidential election

• It is not clear how much of the data dump is legit and authentic, although Team Macron reckons hackers have indeed swiped at least some of its documents and spread them on the web.

• “The En Marche! Movement has been the victim of a massive and coordinated hack this evening which has given rise to the diffusion on social media of various internal information,” the statement said.

=> ↺ The Latest: France’s election commission studies hack attack

• The commission said it would hold a meeting early Saturday to discuss the attack.

• It urged French media not to publish the documents, warning that some of them are “probably” fake.

=> ↺ France election: Macron team suffers ‘massive hacking attack’

=> ↺ French Presidential election: Emmanuel Macron’s campaign emails hacked

• French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign has complained of being the victim of a “massive and coordinated hacking attack”, a statement said.

• The socio-liberal candidate’s team issued the statement late on Friday saying the hacking has lead to the diffusion of “various internal information” on the social media, Xinhua news agency reported.

=> ↺ #MacronLeaks: Macron’s campaign hit by hacking attack

• French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign says it has been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its emails online, just over 24 hours before voters go to the polls to choose between the centrist and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

• Macron’s political movement En Marche! (Onwards!) said the release of thousands of emails, accounting documents and other files was an attempt at “democratic destabilisation, like that seen during the last presidential campaign in the United States”.

=> ↺ French election probe as Macron team claims it has been the target of hackers

• France’s election campaign commission is investigating a hacking attack on presidential favourite Emmanuel Macron’s political movement and the leaking of documents online.

• The commission said it would hold a meeting early on Saturday to discuss the attack that Mr Macron’s team said was a bid to destabilise Sunday’s vote.

=> ↺ As France becomes latest target, are election hacks the new normal?

• The mass document dump looks likely to become an inevitable part of modern elections.

• After the hacking of the Democratic party in the 2016 US election and the dumping of embarrassing emails through WikiLeaks, French and German governments have been braced for similar attacks during their own elections.

=> ↺ Email dump hits French candidate Macron ahead of election

• Another political campaign has been hit by an email dump. This time, the target is French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

• On Friday, his campaign said a massive and coordinated hack had breached the email inboxes of several staffers. This came after a mysterious user named “EMLEAKS” apparently dumped the stolen data through torrent files on text storage site Pastebin.

• It’s unclear if the information in the dump is genuine. Allegedly, the dump contains a 9GB trove of emails and photos. The torrent files, which were hosted on Archive.org, are no longer available there.

=> ↺ French election commission probes Macron campaign hacking

• France’s election campaign commission is investigating a hacking attack on presidential favourite Emmanuel Macron’s political movement and the leaking of documents online.

• The commission said it would hold a meeting early on Saturday to discuss the attack that Mr Macron’s team said was a bid to destabilise Sunday’s vote.

=> ↺ France’s Macron has campaign emails leaked online one day before election

• French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team said late on Friday that it had been the victim of a “massive and coordinated” hacking attack.

• The campaign team said in a statement that internal communications and financial documents had been hacked a few weeks ago and were now being circulated across social media at the 11th hour of one of the most dramatic presidential elections in French history. Whoever was behind the leak had sought to “seed doubt and misinformation” a day before Sunday’s final run-off vote for the French presidency.

=> ↺ French campaign watchdog examines election-eve Macron leak

• The perpetrators remain unknown. While the hack is shaking up the already head spinning campaign, it’s unclear whether the document dump would dent Macron’s large poll lead over far-right Marine Le Pen going into the vote.

=> ↺ French election probe as Macron team claims it has been the target of hackers

• The commission urged French media not to publish the documents, warning that some of them were “probably” fake.

• Under French electoral law there is a blackout on Saturday and most of Sunday on any campaigning and media coverage seen as swaying the election, to allow voters a period of reflection before casting their ballots.

=> ↺ French campaign watchdog examines election-eve Macron leak

=> ↺ French election commission probes Macron campaign hacking

• Under French electoral law there is a blackout on Saturday and most of Sunday on any campaigning and media coverage seen as swaying the election, to allow voters a period of reflection before casting their ballots.

=> ↺ French presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron target of ‘massive and coordinated’ hack

• The commission overseeing the French campaign said in a statement that it is holding a meeting early Saturday after being informed of the hack and leak.

=> ↺ Emmanuel Macron emails posted online in ‘massive’ hacking operation

• On the eve of the most consequential French presidential election in decades, the staff of the centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron said late Friday that the campaign had been targeted by a “massive and coordinated” hacking operation, one with the potential to destabilize the nation’s democracy before voters go to the polls on Sunday.

=> ↺ Probe into origin of online claim that French presidential candidate Macron set up secret entity on Nevis

• French prosecutors opened a probe Thursday into a suspected attempt to tar French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron after anonymous files ricocheted across the internet suggesting he had created a shell company on the Caribbean island of Nevis, where officials said they have no record of any such entity.

=> ↺ French election watchdog launches investigation into ‘massive hacking attack’ on Emmanuel Macron

• The French election commission is investigating a hacking attack on presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron, just a day before the country goes to the polls.

• The watchdog, which is due to hold a meeting about the hack later on Saturday, warned the media that republishing details of the hacked documents could be a criminal offence.

• Mr Macron’s campaign said on Friday night it had been the target of a “massive” computer hack that dumped its campaign emails online as French voters prepare to choose between the centrist politician and his far-right rival, Marine Le Pen, in the final round of the country’s presidential elections on Sunday.

=> ↺ French election: Media warned not to publish hacked Macron emails

• The media has been warned not to publish the contents of hacked emails from Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign.

• France’s electoral commission has said any organisations that circulate information from the leaked messages may be committing a criminal offence.

=> ↺ French election: Media warned not to publish hacked Macron emails

• The media has been warned not to publish the contents of hacked emails from Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign.

• France’s electoral commission has said any organisations that circulate information from the leaked messages may be committing a criminal offence.

=> ↺ Hackers hit Macron campaign with ‘massive’ attack

• The campaign team of French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron says it has been the victim of a “massive and co-ordinated” hacking operation ahead of Sunday’s election.

• Around nine gigabytes of data were posted online to Pastebin, a document-sharing site that allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible for releasing the files.

=> ↺ It’s now time to say: Congratulations President Macron

• There is perhaps some remote mathematical chance that France’s new elected monarch will be struck down by a meteor before he is officially inaugurated in a grand parade on the Champs Elysée on May 14th, amidst a 21-gun salute, helicopters flying overhead, the Garde Républicaine in full-dress uniform on shining horses, generals posed upright in their ceremonial 4x4s, bands playing, bunting flapping.

• Barring that, Mr President, you appear to have played a blinder, winning the keys to the Elysée in what appears to have been a stunning political insurgency, and you have done so promising to reform an immobilised French economy.

=> ↺ Polls suggest Macron set to defeat Le Pen in 2nd round of French presidential election

• Emmanuel Macron is poised to beat Marine Le Pen when French voters head to the polls in the second round of their country’s presidential election on Sunday.

• Macron, a centrist, has a wide lead in public opinion polls over the the far-right Le Pen. Macron is a 39-year-old former banker with only a few years of government experience who’s mounting his first campaign as a politician.

• His prospective victory, however, appears to pertain more to a desire by French voters to deny Le Pen the presidency rather than any strong enthusiasm for Macron.

=> ↺ French campaign watchdog examines election-eve Macron leak

• Polls consider Mr Macron the favourite going into Sunday’s runoff against far-right leader Marine Le Pen, and it’s unclear whether the document leak would sway the vote at this late stage.

=> ↺ French media rules prohibit election coverage over weekend

• At midnight on Saturday, France entered an electoral “discretionary period” that prohibits French media from quoting the presidential candidates or their supporters until polls close at 8pm Sunday.

• This period of legal prohibition on campaign communications is observed for 44 hours before every French presidential and legislative election.

• “Starting from the night before polls open, it is illegal to publish or broadcast by all means of communication any message that may be categorised as electoral propaganda,” France’s Superior Audiovisual Council, or CSA, said in a statement.

=> ↺ French media warned not to publish Friday’s hacked emails of centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron

• France’s election commission on Sunday released a statement saying that any news organization that publishes information leaked from the hacking attack targeting presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron‘s campaign could be subject to a criminal offense, France 24 reported.

=> ↺ French watchdog: Macron data mixed in with fake news in leak

• France’s election campaign commission said Saturday “a significant amount of data” has been leaked on social networks following a hacking attack on centrist Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign.

• The attack came 36 hours before the nation votes Sunday in a crucial presidential runoff between Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Voting already began Saturday in France’s overseas territories and embassies abroad.

=> ↺ France fights to keep Macron email hack from distorting election

• France sought to keep a computer hack of frontrunner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign emails from influencing the outcome of the country’s presidential election with a warning on Saturday it could be a criminal offence to republish the data.

=> ↺ French election: Macron hack details ‘must not be spread’

• The French media and public have been warned not to spread details about a hacking attack on presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

• Strict election rules are now in place and breaching them could bring criminal charges, the election commission said.

• A trove of documents – said to mix genuine files with fake ones – was released online shortly before campaigning ended on Friday.

• The centrist Mr Macron faces far-right candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday.

=> ↺ French election: Hollande vows ‘response’ to Macron hack attack

• French President François Hollande has promised to “respond” after a hacking attack targeted presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

• He gave no further details but said he knew of the risks of such attacks because they had “happened elsewhere”.

• The French media and public have been warned that spreading details of the attack would breach strict election rules and could bring criminal charges.

• The centrist Mr Macron faces far-right candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday.

• A trove of documents – said to mix genuine files with fake ones – was released online shortly before campaigning ended on Friday.

• Mr Hollande told Agence France-Presse on a visit to a cultural centre: “We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response.”

=> ↺ Emmanuel Macron email leaks ‘linked to Russian-backed hackers who attacked Democratic National Committee’

• Vitali Kremez, director of research with US-based cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, said his analysis indicated that APT 28, a group tied to Russia’s GRU military intelligence directorate, was behind the leak.

=> ↺ The troubling history at the heart of the French election

• For Le Pen – the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a convicted Holocaust denier who repeatedly has dismissed the Nazi gas chambers as a “detail of history” – the past is nothing to be ashamed of. Last month, she remarked on national television that France bore no responsibility for an infamous Paris roundup during the Holocaust, when French authorities arrested some 13,000 Jews, soon deported to their deaths.

=> ↺ Prince Trubetskoy Plans to Vote for Le Pen, Says Macron ‘Came Out of Blue’

• Prince Trubetskoy said that he would vote for right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen in the second round of French presidential election.

=> ↺ In France, strict election laws mean there’s near silence on massive campaign hack

• In France Saturday, there is near silence about 9 gigabytes of leaked documents from the campaign of presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.

• The collection of emails, spending spreadsheets, and more, appeared on the internet Friday night. Yet Saturday morning, there is absolutely nothing on French TV or radio, and very little on the websites of major newspapers.

• This is due to a French law that says the day before an election should be a day of reflection. Starting at midnight Saturday and continuing until the polls close Sunday, campaigning is prohibited along with any kind of speech meant to influence the race. Hence the silence.

=> ↺ French election: ‘It’s time for a big political shake-up’

• And what of Marine’s contender, the youthful newcomer Macron? ‘I think he has the ability to be a statesman. He brings something new to this country’. He adds that, with the end of the ‘monopoly’ on French politics of the two mainstream parties, it works in Macron’s favour that he is not a member of a party. However, he says the real challenge for Macron will be gaining a majority in the parliamentary elections in June. He makes an excellent point. Whoever wins on Sunday, the presidential election is only the first hurdle.


=> ↺ French elections 2017: Polls and odds tracker

• According to recent polling by Elabe, he would take 65 per cent of the vote in a second-round run-off against Le Pen.

=> ↺ Emmanuel Macron Email Hack: France Takes Hard Line On Attack

• France took a hard line Saturday over a huge trove of documents hacked from presidential frontrunner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign, warning on the eve of the election that anyone spreading them could face criminal charges.

=> ↺ Hashtag Campaign: #MacronLeaks

• With less than two days to go before the final round of the French Elections, an emerging hashtag campaign, #MacronLeaks, was amplified throughout multiple social media platforms. #MacronLeaks reached 47,000 tweets in just three and a half hours after the initial tweet. This hashtag guided users to an alleged, possibly 9 GB, leak of Emmanuel Macron’s “campaign emails,” reportedly showing evidence of offshore accounts, tax evasion, and a slew of other nefarious activities.

=> ↺ U.S. Far-Right Activists Promote Hacking Attack Against Macron

• After months of trying to move the political needle in favor of Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election, American far-right activists on Saturday threw their weight behind a hacking attack against her rival, Emmanuel Macron, hoping to cast doubt on an election that is pivotal to France and the wider world.

• The efforts were the culmination of a monthslong campaign against Mr. Macron after his candidacy began to gain steam this year, with digital activists in the United States and elsewhere regularly sharing tactics, tips and tricks across the English- and French-speaking parts of the internet.

• It is unclear whether the leaked documents, which some experts say may be connected to hackers linked to Russia, will affect the outcome of the election on Sunday between Ms. Le Pen, the far-right candidate from the National Front, and Mr. Macron, an independent centrist. But the role of American far-right groups in promoting the breach online highlights their growing resolve to spread extremist messages beyond the United States.

=> ↺ French media warned not to publish Emmanuel Macron leaks

• Le Monde said it had seen part of the documents. It said the hacking attack was “clearly aimed at disturbing the current electoral process”. The paper said it would not publish the content of any pirated document before the second round vote was over and the results known at 8pm on Sunday.

• About 9GB of data was posted by a user called EMLEAKS to the document-sharing site Pastebin, which allows anonymous posting. It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

• The documents were posted as #MacronLeaks on social networks in the .eml format and linked to Pastebin. Le Monde reported that the first documents were relayed via the 4chan forum, which it said was favoured by far-right American groups and on English-language, pro-Trump Twitter accounts. They were then relayed to WikiLeaks.

=> ↺ MacronLeaks is final twist in surreal French election campaign

• Macron had already become, by far, the most targeted candidate by hackers during the campaign. In February, his movement’s computer systems were attacked by hackers based in Ukraine and needed to be shut down for several hours.

=> ↺ ‘Macronleaks’: Hackers find flaw in French cyber-fortress

• On April 25, a report by Japanese cyber-security company Trend Micro, blamed a so-called “phishing” attack targetting the Macron campaign on Russian hacking group Pawn Storm, also known as Fancy Bears, Tsar Team and APT28.

=> ↺ French Candidate Emmanuel Macron Says Campaign Has Been Hacked, Hours Before Election

• Wikileaks posted 9 gigabytes of Macron’s campaign data, which is said to include both real and fake documents. Fingers are being pointed at Russia, though the Kremlin denies involvement.

=> ↺ France warns republishing Macron’s hacked data before election could be a criminal offense

• France sought to keep a computer hack of frontrunner Emmanuel Macron’s campaign emails from influencing the outcome of the country’s presidential election with a warning on Saturday it could be a criminal offense to republish the data.

• Macron’s team said a “massive” hack had dumped emails, documents and campaign financing information online just before campaigning ended on Friday and France entered a quiet period that forbids politicians from commenting on the leak.

=> ↺ French election overshadowed by leak of hacked or fake documents from Emmanuel Macron’s campaign

• French voters will choose their next president on Sunday after a final campaign that has been scrappy, ill-tempered and overshadowed in the home run by a hacking attack.

• Just before a Friday midnight deadline that requires candidates to stop campaigning, front-runner Emmanuel Macron was hit with the leak of thousands of campaign documents — some allegedly fake — in what his team called a “massive and coordinated” attempt to upset the election.

=> ↺ There Are No “Macron Leaks” in France. Politically Motivated Hacking Is Not Whistleblowing.

• The point of the dump, then, appears to be less about providing real evidence to back up the rumors and innuendo Marine Le Pen’s supporters have been spreading about Macron for months, and more a way to reinforce the fact-free speculation the candidate herself engaged in during a televised debate this week — that her rival, a former investment banker, might be hiding something that would discredit him, like an offshore account.

=> ↺ The Latest: French cybersecurity agency to probe Macron hack

=> ↺ Fight to stop Macron hack distorting poll

• Mr Macron’s team had suggested that Russia may have had an inte rest in orchestrating the cyberattacks, but the Kremlin has denied any involvement.

=> ↺ French elections: France’s Hollande promises ‘response’ to Macron election hack

• French President Francois Hollande on Saturday promised a response to the hacking of centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron’s campaign following the publication online of thousands of stolen emails and documents.

• “We knew that there were these risks during the presidential campaign because it happened elsewhere. Nothing will go without a response,” he told AFP during a visit of a cultural institute in Paris.

=> ↺ Twitter bots are being weaponized to spread information on the French presidential campaign hack

=> ↺ Macron is en route to the Elysée, but may find it hard to govern

• One of the most extraordinary French presidential election campaigns in recent history took a sinister final twist with claims that frontrunner Emmanuel Macron was the target of a “massive and coordinated hacking attack” just hours before polls open on Sunday.

Censorship/Free Speech

=> ↺ Netizen Report: Vietnam Says Facebook Will Cooperate With Censorship Requests on Offensive and ‘Fake’ Content

• Global Voices Advocacy’s Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world.

• Vietnamese government officials said on April 26 that Facebook has committed to help local law enforcement prevent and remove from Facebook content that violates the country’s laws against “offensive” and anti-government messages.

=> ↺ ‘Fake News’ Becomes Rallying Cry for Censorship in Southeast Asia

• Call it whiplash. After a year of counterintuitive elections shaped by rampant misinformation, governments have seized on the specter of “fake news” to squelch press freedoms in Southeast Asia, a region already infamous for ubiquitous censorship.

• In Phnom Penh, a Cambodian minister cited U.S. President Donald Trump’s precedent to suggest that “foreign [news] agents” promote national interest or get out. A spokesperson of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte denounced the New York Times as “fake news.” A recent story in The Intercept about the Indonesian military was immediately deemed a “hoax.”

=> ↺ Outrage over ZBC Parly ‘censorship’

• Opposition political parties have blasted the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings’ ZBCTV for censoring live parliamentary debates whenever MPs question matters that put Zanu PF and the government in bad light.

=> ↺ Wikipedia Is Turkey’s First Major Censorship Target, Post-Referendum. What Will Be Next?

• Just two weeks after a referendum in which voters narrowly approved far-reaching constitutional amendments that will increase the power of the presidency, a Turkish court ruled that the volunteer-driven international online encyclopedia Wikipedia should be blocked in Turkey.

• Amid growing tension between the pro and anti-government camps, the decision provided citizens with yet another snapshot of their future under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP party as they adjust to growing political upheaval and the extension of emergency rule in the country by a further three months.

=> ↺ Censorship of addiction research is an abuse of science

• Kypros Kypri was pleased to receive funding from a government agency in the Australian state of New South Wales to study problem drinking. But when the contract arrived in 2012, he was surprised to find a demand that the agency could review and sign off on any reports before they were published. Other language allowed the agency to terminate funding without notice or explanation.

=> ↺ Press censorship: Blank space replaces New York Times article criticising Pakistani army

=> ↺ Blank space replaces New York Times article criticising Pakistani army

=> ↺ Turkish court backs censorship of Wikipedia

=> ↺ Turkey court rejects Wikipedia appeal over blockage

=> ↺ Turkish court rejects Wikipedia’s appeal over website’s blocking

=> ↺ Turkish court rejects appeal to reverse ban on Wikipedia

=> ↺ Turkey Upholds Wikipedia Ban

=> ↺ Court: Wikipedia ‘unfairly attacked’ Turkey

=> ↺ This Tech Company’s Anti-Censorship Stance Is Helping Hate Speech

=> ↺ Attacks First Amendment, Cloudflare Edition

=> ↺ Inside Cloudflare, The SF Web Company That Reportedly Helps Hate Sites Thrive

=> ↺ Cloudflare is protecting hate sites

=> ↺ Here’s How Web Service Cloudflare Helps Serve up Hate on the Internet That Fuels Real-Life Killings

=> ↺ ‘Right to be forgotten’ may potentially apply to all top-level domains, says Swedish Data Protection Authority

=> ↺ The Premier League Kindly Requests Google De-List All Of Facebook Over Copyright Infringement Claims

Privacy/Surveillance

=> ↺ Ahead Of His Senate Hearing, James Comey Pushes His ‘Going Dark’ Theory

• Ahead of his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director James Comey released his planned testimony, which covers a variety of subjects Comey hoped to cover during the hearing. A lot of the talking points were touched on, but Comey spent most of his time fielding questions from pissed-off senators about how much they were disappointed in recent FBI investigations.

=> ↺ Hey Mr. President, tear down the veil of secrecy surrounding unmasked NSA intercepts

=> ↺ NSA mass gathering phone logs; getting called out by Congress

=> ↺ NSA’s New Transparency Report Contains Just Enough Info To Be Dangerous, Not Nearly Enough To Be Truly Transparent

=> ↺ UK Government Planning to Ban Encryption, Spy on All Communications in Real Time

• A leaked document reveals the UK government has drawn up yet further, disturbingly dystopian draft bulk surveillance powers, which would give authorities carte blanche to monitor citizens’ live communications, and effectively illegalize encryption. A cybersecurity expert told Sputnik this has terrifying implications not merely for internet privacy.

=> ↺ James Comey Says Real Journalists Check With The Government Before Publication

• In his testimony yesterday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Director James Comey became the latest government official to speak out against Wikileaks. In doing so — even though he very carefully worded his answers to Sen. Ben Sasse’s softballs — Comey also made a very dangerous insinuation about what separates “real” journalists from Wikileaks.

=> ↺ UK government is secretly planning to break encryption and spy on people’s phones, reveals leaked document

• The UK government is secretly planning to force technology companies to build backdoors into their products, to enable intelligence agencies to read people’s private messages.

• A draft document leaked by the Open Rights Group details extreme new surveillance proposals, which would enable government agencies to spy on one in 10,000 citizens – around 6,500 people – at any one time.

• The document, which follows the controversial Investigatory Powers Act, reveals government plans to force mobile operators and internet service providers to provide real-time communications of customers to the government “in an intelligible form”, and within one working day.

=> ↺ Leaked documents reveal how the government will demand your data under the Snooper’s Charter

• Swiftly after the UK’s surveillance laws came into force at the end of last year, a legal challenge was launched by privacy campaigners to challenge bulk data collection allowed under the law.

• The government’s expansion of the Investigatory Powers Act is now continuing with a series of proposals for communications firms that would allow for almost real-time surveillance and the removal of encryption.

=> ↺ ORG delivers anti-Espionage Act petition to the Law Commission

• ORG’s petition broadly rejects The Law Commission’s proposals and demands they be dropped. The threat of up to 14 years in prison would have a chilling effect on whistleblowers and the reporters they contact, weakening free speech and the integrity of UK democracy.

=> ↺ Lawyers: How can we scrutinize surveillance records that remain sealed?

• A federal judge appeared generally skeptical to two legal scholars’ efforts to get the court to unseal years’ worth of sealed surveillance records held in a Northern California court.

• However, US Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore left open the possibility for the petitioners to narrow their request and work with representatives from the Department of Justice to come up with a workable solution.

Civil Rights/Policing

=> ↺ Texas police officer charged with murder in shooting of black 15-year-old boy who was leaving party

• A Texas police officer has been charged with murder after the shooting of a black 15-year-old boy, a lawyer for the teenager’s family said.

• Jordan Edwards had left a party and was in a car moving away from the officer when he opened fire.

• A warrant has been issued authorising the arrest of former Balch Springs police officer Roy Oliver to face a charge of murder, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement posted on Twitter by a reporter for local television station WFAA.

=> ↺ Newly-Immigrated Muslim Women Honor Killed in Sweden

• A growing phenomenon of honor killings in Sweden is being reported among newly-arrived Muslim women. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet published one such report, detailing the murder of a young mother named Bina who immigrated to Sweden from Iran.

• Seven months after Bina (not her real name) arrived in Mariannelund, she was killed by her husband after she decided to separate from him and remove her hijab.

• Bina was one of six women killed in 2016 shortly after arriving in Sweden.

=> ↺ Cop fakes body cam footage, prosecutors drop drug charges

• Prosecutors in Pueblo, Colorado are dropping felony drug and weapon-possession charges after an officer involved in the case said he staged body cam footage so he could walk “the courts through” the vehicle search that led to the arrest.

• The development means that defendant Joseph Cajar, 36, won’t be prosecuted on allegations of heroin possession and of unlawful possession of a handgun. The evidence of the contraband was allegedly found during a search of Cajar’s vehicle, which was towed after he couldn’t provide an officer registration or insurance during a traffic stop. Officer Seth Jensen said he found about seven grams of heroin and a .357 Magnum in the vehicle at the tow yard. But the actual footage of the search that he produced in court was a reenactment of the search, the officer told prosecutors.

=> ↺ UK’s New ‘Digital Economy’ Law Somehow Now Gives Police The Power To Remotely Kill Phone Service

• The UK’s long-gestating Digital Economy Act has finally gone into force. The law is mainly interested in porn and pirates — two issues most of the UK public is far less interested in having subjected to intrusive regulation.

=> ↺ ‘Backdoor’ Search Of FBI Records Helps Parents Learn How Local Cops Killed Their Son

• This long Austin American-Statesman investigative report details apparent police brutality as discovered by parents who were kept in the dark by local cops about how their teenaged son actually died. It all started with their 5’4″ 110-lb. 18-year-old suffering through a bad acid trip while hanging out with friends. It ended in the hospital with their son brain-dead, on life support, and the arresting agency unwilling to say anything more than their son had suffered a “head injury.”

• To the law enforcement agency, it’s just another in-custody death. To the parents of Graham Dyer, it’s long-delayed closure to a chapter kept deliberately unfinished by the law enforcement agencies who took Dyer into custody and returned him to his parents more dead than alive.

=> ↺ Spanish Citizen Sentenced To Jail For Creating ‘Unhealthy Humoristic Environment’

• Spain is perfecting regulation no one asked for. The country’s government is in the business of determining which jokes are funny… and which punchlines should be greeted with criminal charges.

• A few years ago, jokes of the “too soon” variety were met with calls for social media censorship. The assassination of a member of the People’s Party was met with the usual interactions: a mix of genuine condolences and mockery. The assassinated official wasn’t universally loved, having voted herself a 13% pay raise while simultaneously supporting a 12% budget cut to programs she didn’t care for.

Internet Policy/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Ted Cruz Doubles Down On Being Wrong: Pushes Yet Another Net Neutrality Killing Bill

• Eager to ignore the broad, bipartisan support net neutrality enjoys, nine GOP Senators this week introduced legislation that would kill the FCC’s net neutrality rules. Senator Mike Lee’s “Restoring Internet Freedom Act” would prohibit the FCC from classifying ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act and “from imposing certain regulations on providers of such service.” In other words, it’s a parallel attempt to kill net neutrality in Congress while FCC boss Ajit Pai tries to kill the rules via FCC process.

=> ↺ Plan to kill municipal broadband fails in state legislature

• Plan to kill municipal broadband fails in state legislature

=> ↺ Maine The Latest State To Try And Let Giant Broadband Providers Write Shitty, Protectionist State Law

• One of (several) reasons why American broadband is so uncompetitive is the fact that we continue to let giant broadband mono/duopolies quite literally write awful state telecom law. As we’ve long noted, more than twenty different states have passed laws making it difficult to impossible for towns and cities to improve their local broadband networks — even in instances when the entrenched duopoly refuses to. Many of these laws even ban towns and cities from entering into public/private partnerships with the likes of Google Fiber. It’s pure protectionism.

=> ↺ AT&T Takes Heat For Avoiding Broadband Upgrades For Poor Areas

• So we’ve noted for years now how giant broadband ISPs have made a 20-year career out of taking taxpayer money, subsidies and other perks in exchange for broadband networks they only partially deliver. When it comes time to hold these large ISPs feet to the fire, well-lobbied lawmakers and revolving door regulators pretty consistently do their best to ensure accountability never happens. Obviously this is just one of numerous problems leading to a lack of broadband competition in the United States, where two-thirds of homes lack access to more than one ISP at speeds of 25 Mbps.

=> ↺ Verizon’s gigabit upgrade pricing still makes almost no sense

Intellectual Monopolies

Trademarks

=> ↺ Sad Raiders Fans Fail To Keep Team In Oakland By Squatting On Trademark

• It was way back in the early part of 2016 that the rumors came out that the Oakland Raiders football team would be moving to a new home city. Fans were understandably upset and voiced their displeasure in a variety of ways, but the dumbest of those ways certainly must have been Lane Blue’s attempt to trademark the team name in conjunction with all of the different potential landing cities the team was rumored to be moving to, including the “Las Vegas Raiders.” Lane wasn’t the only sad Raiders fan to attempt this, it seems, as we now see reporting on his and other trademark applications being denied for obvious reasons.

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