● 08.19.09

● Links 19/08/2009: Bordeaux 1.8.2 Released, Mozilla Service Week Coming

Posted in News Roundup at 8:30 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Fortunately, I had spent the last few months learning enough about Linux to begin my run for freedom from Windows already, so Ubuntu 9.04 was running smoothly on one of my two computers by the time DSL came to town. I knew that all I needed or wanted from an ISP was a connection to the internet — any other services were of no interest.

• Of course, since this was a Windows ISP, there was nothing in their literature that suggested how to carry out the actual connection process other than “install the program from the CD, we will assimilate your computer and do the rest.” I’ve learned to expect that, having endured the Driver Dramas of winmodem/linmodem on dialup, but since this is ADSL, I did need to find the magic numbers like IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS server. That meant I had to call Technical Support.

• Red Hat’s CEO Jim Whitehurst has said that it is his goal to advance Red Hat to be the first open source vendor to hit $1 billion in revenues. Red Hat is well on its way, but Red Hat is now making an increasing amount of its revenues from JBoss middleware running on Linux.

• Generally speaking, shared disk setups have a single point of failure: the storage system. This is not always true, however, as “shared disk” is a confusing term with today’s technology. SANs, NAS appliances and commodity hardware running Linux can all replicate the underlying disks in real time to another storage node, which provides a simulated shared disk environment. Since the underlying block devices are replicated, the nodes have access to the same data and both run a clustered file system, but this replication breaks the traditional shared disk definition.

Applications

• Supported Applications/Games:

• * Microsoft Office 2007 * Microsoft Office 2003 * Microsoft Office 2000 * Microsoft Office 97 * Microsoft Office Visio 2003 * Microsoft Office Project 2003 * Adobe Photoshop 6 * Adobe Image Ready 3 * Adobe Photoshop 7 * Adobe Image Ready 7 * Adobe Photoshop CS * Adobe Photoshop CS2 * Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 * Steam and Steam based Games * Apple QuickTime 6.5.2 Player * IrfaView 4.25 (Image files only) * Winetricks support

• Here are some other useful KIO slaves:

• * tar:/, zip:/, gzip:/, bzip:/, bzip2:/ all allow you to navigate into archives like they are folders. * fonts:/ shows installed fonts * cgi:/ runs cgi programs without a webserver * finger:/ provides information about a host name where “finger” is enabled. * settings:/ is similar to applications:/ providing an alternative method of accessing system settings. * smb:/ accesses and browses Samba shares. This is also available through remote:/ * sftp:/ is a secure file transfer over SSH. * desktop:/ shows the files inside the desktop folder. * trash:/ shows the contents of the trash can.

• We did show you before how to install dreamweaver on Linux using wine , and as we believe that there are good open source alternative for this product , we will try to show you bellow some of the open source Dreamweaver alternatives for Linux.

Distributions

• In order for Foresight Linux to follow development trends more quickly, Michael Johnson (the founder of rPath and former head of Fedora) has proposed switching from rPath Linux to Fedora.

Devices/Embedded

• This followed China Mobile’s announcement in Beijing on Monday of its new mobile app store.

• “We are developing devices for China Mobile, but we haven’t named them yet,” Dell spokesperson Matt Paretta told LinuxInsider.

Free Software/Open Source

• While Sun Microsystems puts their weight behind the GNOME desktop environment for Solaris and OpenSolaris, there are developers that do work on providing a quality experience for KDE on OpenSolaris. However, getting KDE to run on a clean OpenSolaris installation can require building KDE from source and taking various other steps. Fortunately, for KDE fans, there is now the Korona distribution, which brings KDE 4.3 as the default desktop environment to an OpenSolaris stack.

Firefox

• When Firefox had only a few percent market share, it could be dismissed as a minority browser for a few enthusiasts. Now that it holds over 50% in some countries, particularly in Europe, it can’t be written off so easily. The fact that Microsoft has paid for these reports shows that Firefox has come of age as a serious rival to Internet Explorer that might even wrench the browser crown from the latter’s grasp in the not-too-distant future.

• Mozilla Service Week is coming up in just one month – September 14 to 21, 2009! The driving force behind service week is our strong belief that everyone should know how to use the Internet, have easy access to it, and have a great experience when they’re online. You can have a hand in helping organizations and people all over the world experience the joy of using the Web too!

Business

• Sounds promising. But for Open-Xchange to broaden its appeal, the company will need to effectively position itself against Microsoft’s emerging Business Productivity Online Suite (which includes Exchange Online) plus a range of successful Exchange SaaS specialists — including Azaleos, Intermedia, and mindSHIFT’s groupSPARK business.

Government

• While the digital revolution thunders along at a giddy rate in the real world, UK politicians prove to be all mouth and no trousers. Despite the rhetoric of making Britain a leader in digital content, the reality is the government just doesn’t understand that this isn’t business as usual, and that something has changed fundamentally, and requires a fundamentally different approach, not just some fine-tuning of old ideas.

• The Hungarian government should create an open source competence centre, writes the Hungarian Information Society (ITTK), a pressure group, in its annual report, published on 7 May.

• The group urges the government to increase its awareness of this type of software. “The government should is advised to make ODF an official standard in all branches of government.”

Leftovers

Censorship/Web Abuse

• Venezuela has adopted a law censoring all newsmedia, prohibiting publication of anything that could encourage hatred or aggression, or even “indiscipline”, among children. It also prohibits anything that “deforms the language” or attacks “healthy values, good customs or public health”.

• The case is important because other broadband ISPs have privately feared the FCC order could hold jurisdiction over them as well.

ID Cards

• A study of 1990 U.S. Census data revealed that 87 percent of the people in the United States were uniquely identifiable with just three pieces of information (PDF): five-digit ZIP code, gender, and date of birth. Internet surfers today spew considerably more information than that.

• This is something I’ve been saying (without proof, admittedly) for a while: the UK’s insane DNA database is doomed not because it doesn’t work well, but because it works *too* well in a sense – in that it lets you frame anybody with perfect efficiency…

Intellectual Monopolies

• Jerry Leichter writes “We’re all taught to share as kids, and sharing is a fundamental aspect of human societies. But sharing is also “anti-market” – at least as many sellers see it. I have something – a piece of music, a lawnmower – that you need. If I share with you, we both come out ahead – but if instead you buy one for yourself, the seller and manufacturer comes out ahead…”

• This is a myth. It’s a popular myth, and I’m quite sure that Sheffner and lots of folks on both sides of the debate think its entirely accurate. But it’s a myth. The nature of a good economic transaction is one in which both parties are better off after the exchange. That means the people “paying” don’t mind paying. They’re happy to pay because they believe that what they have received is better than the cost it took to acquire it. But basic economics plays into the situation here: if the same thing can be made available by others in a better way, it’s only natural for people to ask why they should have to pay.

• POLICE officers in Hampshire have been banned from listening to the radio in their offices because they’re breaking the law.

• [...]

• Dep Chief Con Cole broke the news to staff in an email after other forces, in particular Wiltshire, were approached by the Performing Right Society who demand a ‘substantial’ licence fee for public broadcasts.

• We know that there’s been an ongoing effort by entertainment industry lobbyists to convince politicians (and others) that file sharing and P2P apps are somehow to blame for stupid government staffers accidentally leaking files via those programs. Apparently the propaganda campaign has worked in at least one area: employees of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) were sent an alert that they need to stop using all P2P programs.

• This is the first I’ve heard of this: bad news if true. Anyone have any more details?

• During the last few days a new Radiohead song was mysteriously released onto the Internet. The track is called “These Are My Twisted Words” and until today it was unclear where it had come from. Now, thanks to a post on the band’s blog, it seems the boys could’ve had it planned all along, as they are now linking to the song on Mininova.

• I was always under the impression that Lord Mandelson was dark, Machiavellian and very sharp; apparently not:

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the DayThomas Bartol, computational neuroscientist for the Salk Institute 10 (2005)Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating. Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

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