● 01.04.10

● Links 4/1/2010: Freescale’s Sub-£125 Sub-notebook Prototype

Posted in News Roundup at 5:22 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• This year for Christmas, I received a new netbook to play with. It came pre-loaded with Windows XP, so I’ve had a little vacation from Windows 7. I’ve also had to live without a CD/DVD drive, and that’s been the real challenge for me.

Desktop

• ON comes in three flavours. There is a basic software option where users press an alternative power-on button and the notebook boots a Linux-based operating system provided by DeviceVM.

• Currently the project is written only for Linux, but can be made to run in a multiplatform environment with a little tweaking (will be available in the near future too).

• IT resolution No. 1: Let employees use any PC they want. Give your end-users a budget so that if they want something really pricey they pay the difference. And if they choose something basic, let them use the leftover budget for other tech aids such as widescreen monitors or special input devices. Offer a standard option they can get preconfigured to IT’s specifications. Certify IT-supported apps for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux — InfoWorld has heard that when employees get to choose their own computer, as many as a third choose Macs, so be ready for that choice. For example, you might certify Microsoft Office for Windows and Mac, IBM Lotus Symphony for Linux, Exchange for Windows, Apple Mail for Mac, and Evolution for Linux, and Firefox for all three platforms. Be able to support these apps in terms of their core features relevant to business use.

• Grappling Hook was released this week on the Archive Games distribution platform for Windows and Linux.

Server

• Moving Unix apps to Linux is not a big deal for mainframe shops with lots of systems talent, and while the competition between Linux and Windows is indirect because they are very different operating systems, moving a print or file or Web server from Windows to Linux is not a big deal for big iron shops. It is safe to say that the porting and enthusiastic supporting of Linux on mainframes has preserved that mainframe business, which would have otherwise gone into decline. (Specialty engines that accelerate database and Java applications for a reduced hardware and software price haven’t hurt the mainframe biz, either, I realize.)

• Since last fall, COMMON, the midrange user group that is trying to expand beyond its AS/400 base to encompass AIX and Linux users on Power Systems boxes, has been looking for some new board members to replace three members that are due to vacate their positions later this spring.

Google

• 7. Deliver the desktop.

• Chromium is a great way to monetize the cloud. It can be the mass market Linux we have been looking for. But you need to focus on it, and maybe a small number of other projects that relate to that second act, or your people are going to get lazy and self-indulgent.

Kernel Space

• 8. Linus Torvalds – Linux

• Open source technology has been around for more than a decade, and it’s true that Linus Torvalds is not, strictly speaking, its inventor. But his evangelism of the concept during the past decade has made open source a serious force in both the commercial and public sector markets. Torvalds even believes that the model could be expanded to work in spheres other than software: “The future is open source everything,” he is quoted as having said. Already, the open source movement has been the inspiration for increased transparency and liberty in other fields, including the release of biotechnology research by CAMBIA, Wikipedia, and other projects. The open-source concept has also been applied to media other than computer programs, for example by Creative Commons.

Applications

• I’m a long time Firefox fan, but I’ve also grown fond of Google’s Chrome browser. In fact, I’ve pretty much switched to Chrome as my browser of choice on my Windows PCs. Up until now though I’ve stuck with Firefox on Linux, but now that Chrome is available as a beta on Linux, I’m being tempted to switch.

Instructionals

Games

• Updates

• 2nd January 2009 – v0.45 is now available.

• * Added the rest of the Library map * Health dropping now works correctly when the bow is equipped * Music and sound effects are halted when the game is paused * Items in a grabber should now stay put better * Energy Drainers now drop between 1 and 3 arrows when they die * The Blob Boss should no longer get stuck when reforming * Added switches that reset puzzle blocks; play the tutorial to see how they work * Boss music actually plays now * Increased the inventory size

K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

• Most KDE4 users know the default KDE media player Dragon player. It is simple and easy. In this post I will introduce you a new media player for KDE4 which intends to be simple in stylish way, more integration with KDE4 technologies like phonon and Nepomuk, and has more features than Dragon player. It is Banarang.

Distributions

• On the last day of 2009, Stefan Lippers-Hollmann uploaded and released the latest version of the sidux Linux-based operating system (codename “Moros”). sidux 2009-04 ships with Linux kernel 2.6.32.2, KDE Software Compilation 4.3.4, and 3D support for ATI Radeon graphics cards. sidux is a full-featured Live CD based on Debian Sid, with a special focus on hard disk installations, a clean upgrade path within Sid and supplementary hardware and software support.

• I believe it was Paul Gauguin who famously questioned: “Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?” (D’où venons nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?) While it may be impossible to say for sure, I think he was expressing the idea that we can’t really know what we are or where we’re headed unless we also know where we originated. Bearing that thought in mind, I decided to take a look at MINIX, the operating system which helped to inspire the creation of Linux.

• I still require uber-simplicity and a sweet, elegant, intuitive interface. Part of my exploration was just to experiment with different desktop environments. Y’see, with Linux, you have a choice! The only choice I ever had with Windows was theming and wallpaper. But with Linux, it’s soooooo much more than just choosing a color, a wallpaper, theme, and fonts. I can select any number different behaviors for windows, effects, and even applications. How liberating! And what a vast universe to explore. Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, LXDE, Xfce, Openbox, IceWM, Fluxbox, oh my gosh!

Debian Family

• It’s been a couple of months since the release of the latest and greatest of Ubuntu, Karmic Koala and while we’ve been busy building servers based on the this release we can say with out a doubt it just keeps getting better. The refinements in the Gnome interface really are paying off in spades, as this release is more than ready for prime time.

• Finally the new file system is enabled by default. By this we mean ext4. While not many people care about this, it adds more speed to the already great linux distro. Overall systems feel snappier and I really chalk it up to this new file system. That and all of the work being done on the boot up and launcher times are really starting to add up.

• [...]

• Microsoft should be freaking out… if I ran a call center I’d run Ubuntu desktop on every single work station and save a butt load of $$ in the process.

Devices/Embedded

• Freescale anticipates vendors will choose either Linux or Android to run on their tablets. They may also opt to add a clip-on keyboard.

• Freescale says it will have an ARM processor and reckons that it will sell for about $200. The tablet will be on show at CES 2010, the firm said, and will be running Android and Linux as well as a range of applications, including an office suite.

• If manufacturers pick up on Freescale’s concept, such smartbooks should show up in a store near you perhaps later on this summer, with a price point below the $200 ceiling, the chipmaker says.

• Apart from industrial uses, these new Pineview Atom motherboards are ideal in combination with Linux to make small, low power consumption, 24/7 home mail or web servers, BT-clients, file servers, home surveillance appliances, routers, firewalls or even small PCs for web browsing and email.

Palm

• WebOS 1.3.5 was released to the masses last week and its inner workings were promptly picked apart by eager webOS hackers. One of the most exciting finds was the inclusion of the SDL library in this latest version of webOS. SDL is an acronym for Simple DirectMedia Layer, an open source library that provides a programming interface to a platform’s underlying audio, graphics and input devices. Translated into English, this means that Palm webOS developers will have direct access to the underlying graphics hardware of a device making hardware accelerated graphics a reality.

• In addition, developers closely examining webOS 1.3.5 have run across a simple system for running native Linux applications, something that wasn’t included in earlier versions.

Android

• Android: The New Smartphone Superstar Will Apple own mobile applications? Perhaps, but with the launch of the Android OS and some slick devices: Droid, HTC Dream, HTC Eris and the much anticipated Nexus One expect more developers to take advantage of the openness of this new platform. Having the ability to push apps live without an approval process, make quick updates and leverage open source, along with some very cool mobile features like the accelerometer and a larger developer community, will certainly put Android in the race for the most popular mobile OS.

• If you’ve somehow managed to get through the festive period without picking up a new phone and you have some change in your pocket to use to that end, there are many things to love about the Motorola Milestone, one of the strongest new contenders to the iPhone’s well-deserved crown.

• Engineered to incorporate the Google-backed Android operating system, there’s some impressive hardware behind efforts to fully realize Google’s vision for mobile computing and telephony, delivered through a clean and responsive 3.7-inch touchscreen and powered by a 550 Mhz processor which helps clear up the speed issues which troubled earlier Android handsets.

• [...]

• For the advantages over an iPhone, the list is a long one – a superior camera, for a start, as well as the ability to run apps in the background – so that you can, for example, write an email while listening to music (the phone incorporates a standard headphone jack, and filling it with your favourite mp3s is a breeze). But it lacks the polish that an Apple product delivers, and, at £450 for the hardware alone, is certainly on the pricey side – on top of that you’re going to need an unlimited data plan to even scratch the surface of the phone’s potential, as well as minutes and texts.

• Adaptive Digital has been providing VoIP solutions to the industry for over fifteen years to eighty-five customers who deploy equipment worldwide. By participating in the ARM Solution Center for Android, and making available the anVoip voice engine for Android, Adaptive Digital has placed itself in a strategic position to provide its mature, field-hardened VoIP software to the exploding market of Android-based handsets, Mobile Internet Devices (MIDS) and Netbooks.

Free Software/Open Source

• OpenOffice.org (http://www.openoffice.org)

• This has to be the number one alternative to Microsoft Office. The open source productivity tool includes all of the features offered by MS Office but for free. Version 3.0 of OpenOffice.org (OOo) was released in late 2008 and since then a number of update releases have been issued to fine tune its features.

• OpenOffice.org includes full compatibility with documents created in Microsoft Office, the biggest stumbling block to switching to a new office suite. And the latest version of OOo has full compatibility with Microsoft’s newer .docx format files, those created by Office 2007.

• “The way to convince the boss to accept FLOSS is to show it in action,” blogger Robert Pogson told LinuxInsider.

• “Butter him up a bit first — discuss budgets, software licensing costs, processes per server and the like,” Pogson went on. “Then knock him out.”

• With today’s tight budgets, inexpensive thin clients sell particularly well, Pogson noted: “The versatility, flexibility and speed of implementing a solution are amazing with GNU/Linux.”

• In 2010, we predict that:

• * Open Source SOA infrastructure will dominate – Lack of interest by venture capitalists and consolidation by the Big Five IT infrastructure providers will result in such lack of choice for SOA infrastructure solutions that end users will flock to open source alternatives. As a result, 2010 will be the year that open source SOA infrastructure finally gains enough adoption that it will be on the short list for most large SOA implementations. We’ll see (finally) a robust open source SOA registry/repository offering, SOA management solutions, SOA governance offerings, and SOA infrastructure solutions that rival commercial ones in terms of performance, reliability, and support.

• Ruckus Wireless™ announced today that is has released its popular “Zap” wireless performance testing program to the Open Source Community to encourage further development of advanced testing tools that provide a better understanding of actual wireless network performance.

• Ask audiovisual enthusiasts what the best set top box for their bucks is, and they’ll usually answer, visibly panting, “Popcorn Hour.” The Popcorn Hour C-200 can handle pretty much every video codec under the sun, prominently features a built-in Bittorrent client, and you can even plug in a Blu-Ray drive.

• Acquire open source skills

• Open source software is gaining steam among enterprise companies that find the flexibility and low cost appealing and now can pick and choose among commercial support packages. Certified skills and experience in the realm of open source packages are already on recruiters’ radar, according to IT talent experts, who report that companies in 2010 will seek candidates with open source skills.

• “We are seeing a ton of demand for skills around open source technologies and frameworks. Demand for Python, Ruby on Rails and PHP development skills far exceeds the number of people available with skills,” says Michael Kirven, co-founder and principal of IT resourcing firm Bluewolf.

• I’m not sure where this is all headed, but it’s kind of like the Open Source movement. It relies on a large and vague group of mavens, and that group just keeps growing. I can assure you there are more people thinking about SEO than there are people at Google thinking about how to stop them. It’s like Open Source coders far outnumbering Microsoft coders.

• DVWA is an open source PHP/MySQL web application that has been developed by the leading security blogger and ethical hacker, Ryan Dewhurst, to deliberately include a wide range of design errors and coding vulnerabilities; if found in a live environment these vulnerabilities could be exploited by real hackers, posing a serious security threat to the network. Security professionals and Web

• Mills: The hybrid companies like Red Hat have interesting models for open source. They take all the code and put it together for you, but we tend to look at open source as building blocks for larger solutions. IBM ingests a lot of open-source code and we provide a huge amount of development and engineering expertise to the various projects that we support–like Linux and the Apache server.

• We focus a lot of our energy on open standards and platforms. And if there are open source projects that we believe in we’ll invest resources to support them.

• Iveson also commented on the changes to the type of IT Jobs in demand over the decade “there has certainly been a shift towards open source technologies over the decade with PHP and Linux skills gaining market share. We have also seen continual high demand for IT Support professionals with Microsoft certifications and in 2009 Web 2.0 was one area which grew in a challenging economic climate with the number of Web Development and SEO Jobs rising significantly.”

Sun

• However, this posting definitely means that Steve B himself is having some nightmares about both Linux and Open Office. Some of the job requirements posted on this listing are pretty clear about that fact.

• Open Office, a free and open source suite of office productivity programs, has apparently emerged as a potentially lethal threat to Microsoft’s flagship Office suite, which also faces serious competition from web-based Google Docs.

• To support my large wife and small family I look after various customers’ computers and networks. Most are small businesses and use Microsoft-based operating systems. I have often thought about why it’s so hard to get anyone to even try using Free and Open Source Software. For instance, when I demonstrate OpenOffice and explain that it’s MEANT to be free – i.e. it’s not pirated – and that you are entitled to download and install the subsequent updates and upgrades for free as well, people often agree that it looks like a good deal, glaze over, then continue using whatever version of MS Office they’ve bottomed the bank overdraft to buy.

Databases

• A petition to stop Oracle taking over MySQL has garnered support from more than 15,000 people, after Michael ‘Monty’ Widenius launched his last gasp web campaign in December.

• The MySQL co-creator, who walked away from the database just seven months after Sun Microsystems bought it in September 2008 for $1bn, cobbled together a “Save MySQL” website just before Christmas.

• Appeal to European Commission to force software giant to divest itself of open source database as it acquires Sun Microsystems attracts 14,000 signatures

• A petition calling on the European Commission to block the software giant’s proposed acquisition of MySQL – as part of its bid to buy Sun Microsystems, which owns the company behind the open source database – has attracted 14,000 signatures.

Openness

• Jimmy Wales has discovered the only thing more challenging – and satisfying — than launching Wikipedia nearly a decade ago is refining the free, open source encyclopedia even as it is in the grip of its devoted users and contributors.

• Consumer advocates say textbook rental programs help by offering more choices. But it shouldn’t stop there.

• “We think that open-source textbooks are the ultimate solution,” said Nicole Allen, textbook advocate for the Student Public Interest Research Groups, a coalition of student consumer organizations.

• Allen cited a company called Flat World Knowledge, which publishes about a dozen business e-textbooks, with more titles in the works. Students can read the books online for free or buy a printed version (ranging from about $20 for a print-it-yourself copy to $60 for a soft-cover color copy).

• Texas lawmakers are expected to join the debate, too. The House Committee on Higher Education has been ordered to study ways to lower the cost of instructional materials, including electronic textbooks, open source books and other online resources.

• It’s interesting to me that it’s hard to ignore these free offerings (they get lots of buzz), while open source “free” geospatial tools, despite considerable maturation, seem to get far less buzz and ink. Frankly, I think that has a lot to do with branding. OSM, Google, ESRI and the various LBS apps and games have been successful, in part, because of good branding. A reader recently forwarded a CloudMade e-mail he received after participating in a CloudMade sponsored OSM effort. Open source efforts (not only geospatial ones) tend to lag in that area.

• “Our innovation activities will be focused on shorter term outputs in areas that have the potential to cut costs: shared services, green ICT, cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and management information requirements,” said Dr Malcolm Read, Jisc executive secretary.

• “Innovation to improve the effectiveness of learning and teaching will continue focused on student progression and retention, and approaches to improving research collaboration techniques will continue to be promoted.

• “Our longer term commitments to the open agenda will also be maintained, including open source, Open Access, open educational resources, and supporting open research and open innovation.”

• The burgeoning open media movement is really a constellation of interconnected yet distinct communities who are advancing open communication and defending our communication rights and values. These communities include those that have come together around open-source software, open data, open Internet, open web, open content, open education, open government and many more.

Leftovers

• Pretzel Company’s Owners Allege Tax Lawyer Got Lost in Twists of IP LawBernard Eizen’s Web site bills him as a “renaissance” lawyer, but the tax and estates attorney may have exceeded his erudition when he ventured into the realm of intellectual property.

• That’s the nub of a malpractice suit by former clients, the owners of a pretzel business who say the Philadelphia lawyer’s inexperience cost them lots of dough — $100 million’s worth.

• By the time I wrote Doctor Ficsor is wrong again I had come to the conclusion that Doctor Ficsor is only a bureaucrat at the WIPO. He may have had input into the ‘Internet Treaties’, but I fail to see how that would make him an ‘International Copyright’ expert. As as to his experiences in communist Hungary, I fail to see how those have any validity in this situation.

• Also in Doctor Ficsor’s first post he claims he was surprised to find Michael Geist’s blog. Well while I had never heard of Mihaly Ficsor, I had definitely heard of Michael Geist. Mihaly Ficsor’s claim that he was unaware of Michael Geist’s blog is less than credible.

Security

• The Transportation Security Administration announced Sunday that it will begin enhanced screening procedures Monday on any U.S.-bound air passenger traveling through “state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest” such as Pakistan, Yemen and Nigeria.

• The TSA said in a statement announcing the new measures that “effective aviation security must begin beyond our borders.”

• The man who led the federal government’s inquiry into the intelligence lapses leading up to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks said Sunday that the Obama administration is plagued by the same problems the Bush administration had more than eight years ago.

• Thomas Kean, the Republican who chaired the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, said Obama counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan had sounded “a bit defensive,” in an interview that had just aired on CNN’s State of the Union.

• But in law, a parent cannot give consent to the making of an indecent image of their own or any other child. Union officials representing 6,000 of the 20,000 workers at Manchester said no one had even told them that the scanner was being trialled, let alone that using it could leave working people, as well as as the airport itself, potentially facing serious charges and criminal prosecution.

Environment

• For the first time, the U.S. EPA intends to establish a Chemicals of Concern list and is beginning a process that could lead to regulations requiring risk reduction measures to protect human health and the environment.

• The agency is taking action to control four groups of chemicals that EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says raise “serious health or environmental concerns.”

• Denmark’s Tasmanian-born Princess Mary is being urged to intervene in the case of an Australian protester who has been held in a Danish jail since the Copenhagen climate summit.

• Friends of the Earth spokeswoman Holly Creenaune says fellow campaigner Natasha Verco was arrested over the protests at the summit last month and has now been held in detention for more than three weeks.

Finance

• If the White House thought they could slip the bailout of Fannie and Freddie through by announcing it in a Christmas Eve news dump, think again. Dennis Kucinich just released this statement:

• Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has become perhaps the most prominent symbol for everything that is wrong with the U.S. financial system, but most Americans cannot even begin to explain what they do or how they have made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America. The truth is that what Goldman Sachs did was fairly simple, and there may not have even been anything “illegal” about it (although they are now being investigated by the SEC among others).

PR/AstroTurf

• During a Fox News debate on health care yesterday afternoon, satellite problems prevented Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) from taking advantage of his final word, proving to be a rather unfortunate coincidence for a network constantly battling claims of political bias.

Censorship/Civil Rights

• Try hitting the (supposedly) disabled site stephenconroy.com.au. Its back and auDA will have a hard time killing it off this time.

• Chinese police arrested thousands in a drive against Internet pornography throughout 2009, officials said, vowing a deepening crackdown that critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.

• For Respublika it has been a long battle for survival. In September bailiffs seized the opposition newspaper’s entire print run.

Internet/Web Abuse/DRM

• Apple makes great products—you’ll get no argument from us. But Apple also likes keeping tight control over those products, and if anyone outside of Apple’s blessed circle attempts to get in, the company is more than willing to try to use (or abuse) the law to its advantage.

• Eric Goldman highlights a case where an ISP tried to use section (f) to go after a bunch of folks who issued questionable DMCA takedowns that were clearly designed to harass a couple of websites (and, at one point, were used to try to take down the entire ISP). The details are a bit convoluted, but basically, a group of people critical of what was being said on a website issued a series of DMCA takedowns to keep the site down every time it came back up following a counternotice. This seems like a perfect case where the takedown issuers should be hit with sanctions of some sort, but the case was dismissed on procedural grounds instead, which seem to be based on a misunderstanding of the DMCA itself.

Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

• Hmm. So, apparently all the money that people used to spend on music, they now spend on internet connections? If only there were some evidence to back that up. But, as we noted, the music business has been growing, just not the sales of CDs. Considering how much U2 made on its last tour, you would think that Bono would be aware of this. As for his claim that the internet is harming the up-and-coming songwriters, again, all this shows is how incredibly out of touch Bono is. In the past, the “young, fledgling songwriter” couldn’t live off ticket or t-shirt sales either. He had to hope that he got the lucky golden ticket from a record label and that they didn’t then crush his spirit and originality before discarding him as an unrecouped has-been.

• Ever since Paul McGuinness, manager of the rock band U2, began lashing out at Internet service providers (ISPs) for allegedly profiting from and encouraging illegal file sharing, U2 fans have wondered whether McGuinness spoke for the band.

• The RIAA is a delusional cartel consisting of four major music labels. They were created in 1952 with the sole purpose of sucking all the music and happiness out of the world.

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the DayClaudio Menezes, a UNESCO official uniting international Free Software communities 02 (2004)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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