● 03.23.10

● Links 23/3/2010: KDE 4.4.1 in Mandriva 2010, Demand for GNU/Linux Skills Grows

Posted in News Roundup at 6:08 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Linux is a free operating system just like Windows or Mac OS. The great thing about Linux is that it is completely free to download and use. I am shocked when I see people going into computer stores and paying hundreds of dollars for Windows. Most people do not know about Linux because there is no single company behind the project. It is a community effort and many individuals, companies and organizations are involved to bring you this amazing OS.

• Did Windows crash beyond repair? If so, you probably want to get your files off of the drive before you erase everything and reinstall Windows. This tutorial will help you do exactly that.

• We’re going to use Ubuntu’s LiveCD mode. Ubuntu is a popular Linux distribution that’s a free and open source alternative to Windows. The LiveCD mode lets you boot into and use the operating system (OS) without installing anything on the computer. You should be able to view your files and copy them to another drive, backup to discs, or transfer via a network. Now let’s get started!

• The XtreemOS consortium developers have announced the release of version 2.1 of their Linux-based Grid operating system. The project, which has as its motto “Making Grid Computing Easier”, is aimed at creating an open source Grid OS with native support for virtual organisations (VO) and the ability to run on a wide range of platforms, from clusters to mobiles.

Server

• The goal of this article is to review the history and architecture of Linux as well as its present day developments to understand how Linux has become today’s leading platform for cloud computing. We will start with a little history on Unix system development and then move to the Linux system itself.

• Today’s news that TSE (Tokyo Stock Exchange) has moved to Red Hat’s RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) as the operating platform for its next-generation “Arrowhead” trading system shouldn’t come as a surprise. Linux has become the smart stock market’s operating system of choice.

• Red Hat has been working with TSE and Fujitsu for some time on the Arrowhead platform. As always with stock markets, the name of the game is to accelerate TSE’s order response and information distribution speeds. According to Red Hat, “Arrowhead is designed to combine low latency with high reliability to accommodate diverse products, trading rules and changes within a short time window.”

• Czech-German company xITee has announced a recent delivery of a new version of the CFD–Trading-Platform to the German company Panthera Capital AG, which is the technical solution provider for CeFDex AG.

• Version 2.1 is fully based on open-source software. It uses an EnterpriseDB/PostgreSQL database, and JBoss server as an application server.

Applications

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a popular and time-honored method of transferring files to and from a remote network site. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and server applications. The FTP client connects to the FTP server, and enables the user to send and retrieves files from that server.

• Linux users can choose from more IRC clients than you can shake a stick at, dozens of clients depending on how expansive your definition is. To winnow it down to a reasonable herd of clients, I decided to rule out a couple of clients that are undeniably awesome but not well-suited to many users. For instance, Emacs has several clients, but if you’re not using Emacs then you’re not going to want to learn it just to use a nifty IRC client.

• Another factor that led me to take Radio Tray for a spin was that python is the language dujour for its development and the fairly small number of dependencies involved in building it. In fact, if you’re running one of the popular GNU/Linux distributions out there, then you should have all you need. Carlos has done a pretty good job at keeping the code simple and easy to follow, so anyone who’s tinkered with pygtk before can aspire to contribute to the project. Those who have taken the time to provide feedback and report issues or file for new features will agree that the level of attention to user satisfaction is pretty high for such a young project!

• One thing you’ve really got to admire about the open source application ocean is the wide availability of good, really good, music players.

• Despite its power and convenience, Gmail has one serious limitation: the desktop integration. The Gnome Gmail tool solves this problem for users running the Gnome desktop environment.

• I have had a lot of fun playing with compiz fusion in Linux. I really like the desktop cube feature especially with the transparency settings in place to where you can see all sides of your desktop cube. Unfortunately there is a problem and that is with the desktop icons. When you make your desktop cube transparent the wallpaper and icons become transparent also. There are two possible ways to work around this problem. One is to adjust the transparency to where it is transparent but not so transparent that you cannot see your icons. This may be acceptable with some themes and I have used this to some nice effect when working with under water themes and the cube atlantis plugins. The downside to this is that even after fine tuning your settings things still are not quite as crisp and sharp the icons don’t have as nice of a shine nor does your sky dome.

• [...]

• For those of you who are new to Linux and to accelerated 3d one of the advantages of the desktop cube is that you can see all of your work spaces. So if you want to open a program up and then have another free space to work in, then you can and since it is transparent you can have multiple desktops with programs running at the same time and be able to see all that is going on. Here is a screenshot to demonstrate this feature:

• Klavaro is FREE and offers you an easy way to learn to type quickly and correctly on a keyboard. Every finger has its place on the keyboard with associated keys to press.

Proprietary

Instructionals

• Patching a kernel refers to upgrading to the latest ‘n greatest by small increments.

• Rather than downloading a 25 meg source, it is possible, indeed desirable from your point of view, to simply apply the changes in source code that occur between revisions. These changes can be as little as half a megabyte. A considerable saving in download time.

Games

• Xonotic is this new project that is a fork of Nexuiz and takes away some of the main developers within the Nexuiz community. Apparently they already have in excess of 30 core community members for this new project. This project aspires not only to take the GPL Nexuiz code and release it as a new game, but they are planning to provide new models and animations, new sounds and music, a makeover of many maps, higher quality content, and other organizational changes for the project.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

• I stared to change the function that produce the brush mask and affects it’s softness. I selected Gaussian as it is nice function and I experiment with this function, but I found it complicated to control it (you setup sigma, uh what is sigma, you artist ask?). So let’s add some different function to the brush mask code. Oh, let’s put this decision to the artists hands, let’s give him some curve he can model as he want. We already has nice widget for that in Krita, so use it. So you can setup the brush mask by curve!

• A friend was showing me his Hackint0sh today, and while it was interesting to see that fine OS on an non-approved platform, it confirmed a few things to me, such as the idea that regardless of where it was installed or how hacked it is, I still wouldn’t use it. This I knew already, but it was nice to come back to it after a year of not really having touched it and confirming what I already knew.

• [...]

• For years, before I knew how to create my own keyboard shortcuts really effectively in KDE, I would subconciously hit unique-to-App1e keyboard shortcuts (like command-shift-3 or command-shift-n) and expect them to work on KDE. I’d do a double take when they didn’t work, then my brain would kick in and override the muscle memory and I’d do whatever the correct procedure was.

Distributions

• This is Elive’s slogan. As I am sure you can guess, it is a Debian based distribution that uses the Enlightenment window manager. I always like to jump in with both feet when it comes to playing with technology, so to get the best feel for what Elive is and how it works I downloaded the LiveCD and installed it as the primary operating system on my Sager Laptop.

• The first bugfix release of KDE 4.4 was released at the beginning of this month and again thanks to neoclust we have packages for Mandriva 2010 available since last week. You can follow the instructions of my previous post about the upgrade to KDE 4.4.0 to upgrade to 4.4.1. If you are upgrading from KDE 4.4.0 then don’t forget to disable or delete the old KDE 4.4.0 repository before starting this upgrade, just in case.

• Epidemic GNU / Linux is a Linux distro created by Brazilians using the KDE graphical interface. Modern is one of the main attractions which classify Epidemic distrobuições one of the best current Linux using KDE.

• Linux specialist Red Hat Inc. (RHT) is scheduled to release its quarterly earnings report after the close of trading on Wednesday, March 24. Analysts are currently looking for a profit of 16 cents per share from the company, up from earnings of 14 cents per share in the same quarter last year. Historically, Red Hat’s results have been modestly better than expected during the past four quarters, topping the consensus estimate twice and matching twice for an average upside surprise of more than 14%.

Ubuntu

• The Ubuntu project released its first beta of Ubuntu 10.04 (“Lucid Lynx”), offering two new themes, social-networking tools, cloud-related enhancements, faster boot-times, and an updated Firefox browser with Yahoo search as default. Meanwhile, an oddball icon placement in one theme has Ubuntu users up in arms.

• No. Ubuntu has a kernel team because Canonical thinks it needs one, Canonical feels the need to change the kernel. How many serious security flaws have there been in Ubuntu? And how many were specific to Ubuntu? Linus Torvalds makes the kernel decisions, not Ubuntu’s kernel team. Ubuntu’s kernel team should only be there to make appropriate changes, like which modules are included, swappiness, hard disk parameters, and which kernel version should be used.

• Linus makes these decisions because he started the kernel. Ubuntu’s kernel team’s messing with it has only caused problems. And because Linus believes in democracy he doesn’t complain when Ubuntu’s kernel team messes with it. He wouldn’t have any right to anyway, because the GPL is designed to allow open development and democracy of software development.

• It’s difficult to understand why GNU/Linux users have this sense of entitlement and often make meaningless threats to try and get their preferences implemented. The software is free, one benefits by using it (else I doubt anyone would be doing so) and it comes out with clockwork-like regularity. There really is not much scope for complaint.

• In terms of resources for this community, we have the following key components:

• * Wiki Pages – these wiki pages include best practise and details about how to join the community. * Teams List – this is the big list of teams, complete with contact details and online resources. * Mailing List – this is where the LoCo community discuss general LoCo related topics. In most cases cases teams have mailing lists too. * #ubuntu-locoteams on Freenode – this is an online discussion channel where you can ask questions and socialize with other LoCo community members.

• I want to be clear that my team is a fast-paced, hard-working, hectic environment. I am going to work you hard, and you should expect that, but my goal here is to help you squeeze every ounce of opportunity out of your internship. We will have 1-on-1 weekly calls, I will help guide you on what to work on, help you manage your work, solve problems, and be effective in your projects. In other words: when you sign up for your internship, expect a solid six month adventure, but an adventure that will sow the seeds for many great opportunities in the future.

• The Ubuntu community, shepherded by the company Canonical, has delivered not only its fastest operating system to date but has included so many flourishes that are relevant to today’s PC market that it should receive much stronger consideration in competitive engagements than ever before. From social networking to security to desktop cloud services, the Beta 1 of Ubuntu 10.04, the so-called Lucid Lynx version, leaves Windows 7 behind in several areas with tightly integrated applications.

• The store is “built in” to Rhythmbox meaning you don’t need to install any extra add-ons to use it – simply start Rhythmbox and click the ‘UbuntuOne’ sidebar entry to load up the store and do some browsing.

• Ubuntu is Linux for the rest of us. It is simple to install and use. Despite that, not that many users are on board with estimates of 1-2% of all computer users running various Linux operating systems. But with the release of Ubuntu 10.04, there might be a few reasons to give it a try. It is currently in beta, so you may not want to install it on your primary computer.

• Overall there seems to have been quite a few changes to Ubuntu in this release. However, most of these are cosmetic measures. As well, many of them look like an attempt to boost revenue at Canonical. Over the long term, this may not go down too well with the community. Still, I’ve found this to be an excellent release, far better than the 9.10 which I didn’t give a lot of love.

Devices/Embedded

• NComputing shipped a SoC (system-on-chip) designed for thin clients that will provide multimedia-enabled remote access to Windows and Linux desktops, and optionally run Android 2.1 locally. The $20 Numo SoC is based on a dual-core ARM-based CPU, and is designed to work with the company’s VSpace virtualization software.

• AT&T said it will soon announce the Dell Aero, which appears to be a version of Dell’s Android-based Mini 3 phone, and is claimed to be the lightest Android smartphone on the market. The wireless carrier also announced that it will soon offer the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus smartphones.

Free Software/Open Source

• This entry in the not403 blog discusses OpenSSO, a single sign-on project which Oracle acquired from Sun and has subsequently shut down.

• The open-source Arduino electronics platform has received a ton of attention from the hardware enthusiast community. And one more follower is joining the fray–Mario himself. The mustachioed plumber of console video game fame has been converted into an eight-by-eight LED matrix by Carnegie Mellon University student Chloe Fan. And, yes, she’s even made a separate Arduino device to give her side-scrolling adventure the classic Mario theme.

• You might think of customer relationship management (CRM) software as something that’s only useful for businesses, but it can play an important role in the health of a community project as well.

• Think of it not as “customer” relationship management, but community management software. In every community I’ve worked with, there’s been a revolving cast of participants who each have contact with a slice of the internal community and external contacts for that community. Think about everything from managing conferences and sponsorships, to working with other open projects.

• The role of a mentoring organization is to provide a list of projects for students to choose from, and shepherd a student through the Summer of Code process. The organization is also expected to provide feedback and a written evaluation of the student’s work, as well as make sure work is down well and turned in on time.

• Facebook, et. al., would not be possible today if it weren’t for open source software. Commodity hardware and open source software have provided the fertile breeding ground for Web-scale sites like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and others. Of course they’re going to turn to open source for the next generation of software. Had the initial stack of software they rely on been proprietary, their existence wouldn’t have been possible. But these companies have enjoyed the control and flexibility that open source enables and they are wisely choosing to invest their profits into more of the same.

• Web companies should absolutely, and fully, commit themselves to rolling their own code or hitching their wagon to existing open source solutions. The alternative is to cede an unhealthy amount of control over their infrastructure to outside parties.

• DocumentBurster is a light, loosely coupled free report-bursting tool that lets you automate high-volume document delivery to customers, vendors, employees, and prospects. You can pay the big money to buy a similar solution from the likes of Oracle, IBM, or BusinessObjects, or you can turn to this open source application.

Skills

• And while open source jobs declined slightly in the nearly 40,000 jobs posted on U.S-based online workteam builder oDesk (PDF link) that was mainly due to a surge in job requests for folks with social media skills. MySQL, Joomla, Linux, PHP and other open-source skills were comfortably in the top 50 skills requested by job posters.

• Demand for nearly all skills fell in the period compared with Q4 2008. Only demand for PHP and AJAX skills grew in Q4 2009 compared with the same period in 2008, 17 percent and six percent, respectively.

Oracle

• Translate.org.za has recently released local language versions of OpenOffice.org which give users a full set of office tools including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool and a drawing application.

CMS

• This is on top of Vosao’s support for WYSIWYG editing, content versioning, SEO-friendly URLs and other standard CMS goodies. The goal of the project isn’t just to produce a free software CMS (it’s licensed under the GPLv2), but to support App Engine, which allows free hosting for sites with up to 500 MB of storage and 5 million page views per month.

Programming

• The Python developers have released two new version of the programming language. Versions 2.6.5 and 3.1.2 are both new maintenance releases; 2.6.5 of the older Python 2.6 development strand, and 3.1.2, of the current Python development version. Because Python 2.6 is currently in bug fix mode, there is no added functionality, but over sixty bugs have been fixed in the Python 2.6.5 release since the previous version.

• The strong sense of community standards in Perl and the CPAN offers many benefits. The uniformity of conventions suggests that all of the code I’m likely to use has decent documentation, a test suite, a project page on the CPAN, dependency tracking, and a very reasonable chance of installing correctly (or at least strong community pressure to figure out why it doesn’t and to fix it).

Leftovers

Web

• Alongside promises for superfast broadband, the government today announced £30 million to create an Institute for Web Science, lead by web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee and professor Nigel Shadbolt.

• In the view of Tim Berners-Lee, “the lesson from the proliferation of new applications and services on top of the web infrastructure is that innovation will happen provided it has a platform of open technical standards, a flexible, scalable architecture, and access to these standards on royalty-free terms.”

• H.264 is owned by MPEG-LA, the company that runs the patent pool shared between companies with patents on the codec. It is in the interest of the patent pool to encourage adoption of the codec, and to this end, MPEG-LA has promised that H.264 will remain royalty-free until 2016.

• “Standards are as interesting as a Russian Truck,” said Ken Olsen, president and CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation, at that time the second largest computer system company in the world.

• It was a fairly strange statement to come from a person whose company had helped develop more computer standards than almost any other, and the press had a field day with that quote. If he said it today, Ken might be thought to be addressing HTML5, the long-awaited standard of what has become the most important publishing mechanism on the face of the earth…the web.

• Kaltura, an open source online video platform, is headed to college. The company has partnered with IT consulting firm Unicon, Inc. to deliver its video services to higher education institutions. Kaltura’s software already integrates with popular learning management systems like Moodle, so Unicon’s role as an authorized reseller will be to do the heavy lifting associated with getting the product up and running in schools and universities.

Security

• That’s apparently the statute: if you don’t comply fast enough with a customs officer, he can beat you, gas you, jail you and then imprison you for two years. This isn’t about safety, it isn’t about security, it isn’t about the rule of law.

• It’s about obedience.

• Authoritarianism is a disease of the mind. It criminalizes the act of asking “why?” It is the obedience-sickness that turns good people into perpetrators and victims of atrocities great and small.

• New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg apologized to an elderly Brooklyn couple on Friday for about 50 door-pounding visits police made to their home resulting from a glitch in one of the department’s computers.

Finance

• A House committee requested that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke turn over documents related to Stephen Friedman’s purchase of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. shares while he was on the boards of both the Wall Street firm and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

• Which begs the obvious question: Why on EARTH would Goldman, if it has the slightest interest in rehabilitating its public standing, bring in a former honcho from Wal-Mart to help oversee its management?

• The idea of a transfer tax, on financial trading generally, has resurfaced. European leaders, like Gordon Brown in England, are in favor. Timothy Geithner, the U.S. Treasury secretary, has resisted the idea. The ideal of a frictionless market is so instinctual that we have lost sight of the peril that comes with speed. Maybe it’s time to slow the markets down.

• So the message from Goldman seems to be: Don’t expect any significant form of tightening in 2010.

• Government officials told the WSJ that the pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, will review compensation at all 417 firms that took government bailout funds, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley.

• But the filing did note that Ms. Stecher’s son made $200,000 last year and that Mr. Viniar’s stepdaughter made $225,000 last year. That’s a substantial increase from 2008, when the two children made $124,000 and $150,000, respectively, according to Goldman’s 2009 proxy.

• Last year, the high compensation accrued across the banking industry — at a time when most people were suffering from a recession partly created by bankers’ excesses — provoked an angry response. A special industry tax was imposed in Britain, and various levies were proposed in the United States. Ultimately, most banks reined in pay.

• Lobbyists for financial firms are seeking to water down language in Section 619 of the 1,336-page proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. Their message: Study the issue first to see if it’s needed, then give regulators the option of imposing a ban.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• For the third time in a decade, New York City has agreed to pay millions of dollars to settle a lawsuit stemming from the illegal strip searches of thousands of nonviolent prisoners.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• EA proudly declared that C&C4 has “NO DRM” but clearly this is not the case. C&C4 will boot you if your connection drops, making it no less insidious than Assassin’s Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5. Electronic Arts is trying to justify the DRM by saying the game updates user statistics, but it’s a poor excuse given that other games simply wait until a player is back online to update stats.

ACTA

• The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) isn’t just another secret treaty—it’s a way of life. If ACTA passes in anything like its current form, it will create an entirely new international secretariat to administer and extend the agreement.

• Knowledge Ecology International got its hands on more of the leaked ACTA text this week, including a chapter on “Institutional Arrangements” that has not leaked before. The chapter makes clear that ACTA will be far more than a standard trade agreement; it appears to be nothing less than an attempt to make a new international institution that will handle some of the duties of groups like the WTO and WIPO.

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