● 05.07.10

● Links 7/5/2010: Phoronix Test Suite 2.6; Ryzom Becomes Free Software

Posted in News Roundup at 2:36 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• I’m sure that Symbian development on Linux is near, and it will be massively adopted when those tools became part of QtCreator for linux. For those who can’t wait, or think that VIM is the best IDE ever, I hope those tips can help you. =)

• One reason I chose this area was the amazing congruence between the battle between free and closed-source software and the fight to place genomic data in the public domain, for all to use, rather than having it locked up in proprietary databases and enclosed by gene patents. As I like to say, Digital Code of Life is really the same story as Rebel Code, with just a few words changed.

• The Philippines 2010 Election will be using an electronic counting machine for the first time. The Linux-powered machines were provided by Smartmatic and the ROMs are managed by (and supposedly programmed in) Ubuntu.

Desktop

• 1: Assuming they are using Windows

• Although this might seem way too obvious, it’s not. The average user has no idea there are even different operating systems to be had. In fact, most average users couldn’t discern Windows XP from Vista from 7 (unless they are certain Windows 7 was “their idea”). Because of this, new users might believe that everything works (or doesn’t work, as the case may be) as it does in Windows. Make your end users aware that they are using a different operating system — and that it works differently.

• I could build my own computer with truly kick ass components and enjoy Linux far more than with Sony’s already aging and relatively puny videogame console. And I could easily swap out older components for newer components, thus making a DIY box last far longer than a silly videogame console.

Kernel Space

• While EXT4 has regressed a fair amount (as we have talked about in countless articles) since it was deemed stable in the mainline Linux kernel, it’s looking like it’s still able to hold its ground against Windows 7 and NTFS at least with this synthetic disk benchmark. It will be more interesting to see how Apache, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and other real-world applications perform between the two operating systems — especially as that’s where EXT4 has had a challenging experience with recent kernel releases that try to improve data safety at the cost of speed.

• Having renamed Linux kernel 2.6.34-rc5 Sheep on Meth, late last week Linus Torvalds released the sixth pre-release version of Linux 2.6.34. The rate and scope of changes is, as usual at this stage in the development cycle, slowly declining, but, apart from a vague suggestion that 2.6.34 is close to completion, Torvalds has given no indication of when it will be released – expectations are that it will be out in one to three weeks.

• For those looking to run any sort of automated benchmarks on Linux, Mac OS X, OpenSolaris, BSD, or even Windows 7 x64, the beta 2 release of Phoronix Test Suite 2.6 “Lygen” has been released this morning.

Applications

• When a text editor’s catch phrase is “Scribes: It’s about the experience, not features.” you have to wonder what you are in for. However, Scribes is a very different editor. Scribes is all about making you productive. In fact, the developers of Scribes declare you will become exponentially more productive when using their tool. Why? Because they have implemented only features that focus on productivity. That is why you won’t find a collection of features that, in the grand scheme of productivity, do nothing.

Instructionals

Games

• Winch Gate Properties Ltd, the developer and publisher of massively-multiplayer online science-fantasy role playing games, is proud to announce the release of the source code and artistic assets of the popular MMORPG Ryzom to the Free Software Development Community.

• Ryzom, a popular massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG), is being entirely open-sourced and even the artwork is going to be provided freely too. The Ryzom game is being put out under the GNU Affero GPL and the artwork is going under the Creative Commons.

• The Steam Linux client still appears to be heavily in development, but the real breakthrough came on May Day when members within the Phoronix community managed to get the Steam Linux client running up to the point of showing the log-in window. This came after several independent enthusiasts were tracing the calls made by the closed-source content delivery program and making modifications to fix certain issues to get the client running further along.

K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

• Am no follower of the Pomodoro technique nor do I know its specifics but before you go ahead and try out those multiple Adobe AIR applications or use the GNOME-oriented Workrave, please try out this software called RSIBreak which was built for KDE specifically.

• Ten years ago a simple twin panel file manager was released. It had a few small glitches like showing rrr instead of rwx for permissions, had some compatibility issues with Debian and Solaris, did not save keyboard settings, but it was, in spite of many bugs, sort of usable for everyday work. Ten years ago Krusader started on the path to becoming a top file manager for a large range of operating systems and users.

• I am Mehrdad Momeny, a Persian Free Software enthusiast and the developer of Choqok, currently serving conscription. I am 24 years old and live in Mashhad, Iran, east of Tehran. I’m also one of the developers of Blogilo (KDE Blog client) and MDIC (a simply dictionary application).

Distributions

• Which is why I feel that those who push for and praise distribution differentiation through distinct visual branding are engaged in an act of sabotage against F/OSS. What makes this tragic is that this is not their intention in the least and the act is, in that sense, completely innocent. The effect, however, is no less for that innocence. The question is: can our eyes be opened?

• For tinkerers, one of the coolest and slickest distros out there is probably Slax. I don’t mention Slax much, because it’s one of those things I have to actively veer away from — it’s too entertaining to modify and adjust and tweak and realign and … and that takes up a godawful amount of my time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lot of fun — but I become focused and lose track of events while adding this or subtracting that. One must know one’s limitations.

• KahelOS has much to offer but only for intermediate or advanced users. Beginners should steer clear of it until the install routine is improved significantly. That’s a shame because, once you get past the install, KahelOS can be used quite successfully as a desktop operating system.

New Releases

• WeakNet Labs has just released the latest version of its highly customized WeakNet Linux, a penetration testing Linux distribution packed with goodies for security experts and sysadmins, but not only. WeakNet Linux IV brings the first release of the custom WeakerThan Linux kernel with built-in support for packet injection and a faster boot time. It also comes with a lot of tools for testing a network’s strength to attacks and other types of security-related testing.

Other OSes

• NexentaStor 3.0.2 Community Edition is now available. The major change is inclusion of many fixes to OpenSolaris b134 from later releases. These include many ZFS fixes.

Mandrake/Mandriva Family

• PCLinuxOS 2010 is available with the Enlightenment E-17 Desktop which focuses on providing plenty of eye candy without all of the bloat.

Ubuntu Variants

• Kubuntu is an official derivative of Ubuntu, which focuses on using the KDE desktop rather than GNOME, and applications built with Qt over GTK. In the past, Kubuntu was new and fresh, and had that extra bit of attention paid to it that made a real difference. In fact, Kubuntu is mostly responsible for my giving up the GNOME desktop and preferring KDE, because Kubuntu implemented it right, though later on quality of this distro fell through the cracks. I tested the latest release on my Dell Latitude D630 laptop, an oldie but still one of my favorite machines.

• To me, Linux is still largely about community, and my experiences with Peppermint and my interactions with the team of individuals responsible for putting it together have done nothing if not reinforce that.

Devices/Embedded

Android

• Verizon, one of the biggest cell service providers (and not a member of the Alliance, which says something in itself) is dropping the Nexus One. HTC, which is an Alliance member, isn’t sharing the code for its custom Sense UI layer for Android, as would normally be expected in, you know, an open source alliance.

Sub-notebooks

• Linux Netbook Manglement:

• Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Moblin were very responsive, offered great battery life (about 2 hours with everything kicked on, and no noticeable draining of the battery unless viewing video or something similar), were insanely stable, and supported all of the hardware out-of-the-box. My issue with Moblin was in the interface, and the same with UNR. I felt a little bit nerfed on these systems, and both seemed geared toward single tasking.

Tablets

• What you’re seeing to the left is Eken’s Chinese release of their new 7″ Android based tablet. Why’s that noteworthy, you ask? Because it’s coming to the states via air shipment for about 130$ USD, shipped.

Free Software/Open Source

• A new open source project dubbed Guacamole allows users to access a desktop remotely through a Web browser, potentially streamlining the requirements for client support and administration.

• Guacamole is a HTML5 and JavaScript (Ajax) VNC viewer, which makes use of a VNC-to-XML proxy server written in Java.

• Just after Adobe released videos showing off the content-aware feature of Photoshop CS5, the GIMP community answered by showing the resynthesizer plugin, which has been available for some time and can do a similar job.

• LOVEFiLM has stuck with open source throughout the company’s growth, but there have been changes along the way.

• I recently had the honor of spending time with Cory Fields, the Public / Business Relations Manger for XBMC. XBMC is the premier free and open source, cross-platform home entertainment system. XBMC was originally created for the first-generation Xbox, but has evolved to now be primarily available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows. As proof to their success, the XBMC project has recently been accepted by the SFLC as clients. A perfect way to test XBMC is to download the live CD.

Browsers

• CelticKane has designed and provided a Javascript test, which I ran both browsers through. The results? Midori beat out Chrome in all but 3 categories, some by huge margins. Chrome scored a 388, Midori a 441. I ran this test a whole bunch more times, closing all the tabs, going over and over. Midori kicked the crap out of Chrome every single time, without fail. If you want to take a look at his test, click that link up there, and I think it pretty well explains itself.

• Whether you want it or not, your Web activities are tracked and analyzed in many different ways. But you don’t have to put up with this, especially if you are using Firefox as your primary browser. There are a few handy Firefox extensions that can beef up your favorite browser’s privacy features. Here are my three personal favorites.

CMS

• There are a lot of open-source solutions that would be perfect for enterprise use, if only you had a reliable support and training partner to back up your development efforts.

Government

• The agency tasked with spearheading the White House’s open-government efforts ranked nearly last in a survey of open-government practices, according to a new report.

• In an audit of those plans, which all federal agencies released in April, the group OpentheGovernment.org found that the Office of Management and Budget assembled one of the poorest open-government strategies across the entire Obama administration.

Licensing

• Opera has switched its Dragonfly open source debug tool to an Apache 2.0 license to include a promise that users are protected from patents owned by Opera or any other contributor to the project.

• Dragonfly – similar to Mozilla’s Firebug tool – completed its open sourcing in February, when it was moved from Opera servers to BitBucket. It was originally under the BSD license.

• * 60% of respondents use open source in mission-critical environments;

Programming

Leftovers

Science

• The recent discovery of an asteroid wrapped in a layer of water ice has revived the possibility that some space rocks would be great potential pit stops – as well as destinations – for manned or robotic exploration missions.

Security/Aggression

• Iraqi families who believe their children’s deformities are caused by the deployment of the weapons have now begun legal proceedings against the UK Government. They accuse the UK Government of breaching international law, war crimes and failing to intervene to prevent a war crime.

• Naturally I am opposed to the snooping and the creation of yet another enormous state database; but even worse is that it is being done simply to wring more money out of us.

Environment

• British Petroleum and government disaster-relief agencies are using a toxic chemical to disperse oil in the Gulf of Mexico, even though a better alternative appears to be available.

• As the Deepwater Horizon oil spill spreads, BP and the U.S. Coast Guard have conducted tests with Corexit 9500, a chemical designed to break oil slicks into globules that are more quickly consumed by bacteria or sink into the water column before hitting shore.

• Though the investigation into the explosion that sank the Deepwater Horizon site is still in its early stages, drilling experts agree that blame probably lies with flaws in the “cementing” process — that is, plugging holes in the pipeline seal by pumping cement into it from the rig. Halliburton was in charge of cementing for Deepwater Horizon.

• The reclusive Blackwater founder tries to ban journalists and recorders from his speeches in front of friendly audiences. This time he failed.

• Jackye Carroll was walking along the beach that runs outside her home in Pass Christian, Mississippi, early this morning when she came across a curious sight. The sun had just come up and the white sand beach was looking at its most beautiful, but there, just above the gently lapping sea of the Gulf of Mexico was a grey-brown mound of flesh about two to three feet in length.

• She put on the gloves that she had brought along in anticipation, and turned the mound over to find that it was a Loggerhead, one of the five threatened species of sea turtle found in this region. The sand around it was being stained red by blood seeping from its nose and underbelly. It was dead.

• Records of fish landings dating back to 1880s show UK trawlers, then fishing closer to port, landed twice as much fish in 1889 as today

Finance

• Europe may need a broad cure to its debt crisis, but the increasingly awkward pairing of the European Union and the International Monetary Fund makes such action unlikely.

• Liberal Democrats in the Senate, emboldened by a wave of populism, are trying to make financial regulatory legislation far tougher on Wall Street, potentially restricting or breaking up the biggest banks and financial companies.

• The Senate on Wednesday approved two amendments to the financial regulatory bill that both Democrats and Republicans claimed would end the prospect of taxpayer-financed bailouts for companies deemed “too big to fail.”

• It’s past time to break up the big banks. They take on too much risk and endanger the financial system. They benefit from unfair subsidies and the assurance that the government will bail them out in times of trouble. They have far too much political influence and threaten our democracy.

• Angelides is ripping Cox for claiming that the SEC’s law enforcement operations were effective.

• “To suggest that the SEC was effective in those enforcement actions, frankly, is ludicrous,” Angelides said.

• World markets plunge over fears that Greece’s economic crisis will spread to other countries despite austerity measures

• In an interesting side note to the much more publicized businesses involving John Paulson, Greece, and whatever else Goldman is currently getting tarred and feathered for, the bank was quietly slapped on the wrist by the SEC for violations related to naked short-selling.

• The former chief executive of the collapsed Icelandic bank Kaupthing has been arrested, authorities say.

• Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson is suspected of embezzlement, trading irregularities, and other breaches of banking laws, the special prosecutor’s office has said.

• Outlook It is the dreaded vote of confidence so feared by football managers worldwide. The markets will have shuddered when Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, said: “Default is, for me, out of question, so it’s as simple as that.” Increasingly few people accept that Greece can escape this crisis without restructuring its debts. Mr Trichet’s attempt at reassurance thus has the opposite effect: his categorical vote of confidence in Greece yesterday simply left him looking out of touch.

• Whoever wins the election must make sorting out the public finances the top priority, the European commission warned on the eve of the poll, as it predicted the British budget deficit would swell this year to become the biggest in the European Union, overtaking even Greece.

• [...]

• Economists warn that if the next UK government drags its feet in reducing the deficit it could spark a downgrade from one or more of the ratings agencies that have been so swift to reassess Greece and Spain’s creditworthiness. The commission’s forecasts fanned those fears.

• The UK was warned yesterday that it is among the European Union states that faces the risk of contagion from the Greek crisis, with “very real, common threats” to its financial systems.

• The eurozone’s leaders have finally woken up to the fact that, in the Greek debt crisis, they have an existential challenge on their hands. Yet for all the drama of this week’s plea by Angela Merkel for the German parliament to sanction the Greek financial rescue package and yesterday’s vote in Athens on a new round of cuts, the signs are that Europe’s leaders are still not on top of the situation.

• The €110bn IMF-eurozone funding package to remove Greece from the international capital markets for three years is better than nothing – but it is still not enough. It is becoming increasingly clear that Greece will need some form of debt restructuring to ease the burden of its borrowings.

• The size of the Berkowitz stake in Goldman Sachs depends upon where you read. StreetInsider.com called it a ‘giant stake’ in the firm. Morningstar.com noted that “details were scarce, including the type of investment taken, the size, and when Berkowitz bought shares…”

• This talk is going on in private, among partners, managing directors and other current and former executives, and there do not seem to be any immediate plans to change management, the newspaper says.

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein may take comfort from Wall Street’s legal history: Even after being sued for fraud by regulators and paying multimillion-dollar fines, the biggest financial firms rarely depose their leaders.

• The owners of the bigdough.com.inc institutional investor database sued Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on Wednesday, accusing the company of theft of information and copyright infringement.

• Anyone listening to members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations drill representatives of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last week had to wonder which of the two teams was the smart money.

• It wasn’t so much that subcommittee Chairman Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, wouldn’t let go of the question on the appropriateness of Goldman betting against securities it was selling to clients; or that Goldman Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein repeatedly failed to give the right answer, defined as the answer Levin wanted. What was remarkable was the failure of either party to the Q&A to convey an understanding of the market mechanism at the root of our economy.

• First, the Securities and Exchange Commission files a civil suit, citing fraud over mortgage securities deals. Then, the Senate publicly scrutinizes the firm’s executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, in a heated hearing. Next, the Justice Department and the state of New York announce they are launching a criminal investigation into the the deals. Now, Goldman Sachs has disclosed that six lawsuits have been filed by its own shareholders in the wake of the fraud allegations. And these plaintiffs aren’t limited to big-name investors.

• The upshot of the analysis by McClatchy D.C. Bureau reporter Les Blumenthal is that Murray did take $28,000 from the firm and a total of $515,000 from the securities and investment community, but not in the current election cycle.

• The characters were prepped and suited, the props—thick binders holding embarrassing insider E-mails—were set prominently in place, and the cameras went live as what MSNBC proclaimed to be the “hearing of the century” played out on Capitol Hill. Last Tuesday’s 11-hour showdown between senators and top officials of Wall Street icon Goldman Sachs may not have quite lived up to that billing, but it was dramatic political theater (with a certain expletive bleeped out for TV viewers). And it did produce some quick political fallout: Senate Republicans dropped their opposition to opening debate on the Democrats’ proposed financial regulatory reform legislation.

• General counsel Gregory Palm of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. late Monday made a rare filing with the government, revealing at least six shareholder suits against the company over its dealings in the subprime mortgage market, and one highly critical letter from an institutional shareholder.

• The filing made no direct reference to a rumored Justice Department criminal investigation. But it did say the company anticipates that additional shareholder actions “and other litigation may be filed, and regulatory and other investigations and actions commenced, with respect to offerings of collateralized debt obligations.”

• It has been nearly three weeks since the federal government stunned Wall Street by bringing civil fraud charges against Goldman Sachs.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• The bottom line: the patent holders on parts of video compression technology are trying to use their patents to tell us what we can do with content we create using their recording devices.

• Don’t these conditions sound reasonable, conditions for sharing SWIFT financial transaction data with the United States for anti-terrorism purposes…

• On Wednesday, users discovered a glitch that gave them access to supposedly private information in the accounts of their Facebook friends, like chat conversations.

• What’s interesting is how little attention these issues seem to be getting — even though they can have a pretty large impact. And, even though this may seem like legal details, it applies well outside the legal field as well. While it won’t be the key focus, we’re even going to include a short section on these kinds of legal issues in the cloud in our upcoming webinar on cloud security (register here). While this might not seem directly like a security issue, if you’re in charge of keeping data secure, it’s pretty important to know what it means when the feds knock on your door… or the door of the third party “cloud” provider to whom you outsourced your company’s data.

• Should a caregiver ever Google a patient? Would you ask your physician to be a Facebook ‘friend’? Ethical questions abound, and the doctor-patient relationship is at stake.

• A federal judge has struck down a Florida law prohibiting the publication of a police officer’s name, phone number or address, calling the statute an unconstitutional restraint on speech.

• The decision leaves Arizona, Colorado and Washington state with similar laws on the books. Florida authorities said Wednesday they were mulling whether to appeal.

• Two U.S. lawmakers have released a draft bill that would require companies that collect personal information from customers to disclose how they collect and share that information, but several privacy and consumer groups said the proposal would legalize current privacy violations online.

• The draft legislation, released Tuesday by Representatives Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat, and Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican, would apply to information collected online and off.

• The bill would require companies collecting personal information to allow customers to opt out of the collection, and would require companies to get permission before sharing customers’ personal information with third parties.

• The IT department of the Pennsylvania school district accused of spying on students using their school-issued laptops took the brunt of the blame in an independent report released Monday.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• And, if you were an AT&T DSL subscriber, but the company’s records show that nothing improper was done to your line, you can still get money. The proposed settlement says that those who “believe that your DSL Service has not performed at satisfactory speeds” may still be eligible for a “one-time payment of $2.00.” Yes—$2.00.

• In addition, AT&T will dole out $3.75 million to charity and has agreed not to contest attorneys’ fees of up to a whopping $11 million.

• In a move that will stoke a battle over the future of the Internet, the federal government plans to propose regulating broadband lines under decades-old rules designed for traditional phone networks.

• The decision, by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, is likely to trigger a vigorous lobbying battle, arraying big phone and cable companies and their allies on Capitol Hill against Silicon Valley giants and consumer advocates.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Commenting on the results of a new survey which found that most people who download movies, music and TV shows would do so legally if they were available via a reasonably-priced and convenient platform, the boss of the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft says that the industry won’t compete until rampant online piracy is seriously reduced. And so the deadlock continues.

Copyrights

• Months of public debate over the future of Canadian copyright law were quietly decided earlier this week, when sources say the Prime Minister’s Office reached a verdict over the direction of the next copyright bill. The PMO was forced to make the call after Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore and Industry Minister Tony Clement were unable to reach consensus on the broad framework of a new bill. As I reported last week, Moore has argued for a virtual repeat of Bill C-61, with strong digital locks provisions similar to those found in the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act and a rejection of a flexible fair dealing approach. Consistent with earlier comments on the need for a forward-looking, flexible approach, Clement argued for changes from C-61.

• What a goddamned disaster. The Tories have shown — yet again — their utter contempt for public opinion and Canadian culture and small business when these present an invonvenience to more windfall profits for offshore entertainment giants.

Clip of the DayNASA Connect – WFS – Tethers (1/2/2001) 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

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.