● 10.16.10

● Links 16/10/2010: GIMP 2.7 for Testing, Roktober Fundraiser at KDE

Posted in News Roundup at 1:37 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Linux is an excellent operating platform in automation industry due to its open-source, reliability, stability, and security.

• The more I have played with Linux and added extra features or software, the more I think, “If I had a complete melt down, how easily could I get a new system up and running the way I like it”. Happily there are some quick answers to this from a preparation point of view. Linux Mint, which remains my system of choice to date, comes with a few handy “end of the world” features. The first of which is a general backup tool to back up the contents of your Home folder.

Kernel Space

Graphics Stack

• QEMU, the processor emulator that can be used alone for running unmodified guest operating systems and can optionally take advantage of KVM (the Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for greater virtualization performance with Intel and AMD hardware, has finally reached version 0.13 after suffering from a few delays. As was reported by us back in January of this year, QEMU 0.13 would focus on bringing new features and with this release they have achieved introducing several new features.

Applications

• A software synthesizer, also known as a softsynth, is computer software which creates digital audio. Computer software that generates music is not a recent arrival. However, with processors that offer multiple cores and faster clock speeds, software synthesizers can complete tasks that previously needed dedicated hardware. The advantage, of course, of software synthesizers is that they are less expensive than dedicated hardware, and simpler to integrate with other types of music software.

• Wally is a Qt4 wallpaper / background changer, using multiple sources like files, folders, FTP remote folders, Flickr, Yahoo!, Panoramio, Pikeo, Ipernity, Photobucket, Buzznet, Picasa, Smugmug, Bing, Google, Vladstudio and deviantART images.

• The latest version of Gimp, version 2.7.1 has been released for testing purposes. Compared to its predecessors, it promises to include a host of new features that were previously unavailable. It seems that the developers of Gimp have finally started paying attention to the requests of the community about the serious need to include certain all important changes to the software, so that it can rival its nearest contender and the established benchmark in photo editing software, the almighty Photoshop from Adobe.

Instructionals/Technical

• This entire procedure takes 5 minutes or less. Try it. You might like Opera a lot.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

• October is here in all of its glory! Whether you are seeing the leaves turn or the sun coming back, it is time to celebrate Amarok. We are nearing the year’s end and are ready to sum up our efforts, while we continue to develop and Rok the World!

• Tasty Menu is a KMenu replacement aiming to provide the maximum usability, or at least to be a testbed for usability concepts and ideas for a future kmenu replacement.

• The second screenshot (on the right) shows a sepia effect on track 2. No effect was applied to the clip but since it is on track 2, the sepia effect is applied on it.

Distributions

New Releases

Red Hat Family

• The Red Hat Enterprise MRG platform includes a new Linux kernel, expanded RHEL support and improved performance.

Debian Family

Canonical/Ubuntu

• Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat: The easiest Linux, the world enters the next round. Highlights of Ubuntu 10.10, in addition to multi-touch a separate font, faster interface for netbooks and improved multimedia features.

Devices/Embedded

Sub-notebooks

• Acer has confirmed it will include both Windows and Google Android operating systems on all its future dual-core netbooks. While the idea of a twin-system machine isn’t new, this represents the biggest commitment yet by a manufacturer to the concept.

Free Software/Open Source

Databases

• The US Army is vexed by the problem of troops who become disaffected and, by extension, a risk to the operations they’re involved in. Through a DARPA-sponsored research project, the Army hopes to use big data analytics to identify individuals likely to pose a threat.

Oracle

• Microsoft attacks OpenOffice (and open-code in general) in a new testimonial-based ad

• Microsoft’s has unleashed a somewhat surprising attack ad (video) against the popular OpenOffice suite, a free, open-source product from Oracle Corp-subsidiary Sun Microsystems according to a report from Information Week.

• The commercial begins with somewhat foreboding music and the text “Considering OpenOffice? Consider this…”

• I have just started the US marketing list for LibreOffice.

CMS

Education

• A number of interesting and accessible programming languages are essentially open source projects, in which source code for interpreters and compilers in the reference implementation is available for all under an open source licence, and where the standard build of the language includes open source libraries. The most obvious examples here are of scripting languages for web based applications such as Perl, PHP and Python, which represent a way in to software development for many who may not have studied academic computing.

Semi-Open Source

• Commercial open source specialist SugarCRM has announced that it has achieved record growth in the third quarter of 2010. Discussing the announcement, SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin said, “The continued momentum we are seeing around the world is a testament to the fact that businesses of all types are demanding more flexible, intuitive and open solutions,” adding that, “Businesses are smarter than ever, and understand the value of open solutions”.

Project Releases

• While OpenShot and PiTiVi are the two currently most talked about open-source non-linear video editing systems for Linux, that’s not all there is out there. There’s also Kdenlive, Kino, an open-source Lightworks is coming soon, and then perhaps the most advanced open-source video editor of them all: Cinelerra.

Openness/Sharing

Open Access/Content

• The current debate over higher education funding in the UK ignores the crucial point that information is becoming cheaper and easier to produce, challenging the monopoly of the university in public life.

Open Hardware

• FSF license compliance engineer Brett Smith said, “Every software component needed to produce endorsable hardware is now available. We have several GNU/Linux distributions that only include free software and are completely functional on the right hardware. We have the Linux-libre kernel that does not include non-free microcode. And we have cutting-edge mobile platforms like Android and MeeGo that are based on free software.

Leftovers

• 2. Enlightenment E17 libraries reach beta. After ten years and several rewrites later of being defined as “alpha” software, E17 has finally reached a beta stage. It is yet to be seen if we will see a 1.0 release any time soon, but for the time being a beta release is a step in the right direction. If you would like to easily check out the E17 beta, take a peek at my Ubuntu E17 LiveDVD.

• Twitter was valued at one billion dollars in its last round of financing, but we believe it may in fact be severely undervalued relative to Facebook because Twitter’s value proposition is less obvious.

Science

• If you are a science scholar, you hope that all scientific articles that you read are grounded in fact. There is a lot of background information to guide you, including statistical data on what professional journals are read widely, with papers therein that produce citations by other subsequent papers and in general, influence the direction of forthcoming new science. As scholars publishing in professional journals, we are schooled in the importance of factual reliability and impact of articles we read in science journals. In terms of impact, we know of various collective valuations of journals through metrics like the so-called “Impact Factor”. By extension, editors and reviewers reinforce the meaningfulness of Impact Factors by explicit attention to the reliability of submitted articles; if the Scientific Method has not been adequately followed, then there should be a downwardly adjusted evaluation of impact. The picture of scientifically grounded innovations feeding progress in science is well established. I firmly believe that this system has served science well and that the scientific literature has provided generally reliable information and vast benefits to society over the centuries to the present and will continue doing so into the future.

Security

Defence/Police/Aggression

• The outlines of the situation are plain enough. Before the current economic crisis began, even before the Twin Towers fell, the MoD’s plans for buying equipment had been allowed to escalate out of control. In essence, more expensive things were scheduled into the kit programme than the budget had provided for. This situation developed a full decade ago following many ruinous decisions taken in the 1980s and 90s. The current government’s vehement assertions that the whole mess is Labour’s fault are quite untrue – the previous generation of Tories should shoulder an equal share of the blame.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• From beaches in South Africa where penguins were rescued, to parks in Moscow, where 3,000 kg of acorns were collected to replant trees in forests devastated by fires this summer, thousands of people got to work yesterday to stop climate change.

• As part of our campaign to save the oceans, Princes tuna, an industry leader in canned tuna products, has been receiving thousands of emails from people around the world raising questions about the sustainability of their tuna. Princes uses tuna fished with unselective methods that end up taking many sharks, turtles, skates, rays and often young tuna. So in addition to threatening endangered wildlife – Princes are also preventing the proper recovery of the fish stocks that they rely on.

• The ASA ruled, in March of this year, that the ad was OK to air, dismissing claims that the ad was misleading because it presented human induced climate change as a fact, and had exaggerated the possible effects of climate change on the UK with its depiction of “strange weather and flooding”.

Finance

• Quantitative Easing, or QE, is a powerful monetary tool available to central agencies under fiat money systems. It is the art of “printing money” to buy assets. This creates asset inflation.

• The FED has done a first round of QE in march of 08, stabilizing the markets and sparking a market rally the likes of which not seen since the great depression. The FED has recently hinted it would do QE2.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• A high-profile and widely respected security expert is not pleased with Facebook. Indeed, Bruce Schneier said earlier today at the RSA Security Europe Conference that he believes Facebook is the worst social network when it comes to respecting individuals’ privacy.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Heads up to anyone who wants to borrow “There’s an app for that” or some variation thereon as an advertising slogan: Apple now officially owns the trademark on the phrase. Using it will cost you.

Copyrights

• The Pirate Bay appeal hearing ended today, but the court’s verdict won’t be revealed until 26 November.

• Officials at the Svea Court of Appeal in Stockholm, Sweden, have confirmed that a separate hearing will take place for a defendant who has been absent during the re-trial.

• Hacktivists used DNS cache poisoning to deface an MPAA website, according to security analysts.

• The European Commission has approved a French scheme to subsidise music downloads for 15-25 year olds. The taxpayer will contribute €25 per user per year to every “Carte Musique” cardholder, which entitles the user to €50 worth of downloads. The cardholder will stump up the other half of the cost of the card.

• Some of the top web companies in Russia have published an open letter to the entertainment industries demanding that they stop blaming them for Internet piracy. Google, Vkontakte, Mail.ru and two leading search engines say that the responsibility for infringements lies with their users and are asking that legal action be directed at them. They are also urging lawmakers to update an outdated legal framework.

• Communications regulator Ofcom UK has confirmed that its final Code of Practice for tackling “illegal” internet P2P (File Sharing) copyright infringement by customers of UK broadband providers, which is a requirement of the controversial Digital Economy Act 2010 (DEA), should be published sometime in “the next few weeks”.

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