● 04.16.15

● Links 16/4/2015: Opera for 32-bit GNU/Linux, New Chromebook Site

Posted in News Roundup at 6:46 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Bringing technology to the developing world seems to be becoming a trend lately, whether it’s the Outernet project or Google’s Loon project. A new Kickstarter campaign, Endless Computers, is now bringing an affordable machine to developing markets and doesn’t rely on the user having an internet connection or a monitor.

• Industries as diverse as finance, aviation, medicine, the military, manufacturing, and telecom are adopting real-time Linux to help control robots, data acquisition systems and other time-sensitive instruments and machines. NI’s integrated hardware and software platform, based on the NI Linux real-time OS, helps enterprises accelerate productivity and drive rapid innovation as they build these next-generation, real-time technologies, says Shelley Gretlein, director of platform software and customer education at NI.

• The Symple PC Web Workstation is a strange hybrid. It’s not new; it’s not used; nor is it refurbished — but it is all of those things. Symple PC takes discarded systems from electronics recycling centers, puts the components through rigorous testing, then reassembles them into brand spanking new mini tower cases made from 100 percent recycled vinyl. The resulting PC is new on the outside, but filled with “previously owned” guts.

• Because the computers are made from repurposed parts, they don’t all come with the same specs; buyers are guaranteed a minimum of a 2.8 GHz processor, 2 GB RAM and a 80 GB hard drive. Our test machine meets these minimum specs exactly. While gamers and bleeding edge aficionados may scoff at these numbers, they’re more than adequate for nearly any office workstation, which is their intended use.

• NCR, the country’s largest supplier of cash machines, was today due to unveil a Linux-powered cash-machine running Google’s smartphone operating system. Called Kalpana*, NCR has developed a secure, customised version of Android KitKat 4.4.4 with chip giant Intel.

Desktop

• It’s not often I get to gloat but it’s fun when it happens. This is one of those times. A few weeks ago, I wrote about GNU/Linux breaking out in French desktops.

• Chromebooks seem to have wide appeal, as you can tell from the very positive user ratings and reviews in Amazon’s list of bestselling Chromebooks. But one redditor wasn’t sure if a Chromebook was suitable for users who don’t know anything about open source or who aren’t developers.

• Google’s Chromebooks have been perennial bestsellers on Amazon, and now the company has launched a new site designed to promote Chromebooks. The new site seems focused more on touting the virtues of Chromebooks in daily life, and less on promoting tech specs.

Kernel Space

• The rebootless patching support in Linux 4.0 is the descendant of two existing proposals, kpatch (from RedHat) and kGraft (from SUSE). 1 These two descend from earlier research, by Jeff Arnold and Frans Kaashoek, on a solution called Ksplice, which was bought by Oracle in 2011.

• RED HAT has been telling The INQUIRER about its plans to integrate the latest Linux 4.0 kernel into its products.

• In a statement, a spokesman told us, “Red Hat’s upstream community projects will begin working with 4.0 almost immediately; in fact, Fedora 22 Alpha was based on the RC1 version of the 4.0 kernel.

• This past Sunday, Linus Torvalds decided to release the first stable version of the 4.x line of the Linux kernel. The new update is the first release to see a major version change since 2011 but aside from live patching it comes with relatively few features.

• The live kernel patching support was one of the big additions to what became Linux 4.0, but with Linux 4.1 there aren’t many improvements to show for the past cycle.

• Jiri Kosina of SUSE is maintaining the kernel’s livepatching code and explained in the 4.1 pull request, “These are mostly smaller things that got accumulated during the development cycle. The unified solution is still being worked on and is not mature enough for 4.1 yet.”

• The Blue Screen of Death is a common occurrence on Windows systems, less now than a few years ago, but it still happens. Seeing one on a Linux system is like spotting a unicorn, not impossible, but highly unlikely.

• If you think that Linux is still the “rebel code”—the antiestablishment, software-just-wants-to-be-free operating system developed by independent programmers working on their own time — then it’s time to think again.

• The Linux kernel is the lowest level of software running on a Linux system, charged with managing the hardware, running user programs, and maintaining security and integrity of the whole set up. What many people don’t realize is that development is now mainly carried out by a small group of paid developers.

Graphics Stack

• The Linux community’s on-again, off-again relationship with Nvidia appears to have soured once more, amid reports that the GPU maker is back to its old tricks – and worse – when it comes to open source hardware drivers.

• Nvidia does release Linux drivers for its graphics cards, but they are proprietary and ship in binary-only format, which is unacceptable for many Linux enthusiasts.

• Nvidia started to make some good progress with the Linux community, and the company invested a lot of effort into drivers for the open-source platform, not to mention the fact that they provided valuable help to the developers of the Nouveau drivers (open source). Now the company is in hot water again, and the Linux community will surely react.

Applications

• We saw many complaints in the last year from Linux users who attempted to use the Empathy multi-protocol instant messenger application that is installed by default in some popular distributions, such as Ubuntu.

• Today KDE released KDE Applications 15.04 our suite of 150 applications. Notable additions in this release include Kdenlive the leading video editor on Linux and KDE Telepathy the chat application to unify your instant messaging.

• KDE had the pleasure of announcing today, April 15, that the KDE Applications 15.04 software suite has been released, and it is now available for download on a GNU/Linux distribution near you.

• NGINX (pronounced “engine x”) is an open source, high-performance HTTP server and reverse proxy server.

• Since its public launch in 2004, NGINX has focused on high performance, high concurrency, and low memory usage. In 2011, NGINX, Inc. was formed to help develop and maintain the open source distribution, and to provide commercial subscriptions and services. In this article, I’ll provide an introduction to NGINX Open Source and NGINX Plus, and tell you how to get involved with the community.

• Samba, the world’s most used protocol for accessing shared Windows directories over the network in GNU/Linux and Mac OS X operating systems, has been updated today to version 4.2.1.

• APT (Advanced Package Tool), a set of core tools inside Debian that make it possible to install, remove, and keep applications up to date, has been upgraded to version 1.0.9.8 and is now ready for download.

• Security and privacy are the two biggest concerns in Web, right? Indeed. In this highly sophisticated technological world, security and privacy are just dreams. No one is 100% secure ever in online. But the good news is some tech enthusiasts and companies are desperately trying to develop number of software that will help us to stay safe and secure in online. And, we should appreciate them for their consistent work to keep us safe(atleast a little bit) in online. Today, we will discuss about a Web browser called “Dooble” that can be used mainly for security and privacy.

• Just two weeks after VirtualBox 5.0 showed the first signs of life, VirtualBox 5.0 Beta 2 is now available.

Proprietary

• Quick update: the Opera developers have started providing 32bit Linux binaries with the latest Opera developer 30.

• Opera Software, through Ruarí Ødegaard, announced today that the upcoming Opera 30 web browser, which is currently in the Developer channel, supports 32-bit distributions of GNU/Linux.

Instructionals/Technical

• This is the next blog post in the series where I’ll attempt to build a full multi-node kubernetes cluster from scratch.

• Google Chromecast has taken center stage in our living room. It’s the only device that’s plugged into our TV and it takes care of all our entertainment needs.

• With Chromcast, Google has changed the way we interact with our TVs, turning mobile devices into smart remotes. Chromecast also told the industry that we don’t need ‘smart TVs’ anymore. A $35 device will convert a basic HDMI enabled TV into a smart TV with a much bigger and open app ecosystem. With Chromecast, every single app that’s on my device is essentially available on my TV.

Games

• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an upcoming FPS from Square Enix and Eidos that is a direct sequel to the immensely popular Deus Ex: Human Revolution. There is a good chance that Linux users will also get a chance to play it.

• Vendetta Online is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) developed and published by Guild Software Inc. for multiple platforms, including Linux. It’s being updated all the time, and the latest patch has brought some important fixes.

• Age of Wonders III is a turn-based strategy game developed and published by Triumph Studios that has just been ported to the Linux platform.

• Following Age of Wonders III going for beta on Linux last month, today this game has been officially released for both OS X and Linux.

• It was difficult not to be ebullient on Age of Wonders 3 when it came out last year. When I think back, it actually wasn’t a half bad year for those sorts of games and it would have been even better if Civilization: Beyond Earth was the smash hit everyone wanted it to be – as opposed to the disappointment/polarising title even Firaxis has announced some degree of disappointment in.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• Yes, you read that well. I’m a hardcore Gnome user since… 2002 and I don’t really to switch to KDE/Plasma just yet. However, I just wanted to share some of my thoughts concerning Plasma, the new name of the KDE desktop. Plasma 5 is the brand new KDE desktop, coming after the KDE 4.x series and only a handful of distributions have picked up on it. As it were, you could already install and run Plasma 5 on Arch Linux since about January 2015 and a bit earlier I think but as I was reporting here, I was busy with my new laptop and getting progressively into emacs; as such I did not pay much attention to it. During FOSDEM however I noticed Plasma 5 at the KDE and OpenSuse booths and I spent a minute standing there: I really liked what I was looking at, but I was thinking that some sort of heavy theming of the KDE desktop had been going on for the event.

• KDE Plasma 5.3 is bringing better power management by allowing PM settings to be configured based upon certain activities, no longer will laptops suspend when the lid is closed and connected to an external display, support for power management inhibitions to block the lock screen, animated screen brightness changes, support for keyboard button brightness controls on the lock screen, and much more.

• Today’s release of KDE Applications 15.04 has seventy-two applications that have been ported over to KDE Frameworks 5. Among the new applications incorporated into KDE Applications 15.04 are the Kdenlive video editor, KDE Telepathy, Cantor, Kompare, and KDE Games, among others.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• The GNOME Project prepares to release the first maintenance version of their GNOME 3.16 desktop environment, which means that many core components and applications received improvements, such as GNOME Control Center.

• The GNOME Project announced recently that the first maintenance release of the GNOME Boxes 3.16 software, a machine emulator and virtualizer based on QEMU, is now available for download and will be distributed as part of the GNOME 3.16.1 desktop environment.

• The GNOME Project announced today, April 15, the immediate availability for download of new maintenance releases for its Mutter window manager and compositor used in the GNOME desktop environment.

Distributions

Reviews

• SuperX is a relatively new distro developed by Libresoft. Based on Ubuntu and Debian, it adds a highly customized KDE desktop environment. Version 3.0 — dubbed “Grace” after computing pioneer Grace Hopper — was released March 23.

• Version releases come out about every 10 months or so, but the maturity and impressive performance of this latest release makes the SuperX OS a prime replacement choice for whatever distro you now use — it is that good.

• SuperX OS should be one of the first options for anyone looking to dump Microsoft Windows. It needs almost no learning curve.

• Kubuntu 15.04, due later this month, will be the first stable release of the distro to ship with the new KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment as default.

New Releases

• Semplice Linux is Linux distribution based on Debian’s Sid branch that aims to offer users a straightforward and light experience. This is done by integrating the latest packages and by using the Openbox window manager.

• Jacque Montague Raymer, the founder and lead developer of the MakuluLinux project had the pleasure of announcing the availability of a new edition of his Ubuntu-based distribution, MakuluLinux LxFce, which combines the LXDE and Xfce desktop environments with Compiz.

Screenshots/Screencasts

Red Hat Family

• Jim Whitehurst took the reigns at Red Hat in 2007. Since then, the Raleigh, N.C.-based company has become the first billion-dollar open-source software vendor. Under Whitehurst’s management, Red Hat greatly diversified the open-source products it offers business customers beyond its well-known Linux distribution and built a vibrant channel.

• After delivering a keynote at the 2015 Red Hat Partner Conference in Orlando, Fla., last week, Red Hat’s CEO took some time to talk to CRN about the future of the open-source market, emerging technologies like OpenStack, OpenShift and Docker, and how partners can sell those technologies as enterprise-grade products.

Fedora

• We decided to do this in multiple passes, reducing the number of talks till we had a list that we were satisfied with. We started by individually scoring all of the talks and then comparing notes. This gave us an indication of talks we had full agreement over and with that out of the way, we just had to fight it out over the remaining talks. We quickly found out that this was time consuming, but there seemed to be no other way, so we stuck to it and asked for our original self-imposed deadline to be pushed over from 3rd April to 15th April.

• The Fedora Project has announced today, April 16, that the recently released Linux kernel 4.0 has been included in the default software repositories of the Fedora 22 Alpha computer operating systems.

Debian Family

• First I’ve started with Debian packages, what was quite easy as from quite complex CMake + Python package it is now purely CMake and it was mostly about removing stuff. Soon the updated Gammu package was uploaded to experimental. Once having that ready, I’ve also update the backports for Ubuntu and these are available in Gammu PPA. Creating new python-gammu package was a bit harder as this is the first Python 3 compatible package I’ve created, but it’s now ready and sitting in the NEW queue.

• It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete computer system for schools I’ve involved in, Debian Edu / Skolelinux, was being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish Agarwal.

• Senior developer Neil McGovern has been elected as the leader of the Debian GNU/Linux project for 2015-16 and will take over from Lucas Nussbaum who has just completed a two-year term in the post.

• The other two candidates in the race were Gergely Nagy and Mehdi Dogguy.

• McGovern has been with the Debian project for the last 12 years and was the release manager for the last three versions – Lenny, Squeeze and Wheezy. (Debian releases are named after characters from the film Toy Story.)

• It was a busy day for Debian today as the election for Debian Project Leader 2015 was decided. Raphaël Hertzog posted about his presentation on the Debian Long Term Support project and Richard Hartmann reported the latest bug counts standing between us and a shiny new Debian 8 release.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• As IT departments focus on OpenStack and Ubuntu together, they are also focusing on the OpenStack Interoperability Lab, which Canonical announced in 2013 and has been evolving. Now, PLUMgrid, which provides virtual network infrastructure for OpenStack clouds, has become an Ubuntu Cloud partner and a part of the Canonical OpenStack Interoperability Lab program.

• PLUMgrid Open Networking Suite (ONS) provides virtual network infrastructure including SDN and NFV based on fully distributed, programmable architecture. Deployed by enterprises and service providers, ONS delivers terabits of scale-out performance, production grade resiliency, and secure multi-tenancy for virtualized, bare metal, and container based data centers.

• Canonical has just published a fresh development version for Ubuntu Touch that’s using a Vivid base, and the devs have started to push new features updated for that branch.

• When the first Ubuntu phone launched, it was only available via limited-time “flash sales.” If you missed them, rejoice! You can now purchase an Ubuntu phone like you would any other product—if you live in the European Union, at least.

• While it is still not ready for daily usage, its developer has recently announced that the Ubuntu Touch version for OnePlus One got support for WiFi, the OTA updates feature becoming also available.

• Like the idea of a TV box that runs Android and has access to thousands of apps including Netflix, Hulu Plus, and XBMC, but don’t want to buy one unless it can also handle desktop apps like Office or LibreOffice?

• As it stands right now, it will also feature Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or Ubuntu 15.04, but a Windows options is also provided.

• Europeans can now easily get their hands on the first Ubuntu phone. Spanish mobile manufacturer BQ began limited release sales starting back in February when the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition was formally announced, but widespread volume sales in Europe began only this week for the same 169.90 Euros (This now translates to $181, down from $190 at launch.)

• I was searching the web for open source projects that featured robotics when I came across the Robot Operating System. I read their website with interest because it was the first time I had seen an open source project that was writing code specifically for robots. Better yet, they were developing this code for Ubuntu. As a long time Ubuntu user, I saw the possibilities of installing it on my own system and tinkering away.

• But Ubuntu-devel has just switched to Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet, a new Ubuntu-devel image being promoted yesterday.

• In addition to Web Apps, Canonical created another workaround to fill the gigantic ‘app-gap’. Instead of creating grids of apps to access different services or content, they created Scopes. Traditionally you open an app such as YouTube or Pandora then search for the desired track. In the Ubuntu Phone you start off with the content and then choose the right app for that media type.

Flavours and Variants

• A week ago, the Xubuntu team members were asked to vote if Xubuntu 15.10 should drop GIMP, Abiword and Gnumeric and include LibreOffice by default.

• Lightweight Ubuntu derivative Xubuntu is planning to replace the Abiword open-source word processor with LibreOffice in Xubuntu 15.10. The Xfce-powered desktop distribution also plans to do away with the GIMP image editor in this next release following Xubuntu 15.04.

• Michael P. Starkweather announced recently that his Elementary Tweaks software is now available for the elementary OS 0.3 Freya Linux operating system, which was unveiled at the end of last week.

• Elementary OS 0.3 is based on Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, uses Kernel 3.16, GTK 3+14 and Vala 0.26, has UEFI support and over 100 bug-fixes have been implemented.

• The stable version of Elementary OS freya has been released and announced by Elementary OS development team. Now, it available to download and install on your computer.

Devices/Embedded

• The new Solo from 3D Robotics is more than a drone for carrying a GoPro action camera and capturing aerial video footage. Its built-in computers offer “Smart Shots” programs for automated, professional-level cinematography. It also comes with an open application development platform so developers anywhere can build additional apps for the Solo.

• Data Modul’s MS-98F3 is the first embedded board we can recall to offer support for two different generations of Core processors. The 3.5-inch form-factor single board computer ships with a 4th Generation “Haswell” based Intel Core i3-4010U clocked at 1.7GHz, according to the product page. The press release and data sheet go on to say the SBC can handle any Haswell or 5th Gen “Broadwell” processor. The data sheet also notes the availability of a Haswell-based i5-4300U.

• Built on 1-GHz Cortex A9 ARM chips running Linux, the computers allow operators to preprogram the drone’s flight path so they can concentrate on shooting video or stills from the unmanned aircraft system and not be distracted by piloting tasks.

• The CuBox is a 2-inch cubed ARM machine that can be used as a set-top box, a small NAS or database server, or in many other interesting applications. In my ongoing comparison of ARM machines, including the BeagleBone Black, Cubieboard, and others, the CuBox has the fastest IO performance for SSD that I’ve tested so far.

• There are a few models and some ways to customize each model giving you the choice between double or quad cores, if you need 1 or 2 gigabytes of RAM, if 100 megabit ethernet is fine or you’d rather have gigabit ethernet, and if wifi and bluetooth are needed. This gives you a price range from $90 to $140 depending on which features you’re after. We’ll take a look at the CuBox i4Pro, which is the top-of-the-line model with all the bells and whistles.

Phones

Tizen

• Back in February, we told you that following the moderate success of the Samsung Z1, the first smartphone ever to arrive with Tizen OS on board, the Korean tech giant was rumored to be already working on a successor for the device.

Android

• It’s been a long time, Android fans, but one of your favorite series of recurring posts is finally back. Last year, we periodically put together lists packed with examples of great Android apps that feature functionality the iPhone simply can’t match. The iPhone is a terrific smartphone, but there are plenty of limitations in Apple’s iOS ecosystem that simply don’t exist for Android app developers, and here we can celebrate some of the apps that shine particularly bright.

• Sony Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z3 Dual users will now get a taste of the much-awaited Android 5.0 Lollipop update.

• Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop update isn’t limited to its Nexus smartphones and tablets and there’s a good chance that it will be making it to Samsung’s stable of Galaxy smartphones in the future. Today we take a look at what we know, so far, about the Samsung Galaxy Android 5.1 Lollipop update and its rumored release.

• There’s no more waiting for Android 5.1 if you’ve got a Nexus 4 or either version of the 2013 Nexus 7. Google has posted the full factory images on the dev site, meaning you can flash the new version to get up to date no matter what you’ve done to your device’s software.

• Google’s mobile operating system Android is something of a phenomenon. The platform rocketed to the top of the mobile market thanks in large part to Google’s open source model. Any vendor can use Android to power its devices for free, and companies can make all sorts of customizations to suit their needs.

• A number of companies today leverage the ubiquity of smartphones in order to offer parents “connected” baby monitoring systems that can be accessed from anywhere. Often, as with devices like NapTime or Evoz, these include a monitor and camera of some sort and an accompanying mobile app. But a startup called Dormi has historically offered a different take – instead of selling new hardware, the company allows you to re-use old Android smartphones or tablets in order to remotely monitor your baby’s room.

• The Android 5.1 rollout is probably the slowest in living memory, with some of Google’s Nexus devices still waiting for it more than a month after the official announcement of the new version.

• Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop update continues to roll out bringing a collection of feature tweaks and bug fixes to Nexus users. And as the roll out picks up speed, we continue to hear about Nexus Android 5.1 problems. With that in mind, we take an updated look at Android 5.1 Lollipop problems, fixes for those problems and more.

• Back in March Google finally announced and released the highly anticipated Android 5.1 Lollipop update for most Nexus smartphones and tablets. However, the updates have been slow to arrive for most users, and hasn’t arrived at all for others. The Nexus 9 is still stuck on Android 5.0.1, and now this week the Nexus 4 is finally getting Android 5.1 Lollipop. This guide will show you how to install the brand new Android 5.1 Lollipop update so that you can try out Google’s latest version of Android right now on your Nexus 4.

• It seems not a day goes by without another smartphone picking up its Android 5.0 update. Today sees a pair of AT&T handsets from Samsung joining the Lollipop guild.

• Google can help you find almost anything, but it’s no good if you’ve lost your smartphone – until today. The search engine now has the ability to look up your lost device directly from its homepage.

• Meerkat is now allowing Android users to sign up to get access to the beta version of the Android app, the company announced Wednesday.

• Google is deploying what it calls Trusted Voice to allow Android users to unlock phones using their voice, according to reports.

• The feature is filed under the Choc Factory’s Smart Unlock feature which sports easier unlock mechanisms like Trusted devices, places, and faces.

• When it comes to smartphones, the recent trends seem to veer towards the notion that “bigger is better.” It all started with Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. At that time, phones looked like boxes of tic-tacs compared to this giant beast they dubbed as phablet (phone/tablet).

• We have recently told you that the European Commission has officially accused Google of abusing its dominant position while its search services are concerned and also issued an antitrust probe into the Android mobile operating system.

Free Software/Open Source

• Biicode plans to progressively release every part of its codebase as part of a comprehensive open-source strategy.

• Melbourne-based software developer Halogenics is hoping within the next few months to have prototype versions of the next-generation of its Genotrack application.

• Genotrack, which helps biomedical research institutions manage animal tracking, breeding and reporting, is currently based on a classic client-server architecture.

• Genotrack 2 will be a Web application built with open source components including MongoDB for the database component and a Node.js-based application server with a Sencha Ext JS interface.

• Enterprises learned an important lesson on their way to embracing open source software: they could benefit from work that came from outside of their own rosters of employees. Now businesses are beginning to recognize that open source lessons apply beyond software development, and they are finding new ways to seek out talent beyond their walls.

• Case studies about open source project participants and users are a great way to showcase your project and how it works in the real world.

• Such studies will highlight interesting features of your software, demonstrate different (and potentially unique) ways your project is in use, and foster positive communication among members of your community.

• Case studies are also about transparency: while talking to the end user of your software, you can also learn about things that are not necessarily running smoothly in your project. And although no one loves to hear about the things that are going wrong, such feedback can also be invaluable to you and your team.

• Case studies about open source project participants and users are a great way to showcase your project and how it works in the real world.

• Such studies will highlight interesting features of your software, demonstrate different (and potentially unique) ways your project is in use, and foster positive communication among members of your community.

• Case studies are also about transparency: while talking to the end user of your software, you can also learn about things that are not necessarily running smoothly in your project. And although no one loves to hear about the things that are going wrong, such feedback can also be invaluable to you and your team.

Events

• Event started at 9 with a full house we started talks about free software, Fedora, Firefox OS, Mozilla, Docker and many other topics, we talk with students and teachers who were really into learning about Fedora and Free Software.

Web Browsers

Chrome

• In 2013, Google decreed that the longstanding Netscape Plug-in API (NPAPI), which extensions have worked with for many years, is the source of many of the problems. And, Google decreed that extensions in the Chrome Web Store would be phasing out NPAPI support. Now, the latest release of the Chrome web browser, version 42, will block Oracle’s Java plugin by default as well as other extensions that use NPAPI. Some analysts are even calling it an effor to “push Java off the web.”

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SaaS/Big Data

• “I think that doing open source work in a full committee style is often like pouring 1,000 engineers into a barrel and hoping they’ll produce the works of Shakespeare. The monkeys in the barrel just don’t manage to get it together, everybody wants to be the king and the directions and the priorities change.

• “It’s a very different situation to something like Linux, where you have a benevolent dictator Linus Torvalds controlling everything, or like Docker, where there is a corporate entity ultimately controlling the road map.”

• While Apache Spark could supplant Hadoop’s MapReduce engine, it is not yet enterprise ready, some experts say.

• Apache Spark is making headlines as potentially the next big thing in Big Data. Coverage has focused on Spark’s speed and its potential as a replacement for Hadoop’s famously difficult MapReduce engine.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• The Eötvös University and Szeged University in Hungary are increasing their use of EuroOffice and the Open Document Format (ODF), reports MultiRáció, the Budapest-based ICT firm that develops EuroOffice. Together, the two universities have about 45,000 students. In February the company signed a licence and support contract for 34,000 copies of EuroOffice.

• The Document Foundation has just released the first Release Candidate for LibreOffice 4.3.7, which is a stable and established branch of the office suite.

CMS

• On October 29, 2014, the Drupal Security Team released advisory identifier DRUPAL-PSA-2014-003. This advisory informed administrators of Drupal-based Web sites that all Drupal-based Web sites utilizing vulnerable versions of Drupal should be considered compromised if they were not patched/upgraded before 2300 UTC on October 15, 2014 (seven hours following the initial announcement of the vulnerability in SA-CORE-2014-005).

• In the case of the Drupageddon vulnerability, the database abstraction layer provided by Drupal included a function called expandArguments that was used in order to expand arrays that provide arguments to SQL queries utilized in supporting the Drupal installation. Due to the way this function was written, supplying an array with keys (rather than an array with no keys) as input to the function could be used in order to perform an SQL injection attack.

Funding

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• To compile the Hurd, you need a toolchain configured to target i?86-gnu; you cannot use a toolchain targeting GNU/Linux. Also note that you cannot run the Hurd “in isolation”: you’ll need to add further components such as the GNU Mach microkernel and the GNU C Library (glibc), to turn it into a runnable system.

• This new release bundles bug fixes and enhancements done since the last release.

Public Services/Government

• Slovakia joined the OGP project in 2011 and then published its first Action Plan for 2012-2013. Since then, the Slovakian government has implemented several measures to fight against corruption and promote transparency and eParticipation in political life: a national Open Data portal (data.gov.sk) and its “Guidelines for the involvement of the public in the creation of public policies” – to promote a participatory approach in ministries. A participatory budget has also been implemented in Bratislava, the Slovakian government said in a statement.

Openness/Sharing

• In an unexpected announcement on April 15th, Brawker shed light upon its business status alerting the community it will be closing down operations on April 31st, 2015.

Open Hardware

• John Lumley has created a very versatile open source HAT called the Hatalogico which he has designed to be used with the awesome Raspberry Pi mini PC.

• The numbers look good for a new chip on the market. Sfards looks to be working hard on optimizing the 28nm size that can translate into even better numbers when they do a die shrink for the next gen chip. Sfards is also looking into the future by working on development platforms and will be open sourcing parts of their project.

Programming

• It’s been a while since last having any major breakthroughs to talk about for the open-source Radeon Linux graphics driver stack, but steady work continues. Some recent Mesa commits to Git highlight some code generation improvements.

Leftovers

• The INQUIRER spoke recently to representatives from the NHS looking to standardise document format and compatibility across systems in the national infrastructure through Vendor Neutral Archiving, while Apple and IBM have also made significant announcements in the tech arena this week.

Culture/DRM

• Revenue from digital-music downloads and subscriptions edged out those from CDs for the first time in 2014, holding overall sales steady at about $15 billion globally, a trade group said.

• Sales of CDs and other physical formats declined 8%, to $6.82 billion, while digital revenue grew nearly 7%, to $6.85 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report on Tuesday. Each of those represented 46% of overall music revenue. The other 8% came from sources such as radio airplay and licensing songs for television shows and films.

Health/Nutrition

• Almonds: crunchy, delicious, and…the center of a nefarious plot to suck California dry? They certainly have used up a lot of ink lately—partly inspired by our reporting over the past year. California’s drought-stricken Central Valley churns out 80 percent of the globe’s almonds, and since each nut takes a gallon of water to produce, they account for close to 10 percent of the state’s annual agricultural water use—or more than what the entire population of Los Angeles and San Francisco use in a year.

Security

• For Microsoft, the vulnerabilities just keep popping up, and appear to be surfacing more quickly than ever before.

• Like last month, Microsoft issued a fairly large number of security bulletins for April Patch Tuesday—11 bulletins addressing 26 vulnerabilities. Last month brought 14 bulletins from Microsoft, covering 43 vulnerabilities.

• You don’t have to be an ICT security professional these days to know that your Internet access device at home has not the best security reputation.

• As a security measure, the new devices are laughable. The ballpark metal detectors are much more lax than the ones at an airport checkpoint. They aren’t very sensitive — people with phones and keys in their pockets are sailing through — and there are no X-ray machines. Bags get the same cursory search they’ve gotten for years. And fans wanting to avoid the detectors can opt for a “light pat-down search” instead.

Finance

• We often make assumptions about people on public assistance, about the woman in the checkout line with an EBT card, or the family who lives in public housing. We make assumptions about how they spend their resources (irresponsibly?), how they came to rely on aid (lack of hard work?), how they view their own public dependence (as a free ride rather than a humbling one?).

• We assume, at our most skeptical, that poor people need help above all because they haven’t tried to help themselves — they haven’t bothered to find work.

• Due to completely messed up U.S. tax policies, some even got a rebate check. Only small businesses pay taxes. Big companies often pay nothing at all.

• ALDI is hard at work redefining the rules of shopper engagement and, in the process, eating away at the market share of many of America’s most venerable food retailers — and food manufacturers. Through a relentless pursuit of perfecting its own store brands portfolio and unique shopping experience, ALDI has become more than a nuisance — it is a major force that is on the verge of changing the grocery retailing landscape. One should not underestimate ALDI in the U.S. market.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Julian Assange has asserted that MI5 are active against Scottish nationalists, as the independence movement is seen as a threat to the UK. Happily, Julian being Julian there is now some traction for this in the corporate media. When I posted on it last week I received nothing from the corporate media except dismissal and abuse over twitter.

Privacy

• Three cases that likely lay the groundwork for a major privacy battle at the U.S. Supreme Court are pending before federal appeals courts, whose judges are taking their time announcing whether they believe the dragnet collection of Americans’ phone records is legal.

• It’s been more than five months since the American Civil Liberties Union argued against the National Security Agency program in New York, three months since legal activist Larry Klayman defended his thus far unprecedented preliminary injunction win in Washington, D.C., and two months since Idaho nurse Anna Smith’s case was heard by appeals judges in Seattle.

• The Intelligence Billis currently being debated at a fast pace in the French National Assembly and the debates will continue until Thursday 16 April. However, both the French Government and rapporteur Urvoas refuse to hear the growing opposition pointing out the dangers of this unacceptable text. La Quadrature du Net calls on citizens to act and Members of Parliament to face their responsibilities by opposing this text altogether and mass surveillance in general.

• It struck me today that when I email a new con­tact I now reflex­ively check to see if they are using PGP encryp­tion. A hap­pily sur­pris­ing num­ber are doing so these days, but most people would prob­ably con­sider my circle of friends and acquaint­ance to be eclectic at the very least, if not down­right eccent­ric, but then that’s prob­ably why I like them.

• There are still alarm­ing num­bers who are not using PGP though, par­tic­u­larly in journ­al­ist circles, and I have to admit that when this hap­pens I do feel a tad miffed, as if some basic mod­ern cour­tesy is being breached.

• It’s not that I even expect every­body to use encryp­tion — yet — it’s just that I prefer to have the option to use it and be able to have the pri­vacy of my own com­mu­nic­a­tions at least con­sidered. After all I am old enough to remem­ber the era of let­ter writ­ing, and I always favoured a sealed envel­ope to a postcard.

• And before you all leap on me with cries of “using only PGP is no guar­an­tee of secur­ity.…” I do know that you need a suite of tools to have a fight­ing chance of real pri­vacy in this NSA-saturated age: open source soft­ware, PGP, TOR, Tails, OTR, old hard­ware, you name it. But I do think the wide-spread adop­tion of PGP sets a good example and gets more people think­ing about these wider issues. Per­haps more of us should insist on it before com­mu­nic­at­ing further.

• Doug Hughes, a 61-year-old mailman from Ruskin, told his friends he was going to do it. He was going to fly a gyrocopter through protected airspace and put it down on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol, then try to deliver 535 letters of protest to 535 members of Congress.

• The stunt seemed so outlandish that not even his closest friend thought he would pull it off.

• “My biggest fear was he was going to get killed,” said Mike Shanahan, 65, of Apollo Beach, who works with Hughes for the Postal Service.

• Mark Zuckerberg has revealed he will bring Facebook’s free internet project to Europe, saying that the service will be made available to anyone “who needs to be connected” to the web.

• Facebook’s CEO suggested in a Q&A yesterday that the company’s Internet.org project could come to Europe, but it is unlikely to happen any time soon

Civil Rights

• At best Ukip believes in a Britain which never really existed. A Britain of bland food and pale faces. A Britain where the roads are all empty, and the voices are all English.

• The North Charleston, South Carolina policeman who was filmed April 4 shooting a fleeing suspect in the back is not eligible for the death penalty, prosecutors say.

• Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson said there are no so-called “aggravating circumstances” present for the authorities to even consider the ultimate punishment for a shooting death that was viewed millions of times on social media and broadcast and cable television.

• An Arkansas lawyer representing current and former police officers in a contentious whistle-blower lawsuit is crying foul after finding three distinct pieces of malware on an external hard drive supplied by police department officials.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• The United States Telecom Association has filed a lawsuit to overturn the net neutrality rules set by the Federal Communications Commission this past February. In its Monday morning Press Release USTelecom, who represents Verizon and AT&T among others, said it filed a lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia joining a similar law suit filed by Alamo Broadband Inc.

• On Monday, the FCC’s net neutrality rules officially went into the Federal Register, which was also known as the starters’ gun for rushing to the courthouse to sue the FCC over those rules. Trade group USTelecom got there first with its filing, while a bunch of other trade groups, representing big cable companies (NCTAA), small cable companies (ACA) and big wireless companies (CTIA — ignoring the claims of its members Sprint and T-Mobile) were right behind them. Not to be left out, AT&T has also formally sued the FCC using the same basic complaint (“arbitrary and capricious, yo!”)

• Out of the many lawsuits filed this week against the Federal Communications Commission, just one came from a major Internet service provider: AT&T.

• AT&T made no secret of its opposition to the FCC’s net neutrality order, but it was reported last month that trade groups rather than individual ISPs would lead the legal fight against the FCC. That has mostly been the case so far, with AT&T but not other big ISPs like Comcast or Verizon filing suit. Lawsuits have been filed by four consortiums representing cable, wireless, and telecommunications companies. One small provider in Texas called Alamo Broadband sued the FCC as well.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

• For a few years now, folks like Michael Weinberg have been pretty vocal about warning the world not to screw up 3D printing by falling for the same copyright/patenting mistakes that are now holding back other creative industries. Trying to lock up good ideas is not a good idea. Just recently we noted how 3D printing was challenging some long held beliefs about copyright, and we shouldn’t simply fall into the old ways of doing things. At our inaugural Copia Institute summit, we had a really fascinating discussion about not letting intellectual property freakouts destroy the potential of 3D printing.

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