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Boycott Novell

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Exploring the reality behind exclusionary deals with Microsoft and their subtle (yet severe) implications
URL: http://boycottnovell.com
Updated: 1 hour 23 min ago

Links 18/3/2010: Steam and Linux; Red Hat’s CEO Talks

7 hours 50 min ago

Contents GNU/Linux
  • Podcast Season 2 Episode 4

    In this episode: Gnome’s Guadec and KDE’s Akademy are getting back together in 2011, and they’re looking for a venue, while Canonical unveils a major rebranding for Ubuntu 10.04. We reveal which presenter had the most SUSE Studio downloads and report back on our time spent with Ubuntu 4.10.

  • FUD
    • Thinking about “Asking the hard questions about open source software”

      I’m very aware of the FUD that was thrown at open source software and especially Linux in the last decade, though I think we’ve gotten the right facts by now. Therefore I’ve tried to be very careful in the tone of the presentation to be constructive while realistic about adopting open source software.

    • My OSBC 2010 keynote

      This morning I gave a keynote called “Asking the Hard Questions about Open Source Software” at the OSBC 2010 conference in San Francisco.

    • Designing a Secure Linux System

      Bruce Schneier’s blog post about the Mariposa Botnet has an interesting discussion in the comments about how to make a secure system [1]. Note that the threat is considered to be remote attackers, that means viruses and trojan horses – which includes infected files run from USB devices (IE you aren’t safe just because you aren’t on the Internet). The threat we are considering is not people who can replace hardware in the computer (people who have physical access to it which includes people who have access to where it is located or who are employed to repair it). This is the most common case, the risk involved in stealing a typical PC is far greater than the whatever benefit might be obtained from the data on it – a typical computer user is at risk of theft only for the resale value of a second-hand computer.

    • 2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors

      The 2010 CWE/SANS Top 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors is a list of the most widespread and critical programming errors that can lead to serious software vulnerabilities. They are often easy to find, and easy to exploit. They are dangerous because they will frequently allow attackers to completely take over the software, steal data, or prevent the software from working at all.

  • Desktop
    • Desktop GNU/Linux

      Desktop GNU/Linux is happening whether on clients thick or thin or on servers. Repeating the same old drivel that GNU/Linux has no share and never will is tiresome and wrong. It could be that certain niches will stick with M$. It is those who are becoming irrelevant. GNU/Linux is mainstream and growing more rapidly daily on both server and desktop. Last time I looked, that other OS was still losing share in the top server hosting companies.

  • Kernel Space
    • A Tale of 20 Interns, 1 Project and 1 Fiery ‘Mythical Man-Month’ Debate

      The story was told by Greg Price on the Ksplice blog just over a week ago. Said tale involves an impending product launch, a list of critical engineering projects, and not enough time.

    • How to quadruple your productivity with an army of student interns

      Startup companies are always hunting for ways to accomplish as much as possible with what they have available. Last December we realized that we had a growing queue of important engineering projects outside of our core technology that our team didn’t have the time to finish anytime soon. To make matters worse, we wanted the projects completed right away, in time for our planned product launch in early February.

  • Applications
    • winetricks 20100316 released
    • IO Profiling of Applications: MPI Apps
    • TerminalRun Firefox Addon Allows You To Run Shell Commands From Websites Via Right Click [Linux]

      TerminalRun and FoxRunner are two similar Firefox extensions for running a command from a website in a terminal. Because FoxRunner didn’t work for me (but it seems to be working for most people so you can try it if you want), I’ll review TerminalRun.

    • Shotwell 0.5 (Gnome Photo Manager) Has Been Released

      That makes Shotwell the only Gnome photo manager which supports exporting photos to all of the 3 services: PicasaWeb, Flickr and Facebook.

    • Applications and bundled libraries

      Package installation for Linux distributions has traditionally separated libraries and application binaries into different packages, so that only one version of a library would be installed and it would be shared by applications that use it. Other operating systems (e.g. Windows, MacOS X) often bundle a particular version of a library with each application, which can lead to many copies and versions of the same library co-existing on the system. While each model has its advocates, the Linux method is seen by many as superior because a security fix in a particular commonly-used library doesn’t require updating multiple different applications—not to mention the space savings. But, it would seem that both Mozilla and Google may be causing distributions to switch to library-bundling mode in order to support the Firefox and Chromium web browsers.

    • Claws Mail: Mail with Attitude

      Want to take full control of your email? Tired of the limitations of Webmail, or GUI clients that are designed for users who only get a handful of emails every day. It’s time to bring out the heavy guns and start using Claws.

    • Psi Is A Feature-Rich Jabber Instant Messaging Client For Windows, Linux And Mac OS X

      Jabber, also known as XMPP, is used by Google Talk, LiveJournal, Portugal Telecom and Facebook also recently allows you to chat using XMPP.

    • Snap Spiffy Linux Screenshots with Shutter

      Snapping a quick screenshot is a capability you get out of the box with most current Linux distributions. Hit the Print Screen function key, and you should see a dialog box pop up with a capture of your entire screen. For GNOME users this typically launches gnome-screenshot while Kde will bring up Ksnapshot. Both tools are similar in functionality and get the basic job accomplished.

    • Instructionals
    • Games
      • When Will Steam Come to Linux?

        I know that there are those who will argue that Linux isn’t worth supporting, but I disagree. It’s been a travesty and grave injustice for Linux to be almost totally locked out of the computer gaming market thanks to Microsoft pushing its proprietary junk and deliberately locking game vendors into Windows, and the laziness of game companies that can’t be bothered to support multiple platforms.

        The lack of games for Linux (and also Mac OS X) has worked to Microsoft’s advantage by making Windows the platform for computer gaming. That’s great if you’re a Microsoft shareholder or employee, but it’s very bad if you believe in choice when it comes to computer operating systems.

        Gaming companies need to abandon DirectX as quickly as possible and move to OpenGL instead.

  • K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)
    • MagicFolder in KDE4: Plasmoid Now, but what is the future?

      True story: last night I was thinking about how great a Magical ~/Downloads/ folder would be, so that downloaded PDFs, videos, documents, whatever would automatically get moved into my ~/Documents/ and my ~/Music/ and my other folders. I thought, hmm maybe I’ll make a wish on http://bugs.kde.org/ for something like that. Granted, not everyone wants it as their Downloads/ folder (and not everyone even has that; Iceweasel and Firefox set it up in 3.5 and beyond and I don’t know if Konqueror, ReKonq, or Aurora even use it). But it was an interesting idea.

  • Distributions
    • Red Hat Family
      • Red Hat CEO Says Innovation Trumps Cost Savings

        The economy may still be in the doldrums, but Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said pitching the cost savings of open source software doesn’t necessarily seal the deal with enterprise customers as it once may have.

      • The clouding of open source and virtualization

        In fact, the cloud has largely displaced open source as the “next big thing” in the enterprise computing landscape, but it’s important to recognize that open source provides much of the underlying software infrastructure for the majority of commercial public clouds.

        In a press meeting Wednesday, Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst and vice president of corporate development Mike Evans discussed how open source is at the basis of cloud computing and how an open architecture and layered approach to infrastructure is the best path forward.

      • Fedora
        • Fedora 13 Alpha Now Available, What are the features??
        • Berry Linux 1.01 Is Based on Fedora 12

          Berry Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution based on Fedora and aimed mostly at the Japanese market. The latest update, Berry Linux 1.01, is based on the latest stable release, Fedora 12, and comes with updated packages, especially the very latest stable versions. It uses a customized KDE 4 environment, the latest version plucked from Fedora 12, KDE 4.4.0. Both Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird are now at the newest versions and the Microsoft Windows networking suite Samba has also been updated.

    • Ubuntu
      • Ubuntu prerelease testing made easy with TestDrive

        Canonical’s Jorge Castro recently introduced me to a nifty tool called TestDrive that simplifies the setup process by automatically downloading the ISO and configuring a VM. TestDrive provides a simple command-line tool that allows you to select which ISO image you want to test. It will download the image and then configure and launch a VM. The real win is that it caches the ISO images and uses rsync to update the parts that have changed so that you don’t have to download the whole ISO again every time you want to test a new daily build.

      • Ubuntu 10.04 Reads File Sizes Differently
      • BitNami adds Ubuntu to the Stacks

        Want to run WordPress, Drupal, or whip up a DJango instance on Ubuntu without all the hassle of configuring an operating system and support stack? Now you can. BitNami has added the most recent release of Ubuntu to its virtual appliance stacks.

      • Variants
        • Greenie Linux: A distribution for ALL users

          PeterB was right. Greenie Linux is one outstanding distribution. All you have to do is get beyond the language barrier (by simply installing the distro) and you will find a flavor of Linux that has something for just about everyone. Give this distribution a try. You won’t be disappointed.

  • Devices/Embedded
    • Phones
      • Smart phones get their smarts from open source

        My blogomaniac buddy Alan Shimel recently posted a piece arguing that Android, the open source darling of the mobile world, looks pretty small against the elephantine overall mobile market whichodence-droid comprises mostly un-smart phones. Despite that, he points out that recently open sourced Symbian “is a major force in the traditional handset OS market.” Substantiating the point, Tony Bradley writes for PC world, “Symbian has nearly as much market share as the rest of its competitors combined–including the iPhone, with more than 330 million Symbian smartphones in use.”

      • Google Denied Trademark for ‘Nexus One’

        Google’s attempt to trademark the term “Nexus One” for its Android smartphone has been rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as it was deemed too similar to a related term.

Free Software/Open Source
  • Mozilla
  • Databases
  • OpenOffice.org
    • OpenOffice.org Project of the Month: the Irish community

      Recently at OpenOffice.org we have decided to give more highlight to our many native-language communities, who are in charge not just of localization, but also QA, users support, documentation translation and marketing. Each month, we will interview teams, blog about it, include it in the OpenOffice.org, newsletter, etc. This month, we start with the Irish native-language project, lead by Kevin Scannell. You can find more about the Irish language here.

    • Cool OpenOffice.org Easter Eggs

      Since it’s almost Easter Sunday, I will be sharing with you several cool virtual Easter eggs hidden inside some of our favorite software applications. Today, we will take a look at some Easter eggs inside OpenOffice.org so get ready to have fun or be amused.

  • Business
    • Should You Customize Open Source ERP?

      I could reinvent the wheel here, but there’s no point. The best post that I have seen on this comes from my friend, John Henley of Decision Analytics. Henley details some advantages to customizing an application. They include:

      * Core competencies
      * Your other front/back-office systems require it
      * You want additional fields and/or different field sizes
      * Regulatory requirements

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU
    • Open Ballot: would you hire the FSF for the role of Linux PR department?

      The Free Software Foundation has always done a great job defending the various free software licences, promoting their use, and asking for Linux to be referred to as GNU/Linux.

    • Send us your questions for new W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe

      I had the opportunity earlier this week to sit down with Jeff and discuss with him his appointment and learn a little more about the work of W3C and his plans for the coming year. Jeff talked about the importance of W3C’s Royalty-Free Patent Policy and we discussed how the free software community could participate in and follow the work of W3C. He stated that he wanted to “make sure that free software advocates view W3C — which has spearheaded the removal of patent royalties from standards — as a great place to participate.”

    • Interview: Eben Moglen – Freedom vs. The Cloud Log

      Free software has won: practically all of the biggest and most exciting Web companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter run on it. But it is also in danger of losing, because those same services now represent a huge threat to our freedom as a result of the vast stores of information they hold about us, and the in-depth surveillance that implies.

      Better than almost anyone, Eben Moglen knows what’s at stake. He was General Counsel of the Free Software Foundation for 13 years, and helped draft several versions of the GNU GPL. As well as being Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, he is the Founding Director of the Software Freedom Law Center. And he has an ambitious plan to save us from those seductive but freedom-threatening Web service companies. He explained to Glyn Moody what the problem is, and how we can fix it.

    • Categories of Free and Non-Free Software

      Free software is software that comes with permission for anyone to use, copy, and distribute, either verbatim or with modifications, either gratis or for a fee. In particular, this means that source code must be available. “If it’s not source, it’s not software.”

  • Government
    • Government Agencies Have a Way to Go on Open Government

      It’s only appropriate then, that during Sunshine Week, the National Security Archive would check on how various agencies have responded to Freedom of Information Act requests in the last year. Sunshine Week, according to the organization’s Web site, is a national initiative established to focus on the importance of open government and the freedom of information.

    • PROMISES, PROMISES: Records not so open with Obama

      One year into its promise of greater government transparency, the Obama administration is more often citing exceptions to the nation’s open records law to withhold federal records even as the number of requests for information declines, according to a review by The Associated Press of agency audits about the Freedom of Information Act.

    • Wiring Up The Big Brother Machine… And Fighting It

      Indeed, as ABC’s Nightline revealed much later, both Negroponte and National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden pressured the LA Times to kill the story. And when Klein told his story to CBS’s 60 Minutes, they too eventually killed the story without explanation.

      In the end, of course, Klein’s evidence became the backbone of EFF’s lawsuit against AT&T for their complicity in illegal government spying. Originally ignored by Senators and newspapers alike, his evidence was ultimately so damning that it could only be defeated by an unprecedented “telco immunity” law pushed by the Bush White House and passed by the US Congress amidst a massive public controversy. EFF then relied on Klein’s evidence for a case against the government, which has been met with fierce resistance by the Obama Administration.

    • BE: Minister: “Open source prevents monopolies, increases innovation”

      “Open source prevents monopolies, helps to share knowledge and increases social innovation”, says Vincent Van Quickenborne, Belgium’s minister for the Simplification of the Administration. He expects that public administrations will increasingly turn to this type of software, in part because it helps to cut costs.

      With his talk, minister Van Quickenborne opened a workshop on free software for public administrations, organised by the ministry of Economics in Brussels, on Friday 12 March.

  • Openness
    • Fun with free maps on the free desktop

      Playing with open map data can be a fun pastime. Creating and editing open data can be not only fun, but also a boost for free data to go along with free software. Whether you want to view open map data or edit it, there’s no shortage of applications that run on Linux and work well with OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. Here’s a look at some useful mapping applications for displaying and editing open map data on the Linux desktop.

  • Programming
    • Ruby 1.9.2 expected in August

      According to a new schedule, the next version of the dynamic Ruby 1.9.2 scripting language will probably be released in mid August. While previous plans were for a final release by last December, the developers wanted to ensure that the new version passed the RubySpec tests. Eventually this lead to the release being postponed. Ruby 1.9.2dev has now passed all the relevant tests.

    • Qt 4.7 debuts QML for declarative UI development

      The Qt developers have announced a technical preview for QT 4.7, the cross platform C++ framework for GUI applications. According to the developers, the pre-release is not suitable for production use, but will give a good idea of how they plan to enhance the framework. According to the developers, the final release of Qt 4.7 will be around the middle of the year.

  • Standards/Consortia
    • Liberate your documents.

      There are several more ideas on the site and ways to support the organizers of the event itself. So, if you’re one of the millions of people who would actually like others to be able to open the documents you send them, visit the Document Freedom Day website for more info and start working on your DFD project. You’ve got two weeks! Feel free to share your DFD ideas below.

Leftovers
  • Crime
    • Two Muslim men charged over alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks

      Two Muslim men were charged last night in the Irish Republic in connection with an alleged plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, whose artwork outraged many Muslims after he depicted the Prophet Muhammad’s head on the body of a dog in 2007.

    • Death in Juarez

      To address the violence, decriminalization has to encompass not just possession for personal use (a policy that Mexico and several U.S. states have adopted in limited ways) but production and distribution as well. During alcohol prohibition—when the U.S. homicide rate rose by 43 percent, peaking the year of repeal—there were no criminal penalties for drinking. Yet by making it illegal to manufacture and sell alcohol, the government invited the likes of Al Capone to vie for control of a lucrative black market, with predictably violent results. Once alcohol was legalized, the business was no longer run by criminals, and liquor suppliers stopped shooting at each other.

    • Property Outlaws: important scholarly book on how breaking property law improves it

      Eduardo Penalver and Sonia Katyal’s Property Outlaws: How Squatters, Pirates, and Protesters Improve the Law of Ownership has been at the top of my discretionary reading pile for months, now ever since the publisher, Yale, sent me a review copy. Unfortunately, it’s been months since I’ve done any substantial discretionary reading and it’ll be months still before I get to do so. So yesterday, I just carved out 45 minutes to give it a good, thorough skim, and while I don’t have enough of the book in me to do an actual review, I can tell you that my suspicions were confirmed.

  • Security
    • Man thrown off train for writing Killers song titles on list

      A 25-year-old man was asked to leave a train after staff became concerned when he wrote song titles by bands including The Killers on a piece of paper.

    • Schoolchildren ‘routinely monitored’ by CCTV

      As many as 85 per cent of teachers have reported the use of CCTV in their schools and one-in-10 said cameras had even been placed in toilets.

      According to the study, some schools are also using other techniques such as fingerprinting, metal detectors, electronic identity cards, eye scanners and facial recognition systems.

      Research funded by Salford University said that schools were increasingly becoming a “hotbed for surveillance practices” in the UK as children were subjected to checks for often mundane reasons such as borrowing a book from a library or paying for lunch.

      But Dr Emmeline Taylor also suggested many schools were collecting CCTV images illegally by failing to inform pupils and visitors that they were being monitored under the Data Protection Act.

    • Residents to monitor CCTV in Sussex

      Sussex Police will be the first force in the country to have members of the public monitoring its CCTV.

      Twelve independent, fully trained and vetted volunteers will visit each police CCTV monitoring centre in Sussex once a month to look at the usage of more than 400 council-owned cameras.

      Currently, 400 cameras stream live to bases in Brighton and Haywards Heath and can be searched from police stations around the county.

    • Expertise and Influence in Military Policy

      To effectively oversee a massive, complex institution like the US military, you need a massive, hierarchical institution composed of people whose job it is to understand that institution. The military itself has an officer’s corps that performs this function. No other institution, inside or outside the government, has the capacity to understand military operations in anything close to their full detail.

      [...]

      Similarly, last year the New York Times documented that the “military analysts” you see on cable TV programs tend to have close (and almost always undisclosed) ties to the Pentagon. The tricky thing about this is that it may very well be true that these folks are the most knowledgeable about military strategy. What better way to become an expert than to work in the military for decades? But at the same time, if you want impartial analysis of current policy, you don’t want all of your experts to be people with close ties to the people running that policy.

    • Liz Cheney Steals a Page from McCarthyism

      Innocent until proven guilty is a founding principle of our criminal justice system. This principle has also been codified in the U.S. Constitution via the 6th Amendment, providing the right to adequate counsel to all individuals accused of a crime. Last week, Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol launched an attack on individuals who undertook the enormously difficult task of upholding justice when they represented Guantanamo detainees. In the advertisement by a new entity named “Keep America Safe,” Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol question the loyalty of Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers who had previously represented Guantanamo detainees in order to defend U.S. legal obligations under the Constitution and treaties we have ratified.

    • Restaurant boss put in prison for stopping yobs

      Sal Miah, 35, heard a noise in the cellar and when he investigated he saw two teenagers who fled but he pursued them to a park and dragged them back to the restaurant.

    • Knowledge Was Power in Vietnam

      In the last few posts in my Vietnam series, I argued that American foreign policy was crippled by the fact that senior officials were fed a steady stream of misinformation. Positive news about the war flowed easily up the chain of command and reached the Secretary of Defense and the President. Negative information, in contrast, was systematically filtered out by the official reporting channels. As a consequence, senior officials were working with a limited and distorted view of the “facts on the ground.”

    • Council bans ice cream vans from trading outside schools because they ‘encourage unhealthy eating’

      The jingle of the ice cream van tells schoolchildren summer is on the way.

      But the traditional treat has been banned by one council, which claims they encourage unhealthy eating.

    • As Body Scanners are introduced, more and more issues arise

      Body scan Our position on body scanners has been made clear on this site several times. They’re an intrusive and unnecessary over-reaction to a threat (the Christmas Bomber) which could and should have been picked up using the intelligence available at the time – competent use of existing resources, not throwing money at new ones to be run by the same people whose incompetence led to the problem in the first place.

    • Free yourself from the Database

      I thoroughly recoomend you all opt out of the NHS Summary Care Record Database.

    • Clarence Page: Expanding the DNA database is a bad idea

      As if President Barack Obama didn’t have enough on his platter, he’s calling for people accused of crimes to have their DNA samples collected and stored in a national database, whether they’re convicted or not. He’s a brave man to open that can of worms.

  • Finance
    • Financial Titans ‘Tweaked’ Business Models to Buoy Recession

      Analysts from the world over agree that today’s economic instability and resulting write-downs proved the most serious threat to the financial services organizations, and is by far the most prolonged crisis since the 1930s. The downturn continues to contaminate more sections of the markets, driving most companies to re-evaluate their strategic moves or risk bankruptcy. Equity values have become more volatile. Financial products and services are falling back in its demand amid the accelerating slowdown in the global economy leading to a dip in the business and consumer confidence.

    • Dodd’s Financial Overhaul Plan Said to Transform Fed Powers

      Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd will unveil financial-regulation legislation that may create a consumer division at the Federal Reserve with power to write rules that could be overturned by a systemic-risk council, according to a Senate aide with knowledge of the plan.

    • When the Patina Fades… The Rise and Fall of Goldman Sachs???

      I have warned my readers about following myths and legends versus reality and facts several times in the past, particularly as it applies to Goldman Sachs and what I have coined “Name Brand Investing”.

    • Goldman loses bid to exclude pay from proxy vote

      Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) has lost its bid to exclude a proposal on executive pay from its upcoming annual proxy filing, according to a response from U.S. securities regulators.

    • Mario Draghi and Goldman Sachs, Again

      We agree that he joined Goldman only in January 2002 (this was in our original post). But the latest revelations regarding the Goldman-Greece relationship (on the Senate floor, no less) clearly indicate that Goldman was a lead manager of Greek debt issues in spring 2002, i.e., when Mr. Draghi was on board.

    • What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it

      In its previous response to us, the the Bank of Italy pointed out that Mario Draghi (its current governor) did not join the management of Goldman Sachs until 2002 – hence he was not there when the controversial Greek “debt swaps” were arranged.

    • Feldstein and Goldman Sachs: Making a case for the euro

      The Sunday Telegraph also reported the European Union (EU) nations were preparing a “bailout package” for Greece that could exceed $34.4 billion as early as Monday the 15th, with Germany and France the main cash backers.

    • Financial reform–Real or fanciful?

      Two articles in the New York Times today point up the need for financial sector reform and the problems doing it.

    • At Lehman, Watchdogs Saw It All

      Lehman Brothers executives weren’t the only ones in the building when they were moving billions of dollars in liabilities off their books at the end of each quarter with magic accounting. So were the Feds, The New York Times’s Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in his latest DealBook column.

    • Update on UK Gov’s Institutional Profligacy
    • U.S. Chamber Plans $3M Ad Blitz Vs. Dodd Bill

      Congress Daily reported today that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it would spend at least $3 million in a multi-state TV ad buy opposing Senate Banking Chairman Christopher Dodd’s (D-CN) bill to revamp the financial regulatory system. David Hirschmann, President of the Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness, said his organization would spend the money as the bill gets ready to be marked up and voted upon in the Senate Banking Committee next week.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
    • Google.cn No Longer Filtered?

      Though Google is denying anything about its processes have changed, MSNBC.com reported Tuesday that searches on subjects that had been blocked as objectionable are yielding results. For example, searches on “Tiananmen Square massacre,” “Xinijang independence,” and “Tibet Information Network” all returned results. They would not have returned results before.

    • Australia on internet watchlist with Iran, North Korea

      Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of “refused classification” websites for all Australians.

    • Social media privacy: Insurance companies want access to your Facebook

      Any town U.S.A. You walk into a store and notice someone you recognize, from Facebook. But you really don’t know the individual; only online have you “met” that person. You have shared a note, or played a game on Facebook, Myspace, or other media website. You can choose to say hello or ignore them. That choice is up to you.

    • Eleventh Circuit Decision Largely Eliminates Fourth Amendment Protection in E-Mail

      Last Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit handed down a Fourth Amendment case, Rehberg v. Paulk, that takes a very narrow view of how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. The Eleventh Circuit held that constitutional protection in stored copies of e-mail held by third parties disappears as soon as any copy of the communication is delivered. Under this new decision, if the government wants get your e-mails, the Fourth Amendment lets the government go to your ISP, wait the seconds it normally takes for the e-mail to be delivered, and then run off copies of your messages.

    • Wikileaks leaks classified intelligence report about itself

      Wikileaks, a website that aims to boost government transparency and accountability by publishing sensitive documents, has released a classified military counterintelligence analysis report that discusses the “threat posed to the US Army” by Wikileaks itself.

    • Apparently, Citizens United doesn’t believe in free speech for the anti-corporate side

      Citizens United, fresh from its Supreme Court victory giving corporations the right to bankroll election campaigns, has sent a trademark demand letter to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, complaining that a Facebook page entitled “Citizens United Against Citizens United” infringes its trademark. Apparently, Citizens United is worried that members of the public might come to the page and think that the organization “Citizens United” is attacking Citizens United, the landmark Supreme Court decision that it won.

    • Queens accountant sues Craiglist for allowing poster to insult him

      An angry Queens accountant has done the math: Craigslist plus an insult equals $1 million.

      Leo Kehoe, 43, is suing the online bulletin board for allowing someone to call him a nasty name.

    • Reporting On Someone Claiming An Opponent ‘Lies’ In A Heated Debate Is Not Libel

      Reporter Amy Wallace wrote an article late last year for Wired Magazine about the extremely heated and somewhat controversial debate over child vaccinations. In the course of the article, she quotes people from both sides. At one point, when one of the main doctors who supports vaccinations discusses the woman who has become the face (and voice) of the anti-vaccination crew, he responds to some of her claims by noting “she lies.” Apparently, those two words resulted in her filing a defamation lawsuit against the doctor and the reporter, Amy Wallace.

  • DRM
    • Support Of Bigpond Music Wma Downloads & Drm Licence Keys To Be Discontinued

      This means you will no longer be able to download replacement Digital Rights Management (DRM) ‘unlock’ licence keys for the WMA files you’ve bought from us is in the past – so you should back up your music and DRM licence keys now.

      Any MP3 files you’ve downloaded from BigPond Music will not be affected.

    • How to get DRM-free PC games: Just wait

      Gamers have long known that patience is rewarded with cheaper, less-buggy games. But does that adage hold true for the inclusion of digital rights management as well? Not always, but history does show us that time makes even the strictest of DRM less sucky.

    • DRM: Or temporary DRM

      I’ve always thought that in a copyright free world (and de facto that is our online world now – whatever they law may proclaim) DRM had a role to play. Not the role of permanently putting content under lock and key – that isn’t feasible. But it is possible to use DRM on a short-term basis for new releases to give some short-term monopoly power – and this might provide some useful incentive for creation, while being largely self-limiting. By unlocking the content after a brief period of initial sales the incentive to crack the DRM is greatly reduced, while from a revenue point of view, most of the money is from the initial sales anyway.

  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights
    • How The Concept of Free Can Work For Small Publishers

      Much of the talk by the big 6 publishers has been stress over cannibalization of print sales, or the idea of replacement sales, by ebooks. For midlist publishers such as ourselves, I believe we fight against substitution. We capture the “browser” market. If our title is not available or visible, a customer will simply substitute for another one in the genre. Free gave us the visibility that we could not purchase.

    • UK’s Times Online Starts Blocking Aggregators Hours After Aggregators Win Copyright Tribunal Ruling Against Newspapers

      There’s been something of a battle going on in the UK over news aggregators. Obviously, we’ve all heard about the various threats by companies like News Corp. in the US to sue Google over its Google News product, but a lot of this has already been playing out on a smaller scale in the UK. Last year we wrote about newspapers in the UK threatening aggregators like NewsNow, leading some to start blocking NewsNow crawlers. This is silly in the extreme. These aggregators offer links to the news. The “issue” with NewsNow is that it sells this as a service to companies — and the newspapers claim they deserve a cut. Note that NewsNow provides just a link and a headline and the tiniest of blurbs. It’s much less than even Google News provides. The newspapers seem to think that no one can profit from advertising their own stories unless they get a direct cut.

    • Steve Albini Explains Why Royalties Don’t Make Sense

      Albini recently made at a conference about the music business, with a great quote about the focus of so many on royalties:

      “Royalties are a means to pay producers in the future — and in perpetuity — based on record sales,” said Albini, who is also a music journalist. “If a band does a show, blows a whole bunch of minds and a bunch of people become fans and go out and buy millions of records, the producer gets paid. I think that’s ethically unsustainable.

      “I don’t think you should pay a doctor extra because a patient doesn’t die. I think the doctor should be busting his ass for every patient. I don’t think I should get paid for someone else’s success.”

    • As Expected, Ridiculous, Wrong, Exaggerating And Misleading Report Claims That ‘Piracy’ Is Killing Jobs

      As was leaked earlier this week, a study paid for by the International Chamber of Commerce has come out with ridiculously misleading and misguided report about how “piracy” is killing jobs all through Europe. The tagline is that it’s “costing” 1.2 million jobs and about $330 million. And, of course, that sort of report is the kind that the press loves, and so we get a series of headlines:

      * Net piracy puts 1.2m EU jobs in peril, study shows
      * Internet piracy taking big toll on jobs
      * Illegal-file sharing could ‘cost billions’ by 2015
      * Piracy threatens Europe’s creative industries
      * EU must take ‘urgent’ action on piracy, report warns

      And on and on and on and on. Of course, it’s not even close to true. The real story is that for certain companies who refuse to adapt and refuse to embrace what consumers want and what technology allows, modern technology will cause them to fail. However, at the same time, it has already opened up new opportunities and created new jobs while making it easier and more efficient to create, promote, distribute and consume content. Somehow, however, none of that seems to show up in these studies.

    • Interview: Nina Paley (author of “Sita Sings the Blues” and the two “Minute Meme” animations)

      Her current project — recently funded — has been to produce “Minute Memes.” These are short animated films which promote free culture ways of thinking about copyright, specifically intended to counter propaganda from industry copyright maximalists like the MPAA and the RIAA.

    • Angus Introducing Private Copying Levy Bill, Flexible Fair Dealing Motion

      Second, the bill expands the levy to audio recording devices, defined in C-499 as “a device that contains a permanently embedded data storage medium, including solid state or hard disk, designed, manufactured and advertised for the purpose of copying sound recordings, excluding any prescribed kind of recording device.” This covers everything – iPods, iPhones, Blackberries, Androids, iPads, personal computers. While the CPCC (the private copying collective) may not target all of these devices, there is nothing in the bill that prevents them from doing so.

      Third, the bill deals solely with sound recordings, but there have already been calls to extend to video and other forms of content. Expanding the levy in this manner without addressing those issues leaves open the prospect of an even bigger levy in the future.

    • Gorillaz dropped into Time Warp, says Eddy Grant

      The reggae artist is outraged over alleged similarities between his 80s song and Gorillaz’ new single, Stylo

      [...]

      Curious listeners can compare the songs for themselves (see below) – paying particular attention to Stylo’s drowsy three-note synth riff, 40 seconds in. In comments to the NME, Grant suggested Gorillaz’ publishers already visited a musicologist to evaluate this similarity. “[Normally] I would have gotten a call from EMI to say, ‘Damon [Albarn] wants to use Time Warp. What arrangement can you guys come to? Would you claim 100%, would you claim 60%, or 70% of whatever it is?’ That phone call never came. Instead what happened is somebody went straight to a musicologist, implying that there was some kind of pre-knowledge of some kind of infringement.”

    • Google slams Viacom for secret YouTube uploads

      Google Inc accused Viacom Inc of secretly uploading its videos to YouTube even as the media conglomerate publicly denounced the online video site for copyright infringement, according to court documents made public on Thursday.

    • Broadcast Yourself

      For years, Viacom continuously and secretly uploaded its content to YouTube, even while publicly complaining about its presence there. It hired no fewer than 18 different marketing agencies to upload its content to the site. It deliberately “roughed up” the videos to make them look stolen or leaked. It opened YouTube accounts using phony email addresses. It even sent employees to Kinko’s to upload clips from computers that couldn’t be traced to Viacom. And in an effort to promote its own shows, as a matter of company policy Viacom routinely left up clips from shows that had been uploaded to YouTube by ordinary users. Executives as high up as the president of Comedy Central and the head of MTV Networks felt “very strongly” that clips from shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report should remain on YouTube.

    • Analysis Of Google And Viacom’s Arguments Over YouTube: A Lot Of He Said/She Said
    • ACS:Law Keeps Sending Out More Threat Letters — Condemned By Politicians, ISPs And General Common Sense

      Just as Davenport Lyons lawyers are being sent for disciplinary action over the firm’s practice of sending large numbers of “pay up or we sue” pre-settlement letters, ACS:Law, the shady firm that effectively spun out of Davenport Lyons to do the same thing is ramping up its efforts. This isn’t a huge surprise. Late last year, the firm said it was preparing to send out 30,000 letters, despite numerous studies showing that these letters regularly target innocent people, but scare many people into just paying to avoid a lawsuit.

    • O2 condemns lawyers targeting alleged file-sharers

      Mobile firm O2 has stepped into the row over thousands of controversial letters that are being sent to alleged illegal file-sharers in the UK.

      It condemned the attempts “by rights holders and their lawyers to bully or threaten our customers”.

    • ACTA/Digital Economy Bill
      • EU proposes ACTA require criminal sanctions for inciting, aiding and abetting infringements

        KEI has learned that the European Union has proposed language in the ACTA negotiations to require criminal penalties for “inciting, aiding and abetting” certain offenses, including “at least in cases of willful trademark counterfeiting and copyright or related rights piracy on a commercial scale.”

      • Secrecy Around Trade Agreement Causes Stir

        There’s a reason you don’t hear much about international trade agreements. They are kind of dull, and they’re usually not very controversial. But the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is different.

        “One feels that you’re almost in a bit of a twilight zone,” says Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. “I mean, we’re talking about a copyright treaty. And it’s being treated as akin to nuclear secrets.”

        For several years, the United States and other developed countries have been quietly working on ACTA. Geist has been one of the loudest critics of the proposed pact. He says it’s a counterfeiting agreement in name only, and he thinks the treaty would actually change some of the fundamental rules governing the Internet. But what makes Geist really angry is the way it’s been negotiated.

        “Virtually none of it has been open to the public,” Geist says. “Even the early meetings were actually held in secret locations, so no one even knew where they were taking place.”

      • ACTA – The NZ Official Information Requests

        We’ve written about the unhealthy secrecy around the ACTA treaty negotiations. As New Zealanders we believe we have a right to know what our government is doing on our behalf.

        We wrote to the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to ask them some questions about ACTA under the Official Information Act. We just got our answers back (scanned PDFs of the MED letter – 3MB, MFAT letter – 3MB, and cabinet paper – 6MB) and we have to admit that we weren’t very surprised to see more excuses not to release official information than we saw information.

      • Australia comes clean on ACTA role

        The Australian Government has no intention of changing its domestic laws to harmonise with an international treaty on copyright, according to a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Scottish Parliamentarian Patrick Harvey 01 (2004)




Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Categories: News

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: March 18th, 2010

7 hours 57 min ago

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.

Categories: News

Former Microsoft Employees and Boosters Call Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza and Other Microsoft Apologists “Most Powerful Voices” in Open Source

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 17:11

Move over, Richard Stallman, Microsoft will take it from here…

Summary: Microsoft folks have decided on ‘our behalf’ who is important to Open Source and who is not

IS IT not just lovely when Microsoft people get to define who is a valid Open Source voice and who is not? This way they can marginalise key people like Stallman (the founder of the movement back when it was more widely known as "Free software") and promote apologists of Microsoft.

“This way they can marginalise key people like Stallman (the founder of the movement back when it was more widely known as “Free software”) and promote apologists of Microsoft.”We are talking about MindTouch, the former Microsoft employees who are also Mono boosters. They were sucking up to people like Matt Asay last year [1, 2]. He is the man who helped Microsoft enter OSI and OSBC [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] — a fact that many people either don’t know or don’t remember.

They also idolise one of Microsoft’s gate openers [1, 2, 3], Tim O’Reilly. He has financial interests with the company from Redmond, just like the following man whom they included in this year’s list:

Miguel de Icaza, founder, Mono and GNOME projects

It’s almost as though MindTouch wants to go around publishers and disseminate this list which says, “these are your friends! Follow them.”

Now ponder all those who are conspicuously missing. IDG says:

Torvalds was named the most influential blogger in open source, however, despite ranking behind O’Reilly in the overall metric, which includes various Twitter analysis tools and Google Trends.

This is just the latest example of Microsoft redefining the landscape of Free/open source software by wrapping itself up with Geeknet, CodePlex, etc. Matt Asay is on the board of advisors for Geeknet, which got filled with former Microsoft employees as well [1, 2]. Geeknet’s news site, Slashdot, also promoted (front page) MindTouch’s list that lauded Asay as an Open Source champion.

Watch the author of this latest press release which promotes a Microsoft lobby that Microsoft MVP Miguel de Icaza participated in until recently. It says “CodePlex Foundation”, but it’s really just Microsoft. They try to pretend it’s something separate that submits press releases independently.

Microsoft pretends to have embraced Free software (it called it “shared source” or “open source” and bends the meaning it conveys) while attacking Free software, illegally and legally at the same time (with legal means but with accompanying racketeering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]). We gave two examples just hours ago [1, 2]. ?

“If anybody thinks open-source alternatives are free, I guess as they say, you can see me after class. [...] I will tell you that in any comparison that you would do of Windows with Linux, which is an open-source alternative, we will prove to you that when it comes to total cost of ownership our stuff is more economical, whether it’s the other patent-licensing costs that you might have to pay to use open-source software, which is kind of a big unknown right now [...]“

–Steve Ballmer, National Retail Federation Annual Convention & EXPO

Categories: News

Magalhães + Microsoft = Corruption

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 16:47

Summary: Microsoft accused of blocking GNU/Linux and more leaks about this scandal are high in demand

THREE WEEKS ago we were offered some leaks that expose more corruption (see links at the bottom) behind the Magalhães initiative. No sooner than yesterday we found the following post in USENET:

Subject: Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another operating system
From: Lusotec
Date: Wednesday 17 Mar 2010 22:57:50
Groups: comp.os.linux.advocacy

<quote translated from Portuguese>
According to Paulo Trezentos, in the inquire commission to the Foundation for the Mobile Communications

Magalhães: Microsoft made pressure to make it not possible to choose another operating system.

    A representative of the company Caixa Mágica (Linux) – software supplier 
for the Magalhães – Paulo Trezentos, said yesterday in the inquire commission to the Foundation for the Mobile Communications (FMC) that Microsoft made pressures so that the users of the device could not choose the operating system.

(…)

The Magalhães computer provides ‘dual boot’, meaning, it has installed two operating systems – Windows XP and Linux – and the users can choose in which they want to start the work.

However, a representative of the Caixa Mágica, company responsible for the installation of Linux on the Magalhães computers, said yesterday that Microsoft made pressures to make this choice not possible, so that Windows would start automatically.

“Microsoft used all kinds of pressures so that Windows would start automatically, but both the Ministry of Education and the JP Sá Couto succeed” in making it possible to select the operating system., said Paulo Trezentos, during the audition in the inquire commission to the FMC.

(…)
</quote>
http://www.publico.pt/Tecnologia/magalhaes-microsoft-…

For those that don’t know, Magalhães computers are laptops that where  supplied to almost all of the nearly half million Portuguese elementary  students, ages 6 to 10. The Magalhães laptops had both Windows XP and Caixa Mágica, a distribution based on Mandriva but adapted to the Portuguese market.

Also to make it clear, this particular news puts focus on Microsoft but the inquire commission main objective is to investigate the spending of public funds by the FMC. Microsoft’s actions are not central to the inquire.

As for the news, it is just Microsoft’s traditional and unethical way of doing business. Fortunately this time it was unsuccessful.

Regards.

Can any of our Portuguese readers obtain/gain access to those sensitive documents that we keep hearing about? As the links below show, Microsoft corruption in Portugal is rather commonplace, but publishing concrete proof would be invaluable. ?

Related posts:

Categories: News

Open Irony: Microsoft Creates/Sponsors OpenMainframe.org to Attack GNU/Linux

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 16:17

Microsoft is SCOing IBM again

Summary: War is peace and Microsoft is the new “open”; Details on the latest attack of Microsoft against GNU/Linux, using proxies

A FEW days ago we wrote about Microsoft ‘pulling a SCO’ in India. IBM is not dumb enough to keep quiet and it currently blasts Microsoft for its ‘proxy attack’ (Microsoft does the same thing against Google in Europe, by its own admission).

“IBM Says Rivals Behind Anti-IBM Report in India,” summarises IDG:

IBM has slammed a report critical of the adoption of its mainframes in India, saying the report was driven by IBM competitors and has no credibility.

The report was sponsored by OpenMainframe.org, an online forum for news and information related to creating an open market for IBM-compatible mainframe technologies.

OpenMainframe.org is “bought and paid for” by Microsoft and other IBM competitors, so it’s hardly surprising that it would make an anti-IBM argument, IBM said in a statement over the weekend.

It was only yesterday that we wrote about Microsoft funding 'studies' to serve its own purposes, which include lobbying. For those who do not know, Microsoft has funded other such research in previous attacks like T3’s (it even paid professors to serve as “pawns in the battle,” to use Microsoft’s expression). We gave links covering this in:

InformationWeek writes::

IBM has lashed out at Microsoft and other competitors for funding a research study whose findings strongly advocate that IBM not be allowed in India to bundle its own operating systems and other software with the high-end servers IBM sells in that rapidly growing market.

The flare-up is important because the call for unbundling could open the door for various companies to rush into the mainframe and high-end server businesses and be granted mandatory and wide-open access to new technologies that IBM alone has conceived, funded, developed, and deployed.

We decided to look more closely at the imaginary entity that Microsoft is using against IBM. One should mind this because Microsoft is attacking GNU/Linux through IBM in this case.

We just found it so repellent to think that Microsoft uses “Open” and .org versus Free software. Only when Microsoft pays the bills can that type posturing endure, coming from the company that threatened to "whack" Dell for 'daring' to offer GNU/Linux as a choice. How dare Microsoft complain about monopoly? It dares not. That’s why it uses small companies as proxies.

Microsoft now owns part of T3 and they also use Neon, whose case we covered in [1, 2].

So anyway, who is behind OpenMainframe.org? It’s hard to find out. Even BETTER-WHOIS returns the same results:

Domain ID:D148879742-LROR Domain Name:OPENMAINFRAME.ORG Created On:15-Aug-2007 18:50:15 UTC Last Updated On:09-Dec-2009 04:29:00 UTC Expiration Date:15-Aug-2011 18:50:15 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR33732899 Registrant Name:Registration Private Registrant Organization:Domains by Proxy, Inc. Registrant Street1:DomainsByProxy.com Registrant Street2:15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353 Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Scottsdale Registrant State/Province:Arizona Registrant Postal Code:85260 Registrant Country:US Registrant Phone:+1.4806242599 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX:+1.4806242598 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:OPENMAINFRAME.ORG@domainsbyproxy.com Admin ID:CR33732901 Admin Name:Registration Private Admin Organization:Domains by Proxy, Inc. Admin Street1:DomainsByProxy.com Admin Street2:15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353 Admin Street3: Admin City:Scottsdale Admin State/Province:Arizona Admin Postal Code:85260 Admin Country:US Admin Phone:+1.4806242599 Admin Phone Ext.: Admin FAX:+1.4806242598 Admin FAX Ext.: Admin Email:OPENMAINFRAME.ORG@domainsbyproxy.com Tech ID:CR33732900 Tech Name:Registration Private Tech Organization:Domains by Proxy, Inc. Tech Street1:DomainsByProxy.com Tech Street2:15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353 Tech Street3: Tech City:Scottsdale Tech State/Province:Arizona Tech Postal Code:85260 Tech Country:US Tech Phone:+1.4806242599 Tech Phone Ext.: Tech FAX:+1.4806242598 Tech FAX Ext.: Tech Email:OPENMAINFRAME.ORG@domainsbyproxy.com Name Server:NS05.DOMAINCONTROL.COM Name Server:NS06.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

Microsoft front groups like ACT also use DomainsByProxy to disguise their sources.

Notice how new this Web site is. It just came into existence to serve as an anti-IBM front. Here is a screenshot from the site as it appears at the moment:

Who is Microsoft fooling here? It’s just another SCO. ?

“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”

–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO approached by Microsoft

Categories: News

Microsoft Brings MPEG-LA-LA Land to the Web and Threatens GNU/Linux With Software Patent Lawsuits

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 15:29

Summary: Microsoft is trying to sneak patents-encumbered MPEG formats into the Web using Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9); Microsoft threatens (again) to go after Linux legally

IN OUR previous posts about IE 9 [1, 2] we mentioned not only security problems but also Microsoft’s ’support’ of the video tag, which we expected to have a negative side when implemented by Microsoft. It now turns out that Microsoft — just like its buddy Apple — is trying to piggyback Web video to push H.264 into the standard. The W3C’s new CEO (Novell's former CTO who brags about software patents and helped create the patent deal with Microsoft) is unlikely to have a problem with this as the three people in his working group are from proponents of software patents (Apple, Microsoft, and IBM).

Here is the news article outlining Microsoft’s patent-saturated vision of the Web:

The rough version of IE9 that Microsoft demonstrated includes HTML5 video encoded with a particular technology called H.264. Apple’s Safari also supports this encoding and decoding technology, or codec.

But Mozilla is adamantly opposed to open-source-unfriendly H.264, supporting the rival Ogg Theora codec instead, and Opera is in that camp with its new version 10.5. Google’s Chrome supports both, tying the score at Ogg Theora 3, H.264 3.

Mozilla is fighting for us, but will it be enough? Mozilla is strongly against software patents, just like most companies that are without a monopoly (patent trolls don’t qualify as companies). According to this new post from Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player), the fight for free codecs intensifies and Wikipedia puts its weight behind it.

This is a concept that I had thinking about and trying to nudge towards reality for a long time; I’m thrilled that we’re finally there. There’s a bunch of interesting aspects, but perhaps the heart of it is a chance to bring open video to mainstream users and strike a blow for freedom.

Wikipedia is the most popular site in the world that posts video exclusively in open formats (specifically, theora). The steadfast commitment that the Wikimedia Foundation has to open information, tools, and formats, is amazing. They truly put their values first.

We are respectfully concerned that the W3C suffered some form of entryism in the sense that everyone there is a proponent of software patents, except Tim Berners-Lee, which is just so ironic and sad. Why are proprietary software monopolists given so much control over the Web’s direction? How was it allowed to happen? Even Apple, the company that’s attacking Free software using software patents [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] and getting criticised for having software patents that harm the Web (this goes over a year back), was given a valuable seat, alongside its supportive friend, Microsoft. For those who have not read the past few days’ posts, Microsoft is openly supporting Apple’s action [1, 2, 3] against GNU/Linux. Only yesterday we quoted some of the latest FUD from Gutierrez (endorsement for Apple’s legal team), who led Glyn Moody to writing a sensationalist headline which he pushed into Slashdot. It says: “Is Microsoft About to Declare Patent War on Linux?”

Microsoft’s comments on happenings outside its immediate product portfolio are rare, and all the more valuable when they do appear. Here’s one from Horacio Gutierrez, “Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel”, entitled “Apple v. HTC: A Step Along the Path of Addressing IP Rights in Smartphones.”

By now, all the alarm bells should be going off: this is from Microsoft’s top intellectual monopoly bloke, writing about one of the most surprising and potentially disruptive lawsuits in the world of technology – and one that doesn’t even involve Microsoft directly. Why on earth is he doing it? Answer: because Microsoft has something very important to communicate.

[...]

Translated: smartphones are mostly about the kind of software that Microsoft produces; we have lots of patents in this area, and we are going to collect much more in this area – if necessary, through lawsuits (“continued activity”) of the kind Apple is bringing.

The question, of course, is against whom will Microsoft be bringing those lawsuits? And the answer, presumably, is everyone that makes smartphone software stacks, since these computer-like technologies will doubtless overlap with some of the doubtless broad and obvious patents that Microsoft will claim to have.

Some companies, used to these kind of games, will simply cross-license stuff if they have a big enough portfolio of similarly obvious patents. Others will just cough up some dosh to get Microsoft off their backs. But amidst all these conventional players, there is one very unconventional one: Linux, in its various mobile incarnations.

Taking legal action against *all* companies producing software stacks for smartphones would allow Microsoft to claim with some semblance of plausibility that it was not specifically targeting Linux this time (unlike its previous sabre-rattling statements about patent infringement that were specifically aimed at Linux). But the net effect would be that Linux would be the chief victim of such an approach, since any companies using it in their smartphones are likely to end up doing deals with Microsoft – and hence implicitly accepting its claims – whatever the open source community might think or want. It would be like Novell’s pact with Microsoft, writ large and much worse.

We don’t agree with Moody’s exaggeration here. Microsoft is just beating the bushes (it’s sometimes called “shakedown”) in order to find more sellouts like I-O Data and Amazon [1, 2, 3, 4]. In the next post we will show that Microsoft uses other companies to launch lawsuits against GNU/Linux. It’s very much apparent at this stage and it takes extreme discipline to sincerely deny this. ?

Categories: News

IMAX — Not Just Apple — Attacks Free Software With Software Patents

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 14:47

Commonality found between IMAX and iMacs

Summary: Another legal attack against Free software comes in the form of a threat (issued against Sandy3D) and Apple’s reason for suing Android seems like gradual iPhone defeat (Linux is winning)

AT THE BEGINNING of this month we showed that an Android/Linux application got shot down by software patents. It wasn’t the first (a GIMP plug-in comes to mind). Now we learn that Sandy3D, a Free software project, is under attack by IMAX. TechDirt covers this thusly:

Proffer alerts us to the bizarre story of how IMAX (last seen suing competitors and misleading people about what an IMAX film really is) is now threatening the folks behind the Sandy3D open source 3D flash engine. Apparently, IMAX has some sort of 3D drawing system called SANDDE. So, maybe, if you squint, you could see how IMAX might be complaining about a trademark issue. But the letter from IMAX is quite odd. It doesn’t mention trademark at all. Instead, it mentions a French patent.

[...]

In the end, it looks like some IMAX lawyers decided to just threaten these open source developers, hoping that by spewing some totally unrelated info about a patent, it might scare the developers into changing the name on a product, even though the patent has nothing at all to do with the issue, and the company has no registered trademark on the name in question.

Free software wins when the non-Free software world becomes ever more aggressive. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win,” said Mahatma Gandhi, so we should be vigilant, but not demoralised or afraid. We should watch patent law and attempt to rectify it because Microsoft and other companies are trying to change it for the worse. Earlier today, the president of the FFII posted publicly a “Confirmation that Microsoft is lobbying in Brussels for a central patent court in order to validate software patents without a new directive.”

At the moment, Microsoft also relies on Apple [1, 2, 3] for its attacks on GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. We’ll discuss this more properly in the next post.

Joe Wilcox, formerly the editor of Microsoft Watch, says that “Apple’s HTC patent lawsuit is a bluff” (yes, that’s his headline). He rightly argues that Apple’s lawsuit is indicative of fear — a fear of Linux.

Apple has good reasons to fear Android. In the three months from December to February, Android’s US smartphone subscriber share shot up from 2.8 percent to 7.1 percent. Worldwide, in 2009, Android smartphone market share — based on sales — rose from 0.5 percent to 3.9 percent, according to Gartner (The first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, shipped in late 2008). Last month, Google CEO Eric Schmidt asserted that 60,000 Android handsets are shipping by the day.

All this circles back to my claim that the patent lawsuit is a bluff. My reasoning:

1) Apple chose HTC, not Google. There is no immediate risk to any patent claims against HTC. Since the real claims are against Google, Apple may find the court — or even the ITC — reluctant to rule against an Android licensee in good faith. There is perceived risk, but none in the short term, which is long enough for a united Android front to do market damage against iPhone — particularly in emerging markets.

2) Apple filed against HTC and not other licensees. Apple had its chance to take on Android licensees, choosing instead to go after one.

“Google’s Open Web vs Apple’s vendor lock-in” is another noteworthy new post from ZDNet’s Google blog that says:

Who will win the battle? I think it will be a couple of years in the making. However, there is a reason that Eric Schmidt left Apple’s board of directors last year. There is a reason that Google is pushing into countless new markets and bringing products into widespread beta as quickly as possible. Google and Apple both know: he who controls the screen controls the Web (and all of the money that entails). I have to say that I’m rooting for Google’s open approach that welcomes a wide array of hardware and software. Vendor lock-in isn’t good for consumers, content providers, or developers. Apple’s HTC lawsuit was the first shot across the bow. What’s next? And when will Google take the gloves off?

Thanks to Chris Dawson for this, but Google is not an emancipation either. The difference is, Google hasn’t a history of using patents to intimidate or to sue; contrariwise, Apple has done this for decades. People have an innate inclination to personify companies based on their principles, but it’s not always a good thing. Here at Boycott Novell we care about Google only as far as Free software goes; we have our fair share of criticisms of the company, including its snubbing of the AGPL.

Just to clarify (as we often receive flak over this subject), we are not defending Google. Some of Google’s products incorporate Free software within them, so when Google gets sued, then it may also mean something for that software or for software freedom in the broadest sense. One thing we know for sure; the following new headline says it best: “Apple is Open Source’s sworn enemy”

Those who are still living in the fantasy of a FOSS-loving Apple should look no further than this list of 27 references about Apple's attitude (a few more here) — one that we accumulated over a year ago for the purpose.

The good news is that based on this week’s coverage:

• Open Source Developers Pick Android Over iPhone

• Open source developers ditch iPhone for Android

A new report has shown Google’s Android platform is enticing open source developers away from creating apps on the iPhone.

One of the biggest proponents of the AGPL, namely Funambol, is set to gain from this. As Matt Asay has just put it (he has personal involvements he may not disclose):

If the desktop is dying, mobile sync is king

[...]

It’s this desire for open clouds and open syncing to those clouds that is blessing Funambol’s open-source mobile sync business. It’s the same desire that will likely create a host of new competitors in this fertile mobile-sync market.

Apple, Microsoft, and other non-Free software vendors play hardball against Free software right now. They are willing to risk public backlash (enraging the collectives with lawsuits) to achieve the unachievable as Free software will never disappear and it has grown steadily over the years. The next post explores Microsoft’s latest campaign of FUD against Linux. It shows that Microsoft has run out of ideas. ?

Categories: News

Links 18/3/2010: Many IBM Headlines, Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1

Thu, 03/18/2010 - 11:05

Contents GNU/Linux
  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 88

    · Announced Distro: PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1 Has KDE SC 4.4.1 and Plymouth
    · Announced Distro: Frugalware 1.2 Comes with KDE 4
    · Announced Distro: SME Server 7.5 RC1 and 8.0 Beta 5 Are Ready for Testing
    · Announced Distro: Fedora 13 Alpha Released
    · Announced Distro: Available Now: VortexBox 1.2
    · Announced Distro: PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation Final Released
    · Announced Distro: Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3 Is Here

  • Will The Linux Desktop Soon Be Irrelevant?

    Some of us are still waiting for the year of the Linux desktop. Some think it’s already here. One thing is certain however, Linux does not have a majority desktop market share. By the time we get there, perhaps the entire idea of what a Desktop is will have been re-defined, thanks to “The Cloud”.

  • Cloudy Times
  • LPI partners with Portuguese government agency on Linux certification and training

    The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world’s premier Linux certification organization (http://www.lpi.org), announced that its affiliate organization LPI-Portugal (http://www.lpi.com.pt) has signed an agreement with UMIC (http://www.umic.pt/), the Knowledge Society Agency of Portugal’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Education to promote training and certification of professional skills in the use of Linux, open source technologies and free software in higher education institutions in Portugal.

  • LinuxCertified Announces its next Linux System and Network Administration BootCamp
  • Thoughts on Mainstream Linux Acceptance

    What I do see being good for Linux is the growing size of the Linux community. Eventually, a software vendor will decide to start releasing its software for the Linux platform as well as x86-64 Mac and Win32. A company such as Adobe or Microsoft would then be dictating which distribution became dominant, but you would see other vendors follow that lead, and Linux would come screaming into the mainstream rather quickly, and I would talk to my boss, and I would start recommending Linux machines. I have a feeling that others in my position would do the same. The money to be made would be in keeping these commercial applications running. As an update broke the app, I would be called upon to fix things so that the application would once again run. I can see that being very lucrative indeed. How often is that cry of distress heard by Ubuntu users?

  • Health
    • Panel PC has antimicrobial case

      Datalux announced an 19-inch panel PC intended for medical applications that runs Ubuntu Linux.

    • Share your experiences with FLOSS in health care

      Are you a practice, clinic or any other health care institution that is using medical open source software in daily routine? And wasn’t it quite hard for you to find the right software, to get it up and running and to finally customize it to your needs without having any experienced users or reference sites at hand?

      Even a high number of downloads or a strong ‘activity percentile’ of an open source software project doesn’t tell you anything about the suitability for your purposes and in general about the stability and efficiency that are required for successful clinical practice.

  • Desktop
    • Why we love the HP Mini?

      The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC also features a choice of 4GB SSD (Solid State Drive) flash module with Linux as well as standard hard disk drives for a superior computing experience.

    • Laptop rental hits record

      The library purchased 50 laptops with a Linux operating system. He said library officials are deciding whether the check out duration will be three days, seven days or a month.

      “Right now [laptops] go out for four hours and you can’t check them out over night, which is not because we don’t want to, but the campus Microsoft license restricts how it can be used,” Tyckoson said. “Linux is an open source competitor to Microsoft.”

  • Server
  • Graphics Stack
    • NVIDIA Pre-Releases Its 195.xx Linux Driver

      While NVIDIA has been working on the 195.xx Linux driver since before last November, they have yet to officially release a stable driver in this series as of yet. Betas have been available and they even had to recall their recent drivers over a fan speed issue that could damage the system, but now they are finally getting ready to push out a stable release.

  • Applications
  • GNOME Desktop
    • The GNOME Census project

      We will be launching a survey this week asking GNOME developers who they work for, and whether they have worked for other companies previously – because of the widespread use of gnome.org email addresses in GNOME, unfortunately it has not always been easy to identify companies behind the people. We also want qualitative information on projects you work on, whether you work on GNOME in your free time, and more. We are be breaking down GNOME development by core platform, external dependencies, GNOME desktop, GNOME hosted applications and other GNOME applications. Vanessa will be sending out a very short survey to everyone who has committed to GNOME, and we need your help to make the census as useful as possible to the GNOME project.

    • Deconstructing Nautilus and rebuilding it better

      Well, if you follow the active development of GNOME as much as I do, you may have heard of two recent technologies actively being developed. They are Zeitgeist and the GNOME Activity Journal. What are they? Well, Zeitgeist is a little, unobtrusive daemon that ticks quietly away in the background and records every file you access, every image you edit, essentially every event you perform on your computer and keeps a chronological Journal of this information for other applications to use. This is the core engine that runs quietly in the background. The frontend to this is the GNOME Activity Journal – an application that allows you to browse and search through Zeitgeist’s recordings of your activities and interact with that information. One of the developers of the GNOME Activity Journal posted a very handy video showing it in action. I use it myself and it is very handy. I also use Docky2 on my desktop that has Zeitgeist interaction. One of the options when you right-click on a launcher in Docky2 is the Journal entry, that allows you to browse through recent events and files accessed in that particular application. A stroke of genius. Again here’s a handy little video demonstrating Docky2 with Zeitgeist integration.

  • Distributions
    • The State of the Distributions

      There is usually no distribution that will perfectly fit everyones needs. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses which will vary from person to person. This article covers all the major advantages (and disadvantages) each of these distributions have to offer and will hopefully give you enough information to help guide you in choosing which Linux Distribution is right for your computer.

    • Ebox platform – A powerful linux server that act as gateway, infrastructure manager, unified threat manager, office server and more

      The latest release is eBox Platform 1.4-1, the new release fixed a lot of bug and comes with some small improvements since.

    • New Releases
      • Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 released

        Mandriva has announced the availability of the first point update to version 5 of its Enterprise Server commercial Linux distribution. Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 includes all of the distributions previous updates and a number of improvements.

      • GeeXboX 2.0 Alpha 2 released

        The GeeXboX developers have announced the availability of the second alpha of version 2.0 of their small embedded Linux distribution aimed at Home Theatre PCs (HTPC) and media centres. The latest development release addresses a number of bugs from last month’s first alpha and includes several changes.

      • Announcing Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition

        After the announcements of KDE, KDE64 and Fluxbox editions of the current Linux Mint 8 (Helena) operating system, Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint community are once again proud to present today the first release candidate of the upcoming Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, the new edition includes X.Org 7.4, Openbox 3.4.7.2 and PCManFM 0.5.2. The Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition has been created for people who want a fast, lightweight and good-looking operating system, for their antique hardware.

      • Berry Linux 1.01 Is Based on Fedora 12

        Berry Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution based on Fedora and aimed mostly at the Japanese market.

    • Red Hat Family
      • Symbian taps Red Hat for developer server

        THE SYMBIAN FOUNDATION has turned to the open source outfit Red Hat as the basis for a new private, cloud-based developer website and server.

      • Symbian Foundation Builds Cloud Platform on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

        Red Hat, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!rht/quotes/nls/rht (RHT 30.72, +0.05, +0.16%) , the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that the Symbian Foundation, a global non-profit organization formed to foster an open source community around its mobile device software, has adopted Red Hat Enterprise Linux to provide a scalable, high-performance base for its private, cloud-based developer website and server.

      • IBM announces test and development cloud

        The company has surprised some commentators with the decision to base the system on virtualisation software from enterprise open source vendor Red Hat, rather than the more commonly used Xen open source hypervisor.

      • Red Hat KVM underpins IBM test-and-dev cloud

        Red Hat’s implementation of KVM is the virtualization underpinning of the new software test and development service for the IBM Cloud. Red Hat hopes that vote of confidence will persuade enterprises to try KVM in their own IT shops.

      • Red Hat announces EMEA partner summit details

        Open source solutions outfit Red Hat will host its third annual EMEA partner summit in Valencia, Spain from May 2nd to 5th 2010. This year’s event will focus on open source middleware, cloud computing and virtualisation, while highlighting the strength of the Red Hat partner ecosystems and its potential for growth in the EMEA market.

        “The technology landscape is constantly evolving. With the introduction of cloud computing and virtualisation coupled with a full portfolio of open source middleware, we want to ensure that our partners are equipped with the latest training and information on these offerings to help them deliver better solutions and higher value to their customers,” said Petra Heinrich, senior director, partners and alliances EMEA region at Red Hat. “The Red Hat and JBoss EMEA partner summit will address these current market trends.”

      • Red Hat CEO: Open-source economics key to innovation

        At the inaugural Open Source Business Conference in 2004, the discussion centered on how to fund open source’s survival. Just six years later, the OSBC conversation has taken a 180-degree shift to focus on whether proprietary software’s shelf life is nearing its end as open-source software economics increasingly drive technology innovation.

    • Debian Family
      • Debian Project Pleased with Ten Times Faster Build Server

        The Debian project was given a new server from Thomas Krenn AG, Intel and Adaptec for its image building. With the Dual-Xeon computer the build process was reduced from 20 to two hours.

        New in Debian’s infrastructure is the SC846 server with a 4-unit height and two Intel Xeon E5540 processors. While the previous five-year-old system took 20 hours for a build, the new one took less than two hours, according to the project and its benefactor, Thomas Krenn AG, in a joint press release.

      • RC3 Brings SimplyMEPIS 8.5 Close to Final Release

        MEPIS has released SimplyMEPIS 8.5.00, RC3 of MEPIS 8.5, now available from MEPIS and public mirrors. The ISO files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.5.00-rc3_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.5.00-rc3_64.iso respectively. Deltas are also available.

      • Ubuntu
        • Lucid Community Progress

          One thing that we have been really keen to facilitate in Ubuntu is an ethos of just do it. I really believe our community should feel engaged to be creative in their ideas and be able to get out there and do it, with plenty of support resources so others can help them achieve their goals. I am keen that we don’t have a bottleneck where creativity is limited. Of course, this happens from time to time, but we are always keen to resolve it where possible.

        • Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) daily build for March 15, 2010 runs with nomodeset on Intel 830m video!!!

          I thought Linux in general and Xorg in particular were throwing those of us with “older” Intel video chips under the virtual bus. I couldn’t even get Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) Alpha 3 to boot on my Intel 830m (aka i830m and in my case Intel 82830 CGC)-equipped laptops, where my old standby of dropping i915.modeset=0 or nomodeset on the boot line would clear things up.

        • Variants
          • Linux Mint 8 LXDE CE Review: LXDE Done Right

            Trent and I were both looking forward to the release of the Linux Mint LXDE Community Edition for various reasons. Luckily for us, Kendall (maintainer of the Linux Mint Fluxbox CE) pointed us to the .iso for RC1, which is what we’re using as the basis for this review. Since we both have feedback on this CE, we’re trying a Trent Says/Joe Says model. Enjoy!

            [...]

            The installer was the familiar Ubiquity installer used by Ubuntu and Linux Mint alike, which was not an issue on my hardware — though Ubiquity can be an issue if you’re running less than 256 Mb of RAM. While you may scoff at that, some people are looking to lighter weight releases like this one as an option for resurrecting old hardware, so keep that in mind if you’re thinking about giving this or any other distro which uses the Ubiquity installer a try.

  • Devices/Embedded
    • More Details Leak Out About Google’s Plans For The Set-Top Box

      The NYT says the service—with the apropos name ‘Google TV’—is being developed in conjunction with Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Intel; (NSDQ: INTC) the testing, meanwhile, is being done with the Dish Network.

    • Cool: smallest Linux desktop PC, smaller than an apple (fruit)

      Measuring at just 2 x 2 x 2.2 inches this is the smallest Desktop PC. And it’s running Linux, one more point for Linux coolness.

    • NAS reference platform builds on Pineview Atoms

      Intel announced a SOHO-oriented network-attached storage (NAS) reference platform based on its D410 and dual-core D510 “Pineview” Atom processors and 82801R I/O controller. NAS vendors LaCie, LG Electronics, Qnap, Synology, and Thecus will incorporate the Linux-compatible platform in upcoming NAS devices, starting with the Blu-ray burner-equipped LG N4B2, says Intel.

    • DIN-rail PC runs Linux on 150MHz SoC
    • IP set-top features secure USB key

      AccessKey IP is shipping a Linux-based IP set-top box (STB) and related secure USB key for viewing encrypted IPTC broadcasts. The AccessKey Home STB offers a security-enabled HD IPTV service that can be combined with digital terrestrial, satellite, or cable reception, while the USB key can bring the same secure IPTV service to PCs, the company says.

    • 6WIND boosts packet-processing on Intel’s new Xeon 7-10X

      The “6WINDGate SDS” profile is optimized for platforms in which the networking Fast Path runs on dedicated cores without the overhead of a Linux-based Slow Path.

      Carmes said 6WINDGate’s architecture removes the complexity of integrating high-performance packet processing with the Linux environment, because it fully synchronizes the Fast Path and Linux, while preserving Linux APIs.

    • MathWorks aims tools at embedded Linux

      The MathWorks has announced the latest release of its MATLAB and Simulink product families, writes Richard Wilson, which include new streaming capabilities for signal processing and video processing in MATLAB and nonlinear solvers for standard and large-scale optimisation.

    • Carrier-grade distro supports HP BladeSystem

      Wind River announced that its Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) operating system, development tools, and build system now supports HP BladeSystem carrier-grade and enterprise server blades. Wind River Linux 3.0 is the first registered CGL 4.0 distribution supported on HP ProLiant server blades for the HP BladeSystem, claims Intel subsidiary Wind River.

    • Networking appliance taps Freescale’s QorIQ processor

      The CAK-2000 supports Linux, and is available with an optional copy of Freescale’s Vortiqa, a Linux-based software development platform for optimizing firewall, IPSec-VPN, IPS, anti-virus, and anti-spam software for multi-core QorIQ and PowerQUICC SoCs. The network appliance is said to comply with FCC/CE, UL, and RoHS/WEEE.

    • Conceptronic Grab’n'go CH3MNAS early review: Compact home for your data

      If you’re a really hardcore techie, you’ll be able to use the ‘Fun Plug’ system to install apps on your NAS to add functionality. Be warned though, this isn’t a beginner feature and requires at least some technical understanding of Linux.

    • Configurable RISC controller offers Linux-ready MMU

      Standard controllers for dataplane applications, including one Linux-optimized model. Based on Tensilica’s configurable, 32-bit RISC “Xtensa” architecture, the five upward-compatible processor cores include a Diamond Standard 233L processor with a Linux-optimized MMU, and are claimed to be 15 percent faster and more power efficient than earlier models.

    • ATCA blade cranks it up with six-core Xeon

      GE Intelligent Platforms announced a Linux-ready AdvancedTCA single board computer with an option for Intel’s new Xeon 5600 processors. The dual-Xeon A10200 offers up to six cores clocked to 2GHz, plus 12MB of L3 cache per CPU, and offers dual 10 gigabit Ethernet interfaces and four gigabit Ethernet interfaces, says the company.

    • MIPS-based networking processor gains Linux support

      Timesys announced that its LinuxLink commercial software development framework for building custom embedded Linux based products now supports the latest networking processor from Wintegra. Now shipping in volume, the dual MIPS 34K core “WinPath 3″ IP packet processor is designed for 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile and fixed wireless base stations, says the company.

    • MontaVista
      • MontaVista’s Alexander Kaliadin on the instant shutdown of a Linux OS

        I had a great interview with the architects of MontaVista Software’s 1-second boot-time real-time Linux. After the interview went to press it occurred to me to ask Alexander Kaliadin a related question. If smart people like him can figure out how to boot a computer in less than a second, is it also possible to turn the computer off in a short time? His answer was that you could possibly just flip the power switch, if the hardware was designed to allow this. His response and elaboration are below.

        [...]

        I mentioned to Alex that I would like to publish the above comments in my blog and he was nice enough to elaborate on them in the following communication:

        In a typical desktop box, the proper Linux shutdown process will involve flushing disk caches, closing multiple files and un-mounting drives (local or networked). Depending on the use case, certain daemons or processes may wait for various operations to complete in order to proceed with the shutdown process.

      • MontaVista Software is Elected to the GENIVI Alliance Board of Directors

        MontaVista® Software, LLC, the leader in embedded Linux® commercialization announced it has been elected to the Board of Directors of the GENIVI Alliance, an automotive and consumer electronics industry association driving the development and adoption of an open In-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference platform. MontaVista was a Core member of GENIVI in it’s inaugural year, and now assumes a seat on the board as GENIVI enters it’s second year. Dan Cauchy, vice president of Marketing at MontaVista will sit on the GENIVI board.

    • NanoNote
    • Phones
      • IP phone runs Linux on ARM SoC

        STMicroelectronics announced a design win for its new ARM-based SPEAr 300 SoC, which it says drives the Linux-based Snom 870 VoIP phone. The Snom 870 offers a 4.3-inch color touchscreen, gigabit Ethernet and USB connectivity, plus an integrated XML browser, says Snom.

      • Nokia
        • Nokia Unsure on N900 Software Upgrade

          Following the release of MeeGo, a software platform resultant from the partnership between Intel and Nokia, and also the successor to the Linux-based Maemo operating system, Nokia seems to be undecided on whether its flagship smartphone N900 will receive the upgrade.

        • N900 gains VoIP service — and will soon offer MeeGo

          VoX Communications announced it will resell Nokia’s Maemo Linux-based N900 smartphone with a mobile VoIP plan offering unlimited data and voice service. Meanwhile, Nokia confirmed that the N900 will be the first smartphone to run the Moblin/Maemo mashup, MeeGo, when a preliminary version of the operating system debuts at the end of the month.

      • Android
        • Google spins new Nexus One model

          Google has released an unlocked version of its Android-based Nexus One phone that’s compatible with the 3G networks of AT&T and Roger Wireless. Meanwhile, a Flurry report claims that the Nexus One sold far fewer units in its first two months than the iPhone and the Motorola Droid did in theirs, says eWEEK.

        • How the Google-China conflict could hit open source

          Google insists its pull-out won’t impact Android, but can we really be certain? Can Google really be certain?

          Hassling HTC, quietly putting out the word to others not to support Android, could delay Google considerably. If China wanted it could tell its courts to encourage Apple to file suit there, saying it was only seeking to protect patent rights. It could tell Taiwan that Android is provocative.

        • Google expects Android to ‘flourish’ in China: CFO

          Google expects its Android mobile operating system to “flourish” in China, Google’s chief financial officer said Monday amid a two-month standoff with Beijing over Web censorship and cyberattacks.

        • What Is the Top Mobile Platform for Open Source Developers?

          Mobile platforms like Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android have become a key focus for open source developers. And the trend is only increasing, though new research has found that over the course of the last year, there has been a shift in which mobile platform has the most open source development activity.

        • Motorola Droid’s Android 2.1 update to be rolled out OTA starting Thursday

          And just like that, we now have the date for the official Motorola Droid’s Android 2.1 update. It was just approved today and will be rolled out in batches of 250,000 starting this Thursday, March 18, at high noon (EDT). So if you don’t get it in the first batch, hang on for a little bit. Or, even better, once we have the download link it should be no problem to apply the update manually, just as we did for Android 2.0.1.

    • Tablets
      • iPad jailbreak for OS 3.2 coming soon with GreenPois0n

        The iPad isn’t even out yet, and a jailbreak is already in the works for its OS version 3.2 by Joshua Hill, member of the Chronic Dev team. According to BlogsDNA, Joshua has tweeted some images of the GreenPois0n (running on Linux) and asked for donations from those who are interested in the iPad jailbreak.

Free Software/Open Source
  • OSGEO Approves Geomajas As Incubation Project

    The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration.

  • WANdisco to Play Key Role in TortoiseSVN Open Source Project

    WANdisco, a leading provider of infrastructure software for replication, scalability, high availability and commercial sponsor of the Subversion open source project, today announced that Stefan Küng, the lead developer for TortoiseSVN has joined the company. Mr. Küng, who has been working on TortoiseSVN since its inception, will lead WANdisco’s efforts to support and enhance this popular Subversion client for Windows as part of its sponsorship and support of the Subversion open source project.

  • Open Source Collaboration: The Right Solution in a Tight Economy?

    So, like investing, one must weigh risk versus monetary reward. Though these- and other- open source software providers can offer many of the same services as the higher priced options, you will likely have to pay something and must make an educated estimate of the level of risk associated with use.

  • Should You Customize Open Source ERP?

    When I first found out about open source software, I felt the sky was the limit — with the source code, I could do anything now! But after working on open source ERP for the last seven years, I’ve come to realize that customizing software, even open source software, should not be taken lightly. I recently spoke with Phil Simon, long-time enterprise software veteran and author of The Next Wave of Technologies and Why New Systems Fail, and asked him for his thoughts on when you should customize open source software such as ERP and CRM.

  • Google
  • Servers
    • Rackspace Launches Media Services Solution

      This Enterprise-level solution will provide an open source, direct-to-consumer (D2C) web infrastructure for music recording labels and other media segments that need to accelerate content delivery online, scale rapidly to respond to fan demand, and create new revenue streams.

    • Weekly Poll: What Companies Will Be at the Top of the Cloud in the Next 5 Years

      This past week, we had 93 people respond to the question:
      ‘Is There A Place For Open-Source in the Data Center?” The respondents were pretty much in full support of the open approach. Of the 93 people who responded, 83 said, yes, there is a place for open-source. But we wonder what it will take to get such a movement to a pace of note. We do have faith in the open-source way but how will this effort transfer to the data center?

    • Seeding the Cloud with Open Source, Standing Cloud Makes It Easy

      By the end of April, Standing Cloud will be offering its “community edition” which will allow you to install and operate open source apps permanently for a very reasonable fee. Standing Cloud will be offering other cloud based, open source packages throughout the year.

  • Education
    • Cloud-Based, Open-Source Future For Teachers?

      A computing device for every teacher and student so they can access the Internet at school or at home? That, along with an embrace of cloud computing, Creative Commons, and open-source technologies is part of a new set of recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

    • Becta’s Home Access Scheme…not really a scam

      We have long complained that Becta’s very public conversion to the virtues of Open Source software is a little longer on words than it is on action.

      The suspicion is that they are playing ‘lip-service’ to FOSS while the edu-world continues to spend millions of pounds of money they no longer have (sacking staff as a result..oh the crocodile tears) on expensive proprietary products… exactly as before.

  • Events
    • Flourish Conference 2010 is This Weekend!

      Welcome to the Flourish 2010 Open Source Conference site! Our goal is to promote the use of open source and provide a gathering place for open source enthusiasts in the Chicagoland area. This will be our fourth Flourish Conference, and although times are tough, this year we’re working even harder to make this conference the best one yet!

    • Free tables available for embedded open source showcase

      The CE Linux Forum (CELF) is once again sponsoring a free technical demonstration room for embedded open source projects at this year’s Embedded Linux Conference (ELC) on Apr. 13 in San Francisco. Demonstrations should cover embedded technology that offers software available under GPL or LGPL compatible licenses, says CELF.

    • rSmart Champions Open Education Agenda at The Chair Academy’s 19th Annual International Conference

      rSmart, the provider of enterprise support for open source application software in education, today announced its participation in The Chair Academy’s 19th Annual International Conference for Post-Secondary Leaders being held this March 15-18, 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    • HUBzero Workshop to Unveil Open Source Release of Core Software

      The workshop will include three hands-on breakout sessions, one aimed at new users interested in starting a hub with the open source release, as well as current users who want to learn more about the hub technology. The other two breakout sessions will focus on research software developers and on Web developers working with hubs.

    • Ingres to Share How Open Source Drives a $1.2 Billion Market

      Ingres Vice President Deb Woods to Discuss How Appliances are Changing the Face of Software and Technical Account Manager Tyler McGraw to Shed Light on New Partnership

  • Open-Xchange
    • Hosted Unified Communications Meets Open Source

      Now, Open-Xchange, the open source email specialist, is making a similar move. Open-Xchange expects more than 15 million users to run its software by the end of 2010. At the same time, Open-Xchange is partnering up with 4PSA to introduce a unified communications bundle.

    • Open-Xchange Adds Integration With VoIP

      Open-source collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has integrated VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and social networking sites in the latest version of its e-mail server and client.

    • Latest Open-Xchange Groupware Offers Integrated VoIP

      Open-Xchange, a provider of business-class open source collaboration software, today announced enhancements that give users telephone and fax integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information.

    • Open-Xchange, 4PSA Team on Open-Source UC

      Open-source e-mail and collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has done a little collaborating itself to offer an enhanced unified communications product set that includes telephone and fax integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information.

  • Mozilla
    • Firefox 3.0 approaches end-of-life

      Firefox Logo Mozilla has confirmed that version 3.0 of its popular open source Firefox web browser is approaching its end-of-life (EOL).

    • Firefox, Gecko, HTML5 and more: An (Email) Interview with Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler

      If it were not for Mozilla and its numerous open source projects that saved us from the IE Dark Ages, the browser market today would definitely be very different. In 2010, the Firefox browser is facing some pretty tough competition from the likes of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 (v9 is actually good), Safari and Opera, all modern and feature-packed web browsers. With Windows’ new ballot screen, things might become even more interesting.

      The Web Browser is evolving at a mind-bogglingly rapid pace, and the changes it went through in 2009 only are incredible. That is why I was really happy for a chance to talk to Asa Dotzler, community coordinator for Firefox marketing projects, who has been with Mozilla for 12 years. This is my first interview and I hope you’ll enjoy reading Mr Dotzler’s answers as much as I did. We cover Firefox, Mozilla and the new Web. Don’t forget to check out Asa’s blog for even more on the topic.

    • Internet Explorer 9 vs Firefox 3.7 : Open beats Closed

      Currently Mozilla has a Firefox 3.7 developer preview available, testing all kinds of new features including out-of-process plugins (something that IE 9 isn’t currently testing). It’s a real browser with back button, tabs and address bar and it resembles the real world modern browser. It enables developers to actually see how the browser will work and doesn’t try to hide its flaws by limiting critical functions.

  • Databases
    • SXSW: When it Comes to Web Scale Go Cheap, Go Custom or Go Home

      Dealing with the terabytes of data generated by users online and serving up relationships tied to that data quickly are forcing web-scale sites like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook to investigate a variety of home-built, open sourced and hardware solutions, and reject as many closed-source software (such as Oracle) and specialized hardware solutions as possible.

  • Sun
    • An example of the awesomeness of the open source community

      OpenSSO is one of the best (if it isn’t the best one) open source web Single Sign On projects out there. Sun Microsystems on 2008 open-sourced one of their products called Access Manager, and rebranded it as OpenSSO. But it’s sad to see how Oracle after Sun acquisition, is slowly shutting down this amazing open source project, marking it as “not strategic” and dismembering the few parts they think are worth for their own SSO product. They started on December by freezing the next express release, and during the last few weeks they have slowly started to remove all the open source downloads from OpenSSO website. Last but not least, they have also started to remove content from the wiki. Now, the only download available is the enterprise version, which is buried very deeply at Oracle’s website (it took me like 15 minutes to find it, it isn’t even listed as an Oracle product),and the patch sets that also were free to download, are now only available to paying customers with a valid support contract.

      [...]

      But here it comes the awesomeness of the open source community: A Norwegian company called ForgeRock has stepped up to give OpenSSO a new home and continue developing OpenSSO under a new name: OpenAM (because of copyright issues with the name). They claim they will conitnue with Sun’s original roadmap for the product, and they have started to make available again all of the express builds, including agents, that were removed from OpenSSO’s site, and a new wiki with all the content that once was available at dev.java.net.

    • Open source SSO lands in spotlight

      Last week was a really big week — perhaps the biggest ever — for open source simplified sign-Ope on in general and OpenID in particular.

      [...]

      Not quite as momentous, and having nothing to do with OpenID, another SSO service was released into the wild as open source. I was really amazed by MetaPass SSO when I saw it two years ago (“MetaPass’ single sign-on package enables administrators to create scripts visually”) and now it’s open source. Windows, Mac, and Linux executables and source-code of MetaPass SSO are available for download on the MetaPass Web site and on major open source Web sites (such as SourceForge). MetaPass is definitely an enterprise (not a consumer, or “user-centric”) SSO solution. If you are friendly with “roll your own” software for your organization it’s definitely worth a look.

    • Non-Profit Open Wonderland Launches

      With the news last month that Oracle would be shutting down development resources for Project Wonderland, the open-source virtual world platform originally supported by Sun Microsystems, associated developers began looking for alternatives. Last week saw the launch of the Open Wonderland Foundation, a non-profit devoted to providing a free and open-source platform for virtual worlds based on Project Wonderland.

  • CMS
    • WordPress: A Web Developer’s Tutorial

      I chose WordPress as my general-purpose framework, even though it’s theoretically a blogging platform, for a number of reasons. First of all, it’s backed by a company, yet still has a large number of independent contributors. This is probably the best way of keeping code up to date and viable commercially, while still using the Open Source model. New features, bug fixes, and security patches are thus released relatively often, and it doesn’t hurt that you can now update WordPress with a single click. Secondly, there are a phenomenal number of freely available, high quality themes and plugins that allow you to easily customize not only the look and feel, but also the functionality of your WordPress site. Finally, the total interoperability of WordPress with other platforms is second to none, so your site will be able to handle everything from Google Maps to SEO to AdSense to iPhone capability from day one. Don’t believe it? That’s why I’m here to teach you how to do it all.

    • Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder: Why it pays to stay faithful to open source

      As an open source project, WordPress is licensed under the General Public License (GPL). The code for WordPress is created both by Automattic developers as well as a community of hundreds of third-party developers. The open source nature of the product means it can be used by anyone and for anything without paying a licence fee.

    • Worldly wealth

      A little later Matt Mullenweg took to the stage. Matt is the charismatic and high-profile founder of Automattic Inc and WordPress, the world’s most successful open-source blogging software, powering over 200 million websites.

      He chatted intimately with the audience about the founding of his company and the driving philosophies behind its success. He also shared his views on the future of blogging and open-source software development. One interesting story was that he founded Automattic with three other people from around the world, including another Irish developer. These four people had never met physically but knew each other via their web-based interactions. This created enough of a bond for them to start a company together, one that has been very successful.

    • Open Source Delivers Enterprise-Class Website on Shoestring Budget

      We also use open source throughout our production and testing environments. The Verical Marketplace is deployed on servers running the Linux operating system. This open source operating system is of high-quality and performs better than most of the operating systems available for purchase. In addition, we were able to use commodity hardware that further reduces our cost of deployment. Testing is aided using open source products including JUnit and Apache JMeter.

    • Hosted Drupal CMS Planned for Midyear

      The service, called Drupal Gardens, is in beta testing now with a “couple of thousand” users, said Dries Buytaert, who created Drupal and cofounded Acquia to build a commercial business around it. The service will be based on Drupal 7, an upgrade to the CMS software that will be released at about the same time, Buytaert said at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

      Drupal is a software platform for publishing Web sites and managing text, images and other content on those sites. It has been used by individuals to publish blogs and by larger organizations, including the White House and NASA, to run their Web sites.

  • Funding
    • Magento Scores $22.5 Million For Open Source E-commerce Platform Play

      Magento currently has over 60,000 merchants using its software, which was downloaded about 1.5 million times as of January 2010. The company also says they’ve registered over $15 billion in transactions to date. The roadmap for the future is apparently paved with additional products, with a number of “Mobile Commerce, Saas offering and other products/services” coming later this year.

  • Security
    • Firewall Configurations Can Be Hard To Manage, Sounds Like A Job For Open Source

      For many people network security starts and stops with firewalls. The foundational technology of perimeter based security, firewalls have grown more complex and sophisticated over the years. Today keeping your firewall rule set tuned and managing complex firewall configurations is a job often best left to experts. A new open source tool, Flint offers help though.

    • Commtouch to present Open-source Email security

      Open-source security infrastructure can be taken to the next step by augmenting it with commercial solutions, according to Gabriel Mizrahi, vice president technologies at Commtouch.

    • Indian Security Startup Offers Free Software

      The UTM (unified threat management) offering, called Ubiq-Freedom, is available under an open-source license, and includes popular open-source software such as Squid caching proxy for the Web and IP tables for the firewall, said Debasheesh Bagchi [CQ], Wep’s program head for Ubiq-Freedom.

  • Releases
  • Government
    • More than 100 candidates to Italian regional elections support Free Software

      At least on paper, thanks to CaroCandidato, Free Software may have a voice this year in many of the regional councils assisting the governors. As of March 17th, the 2010 edition of the campaign has already enlisted more than 100 candidates from all parties. Citizens visiting the website can easily find, sorted by party or electoral district, which regional candidates have signed the Pact for these elections.

  • Licensing
    • The need for an Open Source license

      You DO NOT need permission to access it, modify it and/or distribute it. However, depends on the open source license, commercializing it may or may not be restricted.

      Without a defining open source license that the government can slap on each software project, there is no option but to revert back to the old ways of protecting intellectual property.

      The problem is this – the government can claim that the software source code is freely available to the public, but you need permission. Here’s the twist, there is NO guarantee that permission will be granted.

  • Openness
    • Applying Best Practices to Open Data

      Some of that is already going on. In a follow-up, Torkington links to a few posts from the Open Knowledge Foundation, which has come up with a Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) taken from the Open Source Initiative’s Open Source Definition. This includes everything from content like movies and books to government info, and sets 11 criteria that a work has to meet to be considered “open.”

    • SXSW: Bug Labs Says Content Will Drive Open Source Hardware

      That’s the viewpoint of Peter Semmelhack, founder and CEO of Bug Labs, whose modular, open source hardware company aims to fix that shortcoming by making it easier for people and companies to create their own electronics products using a Linux processor module, a camera module, a touchscreen LCD module and so on.

    • Open source: the way forward in the search for new treatments for the infectious diseases of poverty?

      Probably the best known open-source software is the Linux operating system but this is only one example. The mountain of software that open-source developers have created is robust enough to be used by big corporations and cutting-edge enough to have become incorporated into the latest mobile phones and laptops. But importantly, it has saved on development costs. It has been estimated that producing the open-source software we have today, using traditional means, would cost $387 billion and take 2.1 million people-years of development.

  • Programming
    • Benchmark of Python Web Servers

      The above results show that as a Python web developer we have lots of different methods to deploy our applications. Some of these seem to perform better than others but by focussing only on server performance I will not justify most of the tested servers as they differ greatly in functionality. Also, if you are going to take some stock web framework and won’t do any optimizations or caching the performance of your webserver is not going to matter as this will not be the bottleneck. If there is one thing which made this benchmark clear is that most Python Web servers offer great performance and if you feel things are slow the first thing to look at is really your own application.

Leftovers
  • Playboy accidentally played out on children’s TV

    TV bosses in the US have apologised after preview clips of the Playboy channel were accidentally played out on two children’s channels.

  • Science
    • U.S. sits on rare supply of tech-crucial minerals

      China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation.

    • Planck sees tapestry of cold dust

      Giant filaments of cold dust stretching through our Galaxy are revealed in a new image from ESA’s Planck satellite. Analysing these structures could help to determine the forces that shape our Galaxy and trigger star formation.

    • NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica

      In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.

  • Security
    • 7 Cool, Free Security Applications

      Encrypt or create a hidden OS with TrueCrypt

      Even if Windows is password protected, thieves can still access all your files, for example, with a Linux-based LiveCD. To protect your documents and privacy, you can encrypt your data. TrueCrypt is a great open source solution.

    • U.S. Civil Liberties Group Questions ‘Legal Basis’ Of Using Drones To Kill

      The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Tuesday demanding that the government disclose the legal basis for its use of unmanned drones to conduct targeted killings overseas.

      In particular, the lawsuit asks for information on when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, the number and rate of civilian casualties and other basic information essential for assessing the wisdom and legality of using armed drones to conduct targeted killings.

    • Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely

      More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.

  • Environment
    • ‘Milestone’ for wave energy plans

      Ten sites on the seabed off the north coast of Scotland have been leased out to power companies in an effort to generate wave and tidal energy.

      In the first project of its kind in the world, areas in the Pentland Firth and around Orkney have been leased to seven companies by the Crown Estate.

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Jim Gettys, HP computer scientist (2004)




Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Categories: News

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: March 17th, 2010

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 23:57

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.

Categories: News

Microsoft — Like Gates Foundation — Still Uses Own ‘Studies’ for PR and Lobbying Purposes

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 22:27

Summary: Some of Microsoft’s latest ’studies’ (from the past week) are looked upon more closely for their true purpose to be understood

A few weeks ago we found out that Microsoft was "phone-spamming" potential clients. Now that Microsoft settles a case of IM spam, one can’t help recalling the many incidents where Microsoft spammed people, sometimes specifically targeting GNU/Linux users by scraping their names off GNU/Linux Web sites. In addition, Microsoft is a considered a major cause for the world's SPAM (E-mail).

“Now that Microsoft settles a case of IM spam, one can’t help recalling the many incidents where Microsoft spammed people, sometimes specifically targeting GNU/Linux users by scraping their names off GNU/Linux Web sites.”Microsoft does a lot of things in bulk, including "spamming" the government last month. Going further back, we find many more examples [1, 2], including fake letters from dead people and rigging of polls against GNU/Linux and Java.

At the end of last year we showed that Microsoft was again paying IDC (IDG) to assist with lobbying, probably by producing biased results based on selective populations being massively inquired [1, 2]. Microsoft has used these tricks with IDC to belittle GNU/Linux, as we showed using Comes vs Microsoft exhibits. These self-serving ’surveys’ and ’studies’ (sometimes carried out jointly with entities like AARP) may take time for their purpose to be realised. As we showed this morning, the Gates Foundation uses the same tactics by sponsoring so-called 'studies'. Microsoft doesn’t do this out of curiosity or as a service to others. It simple cannot because it would have to justify the expenses to investors. Microsoft’s latest such ’studies’ are leading to headlines like this one: “Microsoft helps remote workers”

Remote-working programmes can benefit employees and employers through increased productivity, reduced overhead and happier workers, according to a recent survey from Microsoft.

How is Microsoft going to use these results that it paid for?

There are more new examples like this, one of which involves smart grids [1, 2, 3] and may lead to nonsense/PR such as: “Microsoft To Cut Data Center Costs in Half”

How about this for a headline: “PayPal, Microsoft team up with Foursquare to Save The Children”

How lovely. Microsoft is now saving our children. All bow in awe. In the coming weeks it will become even clearer what Microsoft intends to do with those ’studies’ that it bought. ?

Categories: News

Microsoft Entryism Roundup: COPsync, Level 3, and Yahoo!

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 21:48

Summary: COPsync hires from Microsoft, Level 3 dumps Microsoft’s proprietary software to stave off Free software, and Yahoo! keeps falling apart

ONCE in a while we try to keep track of where Microsoft employees end up (especially the senior ones). They cause damage to potential rivals even after they leave Microsoft. We keep seeing evidence, so this demonstrably true.

COPsync adds a Microsoft person to its Board of Directors based on the following new announcement:

COPsync, Inc. Announces the Appointment of Joel Hochberg to the Board of Directors

[..]

Previously Mr. Hochberg was the president of a prominent software company in the video game business that was sold to Microsoft in 2004. After the sale of this company, Mr. Hochberg acted as a consultant with Microsoft’s X-Box division for three years.

Additionally, Microsoft is creating new “partners” every week in order to extend the ecosystem (we rarely cover examples of these, unless it’s relevant to Free software). Sometimes Microsoft just gives some “awards” to win the loyalty of some other companies or as this news suggests, even persons. Someone called John Scott gets what’s called “Microsoft Innovation Award”.

Microsoft now adds Level 3 to distributors of its dumping programme which goes by the *Spark banners [1, 2]. We have explained these before. Poor businesses are still putting the shackles on, perhaps not realising that Microsoft will squeeze them later. They really should stick with Free software, which is why Microsoft launched this programme in the first place (suppressing migration to something else, based on short- and long-term considerations).

Last but not least, we still see the effect of Microsoft’s attack on Yahoo’s identity and corporate culture. Another key executive (senior vice president) is leaving.

A big pick-up for Demand Media; The content distributor has hired Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) SVP Joanne Bradford as its chief revenue officer, according to AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher.

This is the type of thing that happens when companies let themselves be infiltrated by Microsoft. It’s just appalling as it removes choice from the market. Are antitrust laws no longer being enforced? ?

Categories: News

Internet Explorer 9 Seems Less Secure Than Predecessors; Microsoft Plays the Vapourware Game Against Rival Web Browsers

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 21:34

Summary: Internet Explorer 9 removes security features and lies about its standards compliance using improper benchmarks

MICROSOFT made some Internet Explorer patches available last week, only to discover that Internet Explorer is under a new wave of attacks (due to flaws which cannot be patched until next month). What did Microsoft do? To the gurus out there it advised that they apply some registry hacking. Windows is easy, eh? SJVN writes about this issue which we covered before:

A Quick IE Fix

[...]

The first one disables the peer factory class in the Windows registry. ‘Peer factory’ is used by the iepeers.dll binary program in IE 6 and 7 on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to call some kinds of Windows functionality from within IE. The most common way it’s used is to print from IE. The downside of this fix, as you might guess, is that it will stop IE’s print functionality from working.

Try explaining this security measure to people who are fearful of computing.

According to another new article from SJVN, Internet Explorer 9 will fix almost nothing when it comes to security. Just like when Vista 7 was planned and released, Microsoft said nearly nothing about improved security; it’s the same when it comes to Internet Explorer.

While Microsoft seems focused on some good things, like improving IE’s speed and finally making it more compatible with the forthcoming HTML 5 standard, I didn’t see a lot about improving the program’s own built-in security. Indeed, this early test-drive model [of IE 9] doesn’t even include IE 8’s SmartScreen anti-malware filter and private-browsing function.

This sounds familiar because according to two separate sources, Vista 7 is also less secure than Vista [1, 2]. They go backwards.

But now comes the interesting part. A reader who wishes to remain anonymous has told us that, regarding Microsoft’s “test browser compliance”, it will “test browsers, except for their current version, Internet Explorer 8″. To quote the message:

“Download the latest Windows web browser”. Is it fair testing a future release against the current versions of the rest? Also the original stand alone SVG files appear to be missing.

“This website contains several collections of test pages that were developed in conjunction with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) working groups. These tests make it possible to validate a browser’s compliance with specific web standards”

http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/ietestcenter/#svg11e2

Microsoft never likes to compare the comparable. It pits vapourware against real products, as usual. It must mean that Microsoft is behind, not ahead. ?

“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”

–Microsoft, internal document [PDF]

Categories: News

More Evidence of Potential Microsoft Involvement in Apple-HTC Lawsuit Against Linux/Android (and Microsoft Loses to Virnetx)

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 21:18






“Patent defence for free software by Andrew Tridgell”
Dr. Andrew Tridgell’s talk from the LCA 2010 conference

Summary: Microsoft’s top “IP” bullies commend Apple’s legal action and Microsoft owes VirnetX $105.75 million for patent violation

BACK in January we wrote about Tridgell’s talk, which is finally available for the public to watch (FFII made a copy). We covered his talk in a post about "Apple's Patent Threat to Linux". We partly predicted Apple’s lawsuit against GNU/Linux, using software patents in fact [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Now we know that experts allege that Microsoft may have played role in Apple's lawsuit. Microsoft endorses this action publicly (in a Smith's talk) and now Microsoft endorses this in its lobbying blog too. One of Microsoft’s chief racketeers, Horacio Gutierrez, wrote: “Apple v. HTC: A Step Along the Path of Addressing IP Rights in Smartphones”

One of our readers quotes the following portions: “There is a long history of IP litigation in the mobile phone market, and innovation has continued apace [...] as the IP situation settles in this space and licensing takes off, we will see the patent royalties applicable to the smartphone software stack settle at a level that reflects the increasing importance software has as a portion of the overall value of the device.”

“Is this Microsoft-codespeak for, we expect people to start paying us a hardware tax.”
      –Anonymous readerThe simple translation is that Microsoft wants tax on Linux phones. Microsoft wants us to pretend that mobile Linux too is Microsoft’s own property (the software layer). Our reader says: “Is this Microsoft-codespeak for, we expect people to start paying us a hardware tax. Something like they suggested to the OLPC developers? It’s in the Comes documents, in references to either ‘investing’ in the OLCP or getting them to stump up a Linux tax, can’t remember the exact words.”

With Apple’s lawsuit against GNU/Linux (via HTC/Android), the impact of Microsoft becomes increasingly suspect. Did Microsoft speak to Apple prior to this action? Either way, Apple is clearly a foe of software freedom and GNU/Linux users should cease viewing Apple as benign just because it competes against (or with) Microsoft.

Apple is clearly having a hard time competing against GNU/Linux. The iPad seems like a train wreck that even former Apple executives are negative about [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. It appears as though the iPad’s target market is dyed-in-the-wool Apple followers. And surely enough, according to the following numbers, just fans are eventually buying it. [via Glyn Moody]

Orders for the Apple iPad fell sharply over the weekend, indicating that most of the real obsessives bought one on Friday.

As Ghabuntu reminds us this week, iPad is just a “toy” (Apple is irrelevant in places like Africa).

I just keep asking myself, what is it that makes Apple toys so special even if they come at a *huge* cost, both economically and philosophically?

SJVN writes about the iPad and resorts to discussing tablets that are better and run GNU/Linux.

After that, why not a wearable Mac or Linux PC? We’ve already had wearable Linux and Windows PCs, but those early models had all the problems I listed earlier. In 2010, it’s a different story. We may not have flying cars, but we can certainly have wearable computers.

We already know that Asus is looking into running Google’s Linux-based Chrome OS on wearable PCs. Who knows: in 2020, we may look back and see that iPads and tablet computers were only a brief rest stop on the way to wearable entertainment devices and computers.

Dell too is planning to release tablets that run Linux (maybe with GNU). Many of the ARM-based tablets look exceptionally promising.

The myth says that GNU/Linux is trying to catch up with the “Mac” and the “PC”, but when it comes to devices, the very opposite is true. Apple and Microsoft are just taking legal actions (intimidation or rackets) to tax devices such as the Kindle for example [1, 2, 3], which leads to articles like this new one from South Africa (where software patents are illegal but Microsoft vainly breaks the patent law):

Microsoft licensing Linux

[..]

Proprietary giant is licensing open source to its partners. What is going on?

Over the past few weeks Microsoft has been licensing Linux to a number of its partners, most notably Amazon. Although the idea of Microsoft, a company steeped in proprietary software, licensing open source software is ludicrous it’s not completely unexpected. It’s also not the first time Microsoft has played the Linux patent game and we can expect to see more deals in the future. So what’s going on?

[...]

Then in February Microsoft announced a deal with Amazon which it described as covering a “broad range” of products, including Amazon’s Kindle and Amazon’s use of Linux-based servers. Effectively Microsoft is licensing Linux to Amazon on the understanding that it won’t sue the company for infringing on its alleged Linux-related patents.

This is not unlike the agreement struck between Novell and Microsoft in 2006 in which Microsoft agreed to indemnify Suse Linux users against potential patent suits. That deal too attracted significant ire from the open source community.

The most recent Linux patent deal from Microsoft is a deal with Japanese hardware maker I-O Data. Although the specifics of the agreement are not known the two companies said that the the deal “will provide I-O Data’s customers with patent coverage for their use of I-O Data’s products running Linux and other related open source software.” Again, Microsoft is providing an assurance that it won’t file a patent suit against I-O Data for its use of Linux.

This is not the first time that a company has tried to claim Linux patent ownership and used that against other businesses. SCO is the most obvious example and they even went so far as claim that they owned Unix. SCO, fortunately, was never that successful at winning its claim over Linux and Unix. Microsoft on the other hand is a potentially different case.

[...]

Suing a Linux vendor directly over patent claims would be a shortcut to ending up in court. And being hauled into court would force Microsoft to open its books and explain what it is that it claims to own.

For now Microsoft is prepared to rely on compliant partners to create uncertainty around Linux ownership.

It’s a clever strategy by Microsoft and one hard to counteract.

It’s not a “clever strategy”, it’s racketeering and it’s illegal [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. It should be reported by vendors like Red Hat as it probably violates laws introduced with the RICO Act. The racketeering from Gates and Jobs goes quite a long way back. It’s just another SCO-like strategy, going back to around the same time as the SCO lawsuit (2003).

Speaking of SCO, a few days ago it turned out that SCO itself was behind the attacks on Groklaw. SCO was using Sys-Con as its attack dog and Sys-Con is now spreading lies about an important Free software project, leading to this reaction:

O’Gara Cloud Computing Article Off Base

[...]

This is just about the most naïve explanation for whether a product will or will not be stable that I’ve ever read. If Maureen had bothered to email or call any one of the core Drizzle developers, they’d have been happy to tell her what is and is not stable about Drizzle, and why. Drizzle has not changed the underlying storage engines, so the InnoDB storage engine in Drizzle is the same plugin as available in MySQL (version 1.0.6).

Watch the first comment which says: “There’s no reason to be nice to MoG. She’s the same hitwoman who wrote a bunch of pro SCO, anti GPL FUD during that whole trial (while being paid by them, while claiming to be impartial), including publishing a bunch of personal info about the previously anonymous blogger behind Groklaw.”

Few more comments like this follow, but a lot more about the SCO/Sys-Con attack on Groklaw can be found in this new Slashdot discussion.

In other important news, the Virnetx case is over and Microsoft lost. We previously covered this in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8] and here is the news from Microsoft Nick:

A Texas jury has sided with VirnetX in its patent-infringement lawsuit against Microsoft, recommending an award of $105.75 million.

TechDirt already responds with some witty remarks:

In the last few years, Microsoft has become a bigger and bigger supporter of patents, which is a bit ironic, given that Bill Gates once pointed out that the software industry never would have developed if there had been software patents back in the early days. But, proving that new companies innovate, while older companies litigate, Microsoft has become a big patent hoarder in recent years. But, to date, while it’s used those patents to threaten lots of companies, it seems like Microsoft’s decision to live by patents, is actually costing it quite a bit of money.

Sadly, Microsoft uses patent trolls like Virnetx only to justify its own patent attacks against rivals. Microsoft’s #1 rival is Free software of course (although its embodiment can be companies like Google, IBM, Red Hat, and so on). ?

“I’d put the Linux phenomenon really as threat No. 1.”

–Steve Ballmer, 2001

Categories: News

Novell Wants to Bring Microsoft, Moonlight, and Mono to Linux Phones (Android)

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 19:42

Summary: Microsoft’s patent-encumbered ‘gifts’ to GNU/Linux are being pushed into devices with Novell’s help

ON many occasions before (e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]) we’ve warned that Microsoft’s MVP Miguel de Icaza aspires to put Microsoft’s API right inside Google’s universe, which would have devastating effects because of control and because of software patents.

“If Novell manages to ‘poison’ its competitors’ products some more, then it can market itself based on fear, not based on merit.”News has just arrived suggesting that Novell takes the next step by putting more than just Mono in phones. This is a bad idea particularly after Apple’s lawsuit [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], which we will return to in the next post. Novell’s ‘added value’ when it comes to GNU/Linux are products like Mono and Moonlight because Novell has exclusive rights to them, not just assigned copyrights. If Novell manages to ‘poison’ its competitors’ products some more, then it can market itself based on fear, not based on merit. Novell’s executives have already made it abundantly clear that this is at least one of their strategies. Among the ‘poisoned’ products we already have Ubuntu, with new Mono dependencies in version 10.04 [1, 2, 3] and Ubuntu sites that carry on promoting Mono software (even this week).

We have become accustomed to seeing promotion of Mono, Microsoft and Novell from David Worthington, who had some personal encounters with this pair of companies [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. It seems like they gave him a scoop (his report was first) regarding a new Microsoft/Novell product/project, about which he published in the Technologizer (the Technologizer is a Microsoft boosting Web site to a great extent [1, 2] and it was Worthington who helped promote an article that lied about Microsoft’s history last week). Anyway, here is his report that appeared first in the news (chronologically). He seems to have been informed about this in advance:

On Monday, Novell will demonstrate new technology that will allow Microsoft Xbox 360 games to be translated into iPhone apps. It also has the capability to be used to create Android games, potentially taking some Xbox games to the mobile masses.

Novell, a Microsoft frenemy, is making it possible for you to play Xbox games on other devices now, while Microsoft, which created the platform, will leave you waiting for Windows Phone 7 handsets, due late this year. For whatever reason, Microsoft has chosen to be less than aggressive in supporting two extremely popular smartphone platforms despite obvious consumer demand.

It was also pushed into IDG News Service, which has some kind of a new arrangement with the Technologizer. Later he promoted this in the SD Times while emphasising Android, not iPhone.

Novell is furthering its strategy of making it possible for .NET applications run on every mobile platform by introducing new tooling for the Android mobile operating system.

IDG’s own writers have covered the Android angle as well [1, 2]; so did some other Web sites. Here is an example of inaccurate coverage:

Interestingly enough, Microsoft is working with Novell hand-in-hand and seems to be giving it support where needed. It’s certainly not stopping Novell from moving forward with this project. Both companies have a history of working closely together.

This would only be true if he referred to the past few years (Microsoft paid Novell to become its technical slave). Historically speaking, Microsoft and Novell spent a lot of time fighting in court and distrusting each other. Based on this bit of news from early in the week, Novell carries on losing business to Microsoft, so reasons for distrust persist.

GroupWise Gets “Exchanged”

Why Salem State Changed its Server and How it’s Affecting Everyone

“Microsoft ‘Frenemy’ Enables Xbox 360 Games on iPhone,” says this short article and another says that “Novell to bring open source Silverlight clone to iPhone” (despite the fact that Silverlight is intended to always be ahead and Moonlight stay behind).

Novell is spreading Silver Lie [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] content through these endeavours because it’s beneficial to Microsoft. Novell needs that feeding hand to pay its employees, who decreasingly code for GNU/Linux.

Although Android too is to be ‘Microsoftised’ by Novell [1, 2, 3], there is time to protest against this because Novell isn’t there just yet:

Novell has demonstrated a new way to turn Xbox 360 games into iPhone apps, and there is a chance that Google’s Android will be able to join in on the action too.

Android is already sued by Apple with Microsoft’s endorsement (more on that in the next post), so the last thing it needs right now are more reasons for Microsoft to tax the applications layer. ?

“The patent danger to Mono comes from patents we know Microsoft has, on libraries which are outside the C# spec and thus not covered by any promise not to sue. In effect, Microsoft has designed in boobytraps for us.

“Indeed, every large program implements lots of ideas that are patented. Indeed, there’s no way to avoid this danger. But that’s no reason to put our head inside Microsoft’s jaws.”

–Richard Stallman

Categories: News

Patents (on Life) Roundup: Human Tissue and Crops Monopolised

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 18:44

Summary: New reminders of the dangers of an excessively broad patent law

• IPO finds cosmetic treatment patentable [hat tip: Glyn Moody]

Following the EPO decisions, the hearing officer in this case considered the claimed method was not treatment by surgery because the intervention did not burn the skin (as was the case in T 1172/03). There was also no suggestion that cells in the body were radically altered in the process (as was the case in T 383/03). The method was also not treatment by therapy, because (according to an expert medical witness) there were apparently no medical conditions that would benefit from wrinkle reduction resulting from the method. On the matter of inventive step, the hearing officer considered that GB2344532 did not contain clear and unmistakable directions to use the known process for reducing wrinkles, and that the use of the process to reduce wrinkles would be counter-intuitive (akin, so the hearing officer considered, to prescribing cigarettes for treatment of lung cancer), so the claimed invention would not be obvious to the skilled person. The objections raised could not therefore be sustained, and the application was remitted back to the examiner to conclude examination.

• Brazil Starts Public Consult On Retaliation Against US IP Rights

The Brazilian government today announced the start of a process of public consultation on suspension of concessions or obligations of intellectual property rights from the United States. The government on 15 March published a resolution of the Chamber of External Trade (CAMEX) launching the consultation, according to a Brazilian government press release.

This follows a WTO dispute settlement ruling in a US-Brazil dispute on cotton subsidies where the US was found in non-compliance with international trade rules. The decision gave Brazil the authorisation to suspend its obligations on US goods including IP rights.

• More Examples Of Patent Incentives Making The World Less Safe [original source is Wired Magazine]

Well, given Monsanto’s history of patenting disease resistant crops — and then over-aggressively attacking anyone who uses such crops (even accidentally), it would seem like a rather legitimate fear. Perhaps, rather than brushing this fear off, the USDA’s Cereal Disease Laboratory (CDL) should work to do something to fix things?

Related posts (about Monsanto):

  1. Reader’s Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods
  2. Monsanto: The Microsoft of Food
  3. Seeds of Doubt in Bill Gates Investments
  4. Gates Foundation Accused of Faking/Fabricating Data to Advance Political Goals
  5. With Microsoft Monopoly in Check, Bill Gates Proceeds to Creating More Monopolies
  6. Gates-Backed Company Accused of Monopoly Abuse and Investigated
  7. How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
  8. More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
  9. Video Transcript of Vandana Shiva on Insane Patents
  10. Explanation of What Bill Gates’ Patent Investments Do to Developing World
  11. Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems
  12. Gates Foundation Looking to Destroy Kenya with Intellectual Monopolies
  13. Young Napoleon Comes to Africa and Told Off
  14. Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
  15. Gates/Microsoft Tax Dodge and Agriculture Monopoly Revisited
  16. Beyond the ‘Public Relations’
  17. UK Intellectual Monopoly Office (UK-IPO) May be Breaking the Law
  18. “Boycott Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China”
  19. The Gates Foundation Extends Control Over Communication with Oxfam Relationship
Categories: News

Links 17/3/2010: KDE 4.5 Proposals, Benchmark of Distros in Development

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 16:11

Contents GNU/Linux
  • Becrypt avoids security resellers for Trusted Client

    When questioned about Becrypt’s decision to choose Ubuntu, Jones said the popular Linux distribution worked well with a diverse range of hardware.

    “One reason we chose Ubuntu is because it is a very powerful OS and is very up to date – it has got lots and lots of drivers,” he said.

    Administrators can assign a portion of the Trusted Client USB stick to store documents or applications. Alternatively, if internet connectivity is guaranteed, everything can be stored in the cloud.

  • Audiocasts
    • Full Circle Podcast #2: The Full Circle of Light (Brown)

      The podcast is in MP3 and OGG formats. You can either play the podcast in-browser if you have Flash and/or Java, or you can download the podcast with the link underneath the player.

    • Going Linux Podcast

      Scott’s question about a Mac-like dock for Linux generated a lot of feedback. We read and answer other questions as well.

    • The Software Freedom Law Show

      Aaron, Karen and Bradley discuss issues around the public domain and how it relates to copyright in general and copyrights on software in particular.

  • Events
    • Desktop Summit 2011 – Call for Hosts

      The KDE and GNOME communities are looking for a host for the Desktop Summit 2011, the combined annual conference featuring KDE’s Akademy and GNOME’s GUADEC events. Following up on the successful Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, the second edition of the combined event in 2011 will be the premier place to learn about, discuss, and work on free software on the desktop.

      The goal of the desktop summit will be to present and discuss the state of the art of free software for end users, do community building, enable cross-community collaboration, and enable partners from industry and other communities as well as individuals to get informed and involved.

    • In the Hearts of the South – Two great conferences

      Austin, Texas! Home to live music, great food, a world-class University (U of T) and the longhorns!) and IBM’s Linux Technology Center is a great place to have a Linux Fest, and that is what is happening on April 10th, 2010.

      For just one day the Linux Faithful are going to descend on Austin with a packed program that ranges from beginner subjects to those that would teach the experts in FOSS. After forty years in computer science (and most of those years using what most people would call today “Open Source”), I still find it is impossible to keep up with every aspect of it, so you will probably see me slip into a few of these talks to both learn what is going on and to talk face to face with some of the developers and people advocating their software’s use.

  • Desktop
    • No Apple computers for me

      I had been a apple computer user for the past 5 years and immensely enjoyed the hardware and the software. But, all good things come at a price. Apple’s price for a polished user experience has lately turned out to be user freedom.

      [...]

      All said, in the end, there is only one thing to do for me. Stick with Freedom and give up Apple. So, as of yesterday night, I have migrated all music from iTunes to Ubuntu (Rhythmbox player).

    • Open one way or another

      We’ve covered our concerns about Apple’s control issues, and we’ve also highlighted how the company is creating opportunity for more open alternatives to capture developers, mindshare and yes, believe it or not, consumers. This is the picture we foresaw in our 2008 report, Mobility Matters, where we described the first Android phone, the G1, not as an Apple iPhone killer, but an impressive first step and a sign of an oncoming onslaught of iPhone alternatives, all with openness advantages for hardware manufacturers and wireless carriers that can maintain or create their own brands, and also openness advantages for developers and users in the software available for the devices.

    • Windows Versus Ubuntu

      My home Ubuntu machine is also set up to periodically check for updates to all the installed software. It works as easily as automatic updates in Windows.
      One of the things I am amazed about for the above software is that all the Linux software is free and open-source. I see very little difference in performance from a user’s perspective, and using free open-source software has saved me several thousand Patacas by not having to pay software licensing fees.
      I am convinced that Ubuntu is a viable alternative for most work computers and can save businesses and other organizations considerable amounts of money. I also believe that it is an excellent alternative for children and parents for home computers.

  • Server
    • Linux on the cloud: IBM, Novell & Red Hat

      As proof of the Linux-powered cloud’s advantages, IBM points to eBay’s online payments division, PayPal, where developers are creating and testing payments applications for smartphones in IBM’s cloud. In the above statement, Osama Bedier, PayPal’s VP of product development, said, “We want to provide a very simple way to make payments available on all platforms, including mobile applications,” and IBM’s cloud delivers the goods.

    • Resonate Global Dispatch adds native support for RedHat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE

      Resonate Inc., the leading provider of award winning traffic management and load balancing solutions, today announced that it is shipping the latest version of Resonate Global Dispatch™ for RedHat Enterprise Linux and Novell SUSE.

  • Applications
  • K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)
    • Five Improvements for KDE 4.5 (Part 2)

      In my opinion, the KDE4 desktop is the most revolutionary piece of Linux software since the Linux kernel itself, and I appreciate how it strives to challenge old desktop paradigms and introduce new ones.

  • Distributions
    • Benchmarks: Mandriva 2010.1, PCLinuxOS 2010, Ubuntu 10.04, openSUSE 11.3

      On the testing block this week was Mandriva 2010.1 Alpha 3, Ubuntu 10.04 post-Alpha 3 development snapshot from 2010-03-11, PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta, and openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3. The latest development release of Mandriva 2010.1 is packing the Linux 2.6.33-desktop kernel, GNOME 2.29.91, X.Org Server 1.7.5, xf86-video-radeon 6.12.191, Mesa 7.7, GCC 4.4.3, and an EXT4 file-system. Ubuntu 10.04 is carrying the Linux 2.6.32 kernel, GNOME 2.29.92, X Server 1.7.5, xf86-video-radeon 6.12.191, Mesa 7.7, GCC 4.4.3, and an EXT4 file-system. PCLinuxOS meanwhile is based off the Linux 2.6.32 kernel with the Brain Fuck Scheduler (BFS) and other patches, KDE 4.4.1, X Server 1.6.5, xf86-video-radeon 6.12.4, Mesa 7.5.2, GCC 4.4.1, and an EXT4 file-system. Lastly, Novell’s openSUSE 11.3 Milestone 3 is built with the Linux 2.6.33 kernel, KDE 4.4.0, X Server 1.7.5, xf86-video-radeon 6.12.4, Mesa 7.7, a snapshot of GCC 4.5, and an EXT4 file-system.

    • Mandriva Family
      • PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta2 Release Information

        Kernel updated to 2.6.32.10bfs – Updates, bugs fixes and suggestions based on community feedback over the past week were implemented on the LiveCD. In addition to the KDE 4.4.1 SC version we now have Gnome, Phoenix XFCE, PCLXDE and Gnome Zen Mini isos available which showcase the various desktops available on PCLinuxOS. An Enlightenment desktop iso is also in the works and should be available sometime this week. PCLinuxOS 2010 was built from the ground up using the packages in our repository.

      • Living with ALT Linux Sisyphus

        I will stay on Sisyphus and enjoy the best of this distributions from Russia.There is no harm in paying back to my former commies friends by staying on so called ‘unstable” but still stable Sisyphus!

    • Gentoo Family
      • Council Meeting Summary

        Ideas seemed to converge on how to vote by email but it was noted that this would constitute a change of GLEP39 which the council can’t modify without an all-developers vote. Since there were already other changes planned or suggested to GLEP 39 it was decided that the council would work on a new text and submit it to a vote when ready. Calchan has volunteered to gather all ideas and work on the text.

      • Pardus: A Linux distribution for the end user

        Of course when I say leopard, with regards to anything computer, you think Mac OS X. Not this time. This time we’re talking about a different flavor of Linux – Pardus.Pardus is developed in Turkey and named after the Anatolian leopard. It’s goal is to be a complete distribution that new users can use with little introduction to Linux. It takes advantage of KDE 4 and offers a very user-centric experience.

        Pardus has a few features that most will have never heard of or seen before. In this article I will introduce you to some of these features as I introduce you to Pardus Linux.

    • Red Hat Family
      • Trading Idea – Is Red Hat close to Resistance?

        Shares of Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) are trading very close to calculated resistance at $30.90 with the current price action closing at just $30.76 placing the stock near levels that make it difficult to buy.

    • Debian Family
      • New cdbuilder server improves Debian infrastructure

        Today, the Debian project administrators are activating a new cdbuilder server. The server computes the official Debian ISO images once all software packages are ready for a new Debian release. While the old system needed 20 hours to build the ISOs, the new server needs less than two hours for the same job.

      • A Debian first: female candidate in running for leader

        For the first time in its 16-year history, the Debian GNU/Linux project has a woman in the running to become leader of the project when voting for the post takes place between April 2 and April 15.

        Margarita Manterola, a software developer from Argentina, mostly Python, teaches programming at a university. She has been involved with Debian since 2003, became a developer in 2005 and has been part of the Debian Women project since it kicked off in 2004.

      • Ubuntu
        • A Brief History of Brown: Ubuntu Feature Timeline

          The current stable release, as of this writing, and soon to be replaced by Lucid Lynx. Karmic brought us ext4 as the default filesystem, the first look at the Ubuntu Software Center, and the somewhat controversial GRUB2. Not to be left out of the cloud computing craze, Karmic shipped with Ubuntu One personal cloud service, and the Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud Images.

        • If Dreams Were Real: Convergence of Distro and Kernel Versions

          In a lengthy 2008 blog (as we reported), Mark Shuttleworth outlined a plan for the most commonly used Linux distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat and SUSE) to agree to a two-to-three-year major release cycle. The sting: if they were to agree to a common version numbering, it would immensely simply the software and especially the driver development process. According to Shuttleworth, it would lead to a definite positive effect for all distros.

        • Project: Getting Ready For Ubuntu 10.04 – Part 2

          In this installment we are going to cover the planning phase of the upgrade process. Good planning is often the difference between a good upgrade experience experience and a bad one. As a computing environment becomes more complex, planning becomes more essential. My environment is fairly complex so I have to plan.

        • Those pesky buttons
        • Why Window Button Placement Doesn’t Matter by

          The default positioning of window-management buttons in Ubuntu 10.04 has generated a lot of controversy. But given the decreasing importance of these buttons in modern desktop environments, I’m left wondering if the issue is really so important. In a year or two, after all, window titlebars may be a thing of the past.

        • Ubuntu 10.04 Radiance and Ambiance Themes for Google Chrome

          But those already employing the upcoming Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx are in luck, as they now have a couple of Google Chrome themes for both the “light” and the “dark” versions of Ubuntu’s visual revamp. And the best part is that they’re both available in Google’s own online gallery.

        • The Bizarre Cathedral – 69
        • Ubuntu Koala food console gets its cron on

          Scalr – the open source admin console for Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud and its Eucalyptus doppelganger – has added a cron job task manager to its arsenal, giving you more freedom to write and schedule scripts on sky-high virtual servers.

          Like RightScale, Scalr provides web-based management console for so-called infrastructure clouds, services like Amazon’s EC2 that provide on-demand access to scalable compute resources. Amazon now offers its own web interface, but services like Scalr and RightScale provide a few extras, and they dovetail with other, similar services, including Eucalyptus, the open source project that lets you mimic Amazon’s setup in your own data center.

        • Ubuntu Q&A

          Asay: There is much that we can do on the design side. It’s telling that Mark has stepped down as CEO so that he can focus on product design. He has an eye for design and should be a great addition to the Linux community’s efforts to improve Linux’s usability on the desktop.

          But the other side of it is that we work very closely with OEMs like Dell to ensure a seamless customer experience. If a customer buys an Ubuntu-based machine from Dell, it’s going to “just work.” Every time.

        • BitNami Releases Ubuntu-based Virtual Appliances, Makes Open Source Applications Easy to Deploy

          BitNami, the project that simplifies the process of deploying web applications natively, virtually and in the cloud, has released Ubuntu-based virtual appliances for all of the BitNami-packaged applications. Using the new, freely-available appliances, BitNami users can deploy ready-to-run virtual machine images of applications for CRM, bug tracking, document management, business intelligence and more in minutes.

  • Devices/Embedded
    • Qi Hardware’s tiny, hackable Ben NanoNote now shipping

      That will get you a bare bones device that can simply be used as a Linux-based “handheld laptop” out of the box or, as the company hopes, be turned into anything from a PMP to an offline Wikipedia device. Something along those lines would seem to be the most practical, considering the device only has a 3-inch 320 x 240 display, along with some similarly basic specs including a 336 MHz XBurst Jz4720 CPU, 32MB of RAM, 2GB of flash storage, and a microSD card slot for expansion. Head on past the break for a look under the lid.

    • Android
      • Google Says There Are Now 30,000 Apps In Android Market

        At the most recent Mobile World Congress, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the company’s partners are now selling over 60,000 Android handsets on a daily basis. With that kind of growth rate, it’s no wonder that the size of the Android Market is increasing in its slipstream.

      • Where Are All the Open Source Mobile Apps?

        Android is great in principle: after all, having millions of mobiles running Linux at the bottom of the stack is pretty good news. But we have a big problem at the top: there are very few free software apps, so you are almost forced to run closed source code on top of the open source Android (ironic or what?).

        [...]

        While it’s great news that the Android platform is attracting developers more than the iPhone, and far more than Windows Mobile, these are still small numbers: 224 new projects in a year is pretty footling compared to the 30,000 apps that are out there for the Android.

    • Sub-notebooks
Free Software/Open Source
  • Open Source Against E-Waste

    There has always been the suspicion that the hardware manufacturers (especially Intel) teamed up with software vendors (especially Microsoft) to release software applications and operating systems increasingly heavy, forcing a constant process of updating, not only processors, but memory and hard disks too.

    This process of constant update went well until a certain point. Until they reached a sufficient computing power to run several applications in elaborate graphical environments .

    [...]

    With Open Source operating systems and applications, you can recycle old computers, from 2004, 2005, 2006, so they are able to run the latest applications such as Firefox, Audacity, Open Office, and with a little more powerful video hardware, to run the 3D effects of Compiz desktop and KDE 4.

  • Going Free
    • Skype publishes SILK audio codec source code

      Skype has announced that it has published the source code for its SILK audio codec, introduced last year, which the company uses in its internet telephony applications for Windows and Mac OS X. Daniel Berg, Skype’s Chief Technology Officer said “This represents a key step in the development of an international standard for a wideband codec for use on the Internet,”. The release of the source code comes as part of Skype’s recent submission of an an Internet Draft to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

    • Squeak 4.0 released – now under MIT/Apache license

      Squeak, the open source implementation of the Smalltalk language and environment, has been updated to version 4.0 and re-licensed under a combination of the MIT and Apache licences. Version 4.0 of the code is functionally identical to the previous 3.10.2 release of Squeak, only varying in the licensing terms, but the developers will release Squeak 4.1 as soon as possible to include current development work.

  • Graphics
    • Review: GIMP 2.6.7 – Free Gnu Image Manipulation Program

      I have grown to love the GIMP as I don’t have the money or want to illegally download Photoshop and soon after watching and reading tutorials online I learnt all I needed to know and begun sharing my knowledge with the rest of the GIMP community. GIMP, like Photoshop is available on most operating systems, and has a free portable version available to put on a flash drive for when GIMP isn’t installed.

      4½/5 – Great features and closely resembles Photoshop for free!

    • Shapeways switches to Blender for on-line rendering

      3D printing community Shapeways allows their members to upload 3D models, preview them on the website and have them 3D printed in a variety of materials. Until recently, the previews were rendered in OpenGL and were rather bland looking. I was involved in the implementation of Blender on their webservers, in order to generate better quality previews. Here’s a look behind the scenes of this project.

      Before I begin: this was an awesome project. I had a chance to work together with some great Blender designers and developers. The Shapeways team loved the concept but wasn’t easy to satisfy – a great combination for arriving at a fantastic final product.

  • Business
  • Licensing
    • Ex-Sun open source honcho: Sorry about that TCK license, Apache!

      Among the many high-level Sun people leaving the merged Oracle-Sun conglomerate is Chief Open Source Officer Simon Phipps, who announced his departure on his blog last week. (Side note: Is Chief X Officer the new Vice President? They sure seem to be proliferating!) It was the sort of expected combo of pride and wistful regrets, and (as is probably the intent) it’s not that easy to tell whether he’s leaving voluntarily or not. Still, the most interesting bit, as one might expect, was one of his regrets, offered in passing: “I’m sad that Apache did not get the TCK license they requested.”

    • On the fall and rise of the GNU GPL

      If we assume that Web applications and cloud computing played a significant role in the proportional decline of the GPLv2, we would expect to see a significant rise in the use of the AGPLv3. While the use of the AGPLv3 has indeed risen 16% between June 2009 and today, in real terms the rise is from 198 projects to 231 – still an insignificant amount compared to the GPLv2.

    • Is Your Support of Copyleft Logically Consistent?

      Obviously, I don’t believe in angels myself. But, Clarence’s (admittedly naïve) logic is actually impeccable: Either you believe in angels or you don’t. If you believe in angels, then you shouldn’t be surprised to (at least occasionally) see one.

      This film quote came to my mind in reference to a concept in GPL enforcement. Many people give lip service to the idea that the GPL, and copyleft generally, is a unique force that democratizes software and ensures that FLOSS cannot be exploited by proprietary software interests. Many of these same people, though, oppose GPL enforcement when companies exploit GPL’d code and don’t give the source code and take away users’ rights to modify and share that software.

  • Openness
    • SXSW: Shirky’s New Opportunities in Public Sharing

      Today social technology theorist Clay Shirky delivered a fitting counterpoint to Danah Boyd’s keynote on privacy at SXSW the day before. Where Boyd spoke of the danger of making information more public than users intended it, Shirky talked about new opportunities for sharing information online and elsewhere.

    • Shirky: Napster tapped into our primate instincts

      New York University professor Clay Shirky thinks he’s getting old, or in other words, “my average age has been going up at the alarming rate of about one year per year.” Recently, he said, he had to explain Napster to a class of his students because they were too young to have known much about the groundbreaking music-sharing service in its heyday.

    • estimating ullage

      Ullage, the word for the empty space at the top of a wine bottle, is Peter Suber’s term for the gap between a library’s actual holdings and its patrons’ access needs. That’s a difficult thing to measure, but I might have found a way to estimate it with reference not to patron needs but to all published journals, as follows.

    • Making Public Information Available Online: Rep. Israel Introduces the Public Online Information Act

      Today, Representative Steve Israel introduced the Public Online Information Act, which if enacted would free a vast treasure trove of government information. All too often, information that the law requires be publicly available is hidden behind stone walls and paper barriers. POIA tears down these walls by:

      * Requiring Executive Branch agencies to publish publicly available information on the Internet in a timely fashion and in user-friendly formats.
      * Creating a multi-branch advisory committee to develop government-wide Internet publication guidelines.

    • Transparency Is Trending

      This week is Sunshine Week, a lot of people are very excited and are taking the time to write about why open government is important to them. Here are just a few of the great posts people are writing, explaining why transparency is important.

    • Battle of the Opens

      So here—free, gratis, libre, and open—is a brief, simplistic guide to several flavors of open, organized around the following questions:

      * What is the target of this movement? What is being made open? As compared to what?
      * What legal regimes are implicated?
      * How does openness happen? What are the major variants of open works of this type?

    • Open Sourcing A Disease Diagnosis

      If you follow Larry Lessig on Twitter, you noticed that all day Monday he was putting messages on Twitter about how “JZ” was sick and was trying to “open source” his diagnosis.

  • Programming
    • GCC 4.5 Is Still Not Ready For Release

      With GCC 4.5 the MPC library has been integrated to evaluate complex arithmetic at compile time more accurately, a new link-time optimizer has been added, automatic parallelization can be enabled as part of Graphite, improved experimental support for C++0x, Windows improvements with Cygwin and MinGW, and many other changes.

  • Standards/Consortia
    • Public review of “The State of ODF Interoperability”

      The initial “State of ODF Interoperability” report has now gone out for public review. It is a baseline report, surveying the context of document interoperability, the sources of interoperability problems as well the ways in which these problems are being addressed. Although it explicitly deals with ODF interoperability, much of the report is equally relevant to any other office document format, XML-based or binary.

    • Time to Learn from China on Open Standards?

      One of the major battles under way in Europe is over open standards. As its name suggests, an open standard is one that is open to all, without restrictions or obstacles; anything less than that is just window-dressing.

      In particular, if any part of the standard is encumbered with patents, these must be available on a royalty-free basis: “Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory (RAND)” is not good enough, since RAND licences with non-zero fees, however minute, *do* discriminate against open source using licences like the GNU GPL.

Leftovers
  • AirStash brings the WiFi, neglects the storage, for a cent under $100

    When we last saw the AirStash, it was keeping its mystique about it and refusing to disclose any salient details beyond the fact that it’ll function as a wireless SD/SDHC card reader. Today, the fog of war is lifted with the news that the AirStash is now officially on sale for $99.99, and will come with a battery good for five hours of continuous data streaming.

  • New York Cabs Gouged Riders Out of Millions

    About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.

  • NSFW: ‘Tis Pity We Called Her A Whore – And Other Ineffectual Digital Apologies

    A few days later, another UK paper – The Daily Mail – ran a story headlined “I posed as a girl of 14 on Facebook. What followed will sicken you …” The story was indeed sickening; written by a former police detective, it revealed how after signing up to Facebook as a young girl, he was immediately contacted by middle-aged men looking for sex. There was just one problem with the story: it wasn’t true.

    For a start the story was ghost-written by a Mail journalist, loosely based on a phone interview with the detective. More importantly, the detective had made clear – repeatedly – that the social network in question wasn’t Facebook. In fact he’d actually praised Facebook for having put in place measures to protect young users against ‘grooming’ by adults. Unfortunately, the Mail seems to have a beef with Facebook – they previously accused the site of causing cancer – and so decided to name and shame it both in the article, and in the headline and – yup – in the URL. As with Zoe’s story, the headline was changed after a few hours (having already been widely syndicated) but the libellous URL remained uncorrected for more than a day.

  • Over half your news is spin

    Today Crikey launches an investigation six months in the making. Spinning the Media is an investigation in conjunction with the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney into the role PR plays in making the media.

  • Science
    • It is time to geek the vote

      There has been a huge push to put “the s word” – science – at the heart of political debate in the run-up to the UK general election.

  • Security
    • The amazing true story of Zeitoun

      Abdulrahman Zeitoun is the real-life hero of Dave Eggers’s new book. In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina he paddled from house to house in a canoe, offering help to his neighbours. For his trouble, he was arrested as a suspected terrorist

    • Dear People For Supporter,

      Progressives and conservatives alike are slamming one of the most blatantly McCarthyist attacks yet. People For the American Way released a report several months ago on the rise of what we called the New McCarthyism. Clearly, that trend is growing.

      An attack ad by Liz Cheney, archconservative daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Bill Kristol, Head Cheerleader for the Iraq War, brands Eric Holder’s DOJ the “Department of Jihad” for employing nine lawyers who represented detainees and asks of these lawyers: “whose values do they share?” The ad, produced by Cheney and Kristol’s new Swift Boat-style front group, “Keep America Safe,” labels seven then-unidentified DOJ lawyers “The Al Qaeda 7.”

    • Jihad Jamie: Racial profiling under scrutiny after second white Islamist arrested

      Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, a nursing student from Colorado, was detained in Ireland in connection with an alleged conspiracy to kill a Swedish cartoonist. News of her arrest came days after Colleen LaRose, 46, of suburban Philadelphia, was named in a federal indictment for her alleged role in the plot against Lars Vilks, who had offended many Muslims with his portrayal of the prophet Muhammad as a dog.

    • UK ‘ignoring’ systemic evidence of torture among asylum seekers

      Torture survivors seeking sanctuary in Britain are being wrongly held in government detention centres, despite independent medical evidence supporting claims of brutal violence against them in their home countries.

    • ID cards have three databases, says minister

      Following reports that the IPS had scrapped plans to store biographical information on the Department for Work and Pensions’ database, Hillier said that the controversial scheme has three databases. “There is the one that holds the fingerprints and facial image, the biometric data, and then the other information which is broadly what is on your passport already and the third bit is the one that links the two,” she said.

  • Environment
    • Waiter, There Is Toxic Sludge in my Organic Soup!

      Fifteen years ago, the Center for Media and Democracy in my book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You first exposed the deceptive PR campaign by the municipal sewage industry that has renamed toxic sewage sludge as “biosolids” to be spread on farms and gardens. Unfortunately, the scam continues to fool more people than ever, even in San Francisco which is often dubbed the country’s greenest city.

    • The five-year race to save India’s vanishing tigers

      It is always the same, says Dharmendra Khandal, toying with a heavy iron skinning knife as he recounts the story. Khandal is sitting in the offices of Tiger Watch on the edge of the national park, one of the most popular tiger reserves in India. He spreads his palms in frustration. The government’s forestry department is always the last to act, he says, though it is its job to protect the tigers.

    • Save the Elephants: STOP BLOODY IVORY
    • When Crime Pays: How the EU subsidises illegal fishing

      Fishsubsidy.org today publishes a list of 42 convictions of fishing vessel owners that have also received EU subsidies under the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The study, which focuses on two major EU fishing nations, Spain and France, involves matching records of court convictions with data on EU fisheries subsidy payments. Between them, the 36 law-breaking vessels received 13,510,418 euro in EU subsidies between 1994 and 2006.

    • Marking World Water Day, March 22, 2010

      World Water Day 2010 is Monday, March 22nd. This year’s theme is “Communicating Water Quality Challenges and Opportunities,” and is aimed at increasing awareness of the importance of water quality. One way to help stand up for clean water is to sign on to Food & Water Watch’s petition aimed at strengthening America’s public water supply. You can also help “take back the tap,” if you have not done so already, and learn more about the environmental and economic impact of choosing tap water over bottled water.

    • China defends detention of lead poisoning victims who sought medical help

      Children at a village near the Wugang manganese smelting plant in Hunan province on 22 August, 2009. Hundreds of children in the province are suffering from suspected lead poisoning caused by the local factory. Photograph: Frederic J. Brown/AFP

  • Finance
    • Billions at stake as derivatives debate splits US and European regulators

      To European officials, financial derivatives are dangerous weapons that worsened its debt crisis and should be curbed.

    • The Good the Bad and the Ugly in the Dodd Bill

      Usually a draft like this sets the high water mark. With 1,500 bank lobbyists on the hill and $390 billion spent on finance industry lobbying in 2009, the public will need to weigh in to fix the problems that do exist in the bill and hold off provisions that will make the bill worse.

    • Financial Podcast Buys A Toxic Asset To See How It Works

      Literally, the four reporters on the team, along with their producer, each pooled about $200 of their own money, in order to buy $1,000 worth of toxic asset. They’ll be tracking whether or not they make their money back, and if they make anything on top of that as well (any profits will be donated to charity). The podcast itself is fascinating, as two of the reporters spend a couple days with a company called Mission Peak Capital, based out in Kansas, which has been analyzing and buying up toxic assets. They go through the whole process of analyzing and bidding on a few of these things until they find the one they wanted. Mission Peak bought the whole asset for $36,000, marked down from $2.7 million, and then sold a $1,000 sliver to the team at Planet Money.

    • In Hard Times, Lured Into Trade School and Debt

      One fast-growing American industry has become a conspicuous beneficiary of the recession: for-profit colleges and trade schools.

    • Lewis Faults ‘Short-Term Greedy,’ Cites Goldman: Interview

      Michael Lewis made a name for himself on Wall Street by writing about it. His 1989 book, “Liar’s Poker,” exposed the inner workings of Salomon Brothers, a firm then at the peak of its power, and described his improbable run as a bond salesman there.

    • Goldies, Greece and Lehman’s Repo 105

      A standard repo, or repurchase agreement, is a form of secured loan. They’re fairly straightforward affairs. In exchange for a financial asset – usually a highly secure government or state government bond – one party will make a cash loan to another party (with the financial asset as security).

      That means the lender’s exposure is not directly to the borrower, but to the issuer of the underlying security. So the associated interest rate on the loan is lower than it would be if the money were lent on an unsecured basis to the borrower.

      [...]

      As Michael Lewitt, an astute bond fund manager and commentator, observed in the latest edition of The HCM Market Letter, “Goldman Sachs entered damage control mode and dispatched the highly respected Gerald Corrigan, a former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Chairman of Goldman Sachs Bank USA, to tell a UK parliamentary committee that ‘with the benefit of hindsight … the standards of transparency could have been and probably should have been higher’.”

    • Tweeting against Goldman Sachs

      The real Lucas van Praag is renowned throughout the financial press as arrogant, caustic, and in possession of a very large vocabulary — traits that normally aren’t considered desirable public relations attributes. But this is Goldman Sachs we’re talking about, so until recently, van Praag may have seemed like a good fit for a company whose CEO seems convinced that earning billions of dollars while helping to engineer the greatest financial collapse in the history of humanity is equivalent to doing “God’s work.”

      The fake Lucas van Praag is just funny. To wit:

      @thattwerptaibbi. Stop hounding me! Yes, it’s true. $GS funded Kate Gosselin’s makeover AND bought CDS against her performance on DWTS.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
    • Ari Emanuel: Did he mention lobbying the President or the Vice President?

      According to Josh Gerstein of Politico, Ari Emanuel claims he was misquoted, and was in fact referring to the “vice President.” KEI’s first take: Ari Emanuel’s quote was widely discussed on twitter and blogs, and Ari was embarrassed at his indiscretion, which suggests Rahm Emanuel’s brother is lobbying the president directly.

    • 2010: The Year of the Corporate Candidate?

      After the Supreme Court declared that corporations have the same rights as individuals when it comes to funding political campaigns, the self-described progressive firm, Murray Hill, Inc., took what it considers the next logical step: running for office in Maryland’s 8th Congressional District.

    • Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care

      The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama’s top domestic priority.

      The coalition of groups opposing the legislation, led by the United States Chamber of Commerce, is singling out 27 Democrats who supported the health care bill last year and 13 who opposed it. The organizations have already spent $11 million this month focusing on these lawmakers, with more spending to come before an expected vote next weekend.

    • “Texas Tea” Party: Dick Armey Distorts History, Again

      It is no liberal college professor conspiracy; it is a fact. Hamilton strongly favored a strong federal government with almost king-like powers for the president — that’s why Hamilton has often been cited by Bush lawyer, John Yoo, as his inspiration for virtually unlimited powers for the national executive.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights
    • Judge rules in satirical Web site’s favor

      A Web site that satirizes news can run a fictional story about a giraffe attack at Global Wildlife Center in Folsom, a state district judge ruled Monday.

      After a two-hour hearing, state District Judge Beth Wolfe struck down a temporary restraining order signed March 2 that had called for the removal of the story from the site, Hammond Action News.

    • Encyclopedia Dramatica Owner May Face Charges Down Under… Despite Not Being In Australia

      But it turns out that the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) is upset about a “deliberately offensive article about Aborigines,” and is threatening to take the site’s operator, Joseph Evers, to court. The thing is, the stuff on Encyclopedia Dramatica are deliberately offensive to pretty much everyone. That’s the point. But the nice thing about the internet is that if you don’t like that sort of thing, you can avoid it. Furthermore, Evers is in the US and isn’t breaking any US laws.

    • Joshua Newton: Variety’s Tim Gray Is ‘Lying Through His Nose’

      Joshua Newton, the producer and director of “Iron Cross,” has sued Variety for fraud and breach of contract over a negative review of his film that he claims undermined a $400,000 advertising campaign orchestrated by the trade. Grilled by Sharon Waxman, he accuses Variety editor Tim Gray of lying, and says publisher Neil Stiles told him he planned to end all reviews in 2010. Asked for a response, Gray had no comment and Stiles did not respond to an email.

  • China
    • Full Text of Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009

      China’s Information Office of the State Council published a report titled “The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009″ here Friday. Following is the full text:

      The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2009 on March 11, 2010, posing as “the world judge of human rights” again. As in previous years, the reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to, or dodge and even cover up rampant human rights abuses on its own territory. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2009 is prepared to help people around the world understand the real situation of human rights in the United States.

    • The US is turning human rights into a farce

      No country in this world has impeccable records on human rights. Therefore, it should be healthy for governments of different countries to exchange ideas on human rights if the intention of these exchanges is to improve human rights performance in this world.However, the routine US reports on different country’s human rights records are gradually turning the noble concept of human rights into a big farce as it engaged two deadly wars, causing lives of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    • Letter Offers Glimpse Into Fall-Out If Google Goes

      China’s state-run broadcaster, China Central Television, published on its Web site Tuesday the text of a letter, claiming it was sent from a group of 27 Google advertising resellers to John Liu, who leads Google’s sales team and oversees the company’s business operations in greater China. (Read the WSJ’s translation of the full text of the letter here.)

  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights
    • Charlie Angus Set To Propose Canadian MP3 Player Levy

      Music industry sources say Canadian Member of Parliament Charlie Angus, the NDP’s digital issues critic, is preparing to enter a private member’s bill next week proposing the country’s private copying levy should be extended to MP3 players.

      The levy is currently in place on other blank media, but attempts to extend it to MP3 players have failed in the past. The discussion of the levy came at the same time Canadian music industry insiders at Canadian Music Week were focused on the possibility of a new Copyright Act for Canada, after support for intellectual property was referenced in the Conservative government’s throne speech last week.

    • Want To Link To Royal Mail? You Better Not Be In A Hurry

      If you ever read terms of use pages for websites, you know that they are mostly boilerplate. Unfortunately whatever template all these businesses seem to be sharing makes some ridiculous assertions, perhaps the worst of which is a provision against hyperlinking to the site without written permission.

    • Postal service chief: Our business model as outdated as the newspaper industry’s

      The head of the U.S. Postal Service said Thursday that his organization’s business model is as outdated as the newspaper industry’s.

    • Jaron Lanier Says That Musicians Using Free To Succeed Are Lying

      What a bizarre statement, considering just how many real life examples we see every day of musicians successfully embracing an understanding of basic economics (which Lanier apparently lacks). I was trying to better understand how Lanier could make such an easily debunked statement with a straight face, and it’s not clear at all. It appears that Lanier is the one who is pretending here.

    • In Defense Of 1,000 True Fans – Part VII – Ellis Paul – 300 Fans = $100,000 in Contributions The Ultimate Testament to Fan Loyalty

      Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. To date, he has released 16 albums and has been the recipient of 14 Boston Music Awards. He has published a book of original lyrics, poems, and drawings, and released a DVD that includes a live performance, guitar instruction, and a road-trip documentary. As a touring musician, Ellis plays close to 150 dates each year and his extensive club and coffeehouse touring, together with radio airplay, has brought him a solid national following.

    • Heroes Producer: Honored To Be The Most Unauthorized Downloaded Show

      This talk was given by Tim Kring, creator of the popular TV show Heroes, and he made some interesting points — noting that he’s “honored” that Heroes is the most “illegally” downloaded TV show out there, because “we’ll take audience anywhere we can get it.” But he’s not just sitting back.

    • Dan Bull Recaps How Home Taping Killed Music With His Latest Song
    • Linking to P2P content declared legal in Spain

      This is an important and interesting ruling. I tend to agree with the linking part of the reasoning, but I completely disagree with the argument presented by the judge with regards to P2P networks. The judge uses some paper-thin arguments here to imply that P2P networks are not illegal, that they are here to stay anyway so what is the problem, and that almost nothing taking place in those networks can be enforced. I would be surprised if SGAE does not appeal the ruling.

    • File-Sharing and Link Sites Declared Legal in Spain

      After early calls to shut down a Spanish file-sharing site were dismissed, music group SGAE pinned its hopes on success at the full trial. But, the outcome for them was nothing short of a disaster. The judge declared that both non-commercial file-sharing link sites and non-profit use of P2P networks are legal in Spain.

    • Vive Le Rapidshare – Is A New French Revolution Afoot?

      Now half a year old, a study from the University of Rennes researched 2,000 users in Brittany about their downloading habits before and after Hadopi’s launch. The report found that P2P service use fell from 17.1 percent to 14.6 percent, but the piracy level in general actually went up 3 percent.

    • Music fans will sidestep filesharing clampdown says TalkTalk

      The majority of music fans will switch to alternative ways of accessing copyright-protected content for free if using peer-to-peer (P2P) services leaves them vulnerable to disconnection, rendering futile the Government’s attempts to stop copyright infringement.
      That’s according to new research from TalkTalk, the biggest provider of broadband to Britain’s homes.

    • Spotifies Mean Online Now Filling UK’s CD Royalty Gap

      One part of the music business has finally reached the fabled tipping point at which digital income offsets declining physical sales.

    • Two solicitors accused over file-sharing ‘bully tactics’

      The Solicitors Regulation Authority has referred two solicitors from London firm Davenport Lyons to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal over claims that the firm sent ‘bullying’ letters accusing hundreds of people of illegal file-sharing.

      Consumer group Which? complained to the SRA in 2008 that Davenport Lyons partner David Gore and former partner Brian Miller had engaged in ‘bullying’ and ‘excessive’ conduct, while acting on behalf of client copyright holders.

    • ACTA/Digital Economy Bill
      • Why I Bother Acting on ACTA

        Well, the fact that two years ago very few had heard of ACTA, whereas today many people know and care about it, is sufficient reason to carry on: it does make a difference, and people are starting to realise how serious this is. Moreover, hints like this suggest that making noise, even in that notorious echo-chamber that is the blogosphere, gets noticed in rarefied and exalted regions of power:

        Recent informations have revealed to me that the worldwide anti-ACTA campaign is having an impact on EU officials, a number of which are following closely the highlights of the most well-known blogs and webs. This is a sign of the success of an effective public campaign that has forced the EU out of its bunker and into the open battlefield over the content of this important international agreement.

      • Written Declaration 12/2010 signatories list
      • UK copyright law to be changed ‘without scrutiny’

        A major change to UK copyright law is likely to be introduced and debated within the space of one hour on the last day of the current parliament, according to Labour MP Tom Watson.

        Watson said the lack of time available for parliamentary discussion before the general election — expected to be on 6 May — means the Digital Economy Bill will skip the weeks of scrutiny usually given to complex legislation.

        “This is a fiendishly complex piece of legislation, and it therefore requires proper and adequate scrutiny,” Watson said to ZDNet UK on Tuesday. “At the moment, it looks like it will get a day’s second reading where [MPs] talk about the general principles of the bill, then it’ll be banged through in an hour on the last day of Parliament.”

      • Fight to Save the Net by UK Liberal Democrats

        Even if you are not in the UK, the UK LibDems fight to Save the Net matters. A LibDem emergency motion opposing copyright measures to block the Internet which are currently going through the UK Parliament is to be debated at their conference tomorrow.

        [...]

        A UK LibDems Save the Net Facebook page has been started to gather support. It is open to all, even non-Party members, and non-UK residents. The point of it is to let the UK government – and other EU governments – know how much people want to keep the Internet open, and how much they oppose blocking it:

        “This group needs proof that millions of people like you care about the Net so that they can convince the UK Government, or indeed any government, not to block websites or disconnect people from the Net by law. Wherever you are in the world, become a fan and show that the Net matters to you. ”

        And they explain that they have set up the page because: “The UK’s Labour Government thinks people in the UK wants them to control the Net. It’s trying to push through Lord Mandelson’s Digital Economy Bill before the UK elections in May/June. The UK’s Conservative Opposition seems to agree with them. The UK Lib Dems are the only mainstream party which is trying to stop them. ”

      • Well done Lib Dems: now ask what your candidates think

        Not a single speaker made any comment against the text – and Liberal Democrats reiterated their opposition to the closed ACTA negotiations. They emphasised the huge social, educational and economic value of the net today.

      • Third Reading DEB

        Very happy to note that the Liberal Democrats, with some input from lobby groups including independent academics such as myself, Francis Davey and Simon Bradshaw, have tabled amendments today which alleviate the worst excesses of amendment 120a. Good to see that even in the time-compressed framework of the run up to the general election, a party can still speedily take account both of external criticisms and its own grassroots and party concerns. I would still rather see both am 120a and clause 17 (now 18) go, since both raise dangers of fundamentally interfering with due process, proper scrutiny and civil liberties; but if not that, this is a step forward. Now let’s see what happens today.

      • The Day Democracy Died: DEB

        The Lib Dem amendments I mentioned in my previous posts – alongside some equally sensible amendments designed in particular to stop every search engine being blocked under clause 18 – were rejected by the Government this afternoon in the Lords, on what appeared to be legally spurious grounds, to the clear dismay and disquiet of the Lords.

        Shortly thereafter it appears some kind of deal was done whereby the Government announced they would bring forward unspecified changes to the disputed clause 18 at “wash up” – the pre election stage where legislation is pushed through with no opportunity for MPs to propose amendments or even , perhaps, make comments in debate, let alone scrutinise. It seems all opportunity for democratic amendment to the Bill has now come to an end.

        [...]

        There is one way forward for here for democratic scrutiny to be restored, and that is for MPs to demand a debate at the Commons stage of the Bill and refuse to allow this messed up mockery of legislation to pass on the nod. Write to your MP and demand this. Go on one of the rallies and flash mobs planned for next week by ORG. Write to the BPI and tell then that you did not vote for them to run the country. Make your voice heard.

      • Yesterday in the Lords: DEB
      • UK Lords Pass Digital Economy Bill, Now Look To Rush It Through Commons
Clip of the Day

Home Taping is Killing Music

Categories: News

LCA 2010 Conference – Glyn Moody Keynote

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 12:07




As audio:


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Categories: News

Gates Roundup: Monsanto, Colonisation, Clinton Ties, and Control of Education

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 09:35

Summary: Rich uncle Bill, who is said to be giving away his massive wealth, has somehow made $13 billion over the past year

BILL Gates is not a retired man. Far from it. He is quite the über-lobbyist, who is seeking more monopolies and getting some too. His father too “keeps working” at the age of 84, based on last week’s news. For those who do not know, the firm of Bill Gates’ dad was involved in defending Microsoft; he is now involved in the Gates Foundation and his allegedly corrupt firm is currently defending Monsanto, which works with the Gates Foundation and receives billions of dollars from it. It’s a family thing.

Here is the news report about Monsanto. It shows Gates folks defending this abusive monopolist.

“Justice is clearly trying every way it can to see whether Monsanto is exceeding its rights under the patent,” said James Weiss, a Washington-based attorney at K&L Gates LLP who helped defend Microsoft Corp. against a federal antitrust probe. “At the end of the day, they may not be able to do much with it because of the scope of those patents. In almost all the cases, the courts come out on the side of intellectual property.”

Yet Monsanto’s seeds are so ubiquitous that they have become like AT&T’s telephone lines before the company’s 1984 breakup or Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system in the 1990s, said James P. Denvir, an attorney who represents rival seedmaker DuPont Co. and led the government’s AT&T case.

[...]

Monsanto’s attorney, Dan Webb, defended Microsoft in 2002 against government antitrust claims. A former U.S. Attorney in Chicago, he also prosecuted Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran- Contra affair.

How can anyone defend such a disgusting company that deserves to have some of its executives put in prison for what they have done over the years (it’s not just monopoly abuse but also many deaths and baseless lawsuits/extortions)? It’s like representing OJ Simpson. For some details about Monsanto, see past writings such as:

  1. Gates-Backed Company Accused of Monopoly Abuse and Investigated
  2. How the Gates Foundation Privatises Africa
  3. Reader’s Article: The Gates Foundation and Genetically-Modified Foods
  4. Monsanto: The Microsoft of Food
  5. Seeds of Doubt in Bill Gates Investments
  6. Gates Foundation Accused of Faking/Fabricating Data to Advance Political Goals
  7. More Dubious Practices from the Gates Foundation
  8. Video Transcript of Vandana Shiva on Insane Patents
  9. Explanation of What Bill Gates’ Patent Investments Do to Developing World
  10. Black Friday Film: What the Bill Gates-Backed Monsanto Does to Animals, Farmers, Food, and Patent Systems
  11. Gates Foundation Looking to Destroy Kenya with Intellectual Monopolies
  12. Young Napoleon Comes to Africa and Told Off
  13. Bill Gates Takes His GMO Patent Investments/Experiments to India
  14. Gates/Microsoft Tax Dodge and Agriculture Monopoly Revisited
  15. Beyond the ‘Public Relations’
  16. UK Intellectual Monopoly Office (UK-IPO) May be Breaking the Law
  17. “Boycott Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China”

The following new press release shows the World Bank and the Gates Foundation in tandem. We saw this before.

CGAP, an independent microfinance center based at the World Bank, today announced a new partnership with the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to expand ongoing global efforts to use information and communication technologies (ICT), especially mobile phones, to increase access to basic financial services for the poor. In addition to a 2006 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CGAP funding, DFID will provide GBP 8 million to the CGAP Technology Program.

The World Bank helps Microsoft colonise Africa and Microsoft’s Gates has some other investments in Africa, such as this one in Nigeria [1, 2]. A few days ago we also found out that Microsoft’s occupation of Nigerian education and ICT [1, 2, 3] carries on.

Microsoft set up the company’s first office in Nigeria in 2000 with just three workers. Ten years later, there are two established offices situated in Abuja and Lagos, with a network of over 1,000 Microsoft partners, actively contributing to ICT and the broader Nigerian economy.

For reasons that we demonstrated before, the activities of the Gates Foundation are tied to Microsoft’s. There is some more news coverage from Africa that reveals the influence the Gates Foundation in the black continent [1, 2]. Africa is a testing ground for many of the experimental drugs and the seeds that Gates invests billions of dollars in. According to three new essays [1, 2, 3] that are based on TED, the Gates camp wants to reduce the world’s population using patents (vaccines). It’s something that they invest in, so there is profit to be made in the process.

Also in Africa — Gates has investments with the Rockefellers, both of whom invest in what they call “Green Revolution”. It’s about the West’s control of Africa, under the guise of “saving lives”. Rockefeller is a thuggish family that’s now compared to Gates for all the PR it did after the crimes:

I think Apple, or Steve Jobs personally, could follow in the footsteps of some of the country’s previous billionaires. Take after people like Andrew Carnegie who helped build libraries, J. D. Rockefeller who founded schools like the University of Chicago, or even modern day philanthropist (and former Microsoft CEO) Bill Gates who started the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which gives computers to schools and libraries.

“Behind every great fortune there is a crime,” said Honour de Balzac. This often proves to be true provided one digs deep enough, reaching underneath the PR blanket.

In the text above we find the “schools and libraries” fairy tale that Gates’ PR people sell to the public. What software do these computers run? What does Gates receive in return for these ‘donations’? Earlier this month we explained what Microsoft was doing in the Museum of Science in Boston. It’s usually more or less the same plot. Gates wants to serve as a sort of shadow minister of education [1, 2, 3, 4] and in order to serve his agenda, the foundation has just launched some self-serving poll which got covered in:

1. Tennessee teachers’ wish list mirrors national poll

These are some of the results from a survey of 40,000 public teachers across the United States asked to give their input for a report on schools. The results were compiled in a study called Primary Sources: America’s Teachers on America’s Schools, released this month by Scholastic Inc. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

2. Teachers treasure support from leaders, survey finds

3. Survey: Teachers want common standards, supportive leaders

4. Gates Foundation releases survey on teacher attitudes

5. US teachers more interested in reform than money

6. Governors’ Plan Suggests National Academic Standards

The Post reports that the plan already has the blessing of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has been urging public school reform.

Now watch Gates’ media in Washington. His fan press at the Seattle Times covers it with great enthusiasm, promotion, and glee, as expected. It’s the same Seattle Times which was blaming the users — not Windows — for their security problems some days ago. We really ought to get this camping started.

From the Washington Post, where Melinda Gates sits on the board and also publishes to promote her education agenda (she also has an agenda in the pharmaceutical cartel, euphemised by "health" or "vaccines"), there is this call for change inside schools, based on some study that Gates commissioned.

Can anyone not see what the Gates family does here? They will tell teachers what to think by influencing information in the form of results which they paid for. The conclusion is that there is a need to change education to suit Gates’ ideals and it’s already having an impact, based on this news report:

Hillsborough County teachers will soon get their first glimpse of a new evaluation system that will help determine whether they earn tenure or merit pay.

The School Board is due to vote today on an $360,000 online training course for the evaluation system that the district has adopted as part of its reforms with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Watch more carefully the part which says “adopted as part of its reforms with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”

The Gates Foundation is also helping Microsoft, in which Gates still has a lot of shares. Here is Microsoft aiming to capture mail in “The Educational Market” (both reports from last week):

Google has been putting together their University Roadshow to tell school IT departments about their college-oriented services. Microsoft is doing the same for their Live@edu program. As you might expect, each offering plays to the existing strengths of the current public offerings; there’s a lot more evolution than revolution here.

Gates would love to promote and impose the Live@edu programme (a blunder) while the company resorts to PR campaigns for children that it wants converted into locked in customers:

‘Imagine Cup’, a Microsoft Company global competition requires students to apply technology and artistic talents to tackle the world’s information technology problems.

Yes, it’s Imagine Cuffs [sic] again. This is how Microsoft promotes its agenda among tomorrow’s generation.

According to the Seattle press (imported from AP), “Gates Foundation awards $900K to [educational programs in] Alaska”

More influence for Gates.

This report says that “Gates Foundation Funds Handheld Games Promoting Middle School Literacy”

More influence for Gates.

Another one says: “Gates Foundation, Tami Hoag donations result in three new computers at Harmony library”

More influence for Gates.

Where does that lead? Here is a new example:

The School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the move as part of a reform effort under way to improve schools through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

What does the Gates family have to do with the School Board? These are just influence games gone wrong.

According to this report, the Gates band is preparing more ’studies’ that will certainly serve its agenda afterwards. Those ’studies’ come from institutes that Gates pays to do this.

The UO-affiliated EPIC’s primary use of the Gates Foundation funding, Conley said, will be for a validity study that will explore the relationship between existing college- and career-readiness standards and the content, expectations and practices most used in entry-level college courses. The study will look at courses in both four-year baccalaureate programs and two-year certificate programs that prepare students for career paths.

Now, watch what happens in Indiana (yes, again, after Microsoft did its dumping on the state [1, 2, 3, 4]).

Stan Jones, Indiana’s former commissioner for higher education, is leading the effort with about $12 million in startup money from several national nonprofits including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This was also covered here and here. They call it “Complete College America”, which sounds similar to “Elevate America” (mentioned earlier). It’s one of those patriotic banners.

Stan Jones, Indiana’s former commissioner for higher education, is leading the effort with funds from several national nonprofits, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jones started “Complete College America,” a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit last year.

Over at Detroit (Michigan [1, 2, 3]), Gates sniffs around schools as well:

The group has commitments from the Gates Foundation and other national groups willing to come to Detroit, said Carol Goss, CEO and president of the Skillman Foundation, a key leader in the effort.

This new post from Time.com asks, “Should the Mayor of Detroit Control the City’s Schools?”

This is a fiasco. To privatise education in the sense that people or corporations can take over schools would never be acceptable (that’s not quite what the article is about though). Education run by companies is education that turns into training. It’s more like an army regimen.

Here is Gates messing around with Pittsburgh (also covered here)

At the heart of the initiative in Pittsburgh — which is one of four school districts around the country that received funding from the Gates Foundation — is the challenge facing the American education system at the K-12 level, officials said.

And in Memphis too. Is there any school that Gates is not preying on for influence (and consequently returns)?

Even the American Council on Education seems to have gotten Gates injected into it, based on this new report:

For colleges to succeed at graduating more students, institutions will have to embrace “transformational change,” and if they do, they may get some help from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. That was the message from Hilary Pennington, who directs the foundation’s efforts in higher education, in a talk Monday to college presidents gathered at the annual meeting here of the American Council on Education.

A few days ago we showed that the Huffington Post is not just close to Gates and to Microsoft [1, 2, 3]; it apparently gets paid by them too (it’s tricky following the money trail). Well, watch what the Huffington Post published several days ago:

Rather than 100% student proficiency, the new proposal would have as its goal “college readiness” (as taken from the current emphasis of the Gates Foundation.) Schools and teachers would be evaluated on the basis of test score gains rather than absolute standards.

More school agenda and more Gates Foundation. There is nothing they won’t touch. It’s pretty much the same when it comes to pharmaceutical giants.

Gates and others are pressuring the governments to pay up (at taxpayers’ expense) to pharmaceuticals which Gates has shares in. We have already shown how the Gates family generally travels around the world and pressures governments to pay more to companies that have patents on life. Gates insists on it and daemonises those who disagree. It means more profit to him.

Watch how the Clintons are being used by Gates. From the news we have:

1. Bill Gates Urges More U.S. Spending on Global Health

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates urged U.S. lawmakers to spend more on global health than the $9.7 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his fiscal 2011 budget.

2. The Gates and Clinton show

3. Bill Clinton and Bill Gates Ask for Global-Health Spending Increase

4. Powerful Tandem Urges Passage Of Global Health “Bill”

5. Former President Clinton, Bill Gates Encourage U.S. Global Health Investment At Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing

This is not as innocent as it may seem. Gates is also using the Clintons for backup as he will pocket some of the said money because he invests in the companies that receive this money. He is their big shareholder. This is the equivalent of Bill Gates asking the governments to spend more money on software or the oil lobby asking the government to increase fuel consumption. It’s demonstrably the case.

“Bill Gates acts like a politicians and intrudes public policy.”One can find Gates sitting next to Clinton in these photo [1, 2, 3] that accompany many more articles [1, 2].

Bill Gates acts like a politicians and intrudes public policy. Hasn’t anyone learned anything from the Gates-Abramoff visas blunder? Gates works for Gates, not for the United States. It’s not hard to understand or to see that.

The Gates Foundation enjoys an incestuous relationship with the UN (covered along with examples many times since 2008). There are too many conflicts of interests and it’s no surprise that the UN is giving an award to Gates (it’s like the mutual flattery ceremony, where rich people exchange medals with one another, as a form of reputation-masturbation). One of the worst monopolists (and criminals) of the 20th century is now collecting awards (he’s a racketeer, a bit like the mafia) . It’s a similar thing in South Africa, which proves that aggressive PR campaigns pay off. Most people would find criticism of Gates objectionable because of PR.

March 10 brings more cheering. Women from Seattle to South Africa can shout-out for Melinda Gates, Gates Foundation honcho and champion of dramatic improvements in health and education.

More blind worship:

Charities need our support

[...]

Looking at some on the larger charities such as the Gates Foundation, we can see that money needed by the less fortunate in the USA is going overseas. At their website, it states that over $20 billion was given since 1994. Unfortunately only about ¼ was given to programs in the United States. I commend the Foundation for its generosity; but what about the homeless and staving in our country.

That’s nonsense. These numbers are fake. When Gates ‘pays’ billions he usually pays with patents and licences (artificial scarcity and imaginary property). We explained this point before. Microsoft uses the same tricks (spin) when it claims “donations” and “compensation” but actually gives licences to run binaries such as Windows and Office (for a limited time).

All in all, the new examples above (collected over a one-week period alone) show that investments in PR have high returns. For returns on investment, one needs to fool the press by repeating the lies over and over again. Truth tellers suddenly seem suspicious and they cannot do enough to stop a colonisation and expansion of power that takes over our children’s schooling.

Too many people got distracted by some vanity ranking of world’s richest men (it’s hardly the real issue as it’s more about glorification).

This is only the second time since 2001 that the top two spots were not held by the dynamic duo of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Instead, the Microsoft(MSFT) founder, who saw his net wealth increase by $13 billion last year, had to settle for second place, while Buffett, who saw his fortune increase by $10 billion thanks to his impressive bets on firms like Goldman Sachs(GS) and BYD, placed third.

Yes, if one reads this correctly, Gates has made $13 billion in the past year. Yet he claims to be giving his money away, doesn’t he? He is just an investor looking after his own power, which is related to wealth. Reputation laundering is a scary phenomenon. ?

“The common wisdom is that the person to worry about the most right now is Gates…. I think we’ve got to be careful.”

–Disney CEO Michael Eisner

“Some weeks it looks like Redmond feels entitled to capture not just part of what we save, but all of it. That just isn’t going to fly with corporate America forever. When your margins are more sensitive to Bill Gates’ pricing whims than they are the price of oil, that’s an untenable position for a large company to be in.”

–John Chapman Sr., BP Amoco Technology Executive

Categories: News

Does Microsoft Tinker With the Search Bar in Firefox?

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 01:06


Wikipedia is my default search facility under Firefox

Summary: A reader alleges that Microsoft is playing dirty on Windows in order to suppress the use of Google (assuming AVG agreed to reroute traffic to Microsoft via Yahoo!)

ON TWO occasions earlier this year we echoed separate complaints from people who said that Microsoft uses Internet Explorer 8 (which it shoves down users' throats) to suppress the use of Google. The details were revealing and the claims sufficiently compelling.

A reader got in touch earlier today in order to say more things about a post we made earlier. To quote the relevant part:

lpbbear hi all, sorry to butt in, could i mention something about the bing issue to you roy? Mar 16 18:25 lpbbear OK, I will just throw it out there, noticed your item about Bing this morning, seeing some other related issues not seen mentioned anywhere yet. Mar 16 18:28 lpbbear I work as a PC tech, seeing an issue with AVG AntiVirus in Windows related to Bing Mar 16 18:28 lpbbear I haven’t had the luxury of time to tradck all of it down but it appears that sometime recently AVG has entered into some background agreement with microsoft. Mar 16 18:29 lpbbear during AVG install it asks to install a Yahoo toolbar, it seems to be over riding search settings in Firefox in Windows and locking Firefox search box to bing. Mar 16 18:30 neighborlee im  not happy with avg either..it said it removes trial and gives free versoin back.but it keeps nagging you about switching to non trial version regardless…not sure about bing but defintely yahoo, which M$ owns now  of course.. Mar 16 18:32 -BNtwitter/#boycottnovell-[eduvid] Wow, I have a static ip now now thinking for firewall Mar 16 18:34 *lpbbear_ (~quassel@66.172.105.203) has joined #boycottnovell Mar 16 18:34 neighborlee http://dissentingjustice.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-falsely-claims-that-senate.html < this is also interesting Mar 16 18:34 phIRCe-BNc Title: DISSENTING JUSTICE: Obama Falsely Claims that the Senate Healthcare Bill Matches His Campaign Promises .::. Size~: 190.69 KB Mar 16 18:34 *lpbbear has quit (Ping timeout: 260 seconds) Mar 16 18:36 *lpbbear (~quassel@75.139.216.174) has joined #boycottnovell Mar 16 18:42 *lpbbear has quit (Client Quit) Mar 16 18:43 *lpbbear (~quassel@75.139.216.174) has joined #boycottnovell Mar 16 18:43 *lpbbear_ has quit (Ping timeout: 245 seconds) Mar 16 18:46 lpbbear anyone see that earlier mention of AVG/Bing lockin thing I mentioned, I glitched out for a moment Mar 16 18:46 schestowitz jono: hey Mar 16 18:51 schestowitz lpbbear I meant Mar 16 18:51 schestowitz Catching up…… Mar 16 18:51 lpbbear hi Mar 16 18:51 schestowitz lpbbear: has anyone reported this avg thing” Mar 16 18:52 schestowitz ? Mar 16 18:52 schestowitz That’s why Windows is bad for Firefox Mar 16 18:52 schestowitz Or any developer Mar 16 18:52 schestowitz Microsoft bullies competition over there Mar 16 18:52 schestowitz lpbbear: I can’t reproduce here cause I don’t have Windows Mar 16 18:53 lpbbear no, I don’t believe I have seen mention of it anywhere yet Mar 16 18:53 schestowitz Maybe someone else can test..? Mar 16 18:53 lpbbear saw your article on Bing this morning and thought you would like the additional info Mar 16 18:53 lpbbear uwhat it appears to be doing is locking the little searchbox in the upper right corner area of Firefox to Bing Mar 16 18:54 lpbbear ucan’t manually change to Google or anything else until you go into addons and disable the AVG yahoo addon, may have names a bit wrong, from memory Mar 16 18:55 neighborlee lpbbear: yup I did Mar 16 18:55 lpbbear I am always on the “clock” at customers sites so I haven’t had the luxury of time to follow it up more. Mar 16 18:56 neighborlee lpbbear: I uninstalled unhappy with their constant nagging about switching from free to pay version Mar 16 18:56 neighborlee lpbbear: but I dont recall bing issues..yahoo toolbar yes < not good since M$ owns yahoo now> Mar 16 18:57 lpbbear its fairly recent, just started seeing this issue on customers systems that use Firefox Mar 16 18:57 lpbbear seems to me to be a clear antitrust issue even though its being used through a third party proxy by Microsoft. Mar 16 18:58 lpbbear I could understand if it just added a choice for Bing in the list but its locking the list to just Bing and not allowing the user the ability to switch to other choices. Mar 16 19:01

Can any of our readers (with a Windows partition) test this to confirm? This is why Free software on top of Windows is far from ideal; Microsoft has a long history of pulling such tricks because it controls the underlying platform and vainly disregards the rule of law. How about when Microsoft “sabotaged” Firefox last year [1, 2, 3] (more than once)?

Speaking of Web browsers, one reader alerts us that “Microsoft innovates plug-in-free video”. According to the article he cites (CNET warning), “Coming in the new version is support for new Web standards including plug-in-free video; better performance with graphics, text, and JavaSript…”

Does that mean that Microsoft might support embedded Ogg? Is Microsoft relenting on Silver Lie then [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]? It’s hard to believe. ?

“…[Windows 98] must be a killer on shipments so that Netscape never gets a chance…”

–Former Microsoft Vice President James Allchin in an internal memo

“We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they’re selling, we’re going to give away for free.”

–Paul Maritz, former Microsoft Vice President (now VMware CEO), referring to Netscape

Categories: News

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: March 16th, 2010

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 00:37

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.

Categories: News
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