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Some SIGTARPdiscrepanciesRichard Stallman - Tue,20/10/2009 - 1:45pm

9 October 2009 (Some SIGTARPdiscrepancies )

The new head of the bank bailoutprogram rebuked variousgovernment agencies for lying tothe public about the situation whenthe bailout was started.

Pakistan forces 'makingprogress'Al-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 -1:36pm

Military claims early victories asthousands flee South Waziristanfighting.

Civilians hit in PakistanoffensiveAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 -1:26pm

Al Jazeera has evidence of civilianssuffering due to the military's SWaziristan operation.

Patents Roundup:

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Boycott Novell

IRC: #boycottnovell @FreeNode: October22nd, 2009

Banshee is Novell,Mono, and ‘Forbidden’Microsoft SoftwarePatents

Sun, Oracle, andMicrosoft Roles

Seeds of Doubt in BillGates Investments

Microsoft EmployeeWants the Company toFire 20,000 More Staff

more

Al-Jazeera

Guantanamo music usecondemned

Quake shakes Pakistan,Afghanistan

Anger at UK far-right TVappearance

White House hits out atCheney

Feed aggregator | Home page of Fred Rooks http://botany.natur.cuni.cz/rooks/aggregator/moldova2.txt?page=7

1 of 35 10/23/2009 1:23 PM

Microsoft Patent Tax,FireStar-Red HatRevisited, US PatentCrisisBoycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -12:46pm

Summary: Microsoft usesActiveSync to tax competitors;interesting details surface aboutFireStar’s case against Red Hat;the USPTO is challenged for itspoor performance

BITS and pieces that appear in thenews play a role in the adoption ofFree software, even though they arelegal issues rather than technical.This post takes an overview.

Microsoft

Microsoft has just found anotherActiveSync victim from which toextract patent tax. With newlicensing deals , Microsoft hopes toextract revenue out of patents andother imaginary products. We gavesome more ActiveSync examples in[1 , 2 ]. Microsoft basicallycharges for the use of protocols andeven Android (Linux) is harmed byit :

DATAVIZ has made available aversion of its Roadsync client forMicrosoft ActiveSync via AndroidMarket, allowing users of Androidphones to link with Exchange emailservers.

The Wall Street Journal has thisnew article about the patent bill .From the opening:

Twelve Republican U.S. senators onThursday sent a letter to Senateleaders criticizing pending patentlegislation, saying the bill “threatensto diminish the value andenforceability of U.S. patent rights.”

Pakistan fighting sparksexodus

more

Poll

Which of these femaleshas the lowest IQ?:

Zita Červenková

Tereze Klínerová

Jana Zmeškalová

Richard Stallman

Net Neutrality goes toFCC vote today

Midway birds full ofhuman garbage

Nightmare in Iraqcaused by depleteduranium

Run-off to be held inAfghanistan

Fake Press Conferenceleads to shoutingmatch

more

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2 of 35 10/23/2009 1:23 PM

The Oct. 15 letter backs criticism againstthe legislation being levied byindependent inventors and academicswho argue the bills favor majortechnology companies. If approved thelegislation would be the most sweepingrewrite of federal patent law in 50 years.

Critics say two similar bills now inCongress would broadly make it harderfor individuals, universities and start-upsto defend their inventions againstcompanies with deeper pockets.

Microsoft too is mentioned in the fullarticle, which states that “Microsoft andIBM are two of the most activecompanies involved in filing patents.”IBM makes about a billion dollars peryear from taxation of competitors andIBM is what the FFII calls a “fake”supporter when it comes to patents.IBM’s actions speak for themselves .

Law.com has this article about theEastern District of Texas , which isknown as patent trollville. Microsoft ismentioned also:

The story, of course, is also bigger thanPowers and Davis. There’s the fact thatMicrosoft is signing off on both the trialstrategy and the briefs being filed. Thatsuggests that the big old softwarecompany is taking a more aggressive tackin the Eastern District these days, notjust backing up its lawyer. After losing acouple of big cases there, it seems likethe company is eager to show up a judgewho it believes did it wrong. Sort of likein baseball when there’s a questionablecall and the manager runs out on thefield to jaw with the umpire: Thepurpose is not only to get the callreversed, but to make him think twicethe next time.

Red Hat

The FireStar case [1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ,6 ] may be old, but the Prior Art Blog

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has some interesting new details aboutthose who were involved:

* In October 2006, in the lawsuit’s earlystages, FireStar told Red Hat it wanted$100 million to settle its patentclaims—and Red Hat said “there wasnothing left to discuss.”

[...]

After the case was underway, FireStarapparently tired of the patent litigationgame. The company was reluctant tomake engineers available for depositionbecause, Foley’s brief states, they “werefocused on product development ratherthan the Red Hat case and as a resultwere not sufficiently responsive.” ByDecember 2007, the bankers at Amphionhad agreed to take the suit off FireStar’shands by creating DataTern, a shellcompany solely focused on patentenforcement that acquired the patent inearly 2008. (Amphion also agreed tocompensate FireStar for employee timespent on the litigation.) At about thesame time, DataTern stopped payingFoley’s bills, and turned to IP Nav and itslawyers to press the suit.

Those lawyers—Texas solo Dan Perezand Michigan-based Patrick Anderson,both of whom frequently work forSpangenberg and his patent companies—quickly hammered out the $4.2 millionsettlement. The figure, Foley notes, waslower the total litigation budget it hadagreed to with FireStar. If the plaintiffswere willing to settle for so little, Foleylawyers Michael Lockerby and GregNeppl write, a deal could have beenstruck “without the expenditure of muchin the way of legal fees.”

Patent Crisis

The following stories ought to speak forthemselves:

• EFF Challenges VOIP Systems Patent

As part of its Patent Busting Project, the

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Electronic Frontier Foundation claims ithas discovered a prior patent andpublished reference material that shouldinvalidate a patent granted to Acceris forimplementing VOIP using analogtelephones as endpoints.

• USPTO Removes Rule Changes

The United States Patent and TrademarkOffice (Office) published a final rule inthe Federal Register in August of 2007 torevise the rules of practice for patentcases pertaining to continuingapplications and requests for continuedexamination practices, and for theexamination of claims in patentapplications (Claims and ContinuationsFinal Rule). The Office is revising therules of practice in this final rule toremove the changes in the Claims andContinuations Final Rule from the Codeof Federal Regulations.

• Bits and Bytes

* I am teaching obviousness this week inmy introductory patent law course hereat the University of Missouri School ofLaw. The Justice Douglas concurrence inthe 1950 A&P case always gives mepause:o “The Constitution never sanctioned thepatenting of gadgets. Patents serve ahigher end–the advancement of science.”

• Are Technology Patents Lost onJurors?

Attorney Tucker Griffith brainstormedfor months about how to best illustratethe inner-workings of his client’spatented technology.

[...]

“I’ve seen judges ask questions that showthey’re confused,” said Menard, whoworks in areas of electromechanicaltechnology such as hydraulics andpneumatics. “You have 48 minutes ofhearings and the judge asks a questionthat shows they have no clue. Then the

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lawyers just look at each other and say,‘That was a waste of time.’”

Change is still needed urgently. CanKappos deliver? █

Microsoft RecoversSidekick Data? Not SoFast!Boycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -12:07pm

Summary: Sidekick data cannot berecovered (not yet) and familiarMicrosoft shill Andrew Thomas wronglyblames Linux for this disaster

THE Sidekick fiasco is one that wecovered in:

Microsoft Pink is Already DeclaredDead and Danger Dies withPermanent Data LossMicrosoft Sued for Data LossLawsuits Against Microsoft Turn toClass Action Lawsuit WhileMicrosoft Mobiles Become DyingBreed

In order to dodge the lawsuits, Microsoftwould have people convinced that datawas rescued, but as The Register pointsout , such promises turn into a “farce”.

Microsoft played spot the difference overthe weekend with statements onSaturday and Sunday that hinted at“steady progress” for the recovery of dataits Danger subsidiary lost for manySidekick customers.

[...]

The fallout was huge and Microsoftscurried to paint a more optimisticpicture for Danger’s unhappy customers,at the same time some puntersthreatened legal action against Redmond

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and T-Mobile.

According to the above, promises areeverything that Microsoft has at thisstage and people are meanwhile lockedout of their mail, photos, and contacts.Kelly Fiveash writes that “the softwarevendor hasn’t actually delivered thegoods yet. Instead it seems to be pinningits hopes on that old adage that if yousay the same thing for long enough, itmight eventually ring true.”

Known Microsoft shill Andrew Thomasis meanwhile attacking GNU/Linux andblaming it for this Microsoft failure. Heuses TG Daily for his preposterous attack(he also attacks the FSF and Firefox fromthere). In response to the article of thisshill, Groklaw points to this page andadds: “Since folks have been putting outthe idea that it was actually Linux’sfault, heh heh, I thought you’d like toknow the truth. Danger wrote its ownoperating system. Proprietary.” It is sadthat The Register took the bait fromThomas yesterday.

Another British publication, the BBC,writes about scareware , but ‘forgets’that it’s a Windows problem.

Online criminals are making millions ofpounds by convincing computer users todownload fake anti-virus software,internet security experts claim.

At the BBC, it is being assumed thatWindows problems are just "computerproblems" . It’s not so hard to see why .█

Mono, Open Core, andOther Bizarre Forms ofOpen SourceBoycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -11:39am

Free software is not the same as open

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core

Summary: Why Mono fits thedescription of Open Core, which maymake it “the New Shareware”

A LOT has been said since Samba’sJeremy Allison published his opinionabout Mono [1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Jasonfrom the Mono-Nono Web site gotaround to commenting about it andworth mentioning are the following bits:

In any case, I first started noticing Mr.Allison’s responses directly addressingthe fallacy of comparing Mono andSamba in the comments to an error-filledattack rant against RMS by Jason Perlowfor ZD Net. Although it is certainly“pearls before swine” to attempt tocorrect Mr. Perlow, Mr. Allison doesmake his point:

Comparing Mono to Samba is incorrect.Samba has the PFIF agreements, see herefor details:

http://www.samba.org/samba/PFIF/PFIF_agreement.html

To my knowledge Mono has nothing likethis.

[...]

Mr. Allison has now taken the time toaddress Mono in more detail with a blogentry “Monomania“. I encourage you toread it.

I also encourage you to consider all thehoops that Team Mono insists criticspeople must jump through to criticizeMono, and how Mr. Allison surely meetsor exceeds all that I have seen. Yet, I donot see Team Mono accepting hiscriticism, nor do I see my mailbox fillingwith acknowledgement that it’s not justcrazy zealots that have a problem withMono.

Why am I not seeing these things?Because Mono apologists are not honestin their arguments. They like Mono, and

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will make any argument they thinksupports it, and ignore or attack anythingthat they think weakens it.

It’s a song I’ve sung many times, and thislatest wrinkle on Mono == Samba is justone more example of the sloppyreasoning and poor logic behind TeamMono’s defenses.

What’s interesting about Mono is that, asthe FSF warned , it is divided into“legal” parts (core) and “illegal” parts(those that require Microsoft softwarepatents, such that only Novell customersare covered). It makes Mono very muchakin to “open core” rather than “opensource”. For those who have not followedthe heated debate about “open core”,Bradley Kuhn from the SFLC calls it“the New Shareware” and Simon Phippsfrom Sun Microsystems commentedabout it as follows:

Bradley Kuhn’s analysis reflects the sameconclusions I’ve reached myself aboutcorporate-aggregated copyright. That’snot to say it automatically disqualifies aproject as non-Free, but it’s the reason Iincluded “diverse copyright ownership”as a criterion on the proposed opensource scorecard. As a side-note, GivenBradley’s critique of the GPL as “just atool”, surely it’s time to see that opensource is not the enemy of softwarefreedom and to finally cut theantagonistic rhetoric.

Is it time to say that Mono uses the “opencore” model, where only “core” packagesare to be seen as legal or gratis? Banshee,for example, is a Novell project that usessome Mono parts that require patents. █

“The patent danger to Mono comes frompatents we know Microsoft has, onlibraries which are outside the C# specand thus not covered by any promise notto sue. In effect, Microsoft has designedin boobytraps for us.

“Indeed, every large program

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implements lots of ideas that arepatented. Indeed, there’s no way toavoid this danger. But that’s no reasonto put our head inside Microsoft’s jaws.”

–Richard Stallman, 2007

Afghan body to rule on votefraudAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 11:32am

Election commission assesses findings offraud in presidential poll amid reports ofcoalition talks.

Monsanto: The Microsoftof FoodBoycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -11:14am

“The antitrust litigation currently in thefederal courts in the U.S. againstMonsanto will be the test case in the lifesciences, just as the Microsoft case wasthe test case in the information sciences.”

–Jeremy Rifkin

Summary: Monsanto’s relationshipwith (and similarity to) Microsoft

Monsanto is a notorious company whichis funded and promoted by the GatesFoundation . We wrote about it in:

Bill Gates Takes His GMO PatentInvestments/Experiments toIndiaHow the Gates FoundationPrivatises AfricaReader’s Article: The GatesFoundation and Genetically-Modified Foods

A fairly recent investigative reportlooks at what Monsanto is doing and itlooks eerily familiar: [via Glyn Moody]

Monsanto already dominates America’s

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food chain with its genetically modifiedseeds. Now it has targeted milkproduction. Just as frightening as thecorporation’s tactics–ruthless legalbattles against small farmers–is itsdecades-long history of toxiccontamination.

Glyn Moody describes this as “worrying”,citing claims that “not content with tryingto own all plant seed, Monsanto is nowgoing after milk…”

Think along the lines of, “not contentwith trying to own all computers,Microsoft is now going after banking,media players, phones, and Internetservices.” █

“The 10 largest antitrust law firms in theUnited States have gone into the federalcourts charging Monsanto with creatinga global conspiracy in violation of theantitrust laws, to control the globalmarket in seeds.Jeremy Rifkin”

–Jeremy Rifkin

“The insurance companies aren’tcovering that. Should Monsanto be liablefor these losses? Should the stategovernment? Who’s going to cover thelosses? The fact is, here’s an industrywith no long-term liability in place.”

–Jeremy Rifkin

Tsvangirai aide faces terrortrialAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 11:08am

Zimbabwe PM seeks regionalintervention to help salvage unitygovernment.

Dvorak Slams Vista 7, NewBenchmark Shows It’s aHog, Kotaku Says It’s Badfor Gaming

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Boycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -10:46am

Summary: A lot of bad publicity forVista 7 arrives from many differentdirections just days before its release

YESTERDAY we wrote about the Vista 7marketing blitz , which intends to sellanother new version Vista . JohnDvorak, who moved to UbuntuGNU/Linux on at least one of hiscomputers , is far from dazzled byMicrosoft’s PR campaigns. The openingof his latest column states: “Microsoft’sPR and marketing follies aresymptomatic of a company-widelaziness.”

Further he writes:

Having followed Microsoft’s exploitssince its inception, I can safely say thebest anyone can hope for with Windows7 is moderate success. For all of thefanfare surrounding the new OS, Win 7 isreally just a Vista martini. The operatingsystem may have two olives instead ofone this time out, but it’s still made withthe same cheap Microsoft vodka.

This is an issue than runs deeper thanmere OS programming. The cocktailanalogy extends to other aspects of thecompany, including PR and marketing.You see, all Microsoft requires is somemanner of moderate success that willhelp deflect Vista-like criticism and grieffor the next four years. This, ultimately,won’t have anything to do with what is inthe actual OS. Rather it will be areflection of the way the OS is perceived.Such perception is a function ofMicrosoft’s marketing machine and PR,both of which are either AWOL ornon-existent, seeming to have gone into aslumber the day Bill Gates left thecompany.

[...]

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In the end, Windows 7 is a big deal—butit should be an even bigger deal. It willget a lot of attention for the next week,but the buzz will wane rapidly as peoplerealize that there is no new paradigmhere, just more cheap vodka that willinevitably be followed by the same oldMicrosoft hangover.

In other Vista 7 news, Apple squashesMicrosoft’s hype by showing that Mac OSX is faster than Vista 7 . Actually, thosetests were done independently.

Test Shows Snow Leopard is Faster ThanWin 7

[...]

CNet’s Dong Ngo took a late-2008 model15-inch MacBook Pro and used it tocompare Snow Leopard 10.6.1 andWindows 7 64-bit RTM (with nativedrivers from Boot Camp 3.0). Themachine was equipped with a 2.5GHzIntel Core 2 Duo, 4GB of RAM, and a512MB Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT videocard – things that you could also find in aPC notebook.

Ngo found that Snow Leopardoutperformed Windows 7 in nearly allareas except for graphics (likely due tobetter drivers from Nvidia).

As the above mentions graphics, worthmentioning is this new article fromKotaku , which shows that Vista 7 is badfor gamers, just like Vista.

The problem I have with Windows 7,though, isn’t its failure to vastly improvethe gaming experience, it’s Microsoft’sfailure to take advantage of the attentionbrought by the launch of a new operatingsystem to once more thrust PC gaminginto the spotlight.

[...]

If Microsoft want its PC gaming platformto thrive they will need to do more thanoffer lip service in the future. But with

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the lasting success of the gaming consoleand PC gamers’ ability to seemingly putup with anything, why should they?

Microsoft declined to comment for thisarticle.

In order for people not to pay attentionto Microsoft’s bad financial results, therelease of Vista 7 shall come on the sameday. If rumours are true, Google will alsoattempt to steal Microsoft’s thunder .

Google is doing its utmost to piss onMicrosoft’s chips ahead of the official 22October launch of Windows 7, byexpanding its “Going Google” campaignto lure customers away from the softwaregiant.

Thus far, the hype around Vista 7 doesnot match the hype that precededWindows Vista back in 2007. If that’s nottelling, what is? █

Somali groups urged tojoin talksAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 10:22am

President says government ready forreconciliation dialogue to end fighting.

Confirmed: Darl McBrideTermination is a SackingBoycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -10:18am

“You’re fired!”

Summary: Darl McBride was pushedor forced outside the company ratherthan him deciding to leave

YESTERDAY we wrote about DarlMcBride's termination , as shown inSCO’s very own filing . We werecareful not to jump to the conclusion thathe was fired, but it turns out that he was.

According to Slashdot , it’s possible that

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someone just found the form , whichwas already days old. Could SCO havekept deliberately quiet about it?Probably. Linux Today is exceedinglyhappy and GNU/Linux-oriented Websites give it special attention . It’s animportant event for the SCO timelineand it was eventually covered in themainstream press yesterday (in the lateafternoon and onwards). Articlesinclude:

The Inquirer: SCO sacks DarlMcBride

The filing reads, “On October 14, 2009,The SCO Group, Inc.,… announced thatthe Company has eliminated the ChiefExecutive Officer and President positionsand consequently terminated DarlMcBride.”

Ars Technica: SCO fires CEO DarlMcBride, architect of litigation strategy

SCO CEO Darl McBride has finally beenlet go by the serial litigator. In an SECfiling published today, SCO reveals thatthe controversial CEO has been ousted aspart of the latest reorganization plan.

Heise: SCO vs. Linux: SCO trustee firesSCO boss Darl McBride

The press release is more forthcoming,describing this as a clear signal that SCOis looking to continue to pursue itsvarious lawsuits under the stewardshipof the Chapter 11 trustee, “The companyis also looking to raise additional fundingand sell non-core assets to bolsterworking capital. These actions will allowthe Trustee to preserve cash and thevalue of the business while enabling theCompany to proceed with asset sales,pursue litigation against, among others,IBM and Novell, and to continuesupporting SCO’s loyal UNIX customerbase.”

ComputerWorld: SCO fires CEO DarlMcBride

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No one has taken SCO’s lawsuits againstLinux-using companies seriously foryears, but somehow or the other, SCOkept hanging on like a bad cold that youcouldn’t quite shake. That’s because SCOCEO Darl McBride doesn’t know themeaning of surrender. Time after time,McBride would come up with a newbuyer or a re-take on a long deadanti-Linux legal claim, and SCO wouldstagger forward once more. Until now.This morning, October 19th, SCO filed an8K with the SEC, which announced thatthe company had fired McBride.

The Register: SCO boots bossMcBride

Unix code claimant SCO Group hasjettisoned its controversial captain, DarlMcBride, as part of the company’s latestscheme to emerge from bankruptcy.

Groklaw concludes as follows: “So… Iwonder what McBride will put on hisresume?” █

Indonesia's Yudhoyonosworn inAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 9:54am

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is country'sfirst leader to be re-electeddemocratically.

Talks set to test US-JapantiesAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 8:37am

US defence secretary holds talks withnew Japanese government on futuremilitary ties.

Israel to discuss Gaza warinquiryAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 8:31am

Two ministries reportedly back probe inorder to mount defence against damning

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report.

Guinea to co-operate withUN probeAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 5:50am

World body to probe crackdown that leftmore than 150 opposition activists dead.

No award for AfricanleadershipAl-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 4:46am

Mo Ibrahim panel fails to find anydeserving candidate for $5m goodgovernance prize.

IRC: #boycottnovell @FreeNode: October 19th,2009Boycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -4:20am

Read the log

Enter the IRC channel now

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

Links 19/10/2009:Uruguay’s GNU/LinuxDeployment, Monty WantsIndependent MySQLBoycott Novell - Tue, 20/10/2009 -4:15am

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Contents

GNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/Embedded

Free Software/Open SourceLeftoversDigital Tipping Point: Clip of theDay

GNU/Linux

Linux is just too open

The Problem with Linux is that it isforthright, open and honest.

Now I know how much the editorshere hate when Ianthropomorphize an operatingsystem, but it is fundamentallytrue.

Linux, in my view, remains almosttoo honest and too open.

[...]

Thus, they return to their old loveand never really find out why somany open networking connectionsoccur mysteriously in thebackground, beneath attire thatthey will never probe. And thusthey will routinely be exposed tovulnerabilities that they could havepotentially avoided with Linux.

Sadly, perhaps Linux is just forthose who can appreciate what’sunderneath.

A math teacher with his studentsbring Desktop4education toaustrian schools

This is an introduction to a casestudy that was published recently,this case study is a good examplefor everyone of us, if we need toextend the use of opensource andespecially Linux we need to startfrom the basic, that are our

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children, and the best place whereto start , are the schools .

Tom’s Definitive Linux SoftwareRoundup: Communications Apps

In this segment, we will be focusingon communications applications.While these apps still rely onInternet access to function, theirfocus is to allow the user tocommunicate with otherindividuals using the Internetsimply as a transit medium. We willgo over Personal InformationManagers (PIM), email clients,Instant Messengers (IM), Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP)software, and Internet Relay Chat(IRC) clients. That meansreplacements for Outlook, OutlookExpress, Trillian, and mIRC are tobe found within. Many of theseapps you may already be using inWindows. Mozilla Thunderbird,Skype, Pidgin IM, and others havenative Linux installations available,too.

Everything Linux store set foropening on Friday

Open Source and web developmentconsultancy Babel Com Australiahas announced plans to openonline retailer Everything LinuxStore (ELS) as a bricks and mortarshopfront in Crows Nest, Sydney onOctober 23.

Nanorobot Invention and Linux:The Open Technology Factor – AnOpen Letter to UNO GeneralSecretary

Abstract: This is an open letter,which discloses an outline on thecurrent status of nanoroboticcutting edge technology trends insoftware development,bioinformatics, proteomics,nanotechnology, and

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manufacturing integration. Itprovides a layman’s description of apractical platform to effectivelyboost the development ofnanobiotechnology, and tomanufacture nanorobot hardwarearchitecture for medical defensethat will benefit humankind. Thecore description of the presentinitiative is based on Linuxstrategies. The basis and keyadvantages of such an approach areclearly described next.Nanotechnology should be used forpeaceful purposes based on ethicalpractices to provide a humanheritage. The nanorobot inventionhas an impact on current historyand provides a legacy for cominggenerations.

DesktopKELLNER: Ubuntu Linuxpowers up

I haven’t played with 9.10 yet,but I have used the mostrecent “stable” release,Ubuntu 9.04. It’s a very niceoperating system: graphical,easy to learn, and equipped,out of the gate, with a Webbrowser, e-mail client andproductivity suite. It loadedon my system withoutcrashing the main OS, and itran well. I could connect tothe Internet without hassle,and thus had a world ofoptions open to me

Migration from Mac toLinux

When in OS X (and inWindows) the default actionis a very predictable beast.You want to make sure this ismimicked in Linux. InGNOME you can right click a

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file, select Open With, andthen set that as the defaultapplication for that type offile. As much as this mightseem second nature, for OS Xusers this is simply not anissue. Having everything sowell integrated is not afeature on OS X, it’s arequirement. So make sureeverything works exactly asexpected BEFORE the OS Xuser touches their Linux box.

Two ways Linux can winmarket share fromWindows

Ways I believe Linux canbecome the dominantoperating system on desktopcomputers:

1. Kids need to get used to itin school. As long as teachersaccept free software fromMicrosoft and shun Linux inschool, there is NO way Linuxwill become mainstream.2. Games! There needs to be arange of good quality easy toinstall mainstreamcommercial games that canwork on Linux. There are afew, but too few and farbetween.

ServerIBM plans big hardwareupgrade next year

IBM has tried to cut usercosts in the currentmainframe line by usingspecialty processing engines,such the Linux IFL processor.

Kernel SpaceLinux drivers for Visioneer &Xerox DocuMate Scanners

JFL Peripheral Solutions has

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announced the availability ofnew Linux drivers, forVisioneer and XeroxDocuMate scanners.

Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.32(Part 1) – Network subsystemand network drivers

Between Thursday eveningand Friday morning, LinusTorvalds released the fourthrelease candidate of Linuxversion 2.6.32, although, dueto the typing error in the firstrelease candidate (RC1 wasmis-labeled RC2), it is called2.6.32-rc5 instead of2.6.32-rc4.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 220

To Linux users these graphicscards are also interesting inthat they fully support all ofthe current features ofVDPAU for Linux videodecoding, including MPEG-4support. We picked up anXFX GT220XZNF2 GeForceGT 220 1GB graphics card forthis round of benchmarkingon Ubuntu Linux.

Applications10 of the Best Free LinuxRelational Databases

A relational database matchesdata using commoncharacteristics found withinthe data set. The resultinggroups of data are organizedand are much easier forpeople to understand. In sucha database the data andrelations between them areorganised in tables. A table isa collection of records andeach record in a tablecontains the same fields.Certain fields may be

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designated as keys, whichmeans that searches forspecific values of that fieldwill use indexing to speedthem up.

Articles : Platinum ArtsSandbox Free 3D GameMaker 2.4 Release!

The Platinum Arts SandboxFree 3D Game Maker 2.4Release has arrived! PlatinumArts Sandbox Free 3D GameMaker is an open sourcegame design program for kidsand adults featuring in gamemap/world creation! Thefocus is to make the processof creating games and worldseasy enough for kids butpowerful enough to createfull game projects. SupportsWindows, Linux, Mac (wesomeone to compile thebinary!).

Stumbling and SniffingWireless Networks in Linux,Part 1

Do you need to stumble orsniff networks? Do you needto do a Wi-Fi site survey,troubleshoot networkannoyances, or make sureyour employees (or children)aren’t misusing the Internet?Sure you can spend hundredsor thousands of dollars oncommercial networkanalyzers–usually forWindows–but Linux and theopen source community offersome great tools.

DistributionsReview of iMagic OS 2009.9

In September, the iMagicteam released iMagic OS2009.9. The iMagic OS

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distribution has a lot of strongselling points. They offer amodern, easy-to-use desktopwith all the common mediacodecs and plug-ins an enduser would expect from adesktop OS. The iMagicdistribution also claims theadditional bonus of being ableto run Microsoft Windowsapplications out of the box.The iMagic project leader,Carlos La Borde, was niceenough to provide a copy ofthe project’s latest release forme to test drive.

Is there a best distro?

What is the best Linuxdistribution? Not what is thebest distribution for a serveror what is the bestdistribution for a netbook, butwhat is the best generaldistribution. This made mestep back and think for acouple of seconds. All of thedistributions start from thesame point. The kernel isessentially the same in everydistribution, so that is not adifferentiator. All of thedistributions contain aselection of rich applications,and many distributioncontain the same selection ofapplications, so that is not aclear discriminator.

Red Hat FamilyHilal Computers tomake GITEX debut

Hilal Computers wasappointed a Red HatAdvanced BusinessPartner (ABP) for ITinfrastructure in August2009. It is the only Red

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Hat-certified partner inBahrain with thetechnical and businesscapabilities to deployRed Hat open sourcesolutions and support inlocally.

Open source, freesoftware and Linux –How does Red Hatmake money?

Red Hat is the leadingsoftware company usingthe open source model.We’re a member of theS&P 500 and one of thefastest growing, mostprofitable publicsoftware companies.We’re best known forthe Linux operatingsystem where we have80+% share of paidLinux. But we also havea full suite of enterpriseinfrastructure softwareand basically opensource software is adevelopment modelwhere source code isopen and freelyredistributable.

Debian FamilyReview: Parsix GNULinux 3.0 Kev!

It’s a beautiful Sundayafternoon here in BCCanada. What a betterday to look at ParsixGNU/Linux 3.0 “Kev”for my first time. A littlebackground about thisdistro from Parsix.Org.

Ubuntu WeeklyNewsletter Issue 164

Welcome to the Ubuntu

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Weekly Newsletter,Issue #164 for the weekOctober 11th – October17th, 2009. In this issuewe cover: Archivefrozen for preparationof Ubuntu 9.10,UnseededUniverse/MultiverseFinal Freeze Schedule,Ubuntu Open Week:November 2-6, 2009,LoCo News, New lpxproject group forLaunchpad extensions,Launchpad’s statuspage, Ubuntu ForumsTutorial of the Week,Stefan Lesicnik: Debian2 Ubuntu – SecurityFTW, Ubuntu-UKPodcast: BeautifulChaos, 0 A.D. PromisesReal Gaming forUbuntu, and much,much more!

Top 5 New Things inUbuntu 9.10

Devices/EmbeddedMontaVista rev’s carriergrade distro for 4G

MontaVista Softwareannounced a new release ofits Carrier Grade Linux (CGL)4.0 compliant Linuxdistribution for networkingcustomers, adding support for4G wireless networksincluding LTE and WiMAX.MontaVista Linux CarrierGrade Edition (CGE) 5.1 alsointegrates OpenSAF HighAvailability (HA) capabilitiesand is the first to offer virtualrouting and forwarding, saysMontaVista.

Phones

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Moto Android 2.0smartphone revealed

Motorola’s upcomingAndroid smartphonehas finally beenrevealed in a set offront-and-back picturespublished online.

Android based e-readertips up

SPRING DESIGN hastaken the wraps off theDuet Navigator, adual-screen e-bookreader that runs theAndroid OS and offersboth a text reader and aweb browser.

Quick guide to webOS

webOS itself is aLinux-based operatingsystem but with Palmdesigned componentson top of it. It gives it arather curious mix ofopen sourcefoundations and veryeffective proprietaryguts at the same time,and the result is anagnostic way ofintegrating your socialnetworks and otherforms ofcommunication. It’s thedefault and entirelylocked-in operatingsystem for the Pre andwill also be at the heartof the Palm Pixi whichwe’ll probably seebefore the end of theyear.

Carrier goes negative oniPhone in Droid ads

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Verizon Wireless hastipped details about anupcoming Androidphone in TV ads thathype a “Droid” phonewhile bashing Apple’siPhone, says eWEEK.Meanwhile, the BoyGenius Report haspublished a first-lookpreview of the MotorolaDroid (previously calledthe “Sholes”) and calls it“the Android device tobeat.”

Droid TV ad pulls nopunches in attacking theiPhone

The Motorola Droidsmartphone that willship in November fromVerizon Wireless couldwell be thegame-changersupporting analystforecasts that theAndroid operatingsystem will dominatethose from the iPhoneand the BlackBerry by2012.

Sub-notebooks/TabletsCrunchPad to launch byChristmas?

Popular Mechanicsmagazine crowns theunreleased Crunchpadtablet as its‘Breakthrough Product’for 2009 – a sign thatthe affordable Linuxtablet could be releasedby year’s end.

Uruguay governmentgives every student alaptop

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The laptops in questiongo by the name of theXO, and are brightlycoloured, very basicnetbooks which run ona Linux operatingsystem called ‘Sugar‘.

OLPC in hands of allUruguay’s primarykidsUruguay becomes firstnation to provide alaptop for everyprimary schoolstudent

Uruguay’s been a hugefan of the One LaptopPer Child initiative forquite some time, andwhile we’re still unsureif it’s the entity’s biggestcustomer, the aforesaidnation is certainly doingsome serious businesswith NicholasNegroponte andCompany.

Free Software/Open Source

Opening my Eyes to AnotherAdvantage of Openness

It was chaired by Michal Tsur fromKaltura. It was a company I’dalready come across, but it was agood opportunity to learn a littlemore:

Kaltura’s platform includes aneasily customizable set of widgetsthat seamlessly integrate into videoapplications on web platforms ofany kind. Publishers can deployexisting widgets and apps or takeadvantage of Kaltura’s openarchitecture in order to developnew ones.

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Whether you need a basic onlinevideo platform or one with a robustset of advanced features – Kalturahas a solution for you. Our openframework provides everything youneed to design, develop, and deployrapid and cost-effective videoapplications on any site.

Interestingly, Kaltura does notemploy the currently-fashionable“open core” approach of providingsome of its code under a freesoftware licence, and add-onsunder proprietary ones.

Instead, it’s a pure dual-licensingset-up: the same code is availableunder free (GNU Affero GPL) andnon-free licences, for all the usualreasons.

OpenBSD 4.6 release ships newservices, eases installation

The OpenBSD project hasannounced the availability ofrelease 4.6, which debuts a newmail server and an easierinstallation among many otherfeature enhancements and bugfixes for the open source operatingsystem.

OpenBSD founder and releasemanager Theo de Raadt announcedthe installer has “almost beenrewritten, primarily with a focus onsimplifying the installationprocess”.

On Mobile Phones, Firefox’s BigBet Is Nokia & Android

With little or no chance of everbeing able to make it through thedraconian approval process ofApple’s iTunes App Store, Mozilla,the not-for-profit organizationbehind the Firefox browser, isbetting on two major, if emerging,mobile operating platforms:

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Maemo, Nokia’s new Linux-basedoperating system, and Google’sAndroid OS. But don’t count onMozilla supporting RIM’sBlackBerry OS anytime soon.

SunMySQL cofounder says Oracleshould sell database

Oracle should resolveantitrust concerns over itsacquisition of SunMicrosystems by sellingopen-source database MySQLto a suitable third party, itscofounder and creatorMichael “Monty” Wideniussaid in a blog post onMonday.

NoSQL: Distributed andScalable Non-RelationalDatabase Systems

Non-SQL oriented distributeddatabases are all the rage insome circles. They’redesigned to scale from day 1and offer reliability in theface of failures.

Sun tunes its VirtualBox

The most popularvirtualization tool distributedby Sun Microsystems – andone whose future as an Oracleproduct is in question – isVirtualBox, and the softwarewas just updated with a new3.0.8 release.

FSF/GNUAn Interview With Mako

My name is Benjamin MakoHill. I am 28 years old, male,and I live in Somerville,Massachusetts just outsideBoston. My day job is doingresearch at MIT. I am a fellowat the MIT Center for Future

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Civic Media and am currentlydoing work on a PhDsomewhere between theSloan School of Managementand the MIT Media Lab.

LicensingGPLv2 clause 6

This week I was in Grenoblefor the Embedded LinuxConference Europe. On theseond day of the conference— Friday — I was one of thefew people wandering aroundin a suit. Even the guys whonormally wear suits haddressed down to deal with thenitty-gritty of kernel threads,time sources, and boot timeoptimization.

[...]

PS. Thanks to Saul Goode forsome very careful andrelevant comments to myprevious writing on the GPLversion 2; in particularpointing to the US CopyrightCode and how it doesn’trestrict running the programat all — as indeed the GPLv2itself writes “The act ofrunning the program is nowtrestricted.”

Leftovers

Silvio Berlusconi’s TV companyfilmed bribery case judge

Italian magistrates and theopposition have complained after aTV channel owned by SilvioBerlusconi secretly filmed a judgewho ruled against him in a briberycase.

Details On the Raj Rajaratnam SECInsider-Trading Case

Today, billionaire hedge fund

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manager Raj Rajaratnam wasarrested on insider-trading charges.The SEC filed a formal complaint incourt alleging that Rajaratnamtapped into his network of friendsand close business associates toobtain insider tips.

How Wall Street is making itsbillions

Wall Street banks have hadprofitable quarters. JPMorganChase reported $3.6 billion inprofit (more than $1 billion permonth). Goldman Sachs was onlyslightly behind, at $3.2 billion.These profits supposedly camefrom “trading.” I asked a friendwho has worked in the moneybusiness how this was possible.“For someone to make moneytrading, there has to be someone onthe other side of every trade who islosing money. Where does eachbank find someone who can lose $1billion every month?”

Former Goldman Sachs ExecNamed SEC Enforcement DivisionCOO

Robert Khuzami and the Securitiesand Exchange Commission’senforcement division have a newchief operating officer, according toBloomberg News. Adam Storch, a29-year-old former Goldman Sachsmanager, joined the SEC staffTuesday, and the agencyannounced his new post in astatement Friday. His primary taskwill be to make the division moreefficient.

VisiCalc turns 30 and SocialCalcturns 1.0

According to my notebook from1979, 30 years ago today DanFylstra, head of Personal Software,our Bay Area publisher, told me

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that he had the first productionVisiCalc packages in hand. Ireceived mine the next day(Saturday delivery). So today, forargument’s sake, is the 30thanniversary of the shipment ofVisiCalc 1.0. (Well, actually, wecalled it version 1.37, but it was thefirst packaged version producedand sold in volume.)

Internet/Censorship/WebAbuse/Rights

UK.gov back to the drawingboard on DNA retention

The government has dumpeda heavily-criticised plan toretain the DNA profiles ofinnocent people for up to 12years, after the researchersbehind evidence it was basedon disowned the policy.

UK.gov convinces just 2,000Mancunians to join ID cardtrial

The government’s ID cardpilot scheme in Manchesterhas failed to capture theNorth West’s imaginationwith just 2,000 volunteerscoming forward to date.

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Internet Video Celebrity Caitlin Hill 24(2007)

Digital Tipping Point is a Freesoftware-like project where the rawvideos are code. You can assist byparticipating .

Fraud pushes Karzai to pollrunoff

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Al-Jazeera - Tue, 20/10/2009 - 3:40am

Afghanistan election watchdog sayswidespread fraud invalidates thousandsof votes.

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