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AnnouncementsNon-Commercial announcements EFF: 'Hall of Shame' Calls Out Bogus Internet CensorshipThe Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced the launch of its Takedown Hall of Shame site. "Websites like YouTube have ushered in a new era of creativity and free speech on the Internet, but not everyone is celebrating. Some of the web's most interesting content has been yanked from popular websites with bogus copyright claims or other spurious legal threats. So today the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is launching its "Takedown Hall of Shame" to call attention to particularly bogus takedowns -- and showcase the amazing online videos and other creative works that someone doesn't want you to see."
FSFE: Solution for Oracle/Sun deal: Make MySQL independentThe Free Software Foundation Europe has a press release covering its thoughts on how to resolve the Oracle-Sun merger issues regarding MySQL. The European Commission is currently looking at the merger and the disposition of MySQL is seen as one of the biggest stumbling blocks to its approval. The press release refers to FSFE President Karsten Gerloff's lengthy blog posting, which lays out the case for making an independent organization for MySQL: "The dual-licensing approach, and the reliance on proprietary licenses as a source of revenue, has severely hampered the growth of what could have turned by now into a much bigger ecosystem. The strategy has led to a huge gap between the original developer (MySQL as a company) and second-tier firms providing support and development services. It also forced developers who wanted to contribute to MySQL to sign unequal copyright agreements. Some did, some didn't. As a consequence, MySQL's development community is not as strong as it could be."
Introducing L2Ork, the Linux Laptop OrchestraIvica Ico Bukvic has announced l2ork, the Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Stuido (DISIS) Linux Laptop Orchestra project "I wanted to share with you my latest Linux-based and Linuxaudio.org-related project that has been sucking up most of my time over the past year or so to the point it seemed as if I have disappeared off the face of the Earth."
PgUS Board nominations now openNominations are open for the PgUS Board. "We are now accepting nominations for the United States PostgreSQL Association (PgUS) board for the Fall 2009 elections; please submit nominations".
White House goes Open Source (Netcraft)Netcraft reports that the White House has changed its web content management system from Microsoft IIS 6.0 to Drupal. "The White House launched a new version of its website on Saturday. While little has changed on the surface, the underlying technology is now powered by the open source Drupal content management system."
Commercial announcements EnterpriseDB announces strategic investment by Red Hat (Reuters)EnterpriseDB has announced a partnership with Red Hat. "EnterpriseDB, the enterprise Postgres company today announced that Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source solutions, has made a financial investment in EnterpriseDB as part of a partnership aimed at increasing enterprise adoption of open source IT infrastructure. "EnterpriseDB has clearly established itself as a leading enterprise Postgres company, which is why Red Hat has chosen to partner with and invest in the company. EnterpriseDB is also working to create customer value through a subscription support model. Clearly, this is a model we see as beneficial," said Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat."
MontaVista releases new market-specific distributions for MVL6MontaVista has announced market-specific distributions for MVL6. "MontaVista® Software, Inc., the leader in embedded Linux® commercialization, today announced more new Market Specific Distributions (MSDs) for MontaVista Linux 6. The new MSDs continue to expand the market specific focus of MVL6, delivering support for industrial automation, automotive, Android, portable multimedia devices, and multicore networking applications. All the new MSDs will be available this quarter and support processors from Cavium, Freescale, Intel, and Texas Instruments."
Qualcomm announces mobile open-source subsidiaryQualcomm has announced the launch of a new subsidiary with a focus on open-source mobile development. "Qualcomm Incorporated, a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced that it has established a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (QuIC), focused on mobile open source platforms. QuIC has brought together a dedicated group of engineers to optimize open source software with Qualcomm technology. The QuIC board of directors has named Rob Chandhok, senior vice president of software strategy for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, as president of QuIC." (Thanks to Lasse Bigum).
Raytheon unveils Linux 'Insider Threat' rooter-out routers (the Register)the Register covers Raytheon's use of Linux in its routers. "US armstech mammoth Raytheon has announced that its "government insider threat management solution" for information security will be powered by Linux. Penguin-inside crypto modules to be used in Raytheon's mole-buster tech have now passed tough federal security validation, apparently. The insider-threat detector gear in question is Raytheon's SureView, designed to root out the whole spectrum of security no-nos from "accidental data leaks" through "well-intentioned but inappropriate policy violations" to "deliberate theft of data"."
Sequoia to release voting system softwareSequoia Voting Systems has announced that it will release the source for its "Frontier Election System" offering in November. "Fully disclosed source code is the path to true transparency and confidence in the voting process for all involved. Sequoia is proud to be the leader in providing the first publicly disclosed source code for a complete end-to-end election system from a leading supplier of voting systems and software." This release is carefully not described as "open source," and, in any case, source availability is not a full solution to the problem. But it still looks like a step in the right direction.
Articles of interest Blaming Intel for how the world is (Moblin Zone)Moblin Zone has a lengthy justification for Intel's GMA500 (aka "Poulsbo") graphics hardware. The post is in response to a Linux Journal article that lambasted Intel for "kicking its friends in the face" by using hardware that requires closed drivers. Essentially, Moblin Zone argues that Intel was targeting the device, not computer, market with "Menlow" (which includes the Poulsbo hardware). "Not only is there no significant penalty for closed drivers in the device world, sometimes, they work out better. There's a business advantage, in terms of vendor lock-in. If I'm a chip maker, my customer has to come back to me for a new driver or source-level license (with non-disclosure agreement) when they begin working on a new product model, or a firmware upgrade. In the thin-margin world of device parts, that kind of ongoing revenue stream might make the difference between getting by or having to lay off engineers."
Tilera Readies Processors With 100 Cores (InformationWeek)InformationWeek covers Tilera's latest releases in its TILE-Gx multi-core processor family. "Tilera on Monday introduced a series of general purpose processors ranging from 16 to 100 cores for use in servers. The processors would replace multiple processors and lower system costs. While it is too soon to tell whether Tilera's TILE-Gx family will one day challenge Xeon and Opteron server chips from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, respectively, the announcement points to the ongoing industry trend of adding cores to boost performance. "
Resources Cloud Computing: Good or Bad for Open Source? (Linux Journal)Glyn Moody discusses open-source software and cloud computing on Linux Journal. "Cloud computing: you may have heard of it. It seems to be everywhere these days, and if you believe the hype, there's a near-unanimous consensus that it's the future. Actually, a few of us have our doubts, but leaving that aside, I think it's important to ask where does open source stand if the cloud computing vision *does* come to fruition? Would that be a good or bad thing for free software?"
New DoD memo on Open Source Software (David Wheeler's Blog)David Wheeler investigates a new clarifying statement [PDF] for an old Department of Defense policy on the use of open-source software. "This 2009 memo is important for anyone who works with the DoD (including contractors) on software and systems that include software... and I suspect it will influence many other organizations as well. Let me explain why this new memo exists, and what it says. Back in 2003 the DoD released a formal memo titled Open Source Software (OSS) in the Department of Defense. This older memo was supposed to make it clear that it was fine to use and develop OSS in the DoD. Unfortunately, as the new 2009 memo states, "there have been misconceptions and misinterpretations of the existing laws, policies and regulations that deal with software and apply to OSS that have hampered effective DoD use and development of OSS"."
Teaching with Tux (Linux Journal)Over at Linux Journal, Mike Diehl looks at three educational programs all featuring Tux the penguin. Programs to teach typing and practice math skills are two of those he looks at, in addition to TuxPaint, which didn't, at first, strike him as particularly educational: "So how is this educational? At the lower ages, this might simply be a first introduction to using the mouse. In this case, the parent or educator would help the student select colors and draw lines and shapes. Older, pre-readers, could use this program to tell a story in storyboard fashion. Still older children could use this program to create their own comic strips complete with text. Of course, you could also use Tux Paint to teach students art concepts like color, line, and texture. It doesn't matter how you use it though. Tux Paint is a lot of fun."
Education and Certification LPI at Software Freedom Day Tunis, TunisiaThe Linux Professional Institute will be holding Linux certification exams at the Software Freedom Day on October 31 in Tunis, Tunisia. "Software Freedom Day (SFD) is an annual worldwide celebration of Free/Open Source software. LPI's affiliate for the region, LPI-Maghreb (Tunisia, Algeria, Moroco and Libya) has participated in the event for the last four years."
Advanced Scientific Programming in Python School - Warsaw, PolandA class on Advanced Scientific Programming in Python will take place on February 8-12, 2010 in Warsaw, Poland. "Scientists spend more and more time writing, maintaining, and debugging software. While techniques for doing this efficiently have evolved, only few scientists actually use them. As a result, instead of doing their research, they spend far too much time writing deficient code and reinventing the wheel. In this course we will present a selection of advanced programming techniques with theoretical lectures and practical exercises tailored to the needs of a programming scientist."
Event Reports Web 2.0 Summit: The Browser Is What Matters (InformationWeek)InformationWeek covers comments by Google's VP of product management, Sundar Pichai, at the Web 2.0 Summit. "To the suggestion that Chrome OS -- the operating system that Google is developing around its Chrome browser -- is on a collision course with Windows, Pichai responded that the world is entering a period of tremendous innovation in personal computing. "Browsers are suddenly hot again and I think operating systems are too," he said, referring both to Chrome OS and Android, Google's operating system for mobile devices "There haven't been other choices for a long time," he said. "Most operating systems today were designed before the Web existed." "The goal with both our efforts is to get great free open source software stacks out there," he said. In the case of Chrome OS, everything is built around the browser."
Calls for Presentations CeBIT Open Source 2010: Call for ProjectsA Call for Projects has gone out for CeBIT Open Source 2010. "The largest IT trade show on earth will take place from March 2 through 6 in Hannover, Germany. The Deutsche Messe organization that runs the trade show initiated Open Source as a theme focus for the first time in 2009, and the surge of visitors into a constantly packed hall exceeded all expectations. It's clear that Open Source will play a major role again at CeBIT in 2010. As an incentive, the theme will get a prominent new location in Hall 2, where exhibitors, the Open Source Forum and the Open Source Project Lounge will find a new home."
RailsConf call for proposalsA call for proposals has gone out for RailsConf 2010, Submissions are due by March 17. "The Call for Participation has opened for RailsConf 2010, when the Ruby on Rails community will gather June 7-10, 2010, at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, MD. RailsConf, co-produced by Ruby Central, Inc. and O'Reilly Media, Inc., is the largest official conference dedicated to everything Rails. Program chair Chad Fowler invites proposals for conference sessions, workshops, and panels from Rubyists, hackers, web developers, system administrators, and anyone else with a passion for Rails."
Upcoming Events A Hackfest To Improve Linux Video Playback (Phoronix)A Linux video playback hackfest has been announced. "When it comes to video playback on Linux, the premiere choice for video acceleration is currently using VDPAU with its CPU-efficient, GPU-accelerated capabilities that even has no problems playing 1080p video files with extremely low-end hardware. However, VDPAU is not yet widespread in all Linux video drivers, and other free software developers have been working on improving other areas of the Linux video stack too. One of these developers is GNOME's Benjamin Otte who has been working on using Cairo/Pixman for raw video in GStreamer. Additionally, he has organized a Linux video "hackfest" that will take place next month in Barcelona, Spain to further this Linux video playback work." (Thanks to James).
PostgreSQL Conference 2009 JapanRegistration is open for the PostgreSQL Conference 2009 Japan. "The PostgreSQL Conference 2009 Tokyo Executive Committee are proud to announce that the two days programme sessions, JPUG 10th Anniversary Conference, are going to be held on 20th and 21st November, 2009, at AM Hamamatsucho, Tokyo."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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