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AnnouncementsBrief items Crowdfunding software developmentFundry is a new project aimed at connecting developers and users. "In a nutshell, users can propose and collaboratively fund features for software projects. If the developer(s) decide to complete the feature request then they get paid the money."
Protecode Joins Linux FoundationThe Linux Foundation has announced that Protecode is its newest member. "Protecode is a provider of products and services for open source software licensing and copyright management, software Intellectual Property (IP) management, code portfolio mapping, and for carrying out IP due diligence of software companies. The company is joining The Linux Foundation to participate in the pan-industry initiative, the Open Compliance Program."
Articles of interest Ext4 filesystem hits Android, no need to fear data loss (ars technica)Ars technica reports that Google's new Nexus S smartphone will be the first Android device to use the Ext4 filesystem. "Most Android devices currently use YAFFS, a lightweight filesystem that is optimized for flash storage and is commonly used in mobile and embedded devices. The problem with YAFFS, [Ted] T'so explained in his blog entry, is that it is single-threaded and would likely "have been a bottleneck on dual-core systems." Concurrency will be important on next-generation Android devices that use multi-core ARM processors. We expect to see dual-core Android devices, including tablets, announced as early as CES."
Paul Allen revises patent suit, targets Android, Apple iTunes (Computerworld)Computerworld reports that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's suit against Google and ten other technology companies is on again, after Interval Licensing (owned by Allen) revised its complaint in response to the December 28 deadline imposed by a judge who dismissed the original complaint. The revision lists spectacular innovations such as: "Patent 6,034,652, dubbed 'Attention Manager for Occupying the Peripheral Attention of a Person in the Vicinity of a Display Device,' spells out a way to notify users of additional information. [...] 'Devices containing the Android Operating System and associated software infringe by displaying information including, e.g., text messages, Google Voice messages, chat messages, and calendar events, to a user of a mobile device in an unobtrusive manner,' claimed the lawsuit."
Free Software: the road to a Universal bundle, a powerful app store, and world domination (Free Software Magazine)Over at Free Software Magazine, Tony Mobily muses about free software "app stores". His view of what they would look like is decidedly different than the usual ways that free software applications get distributed. "Just to make it clear: the current way of installing software in GNU/Linux distro is not going to make a good app store possible. Having a nice interface to deal with a million dependencies behind the scenes is like putting lipstick on a pig. The limitations imposed by the current "spread the app across the filesystem" are too far-fetching. In the GNU/Linux eco-system, having a distro-dependent app store means further fragmentation and less adoption. Having only system-wide installation implies that every user needs to be an administrator to install apps."
Garrett: Android tablet GPL summaryMatthew Garrett has announced his list of Android-based tablets. The list includes information about the chipset used and whether the vendor is supplying source for its kernel (as required by the GPL).
I've written a summary page here so you have:
Kuhn: Conservancy Activity Summary, October-December 2010Bradley M. Kuhn blogs about his work as Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy. "We excitedly announced in the last few months two new Conservancy member projects, PyPy and Git. Thinking of PyPy connects me back to my roots in Computer Science: in graduate school, I focused on research about programming language infrastructure and in particular as virtual machines and language runtimes. PyPy is a project that connects Conservancy to lots of exciting programming language research work of that nature, and I'm glad they've joined."
MeeGo tablet specializes in audio recording (LinuxForDevices)LinuxForDevices looks forward to an interesting upcoming MeeGo device. "The Indamixx 2 ships with a new version 5.0 release of Transmission, says Trinity Audio. For the first time, Transmission runs on the MeeGo Linux mobile operating system instead of Ubuntu, says the company. As before, Transmission supports multi-track audio production, providing a host of mostly open source packages that let users record, edit, equalize, audition, and mix audio at claimed rates of up to 32-bit/96Khz."
MeeGo's Community Woes: Improvement in 2011? (Linux Magazine)Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier criticizes the MeeGo project on several fronts, and hopes the project will do better in 2011. "First, Intel and Nokia stepped in it fairly badly when deciding to merge Maemo and Moblin. Not the decision itself, necessarily, but the way it was done. That is to say — Intel and Nokia decided to combine forces, but sort of forgot to consult with the vendors and community contributors to Moblin and Maemo beforehand. Maemo, in particular, had a fairly enthusiastic community building around it — that wasn't really consulted about the plan to become MeeGo. Oops."
Vladimir Putin Orders Russian Government to Switch to Free Software by 2015 (Mashable)Mashable.com reports that a government order for federal bodies and agencies to transition to free software has been signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "Each point of the document names the specific action that must be taken, the agency responsible for implementing that order, the time frame for implementation, and the expected result. For example, one point instructs Russia's Ministry of Communications to form "the base package of free software solutions for typical problems of the federal executive bodies," with the expected result a free package of software that includes operating systems, drivers and application software for servers." (Thanks to Sven-Thorsten Dietrich)
Understanding the Open Invention Network (NetworkWorld)Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier takes a look at the Open Invention Network (OIN). "After seeing comments about OIN and talking to other FOSS folks, I realized many folks (including yours truly) weren't entirely clear on what OIN does and doesn't protect. Specifically, there seemed to be an idea that OIN covers a lot more than Linux, or anything that's open source, or anything between member companies."
PlayStation 3 code signing cracked (The Register)The Register is reporting that a group called "fail0verflow" has demonstrated that it has Sony's private key for signing PlayStation 3 code. "The hackers uncovered the hack in order to run Linux [on] PS3 consoles, irrespective on the version of firmware the games console was running. By knowing the private key used by Sony the hackers are able to sign code so that a console can boot directly into Linux. Previous approaches to running the open source OS on a games console were firmware specific and involved messing around with USB sticks. [...] The same code signing technique might also be used to run pirated or counterfeit games on a console. That isn't the intention of the hackers even though it might turn out to be the main practical effect of the hack."
Firefox, Linux and the future of the web (TechRadar)Jono Bacon talks with Tristan Nitot, president of Mozilla Europe. "The Mozilla community is a very energetic, passionate group. It seems to be getting bigger all the time: every year we need bigger facilities for our meetups! Like most communities, there is an international element, where people communicate in English, and sometimes French or Spanish - at least in Europe - and there are local communities who are especially active in their own region, have their own site, and their own meetups, and will usually drive localisation for their language or locale. Equally, there are many people involved at Mozilla who probably don't feel an affiliation to a particular regional community, but to the global project. That's the beauty of the internet. The community covers quite a range of interests."
Tiemann: OSI asks German Federal Cartel Office to investigate CPTN transactionOn the Open Source Initiative's (OSI's) blog, Michael Tiemann reports that OSI has asked the German competition authorities to investigate the Microsoft-led acquisition of Novell's 882 patents. "The fact that Microsoft was leading the takeover of Novell's patents was itself alarming to the open source community, but when it was revealed that Microsoft had recruited Oracle, Apple, and EMC to be co-owners of the patents, the OSI Board felt compelled to request that competition authorities take a closer look at the proposed transaction. We found that the German Federal Cartel Office was open to receive comments from the public about this transaction during the month of December, and so we drafted and sent a letter (see attached [PDF]), outlining our concerns and requesting that they investigate this transaction thoroughly. We have received an acknowledgement of receipt by the department in charge, and we stand ready to offer any additional assistance that may be required by investigators should they ask for such help."
New Books Designing Interfaces, Second Edition--New from O'ReillyO'Reilly Media has released "Designing Interfaces, Second Edition" by Jenifer Tidwell.
Resources FSFE Newsletter - January 2011The January edition of the Free Software Foundation Europe newsletter covers: Robots, Football, and Education; Public institutions - hares or snails?; and several other topics.
Upcoming Events conf.KDE.in: First KDE Conference in IndiaKDE.News has some information about conf.KDE.in which takes place March 9-11, 2011 in Bangalore, India. The conference will be followed by a code sprint.
Linux Users' Group of Davis, January meetingsThe Linux Users' Group of Davis (LUGOD) will be holding two special meetings this month: "LINUX IN SPAAAAAACE!" on January 11, and "If Tux the Penguin offered you Kool-Aid, would you drink it?" on January 17, in Davis, California.
Events: January 13, 2011 to March 14, 2011The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
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