Announcements

KDE Community Forums celebrate their first birthday (KDEDot)

KDE.News has announced the first year anniversary of the KDE community forums. "Exactly one year ago, on October 12th, the KDE Community Forums were founded. It was about time to give users a place for discussion and support beside the mailing lists, which were mainly used by developers and other contributors. A lot of time has passed since then, and the forums have grown into a healthy community, contributing to the KDE landscape as a whole. Here people can ask KDE-related questions, help other users, find useful information, or just discuss whatever comes to mind."

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X.Org Foundation Board annual elections

The X.Org Foundation Board annual elections have been announced. "The next annual election of the X.Org Foundation Board of Directors will be in November---nominations start right away."

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Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight (cnet)

cnet reports on Cisco's entry into the Linux market. "In what might have looked like a publicity stunt around a $100,000 prize for Linux developers, Cisco's Linux development contest was actually a major clue as to just how serious it is about becoming a leading server vendor with a global development community--and soon. Today, Cisco announced the winners of its "Think Inside the Box" contest. The three winning applications are very interesting, but the bigger story here is what Cisco's contest just demonstrated: Most of Cisco's 7 million installed Integrated Services Routers (ISRs) are now servers, for all intents and purposes. The contest proved that server-side Linux developers who know C/C++, Java, or Python can now write applications to Cisco routers with little or no knowledge of routers."

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Hulu Desktop Brings Remote-Controlled Streaming to Linux (Lifehacker)

Lifehacker takes a look at Hulu's new Linux version. "Hulu has taken their designed-for-widescreen, remote-friendly Desktop viewer and released it for Linux-powered systems, giving anyone with an open-source media center or Linux laptop an easier way to watch streaming video clips and movies on their much bigger screen."

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Intel talks Linux, netbooks and rivalry with ARM (ZDNet Asia)

ZDNet Asia presents an interview with Intel's director of Intel's Open Source Technology Center, Imad Sousou. "You're about to release Moblin v2.0. Can you tell us more about that? [As a] release from an open source perspective, it's a milestone more than it is a product release--product releases come from OS vendors and OEMs [manufacturers]. Soon you will start to see OEMs shipping netbooks with Moblin. You will see an announcement over [time]. It's still in beta--right now we're in the very final phase. Very minor but critical bug fixes are being done based on input from OEMs and OS vendors. We don't want to call it a release until someone actually ships a product with it. The final version will be available for download over the next couple of weeks. Once that happens, we will go on a regular cadence of a release every six months… to make it easy for people to be able to have predictability in terms of time schedules."

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Linux Foundation woos with lifetime linux.com handle (The Register)

The Register reports that @linux.com mailing addresses are available from the Linux Foundation for a one-time fee. "Previously, members needed to keep up with their yearly membership payments in order to hold a @linux.com addy. But as Zemlin tells us, folks kept requesting a way to hold on to their "geek street cred" without being tied to their membership status. With the change, current members can now secure the email from a one-time fee of $150. New members will need to pay $250 for a one-year membership along with the lifetime benefit."

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Nokia ports Qt to Maemo 5 (the Inquirer)

The Inquirer covers Nokia's port of Qt to Maemo 5. "According to Nokia, there are currently community created ports available, which the company used to help create the official upcoming port. The port itself will be based on Qt's upcoming version 4.6, a beta version of which is expected to be launched next week at the Qt Developer Days conference in Munich."

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Next-gen Nokia Linux devices will get multitouch and Qt UI (ars technica)

Ars technica looks forward to Maemo 6 and the devices that will use it. "DRM enforcement and access to protected content will only be available on stock ROMs that can be validated with code signing. Users will still be completely free to hack their devices and install custom ROMs, but they won't be able to play protected content if they do so. The specific mechanism has not yet been described, but Nokia says that users will be able to switch between the DRM-mode and the open ROM mode (except, potentially, on carrier-locked devices)."

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EFF Warns Texas Instruments to Stop Harassing Calculator Hobbyists

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is warning TI to stop harassing its calculator customers over a DMCA issue. "The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) warned Texas Instruments (TI) today not to pursue its baseless legal threats against calculator hobbyists who blogged about potential modifications to the company's programmable graphing calculators. TI's calculators perform a "signature check" that allows only approved operating systems to be loaded onto the hardware. But researchers were able to reverse-engineer signing keys, allowing tinkers to install custom operating systems and unlock new functionality in the calculators' hardware."

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The Book of Xen--New from No Starch Press

No Starch Press has published The Book of Xen by Chris Takemura and Luke S. Crawford.

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2020 FLOSS Roadmap announced

The 2009 version of the 2020 FLOSS Roadmap has been announced. "This Roadmap is a projection of the influences that will affect FLOSS until 2020, with descriptions of all FLOSS-related trends as anticipated by an international workgroup of 40 contributors over this period of time and highlights 7 predictions and 8 recommendations."

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FSFE Newsletter

The October 12, 2009 edition of the FSFE Newsletter is online with the latest Free Software Foundation Europe news. Topics include: "1. FSFE to EC: Don't waste an opportunity with a hasty deal 2. The Fellowship interviews: Andreas Tolf Tolfsen 3. The Second Fellowship Jabber meeting, 22 September 4. Celebrating the Software Freedom Day, 19 September 5. FSFE uses Free Software micro-blogging on Identi.ca 6. Welcome to Hugo Roy and Lena Simon: new Berlin interns".

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Updated R5xx 3D programming guide available

AMD has released an updated R5xx 3D programming guide. "The new version offers expanded coverage on texture memory layouts, some notes on implementing anti-aliased lines/points/polys, and some additional registers."

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WikiReader: OpenMoko's "Project B"

The mysterious new project being pursued by OpenMoko founder Sean Moss-Pultz has now been unveiled: it's a small gadget called "WikiReader," which appears to be a simple device containing a full copy of Wikipedia. "WikiReader takes our original ideas of openness and accessibility to an even greater realm. WikiReader is so amazingly simple. There really is no interface. You turn it on and instantly become immersed in the rich world of reading specific topics or the serendipitous pleasure of discovering something by chance." More information on the WikiReader site, but it's sparse. In particular, one might assume it's a Linux-based device, but there's no information on the operating software or how it might be extended.

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Open source identity: PulseAudio creator Lennart Poettering (CIO)

CIO interviews Lennart Poettering. "One should never forget what we are doing here. We took an audio system that followed the low-level design that was current in the early '90s and brought it in one big step to what is current today. We inserted an entire new layer into our stack right in the middle, so that we can catch up with the more advanced audio stack that Mac OS X or Windows provide right now. Doing something like this, of course, will trigger problems at many places. Criticism hence must be expected."

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Robotic Submarine Running Debian Wins International Competition (debian-news.net)

A team of 35 students from Cornell University won the recent Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition with a submarine running Debian. In addition, Debian was used to design the electronics, and various other free software tools were used for image processing and video capture. "The competition takes place in a large acoustic testing pool operated by the US Navy SPAWAR Systems Center. It calls for entries to pass through a gate, follow a path, ram a submerged buoy, fire through a square target with small torpedoes, drop markers into bins containing simulated targets, recover a PVC target and surface through an octagon shape, all without human intervention."

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The Social Desktop Winners (KDEDot)

KDE.News has announced the winners of the Social Desktop Contest. "The Social Desktop Contest was launched in June with the goal to bring Web 2.0 ideas and our user and developer community closer to the desktop and foster community development and innovations around the OCS API." Winning projects include: "ExtendedAboutDialog for KDE apps" by Téo Mrnjavac, "Knowledge base widget" by Marco Martin, "libopengdesktop" by Guido Roberto and "PyContent" by Ni2c2k.

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PyCon 2010 US - Call For Tutorials ending soon

The Call For Tutorials for PyCon 2010 ends October 18. "There is still time for you to get a proposal on your favorite Python topic and teach a 3-hour class (with breaks and refreshments) to your colleagues on the Wednesday or Thursday before the conference ("Tutorial Days")."

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MOSS 8 Seminar - Tokyo (LinuxMedNews)

The 8th Medical Open Source Software Seminar has been announced. "It is a pleasure for me to announce the 8th Medical Open Source Software Seminar (MOSS8) in Tokyo, Japan as follows:. * Date and Time: October 31, 2009, from 13:00 to 18:00 * Location: Waseda University, Building 19, Room 610".

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pyTexas: Regional Conference - Oct 24/25

pyTexas takes place in Ft. Worth, TX on October 24-25. "The format is scheduled talks on Saturday morning followed by open space talks driven by the attendees in the afternoon. On Sunday there will be sprints on various projects and, in parallel, a Python Lab that tests the attendees with interesting programming puzzles."

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Events: October 22, 2009 to December 21, 2009

The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.

Date(s)	Event	Location
October 19 October 22	ZendCon 2009	San Jose, CA, USA
October 21 October 23	Japan Linux Symposium	Tokyo, Japan
October 22 October 24	Décimo Encuentro Linux 2009	Valparaiso, Chile
October 23 October 24	Ontario GNU Linux Fest	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
October 23 October 24	PGCon Brazil 2009	Sao Paulo, Brazil
October 24 October 25	PyTexas	Fort Worth, TX, USA
October 24 October 25	FOSS.my 2009	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
October 24	Florida Linux Show 2009	Orlando, Florida, USA
October 24	LUG Radio Live	Wolverhampton, UK
October 25	Linux Outlaws and Ubuntu UK Podcast OggCamp	Wolverhampton, UK
October 26 October 28	Techno Forensics and Digital Investigations Conference	Gaithersburg, MD, USA
October 26 October 28	GitTogether '09	Mountain View, CA, USA
October 26 October 28	Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference	Portland, OR, USA
October 27 October 30	Linux-Kongress 2009	Dresden, Germany
October 28 October 30	Hack.lu 2009	Luxembourg
October 28 October 30	no:sql(east).	Atlanta, USA
October 29	NLUUG autumn conference: The Open Web	Ede, The Netherlands
October 30 November 1	YAPC::Brasil 2009	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
October 31	Linux theme day with ubuntu install party	Ede, Netherlands
November 1 November 6	23rd Large Installation System Administration Conference	Baltimore, MD, USA
November 2 November 6	ApacheCon 2009	Oakland, CA, USA
November 2 November 6	Ubuntu Open Week	Internet, Internet
November 3 November 6	OpenOffice.org Conference	Orvieto, Italy
November 4 November 5	Linux World NL	Utrecht, The Netherlands
November 5	Government Open Source Conference	Washington, DC, USA
November 6 November 8	WineConf 2009	Enschede, Netherlands
November 6 November 10	CHASE 2009	Lahore, Pakistan
November 6 November 7	PGDay.EU 2009	Paris, France
November 7 November 8	OpenFest 2009 - Biggest FOSS conference in Bulgaria	Sofia, Bulgaria
November 7 November 8	OpenRheinRuhr	Bottrop, Germany
November 7 November 8	Kiwi PyCon 2009	Christchurch, New Zealand
November 9 November 13	ACM CCS 2009	Chicago, IL, USA
November 10 November 11	Linux Foundation End User Summit	Jersey City, New Jersey
November 12 November 13	European Conference on Computer Network Defence	Milan, Italy
November 13 November 15	Free Society Conference and Nordic Summit	Göteborg, Sweden
November 14	pyArkansas	Conway, AR, USA
November 16 November 19	Web 2.0 Expo	New York, NY, USA
November 16 November 20	INTEROP	New York, NY, USA
November 16 November 20	Ubuntu Developer Summit for Lucid Lynx	Dallas, TX, USA
November 17 November 20	DeepSec IDSC	Vienna, Austria
November 19 November 22	Piksel 09	Bergen, Norway
November 19 November 21	Firebird Conference 2009	Munich, Germany
November 19 November 20	CONFIdence 2009	Warsaw, Poland
November 20 November 21	PostgreSQL Conference 2009 Japan	Tokyo, Japan
November 21	Baltic Perl Workshop 2009	Riga, Latvia
November 25 November 27	Open Source Developers Conference 2009	Brisbane, Australia
November 27 November 29	Ninux Day 2009	Rome, Italy
December 1 December 5	FOSS.IN/2009	Bangalore, India
December 4	Italian PostgreSQL Day 2009	Pisa, Tuscany, Italy
December 5 December 7	Fedora Users and Developers Conference	Toronto, Canada
December 7 December 11	Annual Computer Security Applications Conference	Honolulu, HI, USA
December 7 December 13	Make Art 2009	Poitiers, France
December 12 December 13	Django Development Sprint	Dallas, TX, USA
December 12 December 17	SciPy India 2009	Kerala, India
December 12	BSD community day	Utrecht, The Netherlands
December 19	New Mexico Linux Fest	Albuquerque, NM, USA

If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.

Watch the 2009 Linux Plumbers Conference (Linux.com)

Linux.com has announced that videos of many of the presentations from last month's Linux Plumbers Conference are now available for viewing. "A lot of LinuxCon attendees stuck around for the Plumbers Conference, to delve deep into the kernel, utility, and library programming that surrounds Linux. This is deep-topic stuff, and attendees I spoke with were not disappointed. [...] Now you can view for yourself, as we've just posted the first batch of videos from the Plumbers Conference on the LF Video site. This set of videos includes discussions on SELinux, networking, clustered filesystems, video processing, and more."

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