Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
Missing Internet Pioneer Phil Agre found alive (NPR)
NPR reports that Phil Agre has been located, or at least temporarily contacted. "Well, apparently the search is over. The UCLA police department has updated their missing persons bulletin for Agre with the following news: "Philip Agre was located by LA County Sheriff's Department on January 16, 2010 and is in good health and is self sufficient." This rather terse statement doesn't go into any further detail, so it doesn't shed any more light on what Agre has been doing in recent months, except confirming that Agre had indeed gone off the grid rather than being harmed." (Thanks to Jay R. Ashworth).
iPad is iBad for Freedom (GNU/FSF Press)
The GNU/FSF Press has issued a statement regarding the Apple iPad. "As Steve Jobs and Apple prepared to announce their new tablet device, activists opposed to Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) from the group Defective by Design were on hand to draw the media's attention to the increasing restrictions that Apple is placing on general purpose computers. The group set up "Apple Restriction Zones" along the approaches to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, informing journalists of the rights they would have to give up to Apple before proceeding inside."
Commercial announcements
ATI releases ATI Catalyst 10.1 drivers with Ubuntu 9.10 support (Maximumpc)
Maximumpc reports that ATI has released new Catalyst 10.1 drivers for their Radeon video cards. "There are a bunch of bug fixes, many of them Windows 7 specific, and all of which you can read in the release notes. But the big news for Linux fans is the introduction of production support for Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala. Available for both x86 and x86_64 distros, the latest Catalyst package resolves a bunch of open-source issues..."
Oracle will boost MySQL, release Cloud Office suite (Computerworld)
Computerworld covers Oracle's plans following the Sun acquisition. "Oracle Corp. today promised to aggressively push its newly acquired MySQL open-source database, rather than kill it. Oracle also plans to continued to invest in and maintain the independence of OpenOffice.org, the longtime Microsoft Office challenger from Sun Microsystems Inc., but it will also launch a separate cloud productivity suite that's similar to Google Docs, according to Chief Corporate Architect Edward Screven."
Sun Deal Complete, Oracle Says 'We're Hiring' (Datamation)
Datamation reports on Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's plans for Sun. ""The truth is, we're hiring two thousand people over the next few months to beef up the Sun sales and engineering base. That's twice as many as we're letting go," [Ellison] added. Staffers in the lobby, Sun and Oracle alike, wore red buttons that said "We're hiring!""
Articles of interest
When is it worth saying it's Linux? (The H)
The H takes a look at the proliferation of Linux based devices. "Take Google's Android ; at its core, yes, there is a Linux kernel and a whole host of other familiar bits of software. But if you are a developer, you don't get to see any of that because on top of the Linux kernel is the Dalvik virtual machine and Android's own set of APIs for accessing the underlying device. Even if the developer makes use of the Android native development kit (NDK), they are still relatively boxed in and the NDK only works in conjunction with a Dalvik based application. So is Android a Linux device or is it different operating system with a Linux kernel?"
Legal Announcements
For the Love of Culture (The New Republic)
Here is a lengthy article by Lawrence Lessig in the New Republic. It's mostly concerned with copyright as it relates to books and films, but it's not hard to see implications for free software as well. "And this requires progress in how we think about copyright. It requires giving up the idea that the elements in a compiled work--the music in a film, for example--have a continuing power to block access to, or distribution of, that work. Once a work is made, rather, we need to recognize that it has its own claim within our culture. And so long as the necessary permissions to make the work were secured originally, then at some point in the future (again, say fourteen years after its creation), the parts lose the power to control the whole."
FSF files new objection to amended Google Book Search settlement
The Free Software Foundation has announced the filing of a new objection to the amended Google Book Search settlement. "The objection notes that proposed amendments which discuss works under free licenses unfairly burden their authors with ensuring license compliance, and urges the court to reject the proposed settlement unless it incorporates terms that better address the needs of authors using free licenses like the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL)."
The FSF objects (again) to the Google book settlement
Here's a release from the Free Software Foundation detailing more objections to the proposed Google book search settlement. Essentially, they see it as a way for Google to bypass the requirements of the Free Documentation License. "But under the proposed amended settlement, Google would generally have permission to display and distribute these works without abiding by the requirements to pass the freedoms guaranteed under the GFDL on to Google Books readers. Authors who wanted to use the GFDL or another free license would be required to designate that license in a Registry -- and the Registry would determine which licenses could and could not be chosen"
The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review
The publication of the second edition of the International Free and Open Source Software Law Review has been announced. "Volume 1, Issue 2 of the Review includes articles such as: Open Source Policies and Processes For In-Bound Software by Karen F. Copenhaver Corporate Governance and Open Source by Richard Kemp The Paris Court of Appeals GPL case by Martin von Willebrand Trademarks in Open Source by Tiki Dare and Harvey Anderson Standards, Competition and IP in Open Source by Susanna Shepherd Back to the Future: IP and property rights by Iain G. Mitchell Q.C."
Kuhn: I Think I Just Got Patented
Bradley Kuhn grumbles about Black Duck Software's recently-announced patent on the process of finding license incompatibilities. "Indeed, the process described is so simple-minded, that it's a waste of time in my view to spend time writing a software system to do it. With a few one-off 10-line Perl programs and a few greps, I've had a computer assist me with processes like this one many times since the late 1990s." Here's the full patent for the curious.
New Books
Domain-Driven Design Using Naked Objects--New from Pragmatic Bookshelf
Pragmatic Bookshelf has published the book Domain-Driven Design Using Naked Objects by Dan Haywood.Search Patterns--New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Search Patterns by Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender.
Resources
Greg Kroah-Hartman: Android and the Linux kernel community
Kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman looks at the problems with Android's kernel modifications, which aren't in the mainline—nor headed that way. He does hold out hope that the situation will eventually change, as well as offering his help to get there. "Now branches in the Linux kernel source tree are fine and they happen with every distro release. But this is much worse. Because Google doesn't have their code merged into the mainline, these companies creating drivers and platform code are locked out from ever contributing it back to the kernel community. The kernel community has for years been telling these companies to get their code merged, so that they can take advantage of the security fixes, and handle the rapid API churn automatically. And these companies have listened, as is shown by the larger number of companies contributing to the kernel every release. [...] But now they are stuck. Companies with Android-specific platform and drivers can not contribute upstream, which causes these companies a much larger maintenance and development cycle."
Linux Foundation: mobile Linux needs "magic" to beat Apple (Ars Technica)
Ars Technica uses a blog posting from Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin as a jumping off point to look at mobile Linux vs. Apple's iPhone and iPad. "'It has been impossible for an independent open source developer such as Funambol to access certain basic parts of iPhone (such as the calendar, and presumably this is the same on iPad) whereas on Android, there are no similar limitations,' he [Hal Steger, the VP of marketing at Funambol] told us in an e-mail. He thinks that Apple needs to reach out to open source software developers and loosen its restrictions on the iPhone software platform."
Linux Gazette #171 is out
The February 1, 2010 edition of the Linux Gazette has been published. Topics include: "* Mailbag * Talkback * 2-Cent Tips * News Bytes, by Deividson Luiz Okopnik and Howard Dyckoff * Taming Technology: The Case of the Vanishing Problem, by Henry Grebler Case Studies in Problem Solving * Random signatures with Mutt, by Kumar Appaiah * The Next Generation of Linux Games - Word War VI, by Dafydd Crosby * The Gentle Art of Firefox Tuning (and Taming), by Rick Moen * Words, Words, Words, by Rick Moen * Bidirectionally Testing Network Connections, by René Pfeiffer * Sharing a keyboard and mouse with Synergy (Second Edition), by Anderson Silva and Steve 'Ashcrow' Milner * HelpDex, by Shane Collinge * XKCD, by Randall Munroe * Doomed to Obscurity, by Pete Trbovich * Reader Feedback, by Kat Tanaka Okopnik and Ben Okopnik".
Interviews
Canonical copyright assignment policy 'same as others' (ITWire)
ITWire talks with Mark Shuttleworth about copyright assignment policies. "The most common complaint I've heard is 'why can't a company accept my patches to them under the same licence that they give me the original code?' But that suggests that the two contributions are equal, when they really are not. One party contributes a whole working system, with a commitment to continue to do maintenance on it, the other contributes a patch which is (generally) of no value without the rest of the codebase."
The final FOSDEM speaker interviews
The last set of FOSDEM speaker interviews has been posted; the subjects this time are Andrew Tanenbaum, Benoît Chesneau, Lindsay Holmwood, and Elena Reshetova, speaking on Maemo 6 security. "The main advantage of our security framework architecture is that we don't have any special 'security APIs' by default. For example, there is no secure_fopen() instead of fopen(), which should make the developer's life much easier. The only main change for most applications will be the creation of an additional file inside a Debian package, which we call the 'Aegis Manifest File'. This file declares the needed access control rights for the application, and it will be explained in more details in the presentation."
Education and Certification
Materials from the Free Technology Academy
The Free Technology Academy, a "virtual university" with support from the European Commission, has announced that it has made a set of free-software-related educational materials available under the CC ShareAlike and GNU FDL licenses. Available books include The concepts of free software and open standards (291 pages) and GNU/Linux advanced administration (545 pages). Both books are available in English, Spanish and Catalan.
Calls for Presentations
Akademy 2010 Call for Papers is out
A Call for Papers has gone out for Akademy 2010, submissions are due by April 23. "Akademy is the annual conference of the KDE community and open to all who share an interest in the KDE community and its goals. This conference brings together artists, designers, programmers, translators, users, writers and other contributors to celebrate the achievements of the past year and helps define the vision for the next year. In its 7th year, we invite all contributors and users to participate in Akademy in Tampere, Finland from July 3 to 10 2010."
LAC2010: Paper deadline coming closer
The Linux Audio Conference 2010 paper submission deadline is coming soon. "Dear all, the deadline for submission of papers for the Linux Audio Conference 2010(*) is coming closer (February 14th, 2010), and (like last year) the amount of submissions so far is..quite small. However, without papers and presentations this kind of conference cannot exist."
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit cfp and registration
A call for participation has gone out for the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, submissions are due by February 19. "The Linux Foundation is pleased to announce the opening of registration and call for papers for the 4th Annual Collaboration Summit which will take place April 14-16, 2010 in San Francisco."
Upcoming Events
10th edition of FOSDEM this weekend
The 10th Free and Open Source Developer Meeting takes place on February 6 and 7. "On February 6 and 7, over five thousand Free and Open Source developers gather at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, campus Solbosch, for the tenth annual FOSDEM conference. Keynote speakers this year include Brooks Davis (FreeBSD committer), Richard Clayton (Cambridge university security expert) and Greg Kroah-Hartman (Linux kernel maintainer)."
GUADEC 2010 call for volunteers
A call for volunteers has gone out for GUADEC 2010. "GUADEC 2010, the eleventh edition, will be in The Hague, The Netherlands and takes place on July 24 - July 30. The organisation team calls you to arms! A community conference like GUADEC only happens when the community puts its weight behind it. This is your chance to be part of this event. Whether you are a conference rookie or a seasoned GUADEC veteran, your help is much appreciated."
Panama MiniDebConf 2010
The Panamá MiniDebConf has been announced. "I'm pleased to announce that we will be arranging a MiniDebConf starting on 19/Mar/2010 ending on 21/Mar/2010 on Panamá City. This event is organized by Software Libre Centroamerica a group of Free Software Enthusiasts and a strong Panamá local community".
Events: February 11, 2010 to April 12, 2010
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| February 11 February 13 |
Bay Area Haskell Hackathon | Mountain View, USA |
| February 15 February 18 |
ARES 2010 Conference | Krakow, Poland |
| February 17 February 25 |
PyCon 2010 | Atlanta, GA, USA |
| February 19 February 21 |
SCALE 8x - 2010 Southern California Linux Expo | Los Angeles, USA |
| February 19 February 20 |
GNUnify | Pune, India |
| February 20 February 21 |
FOSSTER '10 | Amritapuri, India |
| February 22 February 24 |
O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing | New York, NY, USA |
| February 27 February 28 |
The Debian/GNOME bug weekend | Online, Internet |
| March 1 March 5 |
Global Ignite week | Online, Online |
| March 2 March 4 |
djangoski | Whistler, Canada |
| March 2 March 5 |
FOSSGIS 2010 | Osnabrück, Germany |
| March 2 March 6 |
CeBIT Open Source | Hannover, Germany |
| March 5 March 6 |
Open Source Days 2010 | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| March 7 March 10 |
Bossa Conference 2010 | Recife, Brazil |
| March 13 March 19 |
DebCamp in Thailand | Khon Kaen, Thailand |
| March 15 March 18 |
Cloud Connect 2010 | Santa Clara, CA, USA |
| March 16 March 18 |
Salon Linux 2010 | Paris, France |
| March 17 March 18 |
Commons, Users, Service Providers | Hannover, Germany |
| March 19 March 21 |
Panama MiniDebConf 2010 | Panama City, Panama |
| March 19 March 21 |
Libre Planet 2010 | Cambridge, MA, USA |
| March 19 March 20 |
Flourish 2010 Open Source Conference | Chicago, IL, USA |
| March 22 March 26 |
CanSecWest Vancouver 2010 | Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| March 22 | OpenClinica Global Conference 2010 | Bethesda, MD, USA |
| March 23 March 25 |
UKUUG Spring 2010 Conference | Manchester, UK |
| March 25 March 28 |
PostgreSQL Conference East 2010 | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
| March 26 March 28 |
Ubuntu Global Jam | Online, World |
| March 30 April 1 |
Where 2.0 Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| April 9 April 11 |
Spanish DebConf | Coruña, Spain |
| April 10 | Texas Linux Fest | Austin, TX, USA |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Page editor: Forrest Cook