Linux News for Feb 26, 2010

• The Perils of Sudo With User Passwords (Feb 26, 2010, 23:33)
  Longitude Tech Blog: "The consensus among new Unix and Linux users seems to be that sudo is more secure than using the root account, because it requires you type your password to perform potentially harmful actions."


• IFOSSLR Call for papers (Feb 26, 2010, 23:03)
  IFOSSLR: "The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev. or IFOSSLR) is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. It is the first publication to focus specifically on this field, and its independent Editorial Committee is seeking submissions from qualified authors in a variety of research areas."


• Setting Up Hibernation on Linux SSD Netbooks Without Swap, Part 1 (Feb 26, 2010, 22:33)
  Inform IT: "This two-part series provides complete information on how to set up hibernate/suspend in a Linux netbook solid-state drive (SSD) environment under the conditions that exist in real-world netbooks."


• Introducing hands-on computing in secondary education (Feb 26, 2010, 22:03)
  Open Source.com: "My philosophy regarding teaching is that it should be authentic, constructive, and fun. The shortest reasonable summary I can provide is as follows:"


• Europe 'will not accept' three strikes in Acta treaty (Feb 26, 2010, 21:33)
  ZDNet UK: "The European Commission has pledged to make sure the Acta global treaty will not force countries to disconnect people for unlawfully downloading copyrighted music, movies and other material."


• Ubuntu Linux Now Available to Fed Customers on GSA Advantage (Feb 26, 2010, 21:03)
  PC World: "Canonical's Ubuntu has become third Linux operating system approved by the General Services Administration for use by federal purchasers."


• UDP Tunneling to avoid hotspot or firewall restrictions (Feb 26, 2010, 20:33)
  Adams Info: "UDP tunneling is an attack that is often overlooked when manufacturers design wireless hotspot and other firewall/proxy based devices."


• EU cautions Google over Street View photos (Feb 26, 2010, 20:03)
  CNet: "Google is in hot water in Europe once again over Street View map photos."


• Italian entrepreneur fights proprietary file formats in Public Administrations (Feb 26, 2010, 19:03)
  Stop: "As I already explained in another article file formats are extremely important: unless, at least in Public Administrations (PAs), only open file formats are used, serious amounts of public money can go to waste, important public digital documents may become unreadable and private citizens or businesses may be forced to useless expenses if they want to interact with PAs."


• Review: Linux Browsers, Part 2 (Feb 26, 2010, 19:03)
  Raiden's Realm: "HV3 is a world apart from the average web browser. The browser's site describes it as an experiment in creating “modern web browser components” from the Tcl/Tk platform. The project has two parts, the Hv3 cross-platform browser and the Tkhtml3 widget for developers."


• Windows server revenue outpaced Linux in Q4 (Feb 26, 2010, 18:33)
  Channel Register: "In terms of operating systems, Windows was the big winner in the fourth quarter, and not just because there are some very powerful X64 machines on the market but because Windows Server 2008 R2 was out the door last July and helping to drive upgrades to Microsoft's latest Windows server OS from prior releases."


• Linux kernel valued at over a Billion Euros: No Surprise (Feb 26, 2010, 18:03)
  Netstat -vat: "Yet another study has come out trying to put a financial measure on the worth of the LInux kernel. The latest study from University of Oviedo in Spain has estimated the total value of the LInux 2.6.30 kernel to be 1,025,553,430 Euros..."


• SCO's Bankruptcy Lawyers, Pachulski Stang: We'd Like to Be Paid (Feb 26, 2010, 17:33)
  Groklaw: "Shocker. Who'd ever expect SCO not to timely pay its bills, huh? I wonder if Pachulski Stang ever read the parable about the scorpion and the frog crossing the river together? Remember what happens when the scorpion makes it safely to the other side?"


• Tech Comics: "Chatting in Real Time" (Feb 26, 2010, 17:33)
  Tech Comics: "The Internet is a great conduit for communication of all kinds. But what happens when we meet face to face?"


• Novell: Linux finally breaks even (Feb 26, 2010, 17:03)
  Channel Register: "Well, that only took six years and change."


• BBC activates iPlayer Flash verification - Locking out open source - Update (Feb 26, 2010, 16:33)
  The H Open: "The BBC have activated a protection mechanism on the Flash based streaming system used by iPlayer, stopping open source media players from legally playing BBC content according to a report on The Register."


• Is Microsoft the New Old IBM: a Ponderous Innot-vator? (Feb 26, 2010, 16:03)
  Linux Planet: "Emery Fletcher wonders if Microsoft has not emulated the IBM of old a bit too well, becoming a slow, bloated engine of intimidation, rather than a lean mean innovator."


• Red Hat Helps IBM Pursue Sun Customers (Feb 26, 2010, 15:33)
  The VAR Guy: "You already know IBM is pursuing Sun Microsystems’ customer base. But here’s a twist: Red Hat and its channel partners seem to be helping IBM pursue Sun’s customers."


• MacGyver of the Day: Electronics Hacker Jeri Ellsworth (Feb 26, 2010, 15:03)
  Lifehacker: "It's a little known fact, but MAKE even has the creator of MacGyver writing at MAKE: Lee D. Zlotoff! Lee is a writer/producer/director among whose numerous credits is creator of MacGyver (you can see his articles here). Let's dive in and meet today's MacGyver - Jeri!"


• Big Content condemns foreign governments that endorse FOSS (Feb 26, 2010, 14:33)
  ars Technica: "We have already noted the targeting of Canada for its supposedly lax copyright laws, but that is not the only nation drawing the ire of Big Content. One of the organizations that plays a key role in influencing the Special 301 review is the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a powerful coalition that includes the RIAA, the MPAA, and the Business Software Alliance (BSA)."


• Public consultation on the European Interoperability Strategy (EIS) (Feb 26, 2010, 14:03)
  IDABC: "Everyone interested in interoperability within the context of public service delivery is cordially invited to send suggestions aiming at contributing to the implementation of the European Interoperability Strategy."


• How do I run a remote Linux desktop in Windows? (Feb 26, 2010, 13:33)
  Tech Republic: "Recently I wrote an article "How Do I Connect to a Remote Windows 7 Desktop from a Linux Machine" and was asked to show how to do the same trick — the other way around. You might assume this trick to be a challenge. You will be surprised how little of a challenge it really is."


• HipHop steals Web serving from Apache at Facebook (Feb 26, 2010, 13:03)
  CIO: "Despite using the venerable LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP) stack to build one of the busiest sites on the Internet, Facebook is moving its main Web serving infrastructure from Apache to HipHop for PHP, which has its own embedded Web server."


• Fixing independent programmers' no-win scenario (Feb 26, 2010, 12:33)
  Fatal Exception: "A hostile business climate is stifling entrepreneurship in software development, and the U.S. economy pays the price"


• Where is Mozilla Ubiquity? (Feb 26, 2010, 12:03)
  Linux Planet: "One of the most interesting Mozilla Labs projects has now stagnated. Is the project dead? Does it have a future? The Mozilla developer who led the project tells all."


• The best way to reduce software 'piracy' (Feb 26, 2010, 10:03)
  IT Wire: "The point of this tale? It just underlines the fact that the entire IT industry is built on overpriced products and services. People working in the business get away with it because IT is a complex business - and they are very good at making it seem even more complex than it is."


• Bordeaux Group Announces License Agreement With StormOS to Develop Bordeaux 2.2 (Feb 26, 2010, 08:03)
  Wine-Reviews: "The Bordeaux Technology Group announces it has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with StormOS to develop and further commercialise Bordeaux for Unix operating systems."


• Ogg Theora vs. H.264: head to head comparisons (Feb 26, 2010, 06:03)
  ars Technica: "Streaming media consultant Jan Ozer conducted a hands-on comparison of Ogg and h264 in order to shed some light on the relative difference in encoding quality and performance. He has published the results of his comparison, including screen captures and sample clips, in a report at the Streaming Learning Center."


• Phishing, SQL Injection Attacks Surged in 2009 (Feb 26, 2010, 04:33)
  eSecurityPlanet: "Hackers continued to have great success taking advantage of vulnerabilities in applications, such as Adobe Systems' Acrobat, and Web browsers from Mozilla and Microsoft to compromise unsuspecting users' machines or data, according to IBM's annual X-Force Trend and Risk Report."


• How To: Change Timezone in Linux/Unix From (Feb 26, 2010, 03:03)
  Geek Ride: "In a linux/unix system, the time is the number of seconds elapsed since midnight UTC on the morning of January 1, 1970, not counting leap seconds."


• 10 BitTorrent Client for Linux (Feb 26, 2010, 01:33)
  Distrotest: "In this article, I didn't mention about softwares which don't have gui like rtorrent. In Linux there are more alternatives than following softwares'. I didn't use some of the softwares' last versions. I've also mentioned the versions which I used, near the titles. "


• Google, under antitrust scrutiny, points its finger at Microsoft (Feb 26, 2010, 00:03)
  Tech Flash: "Google overnight confirmed reports that European regulators are looking into complaints that it's unfairly pushing down the rankings of some of its competitors in its search results. The company denied wrongdoing, and pointed out that Microsoft is connected to two of the three companies making complaints."