Linux News for Apr 20, 2010

• PCLinuxOS 2010 Release Available for Download (Apr 20, 2010, 23:34)
  PCLinuxOS: "PCLinuxOS 2010 Edition is now available for download. Features: Kernel 2.6.32.11-bfs kernel for maximum desktop performance. Full KDE 4.4.2 Desktop. Nvidia and ATI fglrx driver support. Multimedia playback support for many popular formats."


• What the Judge Still Has to Decide in SCO v. Novell - Updated (Apr 20, 2010, 23:17)
  Groklaw: "We know that the jury in SCO v. Novell decided that SCO didn't get the copyrights in 1995 under the APA or by Amendment 2 or any fusion thereof. That killed SCO's slander of title claim as well. But that isn't the end."


• Is The Linux Brand Poisoned? (Apr 20, 2010, 23:04)
  Blog Of Helios: "Of that 109 that did, I asked each of them a few simple questions: The first one being..."What is Linux?" The results were less than encouraging."


• Crontab Entries for Unix or Linux Servers Made Simple (Apr 20, 2010, 22:34)
  Serverwatch: "A straightforward but very useful idea, Corntab is a dynamic visual crontab generator for Unix and Linux servers produced by David Knell."


• Security FUD In Action: Not Windows' Fault, Nope, Not at All (Apr 20, 2010, 22:04)
  Linux Today Blog: "This type of reporting is little more than propaganda. The goal is to convey the same message over and over: Cybercrime is entirely the fault of cybercriminals and careless users."


• An Introduction to KDE Games (Apr 20, 2010, 21:34)
  Make Tech Easier: "For a long time KDE has come with an assortment of games. Collectively, this suite of games is simply called "KDE Games". With the advent of KDE 4, all of the KDE games were given face lifts and a standard set of features that make moving from game to game a seamless exercise."


• Rugged Linux powered video serving robot remote controlled over internet (Apr 20, 2010, 21:04)
  Handle With Linux: "This is the ranger SRV robot. It's a rugged robot based on the surveyor open source robot. It can be remote controlled over the internet or programmed for autonomous missions."


• How do I find my network information – in Linux? (Apr 20, 2010, 20:34)
  Ghacks: "In this article I will show you how to find out various networking information on your Linux system. All of these tasks can be handled by any skill level of user, so don't think you have to be an ubergeek, hacker-type in order to gain this information."


• Top 10 Outsourced IT Destinations You Haven't Thought Of (Apr 20, 2010, 20:04)
  CIO Update: "First of all, let's be clear: India will remain part of your outsourcing strategy and that is despite increasing complaints about rising costs and diminishing work quality"


• Announcing the 2010 We�re Linux Video Winners (Apr 20, 2010, 19:34)
  Linux Foundation: "I am pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 We're Linux Video Contest. We had quite a few amazing videos to choose from, many of which captured the spirit of Linux."


• London Stock Exchange readies Turquoise for big-bang Linux migration (Apr 20, 2010, 19:04)
  Computerworld UK: "Turquoise, the London Stock Exchange's large volume 'dark pool' trading platform, will go live on a new Linux-based platform in August or September."


• Two weeks with iPad (Apr 20, 2010, 18:34)
  Dissociated Press: "It's been a couple of weeks with the iPad so I thought I'd post a follow-up here and report on how it's going with the pad 'o evil."


• Richard Stallman: "I Wished I Had Killed Myself" (Apr 20, 2010, 18:04)
  Open... "So I was naturally intrigued to read Levy's recent encounters with some of the key hackers he wrote about back then, in his new Wired article "Steven Levy Revisits Tech Titans, Hackers, Idealists"."


• Bombono DVD�Open-Source DVD Authoring Software (Apr 20, 2010, 17:34)
  Linux Journal: "Bombono is a simple to use DVD authoring program that doesn't have the steep learning curve of many others in its field. Or in the words of the Web site: "Bombono DVD is a DVD authoring program for Linux. It is easy to use and has nice and clean GUI (Gtk).""


• Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XXVI: 2G, 3G, 4G, Wireless Printing (Apr 20, 2010, 17:04)
  Wi-Fi Planet: "My Linksys WRT600N flashed with v24 DD-WRT does not work wirelessly with HP7410 all-in-one printer. The printer is able to make a connection, but I cannot ping the printer nor get other programs to recognize it."


• The Bank, the Linux User and the 9-Month Call for Help (Apr 20, 2010, 16:34)
  LinuxInsider: "As he and a few other savvy users have figured out, there's no real technical barrier. All Linux users have to do is pretend to be a Mac. For nine months, the bank has been declining Heaton's persistent, polite and helpful requests"


• The lost world of the Xandros desktop (Apr 20, 2010, 16:04)
  IT Pro: "The latest release of the Xandros Linux desktop edition was in June 2006, which is several lifetimes in the history of Linux. Is this the end of the line for the Xandros desktop?"


• 8 of the best tiny Linux distros (Apr 20, 2010, 15:34)
  Tech Radar: "There are plenty of reasons for wanting a low-resource distro running on your computer."


• The Gallium3D Driver That Few Know About (Apr 20, 2010, 15:04)
  Phoronix: "Over the night we found out about another Gallium3D driver for Xen virtualization that was actually written prior (more than a year in advance) to VMware's SVGA driver."


• Fedora 13 Beta: The Seen and (Troubling) Unseen (Apr 20, 2010, 14:34)
  Datamation: "While Ubuntu has always emphasized usability, Fedora's focus has been innovation. Now in current beta, Fedora 13 (codenamed Goddard) is no exception."


• A Slimline Debian Install: It's Easier Than You Might Think (Apr 20, 2010, 14:04)
  Linux Journal: "My new thing in these situations is to deploy the latest Debian in a slimmed down form. The advantage is that you end up with a completely up to date Linux distribution and it's still standard Debian underneath it all."


• Security FUD In Action: Not Windows' Fault, Nope, Not at All (Apr 20, 2010, 13:48)
  The game of giving Microsoft a free pass on security flaws continues, despite the rapid growth of the world wide botnet and more Windows exploits roaming the planet than ever.

  100 potential attacks per second blocked in 2009 fails to mention Windows, though it names various individual malwares such as Conficker, Hydraq, Sality.AE virus, the Brisv Trojan and the SillyFDC worm. It doesn't even use their full names: W32.Sality.AE, W32.SillyFDC, W32.downadup (Conficker). W32 is "Windows 32-bit."

  It fails to identify vulnerable "PDF viewers" as Adobe Reader, and does not differentiate browser exploits by platform. The #1 unanswered security question from users is do Firefox exploits affect non-Windows users? I have yet to get a good answer to this.



• Most expensive laptop ever, 24k gold and diamond macbook (Apr 20, 2010, 13:34)
  Critical Cold: "This is the most expensive laptop in the world, fitted with 25.5 carats of flawless diamonds. A total of 53 diamants individually set in a solid 24ct gold apple logo."


• File system support: Ubuntu vs. OS X (Apr 20, 2010, 13:04)
  Open Attitude: "Here's how I got my new Linux Mint computer to read and write to a 1-Terabyte external hard drive formatted for Mac OS X:"


• Why America's Telecom System Stinks (Apr 20, 2010, 12:34)
  PC World: "Analysis: Technologist Lawrence Lessig exposes a rigged system of poor service for higher cost."


• Amazon Brute Force SIP Attacks – Dave Michels Interviews Me (Apr 20, 2010, 12:04)
  Building The Net: "Amazon's position was to do nothing. They allowed the attack to continue against innocent operators for days. These operators may have suffered loss of business due to saturation of carrier, and I have yet to see so much as an apology from Amazon."


• Whatever the iPad is, it is NOT a Computer (Apr 20, 2010, 11:04)
  Linux Planet: "Emery Fletcher doesn't think much of all the overwrought iPad hype, nor the device itself, saying it is not a real computer, but a PAD-- "Passive Amusement Device.""


• While We Wait for a Decision in Bilski: Patent Absurdity, the movie (Apr 20, 2010, 09:04)
  Groklaw: "Every day I check to see if there is any news about a decision by the US Supreme Court on In Re Bilski. I'm sure a lot of you do too, so while we wait, here's a 30-minute movie by independent filmmaker Luca Lucarini, Patent Absurdity: how software patents broke the system, made possible by a grant from the Free Software Foundation, on how we got into patent quicksand in the US:"


• Choosing Open Source Solutions (Apr 20, 2010, 07:04)
  Linux Journal: "Part of my job is finding and testing open sourced solutions for already prominent commercially available software. The concept is simple: If it's open sourced, it can be customized, be platform independent, and it can be free"


• Debian Elects a New Leader (Apr 20, 2010, 05:04)
  Netstat -vat: "There is such a thing as democracy in software - all you need to to is look at the Debian GNU/Linux project. Unlike other Linux distributions like say Ubuntu which is run by a 'dictator for life' and isn't a democracy, Debian's Project Leader (DPL) is an elected position."


• Secret Anti-Piracy Treaty Details Going Public (Apr 20, 2010, 03:04)
  eSecurity Planet: "Countries negotiating a major cross-border agreement to crack down on intellectual property crimes have agreed to release previously secret draft language of the controversial accord this week."


• The Debian Democracy (Apr 20, 2010, 01:34)
  Daniweb: "Do you consider yourself to be fairly familiar with the Debian Linux distribution?...There's one significant piece of the Debian puzzle that I didn't know about: Its Constitution."


• Could OS/2 come back from the grave? (Apr 20, 2010, 00:04)
  Cyber Cynic: "OK, hands up, who, like me, was a one time IBM OS/2 user? What? You don't know OS/2? It was IBM, and briefly, Microsoft's 32-bit server and desktop operating system that was going to change the world."