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Munich claims to have saved 4M EUR by switching to LinuxMunich claims to have saved 4M EUR by switching to Linux
Mayor Ude reported that the city of Munich has saved over 4 million EURO by switching from Windows NT and Office to Linux and OpenOffice.
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Nmap 5.61TEST5 with scripting funNmap 5.61TEST5 with scripting fun
Huge amounts of testing scripts are being added to Nmap, many are very useful for checking if you (or your adversary) are using weak passwords.
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KDE 4.8.1 releasedKDE 4.8.1 released
A new minor version of the KDE desktop is out at it has a many, but not nearly enough, bugfixes.
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Avidemux 2.5.6 Simple Video Editor ReleasedAvidemux 2.5.6 Simple Video Editor Released
A new version of the simple video editor Avidemux is released. It restores support for AC3 and MP2 encoding, improves x264 support and it also improves Windows XP and 7 support
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News and headlines

Latest Linux / Computer / Technology News and Headlines

LXer Linux News
  • Linux triumphant: Chrome OS resists cracking attempts
    Linux, once again, proved to be far more secure than most other operating systems as Google's Linus-based Chrome OS shrugged off its attackers at the $3.14-million Pwnium cracking competition.
  • Canonical Loses Work From Top Compiz Contributor
    Following a tough week for Canonical with controversies surrounding the Mir Display Server and uncertainties about whether Ubuntu 13.04 would be released or turned into a rolling release model, Sam Spilsbury one of the lead Compiz developers and former Canonical employees, had some harsh words for the Ubuntu backer...
  • Ubuntu Apps Chart for February 2013
    Although Steam is surely the most popular platform for purchasing games for Linux today, a lot of commercial software applications and games are available in Ubuntu Software Center as well. Ubuntu Developer Center monthly publishes a list of the most popular commercial and free applications in the Ubuntu Software Center.
  • Embedded Linux Conference 2013 videos now online
    Videos from five keynote talks and two-dozen sessions at the Embedded Linux Conference 2013 in San Francisco last month are now available for free viewing, courtesy of the Linux Foundation, which held the event. The videos cover a wide range of embedded Linux development, deployment, and marketing topics.
  • The corporate phone is dead. Long live BYOD.
    When you look at market share statistics, it's clear that the two phones aimed specifically at the corporate market -- BlackBerry and Windows Phone -- have been choked to death by BYOD.
  • Creating and Theming a Custom Content Type with Drupal 7
    One of the great new things about Drupal 7 is that it's now easierto customize your site content. In Drupal 6, you typically had to usethe CCK (Content Construction Kit) module for fine-grained control incustomizing content, but that has been folded into core for Drupal 7. Drupal7 is now a true content management framework (CMF).
  • Visit Canonical at CeBIT 2013 and Win a Google Nexus 7 Tablet
    The CeBIT 2013 event takes place these days, between March 5 and 9, in Hannover, Germany, and Canonical is there to enchant visitors with technical details about Ubuntu Cloud Stack and Ubuntu Landscape Systems Management.
  • GNOME Documents 3.8 Beta 2 Is Dubbed Trans-Siberia Express
    Dubbed Trans-Siberia Express, the second and last Beta release of the upcoming GNOME Documents 3.8 package, the main document viewer of the GNOME desktop environment, has been released a few days ago, March 4, for testing.
  • High-performance network video recorders run embedded Linux
    March Networks has released a new family of high-performance network video recorders (NVRs), which feature an embedded Linux operating system. The 8000 Series NVRs are aimed at video surveillance, license plate recognition, access control, ATM, and other applications requiring secure, reliable, high-definition video monitoring and storage. “To ensure video is not lost, the 8000 Series [...]
  • Three Proposals To Consider For Ubuntu Releases
    Rick Spencer of Canonical wrote last week the straw-man proposal to make Ubuntu a rolling release distribution. While there's some concerns over moving to a full rolling release process for non-LTS Ubuntu releases, he is seeking feedback on three possible proposals for handling future Ubuntu Linux releases...
OSNews
  • Violent games make people violent; so do pictures of snakes
    "For nearly thirty years we've been having this discussion, asking the question: do violent movies, music or video games make people violent? Well according to Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson of Iowa State University, yes. Based on the results of their research they concluded in 2001 that video games and violent media can make people aggressive and violent. Based upon their data and their conclusions, however, it's safe to say that photos of snakes, crispy bacon, or a particularly rigorous game of chess can also make people aggressive and violent." And politicians?
  • Samsung: 'Windows 8 fails to boost demand for PCs'
    "A senior Samsung Electronics executive said Friday the launch of Windows 8 has failed to bolster demand for PCs and he does not expect the PC industry to rebound soon." Of course, Samsung and other OEMs could've, you know, built better computers. Just a suggestion.
  • The case for a true Mac Pro successor
    John Siracusa: "On paper, the Mac Pro may no longer be a viable product, but it would be a mistake for Apple to abandon the concept that it embodies. Like the Power Mac before it, the Mac Pro was designed to be the most powerful personal computer Apple knows how to make. That goal should be maintained, even as the individual products that aim to achieve it evolve." I agree wholeheartedly. The Mac Pro - and the PowerMac before it - are amazing products, and I would be quite sad to see them go. They may not always lead the pack in performance, but when it comes to sheer engineering and interior design, they are among the very best. I have zero need for a Mac Pro, but to this day, I always take a few minutes to admire it whenever I pay a visit to my Apple retailer.
  • Shuttleworth: 'Linux is supposed to be hard so it's exclusive' is "dumb"
    Mark Shuttleworth: "I simply have zero interest in the crowd who wants to be different. Leet. 'Linux is supposed to be hard so it's exclusive' is just the dumbest thing that a smart person could say." He's right. Lots of interesting insights in this blog post - I may not agree with everything Ubuntu does, but at least it's doing something.
  • EA botches SimCity launch, Amazon stops sales
    So, SimCity has been released - the fifth instalment in this venerable series of fantastic games. However, just as everyone suspected, the game has been completely ruined by the always-online DRM. So much so, in fact, that Amazon has ceased selling the game. Update: and it's only getting worse - EA has suspended all marketing efforts for SimCity, and has asked third parties to do the same. Wow.
  • Google, MPEG LA sign agreement covering VP8
    "Google and MPEG LA announced today that they have entered into agreements granting Google a license to techniques that may be essential to VP8 and earlier-generation VPx video compression technologies under patents owned by 11 patent holders. The agreements also grant Google the right to sublicense those techniques to any user of VP8, whether the VP8 implementation is by Google or another entity. It further provides for sublicensing those VP8 techniques in one next-generation VPx video codec. As a result of the agreements, MPEG LA will discontinue its effort to form a VP8 patent pool." The word that stood out to me: the auxiliary verb 'may', which has a rather low epistemic modality. To me, this indicates that this is not so much a clear-cut case of VP8 infringing upon patents, but more a precautionary move on Google's part.
  • How two volunteers built the RaspPi's operating system
    "When you buy a Raspberry Pi, the $35 computer doesn't come with an operating system. Loading your operating system of choice onto an SD card and then booting the Pi turns out to be pretty easy. But where do Pi-compatible operating systems come from? With the Raspberry Pi having just turned one year old, we decided to find out how Raspbian - the officially recommended Pi operating system - came into being. The project required 60-hour work weeks, a home-built cluster of ARM computers, and the rebuilding of 19,000 Linux software packages. And it was all accomplished by two volunteers."
  • Apple finds a strange bedfellow against Samsung: Nokia
    "Apple vs. Samsung initially ended with a billion-dollar verdict in favor of Apple, but there have been plenty of wrinkles since. This week brought about another, as Nokia filed an amicus brief on behalf of Apple, Inc. in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the brief filed Monday, Nokia asked the court to permit permanent injunctions on the sale of Samsung phones that were found to infringe Apple's patents." In the meantime, the latest comScore figures for the US show that Windows Phone's market share actually declined during the launch of Windows Phone 8. It's pretty clear that, combined with the disappointing quarterly results for Nokia, the company is setting itself up for the future. In this future, Nokia's patent portfolio is worth more than their actual phone business, and as such, Nokia can't do anything but support Apple in this case, else the value of their portfolio goes down.
  • ModernMix runs Metro applications in desktop mode
    The Verge: "ModernMix aims to change this. The app provides options to simple run Windows 8-style apps in separate individual windows in desktop mode. Windows 8 still has the usual Aero Snap functionality to align traditional apps side-by-side, and ModernMix takes full advantage of this. ModernMix remembers app window sizes so that they launch in the same place every time. A little widget in the top right-hand corner of Windows 8-style apps lets you bring them into desktop mode, and if you re-launch them from the Start Screen it will remember where you left off." Stardock - making awesome stuff since OS/2.
  • The reason we don't have Metro Office yet
    One of the major lacking features in the newest Office: no Metro applications. In fact, the only reason Windows RT has a desktop at all is because the Office team was unable to create Metro applications in time for the release of Windows RT. I often thought this was a classic case of two important divisions within Microsoft not getting along and not being aligned, but now that I have my own Surface RT, I'm starting to realise that there's a far simpler, and thus more likely, explanation: Metro is simply not ready for anything serious - or for anything at all, really.
Techworld.com News
  • Chrome OS runs the table at Pwnium 3
    Hackers at the CanSecWest event in Vancouver couldn't break Google's latest version of Chrome OS in the company's Pwnium 3 contest, leaving the $3.14159 million (yes, that's Pi, for those keeping track at home) in prize money untouched.


  • iPhone 6 rumor rollup for the week ending March 8
    The iOSphere's collective unconscious seethed with mandates and rumors for iPhone 6 or 5S or iPhone [Fill-in-the-Blank]. There didn't seem to be enough Web bandwidth to contain them all.


  • GPS jamming menace solved with new ship-based system
    With GPS jamming a growing worry for UK shipping, engineers have successfully demonstrated the first system that can counter the navigational menace by switching seamlessly to a new type of shore-based ‘eLoran’ system.


  • Huawei get SAP HANA approval
    Huawei Technologies' enterprise division is ramping up its European presence, helped by the announcement this week that SAP has certified the company's servers to run its HANA in-memory platform. Such deals with SAP and other big software vendors will be key for Huawei to succeed in the enterprise.


  • Prices of DRAM expected to stabilise, NAND to fall
    After multiple years of double-digit drops, prices for DRAM could stabilise as demand exceeds supply and the number of memory makers dwindles, a research analyst for IC Insights said this week.


  • Google to cut 1,200 more jobs at Motorola Mobility
    Motorola Mobility is cutting 1,200 staff, in addition to a reduction of 4,000 staff it announced in August, to focus on high-end devices.


  • Vatican digitises its priceless library with EMC
    The Vatican's Apostolic Library is digitising its 80,000 historic manuscripts - equating to 40 million pages - through a sponsorship deal with EMC.


  • Freezedroid: Researchers discover cold can unlock secured Android phones
    Researchers at Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany have discovered a somewhat unusual method for cracking the security on encrypted Android phones -- sticking them in the freezer.


  • Google, MPEG LA resolve dispute over VP8 video format
    Patents management company MPEG LA announced agreements with Google, granting the Internet giant a license to techniques that may be essential to the VP8 video codec that the Internet giant backs.


  • Intel IT slashes chip test times by a quarter with Hadoop
    Intel IT has developed a predictive analytics solution which it claims can reduce chip test time by 25 percent and save $30 million (£20m) over the next year.


DesktopLinux.com PCWorld
  • LTE broadcast may help Qualcomm salvage Flo TV

    LTE broadcast could make video and other content run better on smartphones and tablets, and the emerging technology has at least one highly motivated backer in mobile chipmaker Qualcomm.

    The system, based on the LTE mobile network standard, is designed to let carriers set aside part of their radio spectrum to deliver the same content to multiple subscribers. If enough people want that content, broadcasting is more efficient than sending a lot of individual streams, so it can bring customers higher quality or free up network capacity for other purposes.

    qualcomm snapdragon

    For Qualcomm, the prospect of LTE broadcast may sell more chips, such as its Snapdragon line of processors for mobile devices. But the technology also represents a chance for the San Diego company to salvage something valuable from FLO TV, a four-year dalliance with broadcasting that failed.

    TV on the fly

    The idea behind FLO TV was to deliver programming over a dedicated network that carriers could resell to their subscribers and that devices could tap into if they had the right silicon and antennas. Users could tune into former TV channels in many major U.S. cities and watch a special lineup of shows, including some live TV, as it was broadcast over the airwaves. Monthly rates varied, but at one point Verizon Wireless charged US$15 per month for ten channels.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Sony chairman, ex-CEO Stringer to leave amid restructuring

    Sony chairman and former CEO Howard Stringer, who has been at the company since 1997, will be leaving the company in June.

    Stringer led Sony for seven years, facing harsh criticism as losses mounted before he was replaced last year. Speaking at an event at the Japan Society in New York on Friday, the executive said he would be leaving for a new offer, without divulging details.

    Sony-Kazuo-Hirai-&-Howard-Stringer
    Kazuko Hirari and Howard Stringer

    "A new world is opening up for me, too, one that allows me to complete my plan to retire from Sony, which I expect to do at the conclusion of my term later this year. That will allow me to move forward with new opportunities Ive been presented with lately," he said, according to a script of his comments provided to IDG News Service by Sony.

    Stringer moved to become chairman of Sony in June of last year. He was replaced by current Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai, who issued a statement thanking his predecessor. Like Stringer before him, Hirai has implemented broad restructuring and job cuts to stem the company's losses.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Samsung, Google, Microsoft play politics

    Tech companies are playing a power grab and increasingly turning to lobbyists for a competitive edge.

    Several developments this week show that being adept at politics can be just as effective in gaining ground on rivals as making better products or pressing patent lawsuits.

    South Korea-based Samsung, which has been waging a patent war with Apple around the globe, is playing politics the tried and true American way by lobbying Congress.

    The company ratcheted up its year-over-year lobbying efforts by six-fold, according to Bloomberg.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Smart apps that learn and adapt to their users spur brave new tech world

    Technologies that end up improving lives and changing culture often seem trivial when they're brand new.

    Blogging, for example, began as a way to keep an online diary but has evolved to a medium that's transforming journalism and business.

    Social media started out as a way for teenagers and college students to flirt with one another, but it has become one of the primary ways people discover content online.

    Likewise, a brand-new generation of smart apps may appear to be limited toys for geeks and productivity enthusiasts. In fact, they represent first steps toward the future of all human-machine interaction -- a future in which we hold conversations with our computers and they get to know us, learn how to suggest things, solve some of our everyday problems and go out into the world doing chores on our behalf.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Review: Age Of Fear 2 brings back classic turn-based strategy gaming

    Age of Fear 2: The Chaos Lord is a turn-based fantasy strategy game, though it likes to push the "fantasy" boundaries a bit; one scenario features modern soldiers vs. zombies. It deliberately and unapologetically invokes the spirit of early 90s strategy games, before real-time strategy became the fashion and reflexes became more important than tactics. I reviewed the PC version, but it's available for Linux and Mac as well.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Two reasons Microsoft should fear Google Apps

    As Microsoft continues to push Office 365, its subscription software-as-a-service offering, a new survey underscores Redmond's diminishing hold on enterprise users. And the problem will only get worse as younger users enter the workplace, if a recent study at Princeton University is any indication.

    BetterCloud sells cloud management tools for Google Apps. In early February, BetterCloud surveyed its customer base—18,361 Google administrators—and received responses from 2719.

    There are a lot of interesting data points in the survey results, but here are the ones relevant to Microsoft and its growing struggle in the enterprise:

    • 60 percent of respondents say their organizations are minimizing further investment in Microsoft Office
    • 64 percent who have been using Google Apps for at least two years are minimizing further investment in Office

    OK, you might say. Many, maybe even most, of the respondents likely come from smaller businesses. Large organizations with a lot invested in licenses for Office software and a workforce hooked on Excel, PowerPoint, Word, and other Redmond apps understandably would be more willing to stay the course.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • Pwn2Own hacking contest winds down after paying a record $480K

    A day after researchers hacked Chrome and Firefox at the Pwn2Own contest, Google and Mozilla patched their browsers Thursday.

    The contest also wound down Thursday after hackers had earned a record $480,000 over two days.

    The update to Chrome 25 came about 24 hours after two researchers from U.K. firm MWR InfoSecurity exploited multiple bugs in the browser and Windows 7. In exchange for their attack code and vulnerabilities, Nils — a German who goes only by his first name — and Jon Butler were awarded $100,000 by Pwn2Own organizer HP TippingPoint and its Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) bug bounty program.

    The quick turn-around nearly matched last year’s, when Google patched several Chrome vulnerabilities in under 24 hours after researchers unveiled them at a company-sponsored contest.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • WordPress unveils hosting package for small businesses

    For as long as I can remember, WordPress has been synonymous with blog hosting—mostly consumer blog hosting.

    Although the company offered Pro plans for users who need more than the basics and enterprise options for the big boys, there was nothing in the middle for the SMB crowd.

    There is now. The aptly named WordPress Business caters to small businesses needing a domain, storage, and a wide selection of themes for building a Web site.

    Essentially a bundle of premium upgrades, WordPress business includes not only site hosting and a free domain, but also live support (via chat, or email when chat isn't available), unlimited storage, and your choice of unlimited premium themes.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • As PC sales stall, Samsung exec has harsh words for Windows 8

    With Windows 8 doing little to spark laptop sales, you can hear the grousing of PC makers get louder.

    The latest complaints come from Jun Dong-Soo, president of Samsung's memory chip division, who had no kind words for Windows 8 during a meeting with reporters in Seoul.

    "The global PC industry is steadily shrinking despite the launch of Windows 8," he said Friday, according to Korea Times. "I think the Windows 8 system is no better than the previous Windows Vista platform."

    Jun's statements echo findings by IDC and Gartner, who found that PC sales declined during the holiday shopping season. Jun added that Microsoft's Surface has seen "lackluster demand," and that demands for thinner Ultrabooks by Microsoft and Intel failed "mostly because of the less-competitive Windows platform."

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

  • The 4 security controls your business should take now

    There never will be a perfect computer or network defense. Computer security is a constantly elevating game of cat-and-mouse. As quickly as you address the latest threat, attackers have already developed a new technique to access your network and compromise your PCs. But if you focus on the fundamentals, you can minimize your risk and defend against most attacks.

    Small companies have limited IT resources, and can’t possibly defend against every possible exploit or attack. How do you know what to prioritize? Start with the 20 Critical Security Controls report, written by the Center for Internet Security (CIS), the SANS Institute, and the National Security Agency (NSA). To help businesses and governments, they have defined the security controls that block the most frequent attacks.

    Speaking recently at the RSA Security conference, Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Qualys, cautioned against mistaking compliance for security. He stressed that security should facilitate rather than impede business goals, naming the report as a valuable starting point.

    John Pescatore, director of the SANS Institute, drew a comparison to the Pareto principle. The axiom commonly referred to as the “80/20 rule” says essentially that 20 percent of the effort or input results in 80 percent of the output.

    To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

LWN.net
  • Jitsi 2.0 released

    Version 2.0 of the cross-platform open source softphone application Jitsi has been released. An announcement on the XMPP Foundation blog includes some details, such as: "one of the most prominent new features in the 2.0 release is Multiparty Video Conferencing. Such conferences can work in an ad-hoc mode where one of the clients relays video to everyone else, or in cases that require scalability, Jitsi can use the Jitsi Videobridge: an RTP relaying server controlled over XMPP." Other changes include support for the royalty-free VP8 and Opus codecs, and support for integrating with Microsoft Outlook. Additional details are listed at the Jitsi site.

  • GNOME Foundation accessibility proposals due March 15

    GNOME Foundation Executive Director Karen Sandler sent over a reminder that next Friday, March 15, is the deadline for bids to take part in GNOME's accessibility development drive. The drive will fund US $30,000 worth of work on document accessibility, $20,000 of which was raised through donations in the 2012 Friends of GNOME campaign. The other $10,000 is being provided by the Mozilla Corporation.

  • Hughes: GNOME Software overall plan

    At his blog, Richard Hughes outlines his designs for a plugin-capable software installer for GNOME. "Of course, packages are so 2012. It’s 2013, and people want to play with redistributable things like listaller and glick2 static blobs. People want to play with updating an OS image like ostree and that’s all awesome. Packages are pretty useful in some situations, but we don’t want to limit ourselves to being just another package installer." The gnome-software tool Hughes is prototyping is currently alpha-quality, but is available in the GNOME git repository.

  • Friday's security updates

    CentOS has updated kvm (code execution) and ruby (denial of service).

    Fedora has updated openssl (multiple vulnerabilities).

    Mandriva has updated gnutls (multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.6.0-openjdk (multiple vulnerabilities), and wireshark (multiple vulnerabilities).

    Oracle has updated qemu-kvm (code execution) and ruby (multiple vulnerabilities).

    Red Hat has updated kvm (code execution), qemu-kvm (code execution), ruby (RHEL 5, denial of service; RHEL 6, multiple vulnerabilities), and xulrunner (code execution).

    Scientific Linux has updated kvm (code execution), qemu-kvm (code execution), and ruby (multiple vulnerabilities).

    Ubuntu has updated python-django (multiple vulnerabilities) and openjdk-7 (code execution).

  • Shuttleworth: Not convinced by rolling releases
    On his blog, Mark Shuttleworth weighs in at some length on some of the issues that have been swirling in the Ubuntu community over the last few weeks. He thinks there has been some unwarranted melodrama surrounding Ubuntu, Canonical, decision making, and so on. In addition, he is not convinced that rolling releases are the right approach.
    But cadence is good, releases are good discipline even if they are hard. In LEAN software engineering, we have an interesting maxim: when something is hard, DO IT MORE OFTEN. Because that way you concentrate your efforts on the hard problem, master it, automate and make it easy. That's the philosophy that underpins agile development, devops, juju and loads of other goodness.

    In the web-lead world, software is moving faster than ever before. Is six months fast enough?

    So I think it IS worth asking the question: can we go even faster? Can we make even MORE releases in a year? And can we automate that process to make it bulletproof for end-users?

  • VP8 and MPEG LA (WebM blog)
    Google and the MPEG Licensing Authority have announced an agreement that will stop MPEG LA from creating a patent pool around the VP8 video codec, the WebM blog reports. VP8 is part of the royalty-free WebM media file format; MPEG LA has been threatening to create a patent pool to change the "royalty-free" part. "The arrangement with MPEG LA and 11 patent owners grants a license to Google and allows Google to sublicense any techniques that may be essential to VP8 and are owned by the patent owners; we may sublicense those techniques to any VP8 user on a royalty-free basis. The techniques may be used in any VP8 product, whether developed by Google or a third party or based on Google's libvpx implementation or a third-party implementation of the VP8 data format specification. It further provides for sublicensing those VP8 techniques in one successor generation to the VP8 video codec."
  • Security advisories for Thursday

    CentOS has updated kernel (C5: privilege escalation), xen (C5: code execution), java-1.6.0-openjdk (C5: multiple vulnerabilities), and java-1.7.0-openjdk (C5: multiple vulnerabilities).

    Fedora has updated java-1.7.0-openjdk (F17: multiple vulnerabilities) and gksu-polkit (F18: privilege escalation).

    Mandriva has updated openssl (multiple vulnerabilities)

    openSUSE has updated libqt4 (12.1; 12.2: information disclosure) and pidgin (11.4; 12.1, 12.2: multiple vulnerabilities).

    Oracle has updated java-1.7.0-openjdk (OL5; OL6: multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.6.0-openjdk (OL5; OL6: multiple vulnerabilities), kernel (OL5: privilege escalation), kernel (OL5: unspecified), and xen (OL5: code execution).

    Red Hat has updated MRG Messaging (RHEL5; RHEL6: multiple vulnerabilities), MRG Grid (RHEL5; RHEL6: denial of service), kernel-rt (RHEL6: multiple vulnerabilities), xen (RHEL5: code execution), java-1.7.0-oracle (multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.6.0-sun (multiple vulnerabilities), java-1.7.0-openjdk (RHEL5; RHEL6: multiple vulnerabilities), and java-1.6.0-openjdk (RHEL5; RHEL6: multiple vulnerabilities).

    Scientific Linux has updated java-1.7.0-openjdk (SL5: multiple vulnerabilities), xen (SL5: code execution), and java-1.6.0-openjdk (SL5: multiple vulnerabilities).

    Slackware has updated sudo (privilege escalation).

  • [$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 7, 2013
    The LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 7, 2013 is available.
  • [$] Ubuntu unveils its next-generation shell and display server

    Ubuntu publicly announced its plan for the future of its Unity graphical shell on March 4, a plan that includes a new compositing window manager designed to run on the distribution's device platforms as well as on desktop systems. The plan will reimplement the Unity shell in Qt and replace Compiz with a new display stack called Mir that will incorporate a compositor, input manager, and several other pieces. Mir is not designed to use the Wayland display protocol (although the Ubuntu specification suggests it could be added later), a decision that raised the ire of developers in several other projects.

  • Stable kernel 3.2.40
    Ben Hutchings has released stable kernel 3.2.40 with important fixes throughout the tree.
Linux Journal - The Original Magazine of the Linux Community
  • Creating and Theming a Custom Content Type with Drupal 7

    One of the great new things about Drupal 7 is that it's now easier to customize your site content. In Drupal 6, you typically had to use the CCK (Content Construction Kit) module for fine-grained control in customizing content, but that has been folded into core for Drupal 7. Drupal 7 is now a true content management framework (CMF). more>>

  • Android for Independence

    At some point in the early 2000s, I got my wife a Nokia phone with a keyboard, so we could text each other. It was a great little phone, not hard to use or understand, but she texted me only once with it, to send the word "no". Then, in late 2007, not long after the iPhone came out, she told me she wanted one. Why? more>>

  • Finally, "The Cloud" Means Something

    Few jargonistic terms have annoyed me as much as, "The Cloud." When the term was first coined, its meaning was ambiguous at best. For some companies, it meant shared web hosting (but with a cooler sounding name). For others it was simply, "let us host your servers in our datacenter, which we now refer to as a cloud." more>>

  • Crashplan, the Only Reason I Install Java

    I'm the sort of person who doesn't like to install Java. I actually don't like to install Flash either, but it's still tough to survive browsing the Internet without Flash installed. There is one program that makes me break my own rules, however, and that's Crashplan. more>>

  • Chrome Extensions

    Create applications inside the Chrome browser with standard Web technologies: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. more>>

  • The Alexandria Project

    Besides representing open source organizations like the Linux Foundation and scores of standards organizations, attorney and open source advocate Andy Updegrove is also a novelist. more>>

  • Google Dart Article Correction

    I'm the author of the article "Introducing Dart, the New Web Language from Google" in the March 2013 issue. I wrote the article in late December and submitted the article in early January of this year. During the time I was writing it, I was using Dart M2 (version 0.2.9.9). I made sure to have my colleagues check over my code and worked to make sure that everything was perfect! more>>

  • Troubleshooting with Telnet

    Poor telnet, it used to be the cool kid on the block. It was the program all sysadmins turned to when they needed to connect to a remote server. Telnet just wasn't that good at keeping a secret—all communication went over plain text—so administrators started switching to SSH for encrypted remote shell sessions. more>>

  • March 2013 Issue of Linux Journal: Web Development

    Remembering Spidey

    Back before Google was born, and even longer before it became a verb, the
    World Wide Web was often searched by a little spider on a surfboard. more>>

  • Pwn Your Phone

    I've owned two different Android phones since they first were released, and I eventually rooted both of them. My Droid (original) was such a popular phone that rooting it was very simple. I used my rooted Droid until it wore out and rebooted every time I slid open the keyboard. My second Android phone, the Samsung Galaxy S2, is the phone I have right now. more>>

The Register
  • On International Woman's Day we remember Grace Hopper

    The Rear Admiral who changed the world of computing

    Feature Once again some of the world is celebrating International Woman's Day (IWD), and it's time to reflect on great female role models. Ada Lovelace usually grabs most of the attention but I'd like to use IWD as an excuse to pay a tribute to a personal female hero of computing: US Rear Admiral Grace Hopper.…

  • Seattle drinking den bans Google Glass geeks

    Violent consequences for Google-eyed privacy violators

    A Seattle bar has issued a preemptive ban of Google Glass to preserve the privacy of its tipplers.…

  • MakerBot demos 3D object scanner that fits on your desk

    Printable garden gnomes in as little as three minutes

    MakerBot, producer of the Replicator line of desktop 3D printers, took to the stage at the SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas on Friday to demo a prototype of its first desktop 3D scanner.…

  • Google Glass to recognize you by your FASHION SENSE

    'I'm not staring at your butt, my spatiogram analysis system is'

    The überhyped Google Glass augmented-reality specs will take a step beyond mere facial recognition technology, and recognize you not only by your features, but by what you're wearing.…

  • Amazon slashes DynamoDB prices

    NoSQL flash-backed database gets cheaper

    Amazon has slashed the cost of DynamoDB as the cloud giant passes on operational savings to customers.…

  • PayPal enters 21st Century with developer tools refresh

    REST-based APIs, mobile SDK among first wave of updates

    Online payments giant PayPal has spruced up its developer tools with new APIs, a new mobile SDK, and a new, one-stop developer website – all changes that company execs admit are long overdue.…

  • Apple ordered to surrender coveted docs in iOS privacy lawsuit

    'We no longer trust you,' says court

    A US magistrate has ordered Apple to show in great detail how it goes about searching for documents it has been ordered to provide to plaintiffs in an ongoing personal information–slurping lawsuit, noting that he no longer trusts Cupertino's efforts to be on the up-and-up.…

  • Microsoft backs law banning Google Apps from schools

    For God's sake, think of the children!

    Microsoft is backing a bill in Massachusetts that would effectively force schools to stop using Google Apps, or any other service that uses students' data.…

  • Study: Megaupload closure boosted Hollywood sales 10%

    Based on Tinseltown's figures, that is

    A new study claims that the revenues of two anonymous Hollywood studios rose between 6 to 10 per cent in countries where digital sales are available, after the cyberlocker site Megaupload was shut down.…

  • Amazon accused of knocking off AWS customers' products

    Partners: Cloud kingpin playing the copycat game

    Exclusive The torrential growth of Amazon Web Services' cloud is coming at the expense of the web giant's customers, some of its partners contend – and they're not happy about the tactics being used by the company.…

eWEEK Technology News
  • Apple Execs Get Bonuses, Jobs Still at $1
    Several senior executives at Apple Inc took home 2007 cash bonuses that doubled their salaries but Chief Executive Steve Jobs maintained his annual pay of $1 and took no additional compensation.
  • Motorola Forecasts Loss on Struggling Phone Biz
    Motorola said it will post an operating loss in the current quarter as recovery in its cell phone business is taking longer than expected, dashing Wall Street expectations.
  • Yahoo Plans to Cut Hundreds of Jobs: Source
    Yahoo is planning to announce cutbacks later this month that will likely lead to hundreds of job losses at the nearly 14,000 employee company, a source familiar with the plan said.
  • Fed Slashes Interest Rates
    The U.S. Federal Reserve slashed interest rates by a hefty three-quarters of a percentage point, the biggest rate cut in more than 23 years, in an emergency bid to lend support to a U.S. economy some fear is on the verge of recession.
  • Bill Would Help States Ditch Electronic Voting
    New Jersey Democrat Rep. Rush Holt recently introduced a measure that would provide financial relief for states that jumped into electronic voting only to find those systems increasingly unreliable.
  • Sprint to Cut 4,000 Jobs, Close 8 Percent of Stores
    Sprint Nextel, the #3 U.S. mobile service, will cut about 4,000 jobs and close 8 percent of its stores, predicting further pressure on its ability to attract subscribers and turn a profit in 2008.
  • IBM Growth in Americas Slower than Overseas
    IBM said that revenue from the Americas rose 5 percent, slower than other regions as overseas units showed the strongest gains, and said computer hardware sales declined.
  • Time Warner to Test Internet Billing Based on Usage
    Time Warner Cable Inc said it is planning a trial to bill high-speed Internet subscribers based on their amount of usage rather than a flat fee, the standard industry practice.
  • Bernanke Backs Quick Fiscal Stimulus
    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke threw his support behind efforts to craft a fiscal stimulus package and repeated that the U.S. central bank was ready to act aggressively to counter recession risks.
  • Brocade Ex-CEO Sentenced to 21 Months in Options Case
    Brocade Communications former CEO was sentenced to 21 months in prison for backdating stock-option grants in a scandal that has ensnared scores of U.S. companies and led to billions of dollars of restatements.
DailyTech Main News Feed RootPrompt -- Nothing but Unix
  • Block crackers with 3 locks to your SSH door (18 Oct 2010)
    Security always requires a multi-layered scheme. SSH is a good example of this. Methods range from simple sshd configuration through the use of PAM to specify who can use SSH, to application of port-knocking techniques, or to hide the fact that SSH access even exists. Applying these techniques can make life much harder for possible intruders, who will have to go past three unusual barriers."Learn 3 ways of hardening SSH access to your system to block would-be crackers"
  • Bazaar: source control system (15 Oct 2010)
    Bazaar is used to produce the Ubuntu Linux distribution, which is an enormous software project with thousands of components. If you're using a UNIX or Linux system, chances are that your distribution offers a pre-built Bazaar package. Bazaar is flexible enough to accommodate Subversion - a centralized system and Git - a decentralized system. This article introduces you to Bazaar's many appealing features."Intro to Bazaar, a great place to keep your code"
  • User space memory access from the Linux kernel (13 Oct 2010)
    As the kernel and user space exist in different virtual address spaces, there are special considerations for moving data between them. Explore the ideas behind virtual address spaces and the kernel APIs for data movement to and from user space, and learn some of the other mapping techniques used to map memory."An introduction to Linux memory and user space APIs"
  • Techniques for migrating Perl to Python (11 Oct 2010)
    Python programmers shouldn't get too smug. While many people agree that Python is designed in a way that makes it a highly readable language, there can still be problems with legacy, untested Python code too. Porting legacy Perl to Python can be a daunting task. In this article, learn some of the theory behind dealing with legacy code, including what not to do."Techniques for migrating legacy, untested Perl to Python"
  • New AIX 7 capabilities for virtualization (8 Oct 2010)
    The IBM AIX operating system provides a highly scalable IT infrastructure for client workloads. Learn about the latest version, AIX 7.1, an open standards-based UNIX operating system, that includes significant new capabilities for virtualization, security features, availability features, and manageability."Learn about the latest version of AIX 7.1 - an open standards-based UNIX operating system"
  • Introduction to PowerHA (1 Sep 2010)
    PowerHA for AIX is the new name for HACMP (High Availability Cluster Multiprocessing). HACMP is an application that makes system fault resilient and reduces downtime of applications. This article introduces PowerHA and provides a detailed explanation of how to configure a two node cluster. This document is very useful for understanding PowerHA and setting up a two node cluster."Get Power high availability by Configuring a PowerHA cluster" Introduction to PowerHA
  • Yeah - Learn Linux: Maintain the integrity of file (30 Aug 2010)
    Learn how to check the integrity of your Linux filesystems, monitor free space, and fix simple problems. Use the material in this article to study for the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) 11 exam for Linux system administrator certification or just to check your filesystems and keep them in good working order, especially after a system crash or power loss. Today's world relies heavily on technology, and at times technology can fail us. That is why, unlike traditional methods of storage s
  • Live Kernel Patches with Ksplice (11 Aug 2010)
    Ksplice applies kernel patches on-the-fly - no reboot required in a fraction of a second. Here's a hands-on guide to performing painless system updates. Learn how to patch a live kernel and give reboots the boot."Avoid reboots of your system with live Kernel updates using Ksplice" Live Kernel Patches with Ksplice
  • vi tips and tricks: Ten cool commands (2 Aug 2010)
    Amaze your friends with cool vi tips and tricks that will improve the efficiency of your file editing. This article takes you through ten of the less well-known vi commands that should form part of any serious vi user's toolkit."Become a vi editing wizard with these 1 tips" vi tips and tricks: Ten cool commands
  • Understanding ZFS & ZFS ARC/L2ARC (26 Jul 2010)
    Great article describing level one and two memory caching in zfs."L2ARC is a new layer between Disk and the cache (ARC) in main memory for ZFS. It uses dedicated storage devices to hold cached data. The main role of this cache is to boost the performance of random read workloads. The intended L2ARC devices include 1K/15K RPM disks like short-stroked disks, solid state disks (SSD), and other media with substantially faster read latency than disk." Understanding ZFS & ZFS ARC/L2ARC
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Apache Week 349
  • Apache httpd 2.0.52 Released
    Apache httpd 2.0.52 was released on 28th September 2004. This release addresses a recent security issue in Apache httpd 2.0.51
  • In the news
    ApacheCon hits Las Vegas again in November 2004
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