pam_script is a PAM that executes a script at the start and end of a session. Any PAM-aware application can use the module to perform arbitrary operations. It was originally written for cleaning up when a user logs out.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
A bug in the dropping of privileges was fixed. The option parsing code was rewritten and an initgroups option was added.
Speaking Hangman is an educational game to
practice and expand your English and Spanish
vocabularies. The game is designed for people of
any age above 7 years. A free, downloadable
version of Speaking Hangman features 2 levels of
vocabulary, which are based on statistics about
the most commonly-used words. At level 1 you will
practice the 450 most common words in English or
Spanish. At level 2 you will practice the 1,000
most common words. Level 3, available on-line,
features over 7,000 words in English and over
8,000 in Spanish.
License: Free To Use But Restricted
Changes:
After beta testing, major code cleanups and minor bugfixes were made.
Worker is a file manager for the X Window System with the classical two panel interface. It features a fully graphical configuration, while still allowing manual editing of the configuration file without the need to restart Worker. Any external program can be integrated easily into the GUI using buttons, hotkeys, and file type actions. Worker uses file recognition by file content or by filename extension (or both). Different actions with completely configurable commands can be assigned to each file type.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
This release fixes a small bug introduced in the previous version. A configuration option was not correctly initialized.
SEFlow uses the SELinux technology to provide
security centered on individual data objects in a
running system instead of focusing on static
system facilities. Thus it is suitable to prevent
accidental linking of code under open source
licenses with proprietary code, making a tainting
mechanism similar to the one used in the Linux
kernel possible in userspace.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
To demonstrate the possibility of combining independent policy factors, a factor that blocks network access was created. This way, network access of processes can be disabled without interfering with other constraints.
The GoblinX Micro Edition is the smallest version
of GoblinX and contains only Fluxbox as the window
manager and GTK based applications. This edition
is indicated for those users who like to do fast
tests, know more about Fluxbox, and rebuild the
live CD.
License: GNU General Public License v2
Changes:
This release upgrades the kernel (2.6.24.3), AuFS, SquashFS, Linux Live, and all GNOME libraries and applications. It upgrades all interfaces, scripts, the Isolinux menu, themes, and more. It adds several more features like Slik, Web mount, better save/restore changes, userspace suspend, file manager actions, and more.
Sharity mounts shares exported by Windows, Samba, and other SMB/CIFS servers in the file system of Unix computers. It implements Resource Browsing, which is similar to the Windows Network Neighborhood (Netbios Workgroups and Active Directory), NTLM, NTLMv2, and Kerberos authentication, Microsoft's Distributed File System (DFS), and manipulation of Access Control Lists (ACLs).
License: Other/Proprietary License with Free Trial
Changes:
This release offers numerous bugfixes, improved compatibility with many Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, and an optional automatic check for updates.
mod_auth_openid is an authentication module for
the Apache 2 Web server. It handles the functions
of an OpenID consumer as specified in the OpenID
2.0 specification. Once installed, a simple
configuration directive can secure a directory or
application on your Web server and require a valid
OpenID/XRI identity. You can configure
trusted/untrusted identity providers along with a
number of other options.
License: MIT/X Consortium License
Changes:
This release adds support for the OpenID 2.0 spec (support for the 1.1 spec is still maintained). Support for BDB has been removed; this release supports SQLite only.
SiSU (Structured information, Serialized Units) is a lightweight markup based, text structuring and publishing framework (that features granular search). With minimal markup of a plaintext file, it produces: plain-text, HTML, XHTML, XML, ODF, LaTeX, PDF, and populates an SQL database at an object/paragraph level for granular searches. Prepare documents using your text editor of choice, then use SiSU to generate the desired output formats. SiSU is controlled from the command line.
TikiWiki is a Groupware/Content Management System solution with a long list of features to help you build a compelling Web-based community: wikis, forums, blogs, articles, an image gallery, a map server, a link directory, translation, internationalization, and much more. The JumpBox for TikiWiki gives you a chance to try it with minimal effort. The JumpBox has a built-in Web management console to help you manage basic system tasks and a very convenient backup system to make sure your data is safe.
License: Free To Use But Restricted
Changes:
This JumpBox is running on the production release of the v.1.1 platform, and includes several enhancements. Most notably, this includes built-in automated backups to Amazon S3, integrated Web stats for the application, a GUI-based SSL cert configuration tool, a GUI-based method for configuring an email relay, and an update of the underlying OS to Ubuntu Base 8.04 LTS.
JavaFBP is a Java implementation of the concepts described
in the book "Flow-Based Programming". It allows a
developer to specify an application as a network of "black-
box" components, which are implemented as long-running
Java threads, connected by bounded buffer connections,
over which data objects travel ("information packets"). The
network is also specified as a Java program, which maps a
visual connection diagram. The black box processes can be
reconnected as desired to form different applications without
having to be changed internally.
License: Artistic License
Changes:
This release adds metadata and a Play Tune component. The network definition notation has been simplified. A couple of deadlock problems have been fixed.
Partimage Is Not Ghost (PING) is a live Linux ISO
based on LFS (Linux From Scratch). It can be burnt on a CD and booted, or integrated in a PXE/RIS environment. Several tools that make it the perfect choice for easily backing up and restoring whole partitions are included. It supports backups to and from SMB shares, backup of BIOS data, the ability to blank the local admin's password, creation of bootable restoration DVDs, the ability to partition and format a disk before installing Windows, and more.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
The Linux kernel has been upgraded from 2.6.24.4 to 2.6.25.7. New SATA (Marvell) and NIC (i82575, intel Pro/1000 and express) drivers have been added. Several NTFS-related components have been upgraded. There are some bugfixes.
XML Copy Editor is a fast, free, validating XML
editor.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
This release introduces a Russian localization, updates the editor component, and fixes a number of bugs.
ebook2cw is a command line program that converts a
plain text file (like an eBook) to Morse code (CW)
MP3 files. Morse parameters like speed and tone
frequency, and MP3 parameters such as bit rate,
sample rate, and quality can be changed by command
line switches. It automatically splits and numbers
the output files by chapters.
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Changes:
This version allows the user to define arbitrary character mappings, in order to deal with any symbols that have no common equivalent Morse symbol, without the need to modify the input data. A set of default parameters can now be read from a configuration file.
Has anyone else noticed how the newer versions of VIM attempt to be smart? Yeah, they think that just because you typed a comment on one line that you want to comment the next line, and the next, and the next. I don't know about you, but I'll tell the program which lines I want to comment, not the other way around.
Link
The storage capacity and data retrieval speeds of Hard Disks have increased multiple folds in last few years. However for large business organizations, which not only need to store terabytes of invaluable data but access them frequently as well. These organizations cannot afford to let their systems go offline even for a short duration of time. Moreover they cannot even think of losing even small amount of data due to disk failure or for that matter any other reason.
Which Eclipse distribution is right for you? Compare the CodeGear JBuilder 28 Turbo trial version, nexB EasyEclipse, Europa bundles, and Innoopract's Yoxo On Demand distros. Many of these Eclipse distributions already contain the plug-ins and tools you need to start working right away.
Zattoo has developed a software program that allows you to watch TV on your computer. All you need is a broadband connection and a current operating system (Windows XP or Vista, Mac OS X, or Linux). The service is legal and free of charge.
Full Story
Several container widgets exist in GTK+, and with the toolkit's API, you can create user-defined containers. This API is also exposed to PyGTK. In this article, learn how to create a "weighted-table" container in PyGTK. The implementation introduces you to the basic model of GTK+ geometry management and gives you a feel for what to consider and expect when implementing container widgets.
This tutorial describes how to set up a TeamSpeak server on an Ubuntu Server system. Teamspeak has the ability to make more than one server by setting different ports for each server. The user that controls all these servers is called the SuperAdmin, he has the ability to make more servers and users with or without their rights.
This document describes how to reconfigure the default language and the keyboard layout on various distributions so that they suit your location. I made this howto for our VMware images where the keyboard layout is always set to German and a few users have problems to configure the language and keyboard layout on these images.
This article will show you how to make your Asus Eee PC secure from prying eyes by using a privacy filter. 3M Privacy Filters help block the screen view from anyone viewing the computer from a side view. Their unique microlouver privacy technology allows just persons directly in front of the computer to see on screen data clearly.
Story
Unison is a file-synchronization tool for Unix and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.
Full Story
In this article, learn to use Firebug, a free, open source extension for the Firefox browser that provides many useful developer features and tools. Using Firebug, you can monitor, edit, and debug live pages, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript code, and network traffic.
This document describes step by step how to set up a Mandriva One 28 Spring (Mandriva 28.1) desktop (GNOME). The result is a fast, secure and extendable system that provides all you need for daily work and entertainment.
QGRUBEditor is a graphical frontend for managing the GRUB bootloader. By using QGRUBEditor, you do not have to mess around with the GRUB configuration in /boot/grub/menu.lst anymore. This article shows how to install and use QGRUBEditor on Ubuntu 7.1.
Learn to build basic assistance programs to help the hearing-impaired identify speakers in a bandwidth-limited context. Use sndpeek and custom algorithms to match voices to a pre-recorded library so users know who is speaking in teleconferences, podcasts, and live media events.
An anonymous reader writes "Is this a glimpse at the future of the Semantic Web? A new startup named Pluribo has developed a technology that can auto-summarize user reviews on the internet. It is a Firefox extension that can take a webpage filled with reviews and condense it down into a couple of sentences. Currently, it just works with Amazon electronics, but the potential seems incredible. Ars Technica took an in-depth look."
kthejoker writes "Apparently companies are even worse about losing our data than we suspected. From the article:'According to a study of 106 major U.S. airports and 800 business travelers published by the Ponemon Institute and Dell Computer, about 12,000 laptops are lost in airports each week. Only 30 percent of travelers ever recover the lost devices. Nearly half of the travelers say their laptops contain customer data or confidential business information.' Kinda scary ..."
Bridger writes "Poker software called Polaris will play a rematch against human players during the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Developed by an artificial intelligence group at the University of Alberta in Canada, Polaris will be pitted against several professionals at the Rio Hotel between June 3rd and 6th. 'It's possible, given enough computing power, for computers to play "perfectly," where over a long enough match, the program cannot lose money," said associate professor Michael Bowling.'"
destinyland writes "8.7 million AOL subscribers face a new 20% fee increase next month — unless they agree to never call AOL's technical support lines. They'll have to use AOL chat for support or the online help "portal" unless their issue is a failed connection — and they're being enrolled in the program by default unless they opt out. Ominously, AOL used the exact same wording as when they quietly changed their terms of service to allow them to sell subscribers' home phone numbers to telemarketers. 'Your continued subscription to the AOL service constitutes your acceptance of this change.'"
A few weeks ago, you asked questions of Lt. Col. John Bircher, head of an organization with a difficult-to-navigate name: the U.S. Army Computer Network Operations (CNO)-Electronic Warfare (EW) Proponent's Futures Branch. Lt. Col. Bircher has answered from his perspective, at length, not just the usual 10 questions, but several more besides. Read on for his take on cyberwar, jurisdiction, ethics, and more.
necro81 writes "Barely a month ago, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced a freeze on applications for solar power plants on federally managed land, pending a two-year comprehensive environmental review. After much hue and cry from the public, industry, and other parts of government, BLM has today announced that it will lift the freeze, but continue to study the possible environmental effects. To date, no solar project has yet been approved on BLM land."
Barence writes "The majority of dial-up Internet users say they don't want to upgrade their connection to broadband, according to a new study in the US. The Pew Internet & American Life research found that 62% of dial-up users had no interest in upgrading to a high-speed connection." (CNN is carrying the AP's story on the study, too.)
arcticstoat writes "Next week, the G8 summit will discuss proposals for new international piracy laws, which include border controls and cooperation from ISPs to identify pirates. The laws will also prevent ISPs from being liable for copyright infringement. If the G8 summit were to agree on these measures and enforce them through international cooperation, could they really cut down piracy, or would they be impractical to enforce?"
snydeq writes "Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister raises questions regarding the transforming nature of the Web now that Tim Berners-Lee's early vision has been supplanted by today's much more complex model. AJAX, Google Web Toolkit, Flash and Silverlight all have McAllister asking, 'Is [the Web] still the Web if you can't navigate directly to specific content? Is it still the Web if the content can't be indexed and searched? Is it still the Web if you can only view the application on certain clients or devices? Is it still the Web if you can't view source?' Such questions bely a much bigger question for Web developers, McAllister writes. If today's RIAs no longer resemble the 'Web,' then should we be shoehorning these apps into the Web's infrastructure, or is the problem that the client platforms simply aren't evolving fast enough to meet our needs?" If the point of 'The Web' is to allow direct links between any 2 points, is today's web something entirely different?
Slimy anti-virus provider AVG is spamming the internet with deceptive traffic pretending to be Internet Explorer. Essentially, users of the software automatically pre-crawl search results, which is bad, but they do so with an intentionally generic user agent. This is flooding websites with meaningless traffic (on Slashdot, we're seeing them as like 6% of our page traffic now). Best of all, they change their UA to avoid being filtered by websites who are seeing massive increases in bandwidth from worthless robots.
Whorhay writes "A Dutch doctor and a violin maker from Arkansas have compared five classical and eight modern violins in a computed tomography (CT) scanner. Apparently the 300-year-old violins are made of wood with a more consistent density than the modern violins. They aren't saying for sure that this is what gives the Stradivarius violins their unique sound, but it's the first scientific explanation I've heard for it that seems to have merit." Unfortunately science has yet to explain how how all three chords I know ROCK on my SG.
Punkster812 writes "Mozilla has gotten the results back from the Guinness World Records and the official number that will be set as the record is 8,002,530 downloads. The day started out a little rough for them, with server troubles during the initial launch, but once they got everything going, they were able to transfer 62,419,734 MB in 24 hours. You can get more information, including a breakdown of how many downloads each country did from around the world, by visiting spreadfirefox.com. Congratulations, Mozilla, on the new record."
Marzubus writes "I tend to do a lot of code editing in vim and sometimes get the 'burning eyes' or headaches. I have been trying to find a background / foreground combination for my terminal sessions which is easiest on the eyes but cannot seem to find any real data on this subject. Does anyone know of a study / data on this topic?"
In the ongoing $1bn legal spat between Google and Viacom, a federal judge has ordered the search giant to turn over all existing records of every video viewed on YouTube. That includes user account names and IP addresses.…
IBM may have corked the wails of antitrust outrage coming from the diminutive mainframe vendor Platform Solutions (PSI) by purchasing the upstart, but the European regulator genie has already slipped out the bottle.…
Radio Reg Who'd have thought a bad haircut and rocking backwards and forwards in your chair like a child with ADD could pass as must-have traits? Yet, such was the cult of Bill Gates at Microsoft, company employees adopted these to become more like their boss.…
Nitrogen Trifluoride emissions balloon on flat-panel production
LCD TVs, praised as being greener than old-style tellies because they consume much less power, may actually be speeding climate change, a chemical expert has warned.…
PBEM The headlines last week brought us terrifying news: The North Pole will be ice-free this summer "for the first time in human history," wrote Steve Connor in The Independent. Or so the experts at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado predict. This sounds very frightening, so let's look at the facts about polar sea ice.…
If it asks if you'd like to see some puppies, just say no
Microsoft has detailed a raft of security improvements due to appear in Internet Explorer 8. The second beta of Redmond's web browser will be packed full of features designed to thwart phishing and drive-by download attacks, Redmond explained on Wednesday.…
Lawyers for prominent Linux developer Hans Reiser, who was convicted of his wife's murder in April, have written to the trial judge this week to argue that their client may be mentally ill.…
'Built on UK success' - have the yanks lost the plot?
The UK and US governments are to set up a fast-track scheme for trusted, frequent travellers between the two countries, immigration minister Liam Byrne announced today. So say goodbye to immigration blues? Not so fast - the agreement between the two countries only "sets out the shared determination to develop a swift channel across the two borders for trusted travellers", presumably meaning that it'll be a while yet.…
Those among you who are still adrift on the sea of life - despite our resident Agony Aunt's best efforts to guide you to the shores of sanity - will be relieved to learn that the Moderatrix has once again opened the door of her basement boudoir to offer spiritual succour to the needy.…
If a glass or two of wine is your drinking session limit after a long day at the office, then you’d better not read any further. That’s because a tipple at your desk is now much easier, thanks to the fabulous French invention that is the USB Wine Tap.…
High-level transatlantic talks on data sharing have hit a snag over EU citizens' right to defend their privacy in US court, the European Commission said in Brussels yesterday.…
Free Software Magazine
reviews the Acer Linpus Linux Lite ultra portable laptop.
"It is due to launch here in the UK in early July with the GNU/Linux version with a price tag of £199. (Yes, surprise, surprise, theyre offering Windows XP too.) Given the specification (Intel atom N270 chip, 8.9 inch screen, webcam, 1024 x 600 resolution, 8GB SSD, three USB ports, VGA, and two SD card slots, two mini PCI slots (one for the WiFi and one for upcoming Wimax or HSDPA), Ethernet port, touchpad, 802.11b/g WiFi and a default 512MB of memory with a spare slot to add more) the Aspire One represents stonking good value for money."
Purple Labs has
announced the acquisition of Openwave Systems.
"Purple Labs, a French developer of Linux-based mobile software, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of the mobile client software business of California-based Openwave Systems, in an asset sale valued at more than $32 million. The browser and messaging products acquired in the deal are among the best-selling mobile applications in the world, having already shipped in more than 1.5 billion mobile phones.
Following the acquisition, Purple Labs now supplies mobile browser software to all of the top 5 phone manufacturers, which together produce over 80% of the worlds mobile phones."
CentOS: has updated
seamonkey (multiple vulnerabilities) and
firefox (multiple vulnerabilities).
Fedora 8 has updated
glib2 (buffer overflow),
openldap (denial of service)
and
linuxdcpp (denial of service).
Fedora 9 has updated
glib2 (buffer overflow),
openldap (denial of service),
linuxdcpp (denial of service),
ruby (multiple vulnerabilities) and
squid (denial of service).
c|net
reports
on Invitrogen's switch to servers running SUSE Linux.
"Invitrogen is a billion-dollar supplier to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, with 4,700 employees worldwide and a history of supplying many of the world's leading laboratories in groundbreaking research like the discovery of the AIDS virus.
To help promote its innovative work, Invitrogen announced this week that it is standardizing on Novell's SUSE® Linux Enterprise for its servers."
The 2.6.25.10 stable kernel update has been
released. "It contains a number of assorted bugfixes all over the
tree. And once again, any users of the 2.6.25 kernel series are STRONGLY
encouraged to upgrade to this release."
Barracuda Networks has announced
the filing of a software patent countersuit against Trend Micro, using
three freshly-acquired patents. "'The reality is that Trend Micro is
asking Barracuda Networks to pay for the use of the free and open source
ClamAV software,' said Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda
Networks. 'We have asserted all along that Trend Micro's actions are unjust
and could have serious implications against the open source community and
other free and open source projects.'"
Fedora has updated the kernel (heap
corruption and buffer overflow).
Red Hat has updated seamonkey (multiple
vulnerabilities), firefox (RHEL4, RHEL5: multiple vulnerabilities), Red Hat
Application stack for RHEL4 (obscure MySQL
vulnerability) and RHEL5 (same plus several
PHP vulnerabilities).
SUSE has updated the kernel
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Slackware has updated xorg-server
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Ubuntu has updated firefox (multiple
vulnerabilities).
Nearly a year ago, we looked at
the status of SystemTap in the context of Sun's much-hyped DTrace
tool. Since that time there has been progress, but the basic problem
still remains: Linux does not have a good, ready-to-run answer to those wanting
the equivalent functionality of DTrace. Due to an apparent
disconnect between the developers of SystemTap and the kernel hackers,
tracing for the Linux kernel—never mind user space programs—is
not up to the competition. This article (subscribers only) looks at recent
discussions on the issue and possible paths toward a solution to this problem.
Here's an
ars technica article telling frustrated KDE 4 users to give the
project a bit more time. "The single greatest strength of Plasma is
the inherent mutability that it brings to the desktop. It provides a very
flexible framework within which the developers can experiment with
completely different paradigms for basic components of the user
interface. That is why a fork is a profoundly misguided option at this
stage."
Openmoko has announced that its long-awaited phone will go on sale on
July 4. "The Openmoko Neo FreeRunner utilizes GNU/Linux and comes with core software for
dialing, SMS and recording contacts. Openmoko will supplement these features with
periodic downloads beginning with a software suite that takes full advantage of
the phone's hardware platform. The new software, debuting at Linux world in August,
will provide exciting new location based applications."
Now that openSUSE 11.0 is out, the project is looking forward to the 11.1
release. It's planned for December 18, and includes GNOME 2.24,
KDE 4.1,
and the 2.6.27 kernel. "Want to get involved? The start of a release cycle is a great time to
get involved in openSUSE development."
Xandros has sent out a set of questions and (not entirely satisfying)
answers from its CEO regarding the acquisition of Linspire. On the
question of how big the combined company will be: "Xandros has been on a fast growth path for the last couple of years; has
an aggressive headcount and revenue growth plan at this time; and is
currently in heavy hiring mode. We believe that at this point Xandros is
already the third largest Linux Company in the world, and that we may
already be the largest private Linux Company in the world."
Viacom has won, or more accurately partially won, a motion to compel Google to turn over a lot of YouTube records so that the court can tell what proportion of videos are infringing compared to how many are not. Here's the order [PDF]. Google opposed the motion, trying to protect its users, with a Cross Motion for a Protective Order, and it was able to narrow the amount of information Viacom was granted, but it's still a lot.
The judge seems to think that what he has ordered will protect user privacy, but of course, I think he is mistaken. Again, lack of tech cluefulness strikes. For some of the reasons why it will not protect user privacy, you can read Kurt Opsahl's article. He hopes Google will appeal the order, believing that it violates the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and it is certainly possible Google will appeal. But do you get now why I have been conducting Summer School in Fair Use? Justia has the entire docket (except for the new order) available to the public, so you can read all about it as your homework assignment.
There's some news on the Trend Micro v.Barracuda Networks case. That is the one where Trend Micro sued Barracuda over ClamAV and brought a complaint to the International Trade Commission. Barracuda has just filed a countersuit in California, alleging patent infringement by Trend Micro. They say it's a defensive use of three patents they bought from IBM. Barracuda asks for money damages and an injunction on further sales of infringing Trend Micro products.
They plan to contribute proceeds, if they win, to the open source community.
"We are grateful to the open source community, many of whom have contributed significant prior art in our ongoing case against Trend Micro," Dean Drako, president and CEO of Barracuda Networks, is quoted as saying in the press release, which I'll share with you. That would include us. This news follows the media reports that a Groklaw member came up with some very valuable prior art for Barracuda on top of all that you guys turned up as a group.
You know how Red Hat said when it first started to file for patents that it was exclusively for defense purposes? Here's an example of when some software patents can come in handy.
I thought you would like to see a recently decided US case where fair use was upheld as a defense. I collected some materials to explain fair use in an overview the other day, but here's a case that explains the elements that courts look at, in a real live case, and it particularly makes clear what transformative use means.
Here are the facts of the case. Some folks made a movie, a documentary, and they got sued for using 15 seconds of the John Lennon song "Imagine" without permission. The case is Lennon v. Premise Media. That's Lennon as in Yoko Ono Lennon, joined by John's two sons and EMI Records. EMI sued in state court, and the Lennons in federal, both for copyright infringement and they threw in some trademark infringement claims too. I think that was mainly insurance, though. Lawyers do that. And there was a dispute as to who had the right to the copyrights.
The plaintiffs in both cases had asked the courts to issue a preliminary injunction to shut down the movie, which had already been released, and pull back previously released copies off the market, so the 15-second clip could be cut out. And they wanted the usual bucket of money. But it wasn't just about money; it was also about control, about having a say in how a work is used. The district court denied their motion.
Do you remember Copiepresse, the Belgian association of newspapers that went after Google for linking to their members' articles in Google News? They tried to do something similar to -- get this -- the EU Commission, but they just got zonked. Their case was tossed out last Thursday by the Belgian Brussels Court of Seizures, and in a way that bodes well for Google, I'd say, not to mention for the Internet and those of us who like to use it. The last link is to an article in French, and others I'll show you are too, and it was Groklaw's Sean Daly who brought this news to my attention and helped me to understand what is happening.
It seems the EU Commission has a kind of news aggregator of its own, which it calls European Media Monitor, with several different services, and Copiepresse filed a lawsuit against the EU Commission for copyright infringement for linking to its members' Most Holy IP in the aggregation without asking for permission first.
Well, the Court of Seizures, which is a fine name for a court,
threw out the Copiepresse complaint on jurisdictional grounds. Copiepresse says it won't appeal "for strategic reasons", but it will move the case to the civil court. I don't know how much that will help them. The Court of Seizures was persuaded by the EU Commission that its news search engine services are perfectly legal.
Here's the transcript from the June 17 bankruptcy hearing on SCO's motion to get another extension of exclusivity, as text. When SCO's attorney, Arthur Spector, arrives at the podium, he tells the court that this "itty bitty SCO case" is unique. "I don't think the Court has seen many cases like this," he says.
And indeed, he speaketh truth, yea verily. SCO *is* unique, happily. But that is also the problem. It's harder to spot a problem you've never confronted before. And this judge certainly doesn't seem to realize what he's dealing with. Or if he does, he doesn't care. That may be in part because in bankruptcy court, one gets used to less than noblemen, I suppose. His job is to get them back on their feet, if possible. But I don't honestly think that's all that is going on.
But he certainly got an earful at this hearing, this judge, and not only from Novell. The US Trustee also speaks plainly enough that SCO's lawyer protests, calling it a broadside attack on his client. You and I would just call it truth, and in fact the judge deflects the criticism.
SCO has filed two monthly operating reports, one for SCO Group and one for SCO Operations. This is like watching water drain from a slow tub.
Also the transcript of the June 17 hearing is now available. And Dorsey & Whitney have submitted another bill going back to April.
From the transcript, we see the first words out of the judge's mouth, after "good morning", is about the quarterly fees: "Yes, I'm prepared to approve those." And then, after all the lawyers on the phone for the fee applications decide to leave since there is nothing for them to say, the court turns to Arthur Spector to present SCO's need for an extension of time to file a reorganization plan. "It's a pleasure to be back," Spector says, as he begins. "Good to have you back," Judge Gross responds. I believe that captures the tone of the day perfectly. I'll comment more on the transcript when we post it as text.
Recently, I did an update on the Sun/NetApp litigation, but now there is something better, an update by Mike Dillon, Sun's General Counsel. What a great name for a lawyer it would be if his parents had named him Matt. He says thank you to all who helped with prior art:
After NetApp sued Sun, we responded with six reexamination requests on the patents asserted by NetApp. Reexamination is a procedure in which a party submits documents (prior art) relating to a patent to the US Patent Office (PTO) and asks that it reconsider whether that patent should have ever been issued. If the PTO agrees and determines there is a "substantial new question of patentability" (SNQP) it will grant the request and reopen the patent examination process on that patent. Included in our requests was a significant amount of highly relevant prior art that was not considered by the PTO when it first granted the NetApp patents. (By the way, to those of you who submitted prior art - "thank you!")
Over the last two months, the PTO has granted the first five of our reexamination requests, finding in all the cases that multiple "SNQP" exist for each patent (one request filed in June is still pending).
That would include you guys, prominently so, and I wanted you to know your efforts were effective and appreciated. But there's another part I wanted to highlight. It has to do with ethics.
Here is the testimony of the final witness Novell called in the SCO v. Novell trial, Greg Jones, Vice President of Technology Law at Novell. He followed Darl McBride to the stand. His testimony came on day 2 of the trial.
It's primarily because of what I learned from this testimony that I took a long time to write an analysis of the trial. I was, frankly, too angry to trust myself to write about it until I had some time to cool off some.
We learn two primary things from Jones' testimony: first, what a cynical role Sun played in the SCO saga, and second, that all the time SCO was calling on the world, the courts, the Congress -- nay heaven itself, if I may say so -- to sympathize with it over the ruination of its Most Holy Intellectual Property by it being improperly open sourced into Linux, not that it turned out to be true, it had already secretly given Sun the right to open source it in OpenSolaris. Remember all that falderol about SCO being contractually unable to show us the code, much as it so desired to do so, because of being bound to confidentiality requirements? What a farce. SCO had already secretly given Sun the right to open source Solaris, with all the UNIX System V you can eat right in there.
The simple fact is, I gather from Jones' testimony, Sun could have prevented the harm SCO sought to cause by simply telling us what rights it had negotiated and received from SCO prior to SCO launching its assault on Linux. Yet it remained silent. When I consider all folks were put through, all the unnecessary litigation, and all the fear and the threats and the harmful smears, including of me at the hands of SCO and all the dark little helper dwarves in SCO's workshop, I feel an intense indignation like a tsunami toward Sun for remaining silent.
Do you remember back in 2005 a company called Cognex took on Lemelson Partnership and won, invalidating 14 of Lemelson's patents? Well, it turns out that after that, they took on Acacia Research, and they just
beat them too. Acacia is now minus one of its patents. Here's the order [PDF]. Cognex is now aggressively going after Acacia for defamation, attorneys fees, and damages, including, or so they hope, according to a motion to amend their complaint, special and punitive damages.
I love this company. They take on patent trolls and win. What do they sell? "Machine vision sensors and systems"? Whatever that is, I'll take ten.
Now that AP has purported to establish fair use guidelines that would make 5 words licensable as *not* fair use, I thought I'd explain a bit about fair use and about why Groklaw no longer will link to or quote from any AP articles. I've seen reports that AP has backed off in some not quite clear-to-me way, but I notice their list of fees remains online.
To begin, since AP asserts therein a fee for 5 words or more, let's see what 4 words look like, shall we?
Remember, they claim you have to pay $12.50 for 5-25 words, so you can only safely quote 4, if I've understood the 'AP Personal Version Fair Use Copyright Act'. So let's try to stay safe, using some articles from Google News Sci/Tech as a base instead of any AP articles. I'm fairly sure Google won't sue me.
We have the Order [PDF] now granting SCO's motion for an extension of time to come up with a reorganization plan, along with the
minutes from the hearing [PDF] on June 17, along with various certificates of service. The order gives SCO until August 11 to file a plan, but it can ask for more extensions if it needs more. Like it won't.
And the judge OK'd all the quarterly bills [PDF], listed in an
Exhibit A [PDF]. So let's see. That's $71,982.79 for Pachulski Stang; $414,074.83 for Berger Singerman [zowie]; $125,930.70 for Mesirow; $161,608.00 for Tanner; and $100,292.62 for Dorsey & Whitney. They don't total it all up, so I will. SCO has received bills in the period from January 1-March 31, 2008 totaling $873,888.94, unless I zoned out while doing the adding. That is just for one quarter. The bills are still being filed. Not for business. Just for legal stuff. Lawyers and financial analysts and accountants for the bankruptcy.
I thought you might like to see the Microsoft-Department of Justice Joint Status Report on Microsoft's Compliance with the Final Judgments, as entered in New York, et. al. v. Microsoft, CA No. 98-1233 (CKK), and in United States v. Microsoft, CA No. 98-1232, dated June 17, 2008. And I'd like to point out a couple of things.
This is an interim report, meaning it is only about recent activities. To read the whole story, go here and read at least the last six-month report from back in February. The November 2006 joint report is also part of the picture, in that Microsoft said it had thrown some 260 employees into the task of coming up with suitable documentation. But if you read them all, each joint report, one by one, you'll get the full effect and I predict you'll surely laugh.
It appears from that record that no matter what Microsoft tries or how diligently they work at it or how many employees they assign to this noble task of providing interoperability documentation, it just can't be done. Microsoft is like Sisyphus of old, working every day with all its might to get that boulder to the top of the hill, only to see it fall back down again, throughout eternity. Of course, you might point out that his troubles are a myth. Microsoft's are real. You think? You might also recall the API issue that surfaced in the Comes v. Microsoft litigation.
The big picture, to me, is this: Microsoft is *still* not in full compliance with its obligations to provide documentation. That was the issue the DOJ raised two full years ago, and I was teasing Microsoft about it then. Two years later, it's nowhere near as funny. The difficulties resulted in a new plan and with the court deciding to extend oversight for two more years.
But here we are, with the same problem, and, worse, Microsoft has been changing protocols without notice to the technical committee working on compliance in this matter, the Justice Department tells us in this report, despite last year promising not to do that *any more*.
If the same misconduct continues forever and a day, with nothing but promises that for one reason or another are never kept, then what?
Yesterday, we reported that Darl McBride said that the plan for a reorganization is to spin off the "Unix assets" and leave him behind as CEO of the remnants of the company, that is, of the litigation. There are more details in the Daily Herald today, and apparently that is only one possibility:
Among proposals considered for the new reorganization plan is a possible spinoff or sale of SCO's Unix business, and allowing SCO to focus exclusively on its litigation with IBM and others....
"SCO is interested in selling the Unix business so it can continue unhindered by the litigation, that's one of the plans being considered," McBride said. "After reviewing the strength of the Unix customer base and Unix technology, Norris decided to buy the Unix business, and may spin it off into a separate company with a new name and new owners. SCO may become a holding company for ongoing litigation."
Hmm. A holding company with no assets? And when they lose, they will pay how? From the details, I think the dream is to pay Novell off from the proceeds of suing new Linux users, in a kind of a renewed SCOsource effort, if the Utah court rules a certain way. That would be ironic. Let me show you what I notice.
In this interview and podcast, director Jonathan Levine talks about how Holden Caulfield met Rudy Giuliani and Biggie in the heartbroken, heat-stricken New York summer of 1994.
Speaking Hangman is an educational game to
practice and expand your English and Spanish
vocabularies. The game is designed for people of
any age above 7 years. A free, downloadable
version of Speaking Hangman features 2 levels of
vocabulary, which are based on statistics about
the most commonly-used words. At level 1 you will
practice the 450 most common words in English or
Spanish. At level 2 you will practice the 1,000
most common words. Level 3, available on-line,
features over 7,000 words in English and over
8,000 in Spanish.
Worker is a file manager for the X Window System with the classical two panel interface. It features a fully graphical configuration, while still allowing manual editing of the configuration file without the need to restart Worker. Any external program can be integrated easily into the GUI using buttons, hotkeys, and file type actions. Worker uses file recognition by file content or by filename extension (or both). Different actions with completely configurable commands can be assigned to each file type.
The GoblinX Micro Edition is the smallest version
of GoblinX and contains only Fluxbox as the window
manager and GTK based applications. This edition
is indicated for those users who like to do fast
tests, know more about Fluxbox, and rebuild the
live CD.
TikiWiki is a Groupware/Content Management System solution with a long list of features to help you build a compelling Web-based community: wikis, forums, blogs, articles, an image gallery, a map server, a link directory, translation, internationalization, and much more. The JumpBox for TikiWiki gives you a chance to try it with minimal effort. The JumpBox has a built-in Web management console to help you manage basic system tasks and a very convenient backup system to make sure your data is safe.
Partimage Is Not Ghost (PING) is a live Linux ISO
based on LFS (Linux From Scratch). It can be burnt on a CD and booted, or integrated in a PXE/RIS environment. Several tools that make it the perfect choice for easily backing up and restoring whole partitions are included. It supports backups to and from SMB shares, backup of BIOS data, the ability to blank the local admin's password, creation of bootable restoration DVDs, the ability to partition and format a disk before installing Windows, and more.
XML Copy Editor is a fast, free, validating XML
editor.
ebook2cw is a command line program that converts a
plain text file (like an eBook) to Morse code (CW)
MP3 files. Morse parameters like speed and tone
frequency, and MP3 parameters such as bit rate,
sample rate, and quality can be changed by command
line switches. It automatically splits and numbers
the output files by chapters.