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Greek government pushes ahead with broadcasting reform despite stiff opposition
By Efi Koutsokosta • Updated: 18/01/2016
Reform of broadcasting rights legislation in Greece is close to implementation, despite strong resistance from opposition parties.
On Tuesday (January 19) the Conference of Parliament Presidents is expected to reach consensus on a new TV and radio regulator, ESR which will carry out an open international tender for broadcasting licenses. The new legislation will dictates how TV licenses are to be issued, the duration of their validity and in what circumstances they can be revoked.
It is the first time such a procedure has been introduced in Greece since the beginning of private television broadcasting. Greece is the only country in the EU not to have created any formal procedure and has maintained a regime of temporary licenses for 25 years.
However, opposition parties have attacked the government over the reform, arguing that it gives too much power to the minister who decides on the license bids, currently Nikos Pappas who is one of Prime Minister Tsipras' closest aides.
The government, for its part, is not relenting, stressing that the plan is included in the bailout deal with Greece's EU partners. "This is a part of the agreement and it is a major reform which contributes to transparency. The current regime is dark and unacceptable", a government source said.
Some months ago, the EU Commission asked for details of the media bill, saying it was not unusual to have an exchange of information between European and national authorities. According to Greek government sources, however, the EU Commission has never asked them for any amendment of the bill or any particular terms to be included.
Today, the EU Commission appears to have no appetite for what it sees as a Greek internal debate. An EU official told Euronews that "at this stage we don't want to comment on individual policies," added that "we are working in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding".
What the memorandum for the ESM financing programme includes as a prior action is the announcement of an international public tender for the acquisition of television licenses and usage-related fees of relevant frequencies.
The procedure to regulate the awarding of TV licenses to broadcasters was approved by the Greek Parliament in October not only by the government majority but partly, also by three opposition parties (PASOK, Potami, Centrists).
Supermodel turned entrepreneur Tyra Banks expands her ice cream business
Giving Europe 'a voice': Television news network Euronews turns 30
TELEVISION MEDIA GREECE GREEK POLITICS


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Editorial: Mindless killing
By Guest on 1:33 am June 8, 2017 No Comment
Another mindless killing at the hands of government forces. A teenager student was killed once again by the troopers who believed that the young boy proved a disruption to a cordon-and-search operation that was laid by the troops to trap some militants reportedly hiding in the area.
19-year-old Adil Ahmad Magray son of Farooq Ahmad of Ganapora Shopian, was fired upon by the troops when protests broke out in the area following the cordon. The young boy was rushed to a hospital, however, his injury was so grievous that doctors declared him as brought dead. Adil, a BA first year student at Shopian degree college, was eldest among five brothers.
The incident once again brings to mind the sad and gory reality of how a low a value the troopers have set upon the human life in Kashmir.
Ironically, protests in Kashmir Valley have taken a completely new turn. Earlier during troops-militant standoff, people used to run for cover but now the reverse in being witnessed across the length and breadth of the Valley.
No longer the people care for their lives anymore. They in turn make it a point to reach the encounter site and help the militants to escape the security cordon.
What is more ironic is that the new trend of protests that has emerged over the last three months has hardly persuaded the government to frame a considered security response which ends the avoidable civilian killings.
Worse enough, the government's response to such public protests has witnessed no change at all. For the trooper on the streets there is no other option than to open fire at the civilians making them a direct target.
For the government and the security agencies, including the police firing on the protestors remains the preferred recourse even if the mob that attacks the troopers comprises of a motley crowd of few young men.
One fails to understand that why the security agencies are not being roped in by the government and asked to exercise due caution and handle crowds more scientifically. This will ensure that there is little possibility of losing a human life. But considering the recurrent deaths during protests in Kashmir, one is inclined to believe that the security agencies are dangerously complacent about the loss of lives in Kashmir.
The phenomenon is too dangerous as the present government has failed to learn any lesson from the past seven years. In 2010 around 120 youth fell to bullets and the aftermath of those killings is still haunting the present setup in the state. Let the government wake up to the harsh reality of dissent in Kashmir, the sooner the better.
Editorial: Mindless killing added by Guest on 1:33 am June 8, 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Links 26/11/2014: Docker Patched, New DragonFlyBSD
Posted in News Roundup at 6:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
About Linux Weekly News – 24th November 2014
Expensive "Free/Libre Software Laptop" Uses A NVIDIA GPU
While there's been an ongoing discussion this week about delivering a $500 "open to the core" laptop that runs Ubuntu Linux and would be comprised of open-source software down to the firmware and Coreboot, announced last week was a high-end laptop that also aims to promote free/libre software. Though don't get out your wallets quite yet.
Docker Update Fixes Pair of Critical Security flaws
The open-source Docker container virtualization technology has emerged as one of the hottest and most hyped technologies of the year. Docker, however, isn't immune from security vulnerabilities, as a pair of recent updates illustrate.
AMD & PathScale Join OpenACC Group
Up to now the OpenACC parallel programming standard has mostly been perceived as a NVIDIA affair along with backing from the likes of Cray and PGI. Now, however, AMD and PathScale are joining the OpenACC Standards Group so hopefully we'll see greater, multi-vendor adoption of it going forward.
Kernel Space
Graphics Stack
PowerVR SGX Driver Code Gets Leaked
Valve's VOGL Is Finally Back To Having New Commits, OS X Support
While Valve's VOGL open-source OpenGL debugger was off to a great start when announced at the start of the year, recently it fell into a bit of a dry period when it didn't see any new work for more than a month. Fortunately, that dry spell is over and there's new commits flowing back into VOGL.
Nouveau Might Have A Logo
A designer, Valeria Aguilera, has been working to make a Nouveau logo. Last night she posted her first draft of the proposed Nouveau logo, "I would like to highlight that the logo incorporates a penguin corresponding to the linux kernel components used to create this open source driver. The 3D cube/shape represents the 2D and 3D acceleration capability. The 'n' simply stands for the first letter in Nouveau and the green colour was chosen because the driver is for NVIDIA video cards."
Mesa 10.4 RC1 Is Here, Lands Direct3D 9 State Tracker
Emil Velikov has announced the first release candidate for the upcoming Mesa 10.4 release.
Freedreno MSM Driver Has Big Changes For Linux 3.19 Kernel
Most notable for this MSM DRM driver that's associated with the Freedreno driver project is the support for the Qualcomm Adreno A4xx series. The Qualcomm Innovation Center added the A4xx hardware support to the open-source DRM/KMS driver as a surprise move. Meanwhile, Rob Clark of Red Hat took to writing the Gallium3D support that's now in Mesa Git master following the recent Mesa 10.4 branching.
NEMO-UX Shell Is A Futuristic, Multi-User Wayland Experience
Demonstrated at the ACM Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces (ACM ITS) event in Dresden, Germany the past few deays was the "NEMOSHELL" that looks like a futuristic user experience supported by Wayland.
Apple OS X 10.10 vs. Ubuntu 14.10 Performance
While I delivered some OS X 10.10 Yosemite preview benchmarks back in August, here's my first tests of the official release of Apple OS X 10.10.1 compared to Ubuntu 14.10 Linux. Tests were done of OS X 10.9.5 and OS X 10.10.1 against Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn when running the benchmarks under both GCC and LLVM Clang compilers.
AMD Radeon Gallium3D Is Catching Up & Sometimes Beating Catalyst On Linux
Last week I shared some preview benchmarks from Steam on Linux showing Radeon Gallium3D starting to beat Catalyst. In this article are the full results from comparing the open and closed-source AMD Linux graphics cards with sixteen Radeon graphics cards while testing Team Fortress 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Linux. The results yield a very close race!
avanor: A return to the roguelike genre
Non-Linux FOSS: XAMP
If you're in a situation where you're required to use Windows, but don't want to worry about the nightmare of installing Apache and PHP (much less MySQL) on your machine, I urge you to check out XAMMP. It's not a new program, but that's one of its greatest features. It's basically just a single installer for Windows, OS X or Linux that installs Apache with PHP and MySQL. Its maturity means that even on a Windows system, it should install and work like you'd expect open-source software to work.
opsi release 4.0.5 stable
Installation and management of Linux clients UEFI support Image backup for quick restore on classroms clients
Monitorix – An Open Source, Lightweight System Monitoring Tool For Linux
Monitorix is a free, Open Source monitoring tool that can be used to monitor as many services and system resources as possible. Unlike other monitoring tools, it is very simple to install, configure and monitor the systems. Initially, it was developed to support only the RPM based systems such as Red Hat, CentOS etc., but, later it is expanded it's support to other distributions like Debian/Ubuntu, and BSD systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD.
TomeNET: Out of the console and onto the Internet
Instructionals/Technical
10 Sed (Stream Editor) Command Examples
Process text faster with Awk and Sed
How to set the PATH variable in Bash
How to install a paravirtualized Xen guest
How To Install Grep 2.21 On Arch Linux, Manjaro And Arch Derivative Systems, Via AUR
New Blog Post On Porting Civilization: Beyond Earth From Aspyr Media
According to the latest blog post from Aspyr, the Mac version is now ready and will be released today. As usual information about the Linux version is scarce, but they do reiterate that it's only lagging 2-3 weeks behind the Mac version. This should mean that it will be ready some time in December:
Desktop Environments/WMs
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
Colorpick
Colorpick is a color picker and contrast checker. I originally wrote it to help me check and fix the background and foreground colors of the Oxygen palette to ensure text was readable. Since then I have been using it to steal colors from various places and as a magnifier to inspect tiny details.
GNOME Desktop/GTK
9 Useful Gnome Shell Extensions for Linux
Gnome Shell allows you to modify it any way you want by installing extensions. There are many, many extensions out there to choose from. Since there are just so many, we've created a list containing some of the best.
Linux Top 3: GNOME Triumphs, Linux 3.18 Nears Release and FreeBSD's Benefactor
Earlier this month, the GNOME Foundation faced down one of its biggest challenges yet. No this wasn't a debate about systemd, or competition from rival KDE, it was a trademark challenge from Groupon.
Rescatux Is a Useful Tool to Fix Grub and Promote Windows Users to Admin
Rescatux, a Linux distribution that allows users to perform all kinds of rescue operations with the help of an easy-to-use wizard called Rescapp, has been upgraded to version 0.32 Beta 3, and the developer has made a number of important fixes.
Ready to give Linux a try? These are the 5 distros you need to consider
There are so many Linux distributions that choosing one can be overwhelming for a new user. One might be too intimidating for a user to even try, while another might be too simplified, blocking that user from knowing how Linux systems actually function.
I have been using Linux as my primary OS since 2005 and have tried all major (and quite a lot of minor) distributions. I have learned that not every distribution is for everyone. Since I also assist people in migrating to Linux, I have chosen the 5 distros that I recommend to new users based on their level of comfort and desire to learn (or not learn) more about Linux.
4MLinux Game Edition Lets You Play Natively Games like Doom or Hexen
4MLinux Game Edition, a Linux distribution based on Busybox, Dropbear, OpenSSH, and PuTTY that also incorporates numerous games, has been promoted to version 10.1 Beta.
Red Hat Family
Fedora Linux: The Safest Operating System on the Planet
Open Seat on the Fedora Server Working Group
This past week, David Strauss chose to step down from his position on the Fedora Server Working Group, citing a lack of alignment with his current work usage. The Fedora Server SIG would like to thank David for his contributions up to this point and wish him well.
This means that there is currently a vacancy in the Fedora Server Working Group. The Working Group is the nine-person volunteer body that oversees the development, testing, release, documentation, marketing and evangelism of the Fedora Server. Membership on this Working Group is a moderate commitment requiring a participation of a minimum of two hours a week, one hour of which being the (usually) weekly meeting.
Fedora Good, Bad, & Ugly and Debian's Rise
Pádraig Brady today offered up his assessment of Fedora 21 in comparison to Fedora 16 from which he upgraded. Bruce Byfield is back with a look at the "rise of Debian technology" and Softpedia is reporting that CentOS was used to make the black hole in hit movie Interstellar. Gunnar Hellekson refutes the assertions in a recent GCN article declaring Open Source poorly designed and, finally today, Linux powered submersible says polar caps thicker than estimated.
Fedora 21 Innovates in Docker Cloud Virtualization with Project Atomic
Docker, OpenStack, EC2 and "Project Atomic" are among the leading buzzwords for Fedora Linux 21, the upcoming release of the community-developed open source operating system that serves as the basis for Red Hat's enterprise Linux platforms. Due out next month, the release is now receiving its final tweaks from developers, who have revealed further details on the cloud and virtualization innovations in the new version.
Important Fedora vote concludes today!
Fedora Council Election Results
Fedora Will Begin Upgrading The X.Org Server As A Distribution Update
While Fedora is working to migrate over to Wayland by default, the X.Org Server won't disappear anytime soon for legacy X11 application support and other purposes. With Fedora 21 and going forward, Fedora is likely to be getting in-place X.Org Server updates upon new releases.
Debian Family
The rise of Debian technology
Out of 285 active distributions on Distrowatch, 132 are based on Debian and 67 on Ubuntu. This predominance is not only unrivalled in a field as diverse as Linux distros, but has been true now for several years. I've cited it several times, but until now, I haven't addressed the question this observation also raises: how did this state of affairs come about?
Canonical/Ubuntu
Bq Introduces More Android Devices, But Still No Ubuntu Phones
Bq held a media event today where many were hoping the first Ubuntu Phone would be officially unveiled, but that was not the case with Ubuntu receiving no mentions during the event.
Bq is one of Canonical's first two Ubuntu Phone partners and they had plans to ship the first Ubuntu Phone by the end of 2014. The other phone partner, Meizu, has previously said the MX4 with Ubuntu Touch would come in December.
Canonical Is Still Considering Turning the Phone into a Mini-PC
Canonical is working to complete their idea of convergence with the launch of Ubuntu Touch, a new operating system for mobile devices. The desktop flavor of Ubuntu will eventually share the same code with the mobile one, and their plans go even further than that.
Tiny quad-core ARM mini-PC runs Ubuntu with Cinnamon
A startup is pitching a $129-$199 "Imp" mini-PC on Indiegogo based on a quad-core Odroid-U3 SBC, with HDMI streaming and an Ubuntu/Cinnamon Linux desktop.
A day after reporting on one Israeli-based, non-Android ARM mini-PC — SolidRun's $100 CuBoxTV with OpenElec Linux — here comes another. Aside from the usual hyperbole found on crowdfunding pages — are we really "democratizing the digital home experience" or just buying an embedded ARM computer? — the Ubuntu-based Imp mini-PC looks like a pretty good deal.
Flavours and Variants
Linux Mint 17.1 to Have Better Support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Languages
Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" is already exected by the community and most users will choose to upgrade, but the developers have made a few improvements for the Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.
Quad-core media player runs Kodi/XBMC on OpenElec Linux
SolidRun's tiny, $100 "CuBoxTV" media player runs OpenElec Linux and Kodi (formerly XBMC) on a quad-core i.MX6 SoC, and offers 100Mbps+ video decoding.
The CuBoxTV is the first Freescale i.MX6 based media player to run the Kodi (formerly XBMC) multimedia distribution, says Israel-based SolidRun. CuBoxTV is closely based on the company's latest i.MX6 based CuBox mini-PC, which now sells for $80 to $140, depending on the number of Cortex-A9 i.MX6 cores and other features. The CuBoxTV, which is available only with the quad-core i.MX6 SoC, goes for a sale price of $100.
CuBoxTV: Tiny $100 Linux-based XBMC media center
SolidRun's CuBox line of tiny desktop computers are cubes that measure just 2 inches across. But the little boxes sport Ethernet jacks, optical audio output, 2 USB ports and a micro USB port.
Linux-based AUV maps Antarctic sea ice thickness
Woods Hole Oceanographic used a Linux-based "SeaBED" AUV to build the first 3D map of Antarctic sea ice — and found it's thicker than had been estimated.
Every now and then we see some good news about climate change sprinkled in with all the increasingly dire warnings. Yesterday, the New York Times reported that solar and wind energy are starting to become competitive with natural gas. On the same day, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), based in Massachusetts, announced it had published a paper in Nature Geoscience on experiments run by an autonomous, Linux-based submarine called the SeaBED. The underwater survey indicated that Antarctic sea ice was thicker than had been previously estimated.
Sub-notebooks/Tablets
Jolla's crowdfunded, open source tablet raises $1.2M in two days
Limited Potential For Wintel Means Unlimite Growth For */Linux
They also use IT more. At the same time, these young folk are loving small cheap computers running */Linux.
Hey, here's some face-tracking tech from Samsung you probably won't find creepy at all
Samsung says it'll release the source code to software that allows physically disabled people to move a mouse pointer with their eyes.
Samsung 'eye mouse' helps the paralyzed use PCs, will be made open-source
From his adjustable bed, Shin made the words appear on the computer screen using Eyecan+, an eye-tracking device developed by Samsung Electronics.
"I'm happy that eye mouse is developed in Korea," he continued. "The eye mouse is not just an IT product, but limbs for the disabled. Hope this kind of research will continue."
Assembly Helps Developers Find, Monetize Open Source Contributions
An open source Christmas with Kano
So this season, what every open sourc-erer wants might just be Kano, a computer kit that comes will all the functions needed to build it and learn to code afterwards.
Mapping the world with open source
In the world of geospatial technology, closed source solutions have been the norm for decades. But the tides are slowly turning as open source GIS software is gaining increasing prominence. Paul Ramsey, senior strategist at the open source company Boundless, is one of the people trying to change that.
Ramsey has been working with geospatial software for over ten years, as programmer and consultant. He founded the PostGIS spatial database project in 2001, and is currently an active developer and member of the project steering committee. Ramsey serves as an evangelist for OpenGeo Suite, works with the Boundless business development team to share about their collection of offerigns, and speaks and teaches regularly at conferences around the world.
Google Brings Open Source Security Gifts
'Tis the season for giving, and search giant Google wants to give security researchers and end-users some new tools. Over the past few weeks Google has released multiple security tools and open source efforts to help end-users and organizations defend themselves from modern threats.
OPNFV Does Telecom/Open Source 'Mind Meld'
The Open Platform for NFV Project Inc. is growing rapidly — ZTE joined just last week and more new members will be announced in December — while trying to meet an aggressive schedule of new software releases every six months, beginning in the first half of 2015. (See Open NFV Group Uncloaks Its Platform Plan and Will Carriers Step Up to Open Challenge?)
Particulate sensor developed using open source approach
A New York based start up company has used an open source approach, as well as funding from Kickstarter, to develop AirBeam – a handheld sensor which determines the concentration of particles in the air measuring 2.5µm or less.
The AirCasting app and website code is available on GitHub as open source, along with the AirBeam firmware and electronic schematics. The STL files for 3D printing the AirBeam and LiteBeam enclosures can be downloaded from www.shapeways.com.
Google will kill Microsoft Silverlight in Chrome by disabling NPAPI plug-in
GOOGLE IS MOVING ahead with plans to kill off support for Microsoft Silverlight in its Chrome browser.
The Microsoft runtime depends on an ageing plug-in protocol called Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI), for which Google is currently phasing out support in its browser.
What's the Difference Between Chromium and Chrome?
Chromium is the open-source project that forms the basis for Google Chrome. Because it's completely open source, Chromium is available in many Linux distributions' software repositories for easier installation.
Review of the new Firefox browser built for developers
Mozilla recently announced a new browser version for developers on the 10th anniversary of the Firefox browser. The Usersnap team and I took a look at whether it works well for the web development process, offers developers a variety of possible applications, and if it keeps up with the Google Chrome dev tools.
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
First Beta Version of LibreOffice 4.4 Is Now Ready for Testing
The work for LibreOffice never stops and this is actually one of the perks of being open source software. The application is constantly improved and the users can easily see what is being done in this regard. Usually, new major updates for a new branch will have several devel versions before the stable one is released, and that means we are still pretty far away from that milestone.
VirtualBox 4.3.20 Arrives, Still No Sign Of VirtualBox 4.4
VirtualBox 4.3 was released in October of 2013 and since then VirtualBox from an external look appears to be largely in maintenance mode. The 20th point release was put out today with just stability and regression fixes. There's not yet any public development releases of VirtualBox 4.4 or any other next-generation series to this virtualization software born during the Sun Microsystems days. Thankfully, during this time, KVM and Xen along with components like Virt-Manager and QEMU continue advancing in a steadfast manner for those interested in open-source virtualization.
After doubling in size, open source developer finds new downtown Portland home
The company specializes in development using open source tools such as WordPress, Drupal or Django. Clients, which range from small businesses to large enterprises, come to Metal Toad for consulting, development or managed services.
Odoo, Open ERP and CRM, Continues to Build Out its Platform
Each year when InfoWorld comes out with its Bossie awards, it honors the best open source applications. This year, one of the honorees was Odoo.
Brocade relying on open source and 'natural tension' for growth
In line with this prediction, Brocade has been working towards changing its business tactics from being known as a hardware enterprise storage provider to also becoming an additional player in the software-defined network market — one in which rival Cisco has also been dipping its toes.
Open-Source Chat Platform Scrollback Raises $400,000 Seed Round
Scrollback, a free open-source chat platform for online communities, has raised $500,000 Singaporean dollars (about $400,000) led by Jungle Ventures, with participation from Singapore's National Research Foundation, Crystal Horse Investments, Singapore Angel Network, Roland Turner, and other angel investors.
DragonFlyBSD 4.0 Drops i386 Support, Improves Graphics
The much anticipated release of DragonFlyBSD 4.0 is now available.
The biggest "big ticket item" of DragonFlyBSD 4.0 include improving graphics support with the Linux-ported Intel DRM driver now handling Intel "Haswell" graphics complete with OpenGL support, well more than one year after it's been optimized for Linux users. DragonFlyBSD 4.0 is also significant in that it drops 32-bit i386 support in making it 64-bit only for x86 systems. While the DRM driver porting takes a while across all BSD distributions right now, at least DragonFlyBSD developers can take a stand for pushing forward and focusing on 64-bit support rather than 32-bit.
DragonFly 4.0.1 released
Version 4 of DragonFly brings Haswell graphics support, 3D acceleration, and improved performance in extremely high-traffic networks. DragonFly now supports up to 256 CPUs, Haswell graphics (i915), concurrent pf operation, and a variety of other devices. Check the full release notes for details, and visit the mirrors page for download links.
64-bit ARM FreeBSD Support Is Taking Shape
While Linux/Android on AArch64 is what's usually talked about, FreeBSD developers continue making progress on porting their kernel to 64-bit ARM.
A review of PC-BSD 10.1
Google Now Uses Clang As Their Production Compiler For Chrome Linux Builds
For just over one month Google's Chrome/Chromium team has been using Clang as their production compiler on Linux in place of GCC.
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
The FSF is hiring: Seeking a full-time outreach and communication coordinator
The Free Software Foundation (FSF), a Boston-based 501(c)(3) charity with a world wide mission to protect freedoms critical to the computer-using public, seeks a motivated and organized tech-friendly Boston-based individual to be its full-time outreach and communication coordinator.
GNU Guix 0.8 Has A New Visual UI In Emacs
The GNU Guix functional package manager has been updated to version 0.8 and incorporates four months of changes.
GNU Guix 0.8 features a new visual user interface in Emacs, a variety of new Guix sub-commands, improved reporting of package upgrades, and various improvements to the Linux-libre distribution portion of Guix.
Project Releases
QEMU 2.2-rc3 Released, Final Release Pushed Back By Couple Days
QEMU 2.2-rc3 was released today but there's still a few release-critical bugs that will warrant an unscheduled release candidate and thus push back the official QEMU 2.2 version, hopefully only by a few days.
HandBrake Open Source video transcoder v0.10 released with hundreds of new features including H.265 and VP8 encoding
The developers of Handbrake just announced the 0.10 update to their extremely popular and useful Open Source video transcoding product. Originally focused on ripping DVDs, the product now can be used for transcribing many different types of files/codecs to almost any other. Today's headliner updates include H.265 and VP8 encoding.
Google Chrome 39 Brings Mostly Internal Changes
Google's Chrome web browser reached version 39 on Tuesday in its stable channel for all supported platforms.
Handbrake – lost for Slackware
Yesterday, I read about the newest release of Handbrake, the powerful video transcoder. I have handbrake in my Slackware repository, so I decided to dissect the source tarball for the 0.10.0 release and see what was needed to compile it into a package.
Pulp 2.6.0-0.1.alpha is available
Pulp 2.6.0-0.1.alpha is available in the testing repositories.
This alpha release includes bugfixes and support for RabbitMQ.
HHVM 3.4 Adds New Features, Support
Facebook has released HHVM 3.4.0 today for those looking towards a high-performance PHP implementation or for using Facebook's Hack language.
Public Services/Government
Finland's Innovillage spurs open development of e-gov services
Finlands Innovillage – an online collaborative platform for the development and implementation of new government service models and practices – shows that innovation demands an open process that involves users, professionals, managers, experts and policy-makers. "Fundamentally, e-government innovation needs to be open and allow participation", says Pasi Pohjola, coordinator of Finland's Development Programme for Social Welfare and Healthcare.
Glitch takes down DOD's open source IT collaboration environment
"On Sunday, 23 Nov, our hosting provider executed an automated script that inadvertently corrupted all Forge.mil systems," DISA said in an email notification obtained by FedScoop. "We've been working with their SysAdmins since then to bring Forge.mil back into service. We were expecting all systems back up Monday afternoon but problems with recovering from our backup systems have prevented that. We continue to work with our hosting provider to escalate issues and apply necessary resources to achieve resolution until all systems are back up and available."
Openness/Sharing
Free the Seed – The Open Source Seed Initiative
With the slogan, "Free the Seed", a group of plant breeders, academics, among others, have formed an Open Source Seeds Initiative to prevent the down stream restrictions to germ plasm, genetic material, breeding and seeds in general. Based in the open software philosophy, the initiative seeks to create a common pool of seeds. Like open source software, these seeds are expected to be free for all kinds of use and distribution.
Dinner can be like open source too
Startup to Open Source Parallel CPU
A startup founded by two teenagers is designing a parallel processor that it hopes delivers a 10x leap in performance per watt for high-end systems. Rex Computing will make open source its instruction set architecture in hopes of rallying supporters around it.
Standards/Consortia
Berners-Lee: new HTML5 'open web' milestones
The Computer Weekly Open Source Insider blog noted on January 1 2013 that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) made note that a stable specification of the HTML5 web markup language has been laid down for web application developers to now focus on.
ZigBee Announces New Internet of Things Standard
The ZigBee Alliance, has announced the unification of its wireless standards to a single standard named ZigBee 3.0, which will provide interoperability among the widest range of smart devices, providing consumers and businesses access to innovative products and services.
OpenCL & SYCL Updated For Heterogeneous Parallel Programming
The Khronos Group has released updated versions of the OpenCL and SYCL specifications from the Super Computing 2014 conference in New Orleans.
US Department of Defense Militarizes Social Science
In 2008, the US Department of Defense founded the Minerva Initiative, a "social science research initiative" which focused on regions of "strategic importance to US national security policy." The initiative focuses on results that can be used in the field (that are "warfighter relevant," in the words of the Minerva Initiative website). The DoD is issuing $17 million to fund twelve new projects for 2014-17. As Nafeez Ahmed reports in the Guardian, the DoD funding social science is a conflict of interest and certain proposed projects raise questions about how the social science might be used in warzones.
Security advisories for Wednesday
LinEnum – Linux Enumeration & Privilege Escalation Tool
LinEnum will automate many Local Linux Enumeration & Privilege Escalation checks documented in this cheat sheet. It's a very basic shell script that performs over 65 checks, getting anything from kernel information to locating possible escalation points such as potentially useful SUID/GUID files and Sudo/rhost mis-configurations and more.
Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
Video Analysis of Fatal West Bank Shooting Said to Implicate Israeli Officer
One day after Israel charged an officer from its border police force with manslaughter in the shooting of a Palestinian teenager at a protest in the West Bank last May, the boy's father and an Israeli architect who helped reconstruct the killing based on video evidence argued that the officer should be indicted on a murder charge instead.
HOTEL 22: The Dark Side Of Silicon Valley
Jimmy hands $2 worth of dimes to the conductor and finds a seat at the back of the bus.
He settles himself in for what is going to be a long night – taking off his scuffed leather shoes and resting his head against a window opaque with condensation.
Jimmy, 47, has had the same routine for the last three years since losing his job as a chef at Microsoft.
Save the Fatcats
CEO Justin Forsyth £139,950
COO Anabel Hoult £139,950
COO / CFO & Strategic Initiatives Rachel Parr £131,970
Global Programmes Director Fergus Drake £113,300
Fundraising Director Tanya Steele £112,2001
StC has just given Tony Blair its "Global Legacy" award. What kind of people like Tony Blair? People who earn over 100,000. I am not sure that if you put money in a tin, or bought from their charity shop, you thought you were paying that many fat salaries. There are also gold plated pensions and other benefits. Justin Forsyth, the CEO, of course worked in Tony Blair's neo-con policy unit.
NYT Columnist's Faulty Attack on Elizabeth Warren's 'Rage'
New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin has earned a reputation over the years for being friendly with the Wall Street giants he covers. If you read his bizarre rant against Senator Elizabeth Warren, it's not hard to see why.
Millions in Poverty Get Less Media Coverage than 482 Billionaires
In June 2014, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) published a study showing that ABC World News, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News give more media coverage to the 482 billionaires in the U.S. than to the 50 million people in poverty, airing almost four times as many stories that include the term "billionaire" as stories including terms such as "homeless" or "welfare." According to the report, an average of only 2.7 seconds per 22-minute nightly news program were devoted to covering stories where poverty was mentioned.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp cops major investor revolt
It has allowed the Murdoch family to effectively control the company with a minority shareholding, leading to accusations it is run more like a family fiefdom than a coventional public company
Politico Helps Right-Wing Echo Chamber Use Bill Cosby Allegations To Attack Hillary Clinton
With a new editorial team recently in place, Politico has published a news article comparing multiple allegations of rape and assault against Bill Cosby to Bill Clinton, accompanied by a warning that its own false analogy could be politically damaging to Hillary Clinton.
Google Asked to Censor Three Million Pirate Bay URLs
The Pirate Bay reached a questionable milestone today when copyright holders asked Google to remove the three millionth Pirate Bay URL from search results. While most requests are valid, Google also removed several non-infringing pages.
Want to avoid government malware? Ask a former NSA hacker
A young British company called Darktrace, whose technology was spawned in the classrooms and bedrooms of Cambridge University, can now boast a covey of former spies among their executive ranks. Jim Penrose, who spent 17 years at the NSA and was involved in the much-feared Tailored Access Operations group (TAO), is one of Darktrace's latest hires.
UK Pirate Party slams government plans for IP address identification
THE UK PIRATE PARTY has slammed government plans which could see IP addresses linked to individuals in the same way as phone numbers.
Loz Kaye, outspoken leader of the party, said: "It's extraordinary that the Home Office did not consult [the] industry about these plans.
"To me it shows they don't care whether they will work or not. They are just interested in headlines."
He went on to criticise the Liberal Democrats, which had earlier welcomed the move, saying it provides proof that there will be no return to snooping in this Parliament.
Slack now letting employers tap workers' private chats
Slack, whose chat app aims to help workers get stuff done, might now have them running scared, knowing the boss could access their chats.
The company's upcoming paid Plus plan will include an optional feature called Compliance Exports, announced Monday, which will let administrators access their team's communications, encompassing public and private messages.
Most people have heard of Snowden, few have changed habits as a result
New worldwide survey results conducted by a Canadian think tank show that most people around the world (60 percent) have heard of Edward Snowden, but just over a third "have taken steps to protect their online privacy and security as a result of his revelations."
Thinking of buying a security camera? Read this first
Most security cameras and their software aren't built with computer security in mind. None of the vendors could provide me with a clear understanding of code reviews and penetration testing. In fact, most of my security inquiries were met with befuddlement. Often I was called back by someone days later who either did not know the answers to my questions or said yes to everything I asked so often, you knew they were not telling the truth.
Truly private surfing
In my previous post i recommended to use two firefox plugins to truly surf through Internet whoes pages are "infected" with social network embedded widgets that only report about our presense in those pages and if we are lucky, only that, but i also identifies us because the propagation of cookies.
In this post i will give some recommendations about how to stop Firefox from surfing the web without us knowing it, yes, in the background. The other day i was analyzing what happens in the background in the network with Firefox open, and i was worried for a minute or two because i saw connections going out of my computer but i was not surfing anything… i had one page open, so i closed it incase that that page had some javascript with a loop doing some connections without me knowing…. but the connections kept being done.
Report On UK Terrorist Murder: MI5 Absolved, Facebook Guilty
Of course, that would mean finding some way to win support for an intrusive Communications Data Bill, which provoked such a strong reaction the last time it was discussed. So it's interesting coincidence that the day after that place-marker by the Home Secretary, a new report (pdf, and embedded below) has been published on a particularly brutal terrorist attack that took place on the streets of London last year. The report comes from the UK's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which was roundly condemned by a Parliamentary committee earlier this year for being out of touch and ineffectual. It was asked to examine what lessons could be learned from the failure to stop the attack, given that both the two men convicted of murdering the British soldier Fusilier Rigby were known to the UK intelligence service.
Well, that's because they are communications companies: they provide ways to communicate, just like phone companies or the post system. There's no more reason they should be monitoring every piece of content on their systems than telephone companies should monitor the content of calls, or post offices the content of letters. It's not their job, and would in any case be an extraordinary invasion of privacy.
That the ISC's report into the attack turns out to be a whitewash is no surprise. Earlier this month, the UK's leading human rights groups decided to boycott another inquiry that it would be conducting, since they had "lost all trust in the committee's ability to uncover the truth." And just before the ISC report was published, it was claimed that the committee had "failed to speak to witnesses who say the plot's leader was repeatedly contacted by the security services before the attack"…
So who gave that information to GCHQ? The statement above makes it clear it wasn't Facebook itself but a "third party". Who else had access to such private messages? Someone at the company? Maybe, although that seems very unlikely given the company's awareness of how big an issue this would be.
Another obvious candidate is the NSA. Snowden has told us that it accesses and stores vast quantities of messages as they flow across the Internet; given the nature of the conversation, and the keywords it contains, it seems quite likely that it was added to a database somewhere, "just in case". Perhaps it was dug out at the request of GCHQ, which then passed it on to the company concerned — in order to land it in hot water, and get MI5 off the hook. Just another benefit of being part of the Five Eyes club.
Lee Rigby: inquiry into murder of fusilier 'failed to seek out witnesses'
The official inquiry into the jihadi-inspired murder of Lee Rigby in 2013 is poised to clear the security services of major criticisms but is facing claims that it failed to speak to witnesses who say the plot's leader was repeatedly contacted by the security services before the attack.
Survey: Public Clouds, File Syncing and Data Privacy Dangers
Lots of employees use public cloud services, like Dropbox and Box, to sync and share files even if they contain sensitive data. That's not too surprising, but what is is the finding that more than half of organizations don't have policies in place to keep important data out of the public cloud, at least according to their employees. So says M-Files, which has released interesting survey results on this topic.
The Coming War on Encryption, Tor, and VPNs
And that, of course, will not go down well with the world's spy agencies. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, there is a clear move to demonise strong encryption using a crude "if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear"-type argument: only bad people could possibly want to hide their communications. I predict that things will only get worse – not just because of Let's Encrypt, but also following the Home Secretary's announcement this week of yet more counter-terrorism measures.
One of them claims to address the fictional "capabilities gap the authorities face when it comes to communications data." There is no such gap, because the volume of communications data has grown so hugely that any *percentage* loss of capabilities is more than made up for by the greater total quantity of information now available. For example, even if the authorities were only able to access a half of all communications data, say, that would still represent hundreds of times more raw information than previously because overall traffic has probably increased many thousands of times thanks to the rise of the Internet (those figures are plucked from the air, but the point remains valid.)
But it is, of course, trivial to avoid this surveillance using Tor or a VPN. And so inevitably the next stage of this assault on online digital liberties will be to attack those too, even though both have perfectly legitimate uses, especially the latter. Indeed, now would be a good time for businesses to make it known to the UK government that they require VPNs to function properly in the online world, just as they require strong encryption; and that trying to outlaw any of these, or to restrict or weaken them in the name of "counter-terrorism" would be yet another deeply disproportionate response with serious adverse consequences for the economy and society.
How to Encrypt the Entire Web for Free
Secret Malware in European Union Attack Linked to U.S. and British Intelligence
Complex malware known as Regin is the suspected technology behind sophisticated cyberattacks conducted by U.S. and British intelligence agencies on the European Union and a Belgian telecommunications company, according to security industry sources and technical analysis conducted by The Intercept.
NSA privacy director defends agency's surveillance
The U.S. National Security Agency's surveillance programs are legal and under close scrutiny by other parts of the government, the agency's internal privacy watchdog said Monday in an online Q&A.
EC-Council President Warns Global Leaders of Cyber Pandemic at World Internet Conference
In a rousing speech made to a packed audience at the World Internet Conference held November 19th – 21st in the historic city of Wuzhen in Zhejiang Province, Jay Bavisi, President and Founder of EC-Council, pushed for emphasis on solving cybersecurity threats by focusing on secure coding, the creation of a global legal framework, and better education initiatives. The theme of the event, "Interconnected World, Shared and Governed By All" resonates on the information security industry as cyber crime is a global problem in need of global solutions. Top executives from Chinese tech firms, including Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, as well as representatives from Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Samsung, LinkedIn, and non-profit organization ICANN attended the conference.
Regin Spyware Likely Made by NSA, UK
NSA, GCHQ or both behind Stuxnet-like Regin malware?
Sophisticated Regin Malware Could be the Child of GCHQ or NSA
Sophisticated Malware Regin Linked To NSA, British Intelligence
'Elegant' Regin Malware Linked to Brits, NSA
A sophisticated malware program called "Regin" has been used in systematic spying campaigns against a range of international targets since at least 2008, Symantec reported on Sunday.
Patriot Act Deadline Threatens to Splinter NSA Reformers
Privacy advocates, facing an uphill battle in a Republican-controlled Congress next year, will have to make a difficult choice.
Some argue that their best shot to curb the National Security Agency's powers will be to kill core provisions of the USA Patriot Act altogether. But other reformers aren't ready to take the post-9/11 law hostage.
NSA Reform Could Pit GOP Hawks Against Party's Libertarian Wing
Efforts to curb the National Security Agency's bulk collection of American phone metadata were dealt a blow with the defeat of the USA Freedom Act on Nov. 18. With a 58-42 vote, the bill failed to attract the 60 votes necessary to clear the Senate filibuster.
Cryptocurrency News: NSA 'Outlined Bitcoin-Like System' and 70% of Bitcoins Unspent
Most other major cryptocurrencies have seen a similar upturn in fortunes, with litecoin, dogecoin, peercoin and darkcoin all rising in price by between 3% and 6%.
"Big Data Ethics" Sound Great, But They Won't Stop The NSA—Or Facebook
It was worth a shot. At the recent Strata Conference in Barcelona, Hadoop founder Doug Cutting took to the stage to argue for a new era of Big Data ethics.
"It's time for us to reflect as we enter this new data age on how we want it to work," Cutting declared. "This is the time when the practices and policies we want will be set for the coming decades."
Edward Snowden Receives Stuttgart Peace Prize 2014
Edward Snowden has been awarded Stuttgart Peace Prize 2014, but could not attend the ceremony and sent a message via a video, urging to fight for the observation of human rights.
NSA leaker Snowden feted in Stuttgart
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden accepted the Stuttgart Peace Prize and called on the public to keep fighting for peace in a speech via video uplink on Sunday.
Utah is considering shutting off water to the NSA
What happens when a US state government directly opposes the operations of one of the most powerful agencies in the country? Utah might be about to find out, with a bill going forward early next year proposing Utah shuts off water to the NSA's massive data collection center in Bluffdale.
Republican Marc Roberts proposed the bill, which states municipalities in Utah must "refuse support to any federal agency which collects electronic data within this state."
NSA Spies Recruit Teenage Kids: We Can Stop It
As if the creepy spy-guy wandering around your kid's college campus trying to recruit her into the NSA wasn't bad enough, now you can find him wandering the halls of your local high school and middle school as well.
According to a recent article in the Intercept, the NSA recently established cybersecurity camps for middle school and high school students, and hopes to eventually have a presence in schools in all 50 states.
NSA 'privacy director' went on Tumblr to convince people 'this is a real job'
The NSA's "Civil Liberties and Privacy Director" Rebecca Richards did a Tumblr Q&A Monday, answering a number of questions about her job and the agency's privacy practices.
Someone cut right to the chase and asked what we were all thinking: "Is 'NSA Civil Liberties and Privacy Director' a real position or is this all a joke?"
Memo to NSA: Stop Saying You Apply the FIPPs
The intelligence community has no set of general principles for judging the privacy impact of their programs. Some privacy scholars believe that the Fair Information Protection Principles (FIPPs) serve this purpose and can apply to intelligence programs as they do to myriad other government programs. The NSA itself said in a recent report on collection under Executive Order 12333 that it was applying the FIPPs for the first time. But however appealing it may seem to apply generally applicable privacy principles to intelligence programs, it is simply impossible for the intelligence community to apply the FIPPs literally.
Ex-NSA and GCHQ spooks showcase Intel platform
Darktrace, a cybersecurity company comprised of ex-spooks from NSA and GCHQ, has revealed details of its new behavioural analytics software.
Insight into the mind of a former NSA programmer/hacker
Many cybersecurity specialists working for the NSA and GCHQ tend to get burned out, and then head to the private sector. It provides a unique opportunity to hear more about some of the efforts the US government have employed to conduct organized cyberespionage against foreign governments.
Wyden pledges to pursue NSA reform
Legislation that would have ended the National Security Agency's bulk data collection program stalled in the Senate last week, falling two votes short of the 60 needed to advance.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a proponent of reining in what he views as the NSA's overly broad surveillance powers, was undeterred by the setback. He was disappointed that senators were unable to debate the bill's merits, because Republicans filibustered a motion to proceed, but pledged to return to the issue.
Viewpoint: Silicon Valley must step up privacy fight
It's unlikely the valley will be able to innovate itself out of this mess. The right to privacy is one of the nation's most treasured principles. Silicon Valley needs to take a more active role in protecting Americans' privacy and restoring public trust in its products.
UN calls digital spying 'highly intrusive' and a violation of human rights
The UN has expressed deep concerns about online spying – particularly on a mass scale – as it violates people's rights to privacy
Massive surveillance operations possible with explicit help from telecom companies
U.S. and U.K. spy agencies including the NSA and GCHQ, respectively, have performed a variety of sophisticated spy operations, collecting massive amounts of personal data, as many Edward Snowden leaks revealed in the past year. German publication Süddeutsche Zeitung has published a new report that reveals that as far back as 2009 the GCHQ, and thus also the NSA, had massive access to submarine cable links around the globe with help from now Vodafone-owned Cable & Wireless.
GCHQ Paid Millions to Spy on UK Submarine Data Cables, Edward Snowden Reveals
New documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal Cable & Wireless, a UK company which is now part of Vodafone, was paid millions of pounds by the British government's spy agency GCHQ to tap into its undersea communications cables.
Five-eyes partners dilute UN resolution criticising metadata collection
The "five eyes" surveillance partners – the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – have joined forces to nobble a UN General Assembly committee's statements on digital privacy.
While the General Assembly's human rights committee has adopted a non-binding resolution saying that "unlawful or arbitrary" mass surveillance, interception and data collection are "highly intrusive acts" and a violation of the right to privacy.
UN human rights panel passes resolution to protect privacy
A landmark resolution demanding privacy protection in the digital age and urging governments to offer redress to citizens targeted by mass surveillance has been approved by the UN general assembly's human rights committee, the Guardian reports.
The resolution, which was adopted Tuesday, Nov 25, in the face of attempts by the U.S. and others to water it down and which comes at a time when the UK government is calling for increased surveillance powers, had been put forward by Brazil and Germany in the wake of revelations by U.S. intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden about large-scale U.S. surveillance.
Should Schools Monitor Students' Social Media Use?
The electronic devices that give students instant access to the world for educational purposes are also their conduit to social media, and that presents a host of problems for school administrators.
Lee Rigby report expected Facebook to break US law
Yesterday saw the publication of the Intelligence and Security Committee report into the events leading up to the murder of Lee Rigby. On reading it, one gets a sense of naivety from the members of the committee on how the Internet works, particularly when it comes to international jurisdictions. (Communications data is p139 onwards)
The US should not be allowed to run the internet
A VACUUM HAS emerged over exactly who should manage and maintain the internet.
A poll by CIGI and Ipsos showed that only 57 percent of respondents would be happy with 'a combined body of technology companies, engineers, non-governmental organisations and institutions that represent the interests and will of ordinary citizens and governments to play an important role in running the internet'.
Even fewer are willing to let the geeks inherit the Earth, as only 54 percent approved of 'an international body of engineers and technical experts'.
But the worst score of all was for the US government. Just 36 percent liked the idea of letting the nation run the show unilaterally.
UN Resolution Warns of 'Intrusive' Digital Spying
Privacy concerns highlighted by UN Committee in wake of mass surveillance and data interception revelations
A committee at the United Nations has expressed its deep concern over digital spying and surveillance, in the wake of the NSA revelations by Edward Snowden.
Lee Rigby murder should not be used as excuse for an increase in state power
Yesterday, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) issued its report into the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich. Despite cataloguing a number of failures, the report claims that the security services couldn't have prevented Lee Rigby's killing, while appearing to claim that Facebook could have.
Open Rights Group response to the Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill
ORG has also pointed out that parts of the legislation aimed at preventing extremism in educational and other institutions, "are so open-ended that they could easily lead to work-place surveillance, where employers would be obliged by guidelines to check their employees' email and web history."
Amnesty International USA: Ferguson, the World is Watching
Nearly 24 hours after the grand jury decision was announced, and after an initial night which included peaceful protests as well as widespread incidents of looting, arson and vandalism, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Steven W. Hawkins issued the following statement:
"This has to be made clear – the burden to keep protests peaceful is shared. Armored vehicles, tear gas and smoke bombs used large-scale against largely peaceful protesters in order to quell acts of violence by a minority only serves to escalate and exacerbate an already incredibly tense environment.
"Law enforcement officers have a right to defend themselves and a duty to protect the safety of the public, but this role should be carried out in a way that ensures full respect for the right to life, liberty and security of all persons, including those suspected of crime. Even when confronting violence, they must work within the law and in conformity with international standards governing the use of force.
"The eyes of the world continue to watch the events in Ferguson as a measure of the United States' capacity to respect the fundamental human right to assemble. Our right to protest peacefully should be bolstered by law enforcement, not inhibited through intimidation."
Two More 'Police Incidents,' Shrouded in Media Euphemism
The policies, practices and attitudes that lead to so many black people being killed by law enforcement have to be confronted. There are some things euphemism can't cover up.
Mexico: Revolution Day Protests End in Violent Police Repression; Protesters Charged with Terrorism
Día de la Revolución 2014 (Revolution Day) was a national holiday that Mexican citizens will not soon forget. People in more than 16 Mexican states protested on November 20th including Campeche, Chiapas, Morelos, Michoacán, Sonora, Veracruz, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Nayarit and Jalisco. Activists in Mexico tell us they estimate half a million people participated in peaceful protests on November 20 demanding justice for the 43 missing normalista students from Ayotzinapa. The largest protests in Mexico City ended in a very violent police repression and arbitrary arrests by granaderos and 11 protesters are now charged with terrorism.
Oops: After Threatening Hacker With 440 Years, Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor
Thanks in part to America's ill-defined hacking laws, prosecutors have enormous discretion to determine a hacker defendant's fate. But in one young Texan's case in particular, the Department of Justice stretched prosecutorial overreach to a new extreme: about 440 years too far.
New Security Bill will force online service providers to keep log of users' activity
Major online service providers, such as Google, will be legally obliged to retain a log of users and the mobile phones or computers they have accessed in case police and security agencies later need the information to help them locate criminals. This measure will be included in the Counter-terrorism and Security Bill that is being introduced in the wake of Isis's beheadings of prisoners, including British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, this year
Internet/Net Neutrality
Global coalition from 19 countries launches Thisisnetneutrality.org website
Anyone who thinks that net neutrality is a boring technical issue for computer geeks needs to look outside the U.S. Netizens around the world aren't fooled by the confusing misdirection of industry lobbyists—they're championing the cause of an open internet by pushing for laws and policies that protect the features that made the internet what it is today. And they are just as fired up as President Obama himself was just this month, when he gave his full support for the open net. Net neutrality is not an American issue, or a European issue, or an African issue. It is increasingly a global human rights issue.
Letter to the Council of the European Union: "Don't Turn Your Backs on Net Neutrality!"
Tomorrow on Thursday November 27th, the "Transport, Telecommunications and Energy" (TTE) Council will meet in Brussels to discuss the general approach on Telecom Single Market the Italian Presidency sent to the delegations of the Member States on November 14th. This text, which aims at protecting Net Neutrality and therefore the freedom of our communications, unfortunately lost the innovative and revolutionary features of the resolution voted by the European Parliament on April 3rd. The Italian Presidency, in fact, gives way to the industrial lobbies' interests and ignores the massive citizen mobilization which has taken place in the spring of 2014. Jeopardizing Net Neutrality means infringing the fundamental rights and freedoms of every single European citizen; for this reason and to remind our representatives their responsibilities, La Quadrature du Net and its European partners sent a letter to the Council of the European Union in order to call its ministers to reject the text under discussion and come back to a real protection of everyone's indicidual rights and freedoms.
Intellectual Monopolies
Senator Uses Piracy Report to Pressure Visa, Mastercard
Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has sent letters to Visa and MasterCard on the topic of online piracy. Citing a report from Netnames detailing the activities of the world's top cyberlockers, Leahy urges the services to stop doing business with all 'pirate' sites.
How an eBay bookseller defeated a publishing giant at the Supreme Court
Sometimes all it takes to alter the course of history is one pissed-off person. Supap Kirtsaeng wasn't a crusader or lone nut; he was just an eBay trader who got backed into a legal corner and refused to give up.
To help pay for grad school at USC, he sold textbooks online—legitimate copies that he'd purchased overseas. But academic publishing behemoth John Wiley & Sons sued Supap, claiming that his trade in Wiley's foreign-market textbooks constituted copyright infringement.
The implications were enormous. If publishers had the right to control resale of books that they printed and sold overseas, then it stood to reason that manufacturers could restrain trade in countless products—especially tech goods, most of which are made in Asia and contain copyrightable elements such as embedded software.
UK music industry seeks review of law allowing fans to copy music
The UK music industry is seeking a judicial review of new legislation allowing music fans to make copies of legally-purchased music, arguing that musicians must be compensated as a result of lost sales.
The Musicians' Union, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and industry body UK Music are taking legal action over the government's new copyright legislation, which came into force on 1 October.
BT Starts Blocking Private Torrent Sites
UK Internet provider BT blocked two dozen torrent sites this past weekend, including IPTorrents and TorrentDay, two of the largest private trackers. This is the first time that a UK ISP has blocked private torrent sites, and there doesn't appear to be a court order underlying their decision.
White House Admits That It Still Supports Parts Of SOPA: Wants To Make Streaming A Felony
Last week, we wrote that Senator (and still for the next few weeks, Majority Leader) Harry Reid was looking for ways to push for a piece of SOPA, making streaming a felony, into law. The story we'd heard from multiple sources was that he was looking to attach it to the USA Freedom Act. His office came out and denied that claim vehemently. Still, multiple sources insisted not only that it was true, but that Reid was still looking for other vehicles to push that through. And… just days later, the White House responded to some (somewhat pointless) White House "We The People" petitions by… announcing that it, too, wanted to turn unauthorized streaming into a felony. This was in response to two separate petitions, Stop SOPA 2013 and Stop SOPA 2014. Neither petition made much sense, as SOPA has been long dead since early 2012. There was never any specific bill in either 2013 or 2014. And yet, Alex Niejelow, the chief of staff to the IP Czar (a position that is in limbo, as the new czar has been nominated, but not yet approved), used those petitions as an opportunity to reiterate that the White House, like Reid, supports making unauthorized streaming a felony.
Kim Dotcom: I Regret Not Taking Threat of Copyright Law and MPAA More Seriously
Kim Dotcom has spoken out about his long battle over copyright with the US government and his regrets about the events that have led to his arrest ahead of his bail breach hearing on Thursday that could see him return to jail in New Zealand.
"Would I have done things differently? Of course. My biggest regret is I didn't take the threat of the copyright law and the MPAA seriously enough," Dotcom said via live video link from his mansion in Auckland, New Zealand at the Unbound Digital conference in London on Tuesday.


text:
Penn State hit with severe financial penalties
By Charles Riley @CNNMoney July 23, 2012: 6:29 PM ET
A statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has been removed from campus.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Penn State University was hit with an unprecedented series of financial penalties Monday as the NCAA and Big Ten conference announced sanctions related to the school's child abuse scandal.
The financial penalties are likely the first of many payouts the university will make.
Along with a loss of football scholarships and a four-year prohibition on postseason play, the university has agreed to pay a $60 million fine that will be used to help the victims of child abuse.
In a separate enforcement action, the Big Ten announced that Penn State will not receive a share of the conference's bowl revenues for four years, a hit of around $13 million.
The actions against Penn State, taken together, are likely to dramatically reduce the recruiting prowess and on-field performance of one of the nation's most storied football programs.
But the university is likely to suffer millions more in fines and payments as civil cases brought by Sandusky's victims are resolved. The school's credit rating could be downgraded, and corporate sponsorships are in jeopardy.
Related: Full CNN coverage
It was not immediately clear whether Monday's $60 million fine would be paid by the athletic department or another university fund.
Some penalties are likely to be assessed to the university at large, while others are paid by Penn State's athletic department -- one of the richest in the country, and almost uniquely well-suited to weather severe financial penalties.
"The money is there," said Dan Fulks, a professor of accounting at Transylvania University and a research consultant for the NCAA. "This athletic program is self-sufficient."
Last season, Penn State's revenue of $72.7 million from football was the fifth highest of any college program in the country, according to a CNNMoney analysis of figures reported by each school to the Department of Education.
And when comparing revenue to total expenses, Penn State football's profit of $53.2 million was second only to the University of Texas' total of $71.2 million.
In addition, Penn State reported an additional $24.1 million in athletic revenue not specifically assigned to one team or sport. Much of that is in general merchandise sales and sponsorships, driven by the popularity of football.
And while the NCAA said it arrived at the $60 million fine because that is roughly the amount of revenue the football program collects each year -- the penalty will be paid over a five-year period.
Still, significant questions remain about the university's exposure to civil lawsuits and the level of monetary support it can expect from alumni.
Credit rating agency Moody's Investors Service said in November that it was reviewing whether Penn State -- which carries the second highest credit rating -- should be downgraded.
Moody's has since affirmed its ranking, but the school remains on "credit watch negative," which means that a future downgrade -- an event that could make it more expensive for the university to borrow -- is still a possibility.
"The negative outlook reflects the high degree of uncertainty about direct litigation costs as well as emerging reputational risk that can result in weaker student demand or reduced philanthropic support from the university's alumni and other major donors," Moody's said earlier this month.
The school has an operating budget of about $4 billion dollars, and carries debt of $1.4 billion, according to Moody's.
Related: Penn State scandal will cost millions
In some respects, the non-monetary penalties imposed by the NCAA might have the largest effect on the athletic department's finances.
Football players are now eligible to transfer to other institutions without penalty, scholarships have been reduced by 40% and the team has been barred from post-season competition.
While Penn State was spared the so-called "death penalty" some were expecting -- in which a sports program is shut down entirely, typically for at least one year -- the sanctions will make it difficult for the university to field a competitive team.
"This might not be a sudden shut-down death penalty, but is very close to slow death by attrition," said John Vrooman, a sports economist at Vanderbilt University.
"Penn State football will not recover for over a decade," Vrooman predicted, citing the example of Southern Methodist University's program, which was given the death penalty in 1987 and has yet to fully recover.
For its part, the NCAA says the Penn State penalties are worse than the death penalty.
"The NCAA sanctions on Penn State, taken in sum, far exceed the severity of shutting down a program for a year or two," the group said on its website. "What some refer to as the death penalty was not severe enough."
Lackluster performance on the field coupled with the fresh memories of the Sandusky affair could lead to reduced enthusiasm from fans, who provide much of the program's revenue in the form of ticket and merchandise sales.
"Nittany Lion fans will still be faithful," Vrooman said. "But State College will be an empty place on fall afternoons."
CNNMoney's Chris Isidore contributed to this report.
First Published: July 23, 2012: 3:00 PM ET
Home prices Aug 28
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Inflation (CPI) Sept 14
Retail sales Sept 14


The design and wording you're using in a letter have been based on the specific circumstances. The Resignation Letter isn't an appropriate venue for airing grievances. A polite and proficient resignation letter ensures that you just leave the organization in the proper way.
Confirm the completeness, a letter has to be in a place to clear all of the questions. Instead, you may start your correspondence in a straightforward method. A letter offers official note that you simply 're leaving your work, including your own last date of work. Casual letters might be handwritten. Concerning format, they are regarded as freestyle. An informal letter can be written in nearly any way you choose, but there are a number of organizational guidelines you will be able to follow if you're unsure about what to write or how to format your correspondence. Though it's an informal letter it needs to be completely accurate.
You would like to keep to maintain your letter short. No matter all letters have to be professional and has to take no more than the intended message. Resignation letters ought to be edited to match your own personal circumstance. Just in the event you want to resign, it's very important that you pass your resignation letter to your immediate boss ahead of time so that they can allow you to know what ought to be your next move. For you to write a resignation letter complaining of guilt either from the seniors or from the workmates, you need to be cautious and all steps should be taken under consideration to make certain that you do not harm your employer or picture of the business. If you'll give a resignation letter especially if your resignation isn't immediate, then there 'll be opportunities that the business can have more time to screen applicants that can replace you. An easy resignation letter must furnish the precise details that you want your employer to comprehend.
The letter ought to be written in sync. Your resignation letter will remain on your personal file for the remainder of your lifetime, and thus don't allow a few unpleasant words compromise your future choices. Now you know how to write a resignation letter with short interval, and you understand a couple things that you shouldn't have in your resignation letter, it's now time for you to start drafting your own.
A correspondence is only somewhere to mention that the outline. As an instance, application letters have to be engaging that will be telling your potential employer which you can be an asset to the company. However you end up sending the letter, you need to get it done as professionally as you can to ensure a favorable reference. Resignation approval letters doesn't even have to be too long.
Letters don't have the capability to transmit malware or other harmful files that could be transmitted by email. Following that, you're well ready to shut out your letter and go ahead. You only want to make sure you remain good-natured and favorable when you start writing your letter. If you're still unsure on whether to write an easy resignation letter or not, then believe us if we say there are a good deal of benefits which are awaiting you whether you will choose to have one.
The correspondence can be elaborative describing the specifics of this occasion. What you write on your organization letter will be the very first impression that you make in your crowd in the vast majority of business cases. Writing a resignation letter can be difficult, especially in the event you've experienced a difficult time on your previous role, but it's 's crucial to always remain professional and leave a fantastic impression with your employer. There are a whole great deal of reasons why it's 's essential that you generate a resignation letter. Apart from using references like examples and templates, there are still other things which may help you create an easy resignation letter that is going to do the job best for the benefit.
Letter should look in order to be important bit of notice otherwise it might be ignored by the Judge. Your resignation letter would be the official document that will let your employer know that you wish to detach yourself from the business and start looking for opportunities that will utilize the skills which you have learned from the present company. Be specific with the resignation letter that you would like to produce. Not every single detail but it'll be required to provide the resignation letter together with the rationale for leaving for immediate departure. Let's recap the exact excellent example resignation letter for a whole.
Letters are a means to get in touch with someone not through the net. A formal letter is totally different in the everyday letter. Most appropriate letters utilize business English.


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Q: PHP json_encode values are only literal value of 'object' SOLVED - EDIT: I ended up not having to do json parse nor stringify with return from php because I can already do data[i]["filesize"]
code below is only showing me http://pastebin.com/DZ4UyHjC
if I change code to dataType:text then it outputs http://pastebin.com/pZg2W2aL which validates on site jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com . So with datatype:text, i would try to manually parse it with JSON.parse(result), this brings me back to original issue/output in first paste.
I've tried the suggestion of setting utf8 encoding, setting header in php before echo but still the same issue. Any help?
    if(mysqli_num_rows($fres)){
        $row =  array();
        while ($frow = mysqli_fetch_assoc($fres)) {
            $row[] = array("path"=>myhtmlspecialchars($frow['path']),"filesize"=>mksize($frow['filesize']));            }
    echo json_encode($row);

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    $.ajax({
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        url: './getFilesList.php',
        data: {id : varId},
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Bible > WEB > Ezekiel 32
◄ Ezekiel 32 ►
A Lament for Pharaoh King of Egypt
1It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,
2Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.
3Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net.
4I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you.
5I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.
6I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you.
7When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light.
8All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh.
9I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. 10Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall.
11For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you.
12By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed.
13I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble them.
14Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh.
15When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh.
16This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord Yahweh.
Egypt Cast into the Pit
17It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth [day] of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 18Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit.
19Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised.
20They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes. 21The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword.
22Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword; 23whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who caused terror in the land of the living.
24There is Elam and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. 25They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain.
26There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. 27They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for [they were] the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 28But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the sword.
29There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.
30There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
31Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. 32For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.


The Abilene Daily Reporter (Abilene, Tex.), Vol. 14, No. 187, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 10, 1912, newspaper, April 10, 1912; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth332873/m1/1/: accessed April 18, 2019), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, texashistory.unt.edu; .