Bloggregation's What You Need
March 10, 2010
OpenMagazin je společný projekt několika portálů věnujících se svobodnému software. Každý měsíc vychází výběr z těch nejlepších článků. Počínaje číslem 10/2009 si můžete přečíst také vybrané články z našeho portálu. OpenMagazin stahujte zde.
Z obsahu partnerských portálů vyzdvihnu především článek První...
March 10, 2010 11:01 AM
V dubnu 2009 byl odložen vývoj mobilního telefonu 3D7K (původně GTA03), následovníka Neo FreeRunner, na neurčito. Zároveň byl oznámen záhadný projekt Plan B. Nikdo však nevěděl o jaký Plan B půjde, ale podle dostupných informací má jít o mobilní zařízení třikrát levnější než 3D7K a bez GSM modulu, tedy nemá se jednat o další...
March 10, 2010 11:01 AM
Dne 18.7.2009 od 10.00 bude probíhat linuxový sraz v pivovaru v Berouně u Prahy. Na programu jsou přednášky a diskuze o Linuxu a hlavně přednáška o Openmoko, kde se po nezbytném úvodu dozvíte co se za poslední rok událo, co nás v nejbližší době čeká, jaké jsou plány okolo Openmoko do budoucna a jak se aktivně podílet na vývoji Openmoko. Dále budou...
March 10, 2010 11:01 AM
Zkusme se dnes podívat na distribuci QtMoko. Pokud ji nemáte, možná vás překvapí, že její použitelnost je relativně vysoká.
Kde se vzalo...
QtMoko je jedna z distribucí, které pro telefonování používají komplexní telefonní aplikaci Qt Extended. Vývojem Qt Extended (možná jste ji znali pod starým názvem QTopia) se zabývala společnost Trolltech (dnes Qt...
March 10, 2010 11:01 AM
Unidentified gunmen attack the office of a Western aid agency, killing six people and wounding several others, the agency and police say.
March 10, 2010 10:58 AM
Oligarch Boris Berezovsky wins a libel case over allegations he was behind the murder of a former Russian agent.
March 10, 2010 10:53 AM
US Vice-President Joe Biden meets Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, with discussions dominated by Israeli plans for 1,600 more homes in East Jerusalem.
March 10, 2010 10:45 AM
The earthquake in Chile may cost the global insurance industry as much as $7bn (£4.7bn), Swiss Re estimates.
March 10, 2010 10:43 AM
More schools in England are being judged as inadequate in Ofsted's new-style inspections, according to figures just released.
March 10, 2010 10:43 AM
When the platform changes, the leaders change.
Wordperfect had a virtual monopoly on word processing in big firms that used DOS. Then Windows arrived and the folks at Wordperfect didn't feel the need to hurry in porting themselves to the new platform. They had achieved lock-in after all, and why support Microsoft?
In less than a year, they were toast.
When the game machine platform of choice switches from Sony to xBox to Nintendo, etc., the list of bestelling games change and new companies become dominant.
When the platform for music shifted from record stores to iTunes, the power shifted too, and many labels were crushed.
Again and again the same rules apply. In fact, they always do. When the platform changes, the deck gets shuffled.
Think this only applies to software?
The platform for healthcare changed from independent doctor's offices and small practices to hospitals and hmos.
The platform for TV changed from airwaves to wires (so HBO and ESPN win, NBC loses).
The platform for cars is changing from gas engines to alternatives.
And the platform for books is changing (fast!) to e-books and readers. Just published today: the Vook multimedia production of Unleashing the Ideavirus. The price will increase to $5 in two weeks, but right now it's 99 cents. It runs on the web and on your iphone (and the iPad on April 3rd.)
Here's the thing: Vook abridged it, built it, filmed it and distributed it in less than ninety days. They have a software application that they can use again and again for other titles. They've organized themselves to be profitable at a profit margin that few big book publishers can match.
Once again, the platform changes. Insiders become outsiders and new opportunities abound.
March 10, 2010 10:35 AM
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger praises the resolve of Nicklas Bendtner, who put recent media criticism behind him by scoring a hat-trick in the 5-0 Champions League win over Porto.
March 10, 2010 10:34 AM
Egypt's top Muslim cleric has died suddenly in Saudi Arabia at the age of 81.
March 10, 2010 10:34 AM
Industrial production in the UK fell unexpectedly in January, dropping by 0.4% form December, official data has shown.
March 10, 2010 10:31 AM
Police will start DNA swabbing sessions later to attempt to find the murderer of an elderly woman in Hampshire.
March 10, 2010 10:30 AM
A former head of MI5 says she did not know US intelligence services were mistreating terror suspects until after she retired.
March 10, 2010 10:30 AM
South Africa's ANC asks Winnie Mandela to clarify a media report in which she apparently fiercely criticised ex-husband Nelson.
March 10, 2010 10:29 AM
Church authority at risk as scandals spread in Europe
March 10, 2010 10:27 AM
Reoffending by thousands of criminals serving short sentences in England and Wales costs up to £10bn a year, says a report.
March 10, 2010 10:25 AM
A pair of embracing students from Greater Manchester break the world record for the longest hug.
March 10, 2010 10:24 AM
The Dalai Lama accuses China of trying to "annihilate Buddhism", as Tibet marks 51 years since a failed revolt against Beijing.
March 10, 2010 10:23 AM
Police confirm they are digging up a garden in Fulham, south-west London, after a tip-off from a member of the public.
March 10, 2010 10:13 AM
Fraudsters are continuing their switch from traditional card fraud to raiding online bank accounts, research suggests.
March 10, 2010 10:12 AM
Many of you have been asking for some correspondence regarding the button position in the window manager.
Here it is.
At Ubuntu we have a golden opportunity not only to make our OS as good as the competition but to make it better. The button position discussion and analysis started with:
- Why do Mac OS and Windows have the buttons where they do?
- What was the functional reason behind the Mac OS choice (or the Windows position for that matter)?
- Why, when most application menus are top left should the window controls go top right?
- Why, when we read left to right is the most destructive action first?
- Are we smoking crack to think that the learning curve for getting used to a new position is ever going to be worth any real or perceived benefit of new positions?
As part of a major theme update it felt appropriate to ask these questions.
After the internal debate and analysis (which went something like the picture below) we decided to put this version in the theme and to use it. I have had it running on my machine with the buttons in this order since before the Portland sprint (first week of February?) and I am quite used to it.
Is it better or worse?
It is quite hard to tell. The theme has been in the alpha since Friday. Now that you have had a chance to use it what do you think?
Personally, I would have the max and min on the left and close on the right.
March 10, 2010 10:11 AM
The EU's foreign policy chief, Lady Ashton, tells MEPs how she will shape Europe's new diplomatic service, as officials vie for influence.
March 10, 2010 10:11 AM
Gordon Brown warns of economic storms ahead but vows not to "let you down" as the date of the Budget is announced.
March 10, 2010 10:01 AM
Cathay Pacific reports a return to full-year profit as cost cutting and bets on the price of fuel pay off.
March 10, 2010 09:59 AM
A gun has been seized and six men arrested during a police operation against suspected dissident republicans.
March 10, 2010 09:55 AM
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says it is the US, not Tehran, that is playing a "double game" in Afghanistan.
March 10, 2010 09:51 AM
Northern Rock says that it made "good progress" in 2009, after reporting a sharp fall in its annual losses.
March 10, 2010 09:48 AM
A court case brought by the family of Rachel Corrie, a US protester killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in 2003, opens in Israel.
March 10, 2010 09:16 AM
Indonesia's president confirms security forces have killed the last main suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings, Dulmatin.
March 10, 2010 09:14 AM
A Nigerian governor accuses the army of ignoring warnings of attacks, as communal tension remains high near Jos.
March 10, 2010 09:01 AM
Doctors' leaders urge ministers to halt the development of a medical records database for patients in England.
March 10, 2010 09:00 AM
Chevron has said it will continue to operate its Pembrokeshire refinery if a buyer for the site is not found.
March 10, 2010 08:53 AM
China's exports surged 46% in February, figures show, raising hopes of a strong recovery in global trade.
March 10, 2010 08:36 AM
Northern Rock is back on the road to recovery
March 10, 2010 08:30 AM
Can taxpayers profit from Northern Rock?
March 10, 2010 08:30 AM
A new election law formally bars pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in elections planned in Burma.
March 10, 2010 08:19 AM
The driving test should have compulsory questions on level crossings to teach good habits in learner drivers, says Network Rail.
March 10, 2010 08:05 AM
A case of mistaken identity reveals serious concerns over the way the NHS transfers medical records, BBC Scotland can reveal.
March 10, 2010 08:03 AM
Former UTV Reporter Fearghal McKinney is expected to announce later that he wants to be the next MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
March 10, 2010 08:01 AM
Top Pakistan cricketers Mohammad Yousuf and Younus Khan are told they cannot represent their country again.
March 10, 2010 07:56 AM
An MP writes to police to ask if there is a basis for a criminal inquiry into activities at Stafford Hospital.
March 10, 2010 07:39 AM
Three men are charged with UVF membership and involvement in a pipe bomb attack in Larne
March 10, 2010 07:25 AM
We've made two improvements to AWS Import/Export.
You can now send us a "raw" or internal SATA drive all by itself, with no need for an enclosure. You don't have to send connectors, cables, or power cords. Raw SATA drives appear to be the most cost-effective way to send large amounts of data from place to place.
If you have a SATA cradle (I use this one at home; others have told me that they like this one), you can connect the drive to your desktop machine without having to open up the enclosure.
Also, you can now send us drives with capacities up to 4 TB. Customers with the need to import or export large amounts of data will reduce the number of devices needed.
Don't forget that tools like Bucket Explorer, the CloudBerry S3 Explorer, and the S3Fox Explorer make it easy to create your Import and Export jobs.
-- Jeff;
March 10, 2010 07:07 AM
A delegation from Londonderry goes to Germany to seek a better redundancy deal for workers at the Arntz Belting plant.
March 10, 2010 06:56 AM
A change in how planned school closures are handled should be made to reduce uncertainty say opposition politicians.
March 10, 2010 06:43 AM
Change4Life, a programme offering tailored help on healthy living to families, is unveiled in Wales.
March 10, 2010 06:41 AM
I am currently visiting the Centre for Next Generation Localisation to work on a localisation guide for Amharic. It is part of the subproject for training in the African Network for Localisation. Hopefully we'll have our results on the ANLoc website soon.
March 10, 2010 06:25 AM
The inquest verdict into the deaths of four UK solder in Afghanistan is widely reported in Wednesday's papers.
March 10, 2010 05:50 AM
Why obesity is leading drivers to sleep at the wheel
March 10, 2010 05:18 AM
The US vice-president condemns Israel's approval of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, as he prepares to visit the West Bank.
March 10, 2010 04:27 AM
Just wanted to update everyone who showed interest in the new release of GNOME Developer Kit I announced yesterday. Based on some preliminary statistics I collected in the (less than) last 24 hours, it seems that the VMware image type got the most download, followed closely by the installable ISO format. I guess that was due to VirtualBox being able to use *.vmdk files and some people opting for the free virtualization tool.
Here are the preliminary results so far:
- VMware image: 42 downloads
- Installable ISO: 26 downloads
- RAW filesystem image: 17 downloads
About GNOME 2.29.92
Due to the number of downloads and and comments I received, I felt that I should provide with some background on how to install/remove packages and update your system using the conary package management system. So here you go:
The package management system behind the GNOME Developer Kit is called conary and is considered by many as the next generation package management system when compared to some of the popular options out there. One of the reasons behind this claim is the fact that your entire system is actually completely maintained in a versioned state, and conary is always “aware” of what is installed on your system and what files and dependencies make up the entire “set”. This allows for some pretty nifty operations such as rolling back to a specific state of your system.
In order to check for new updates for your system, open a terminal and run the command sudo conary updateall. conary will then check for updates and prompt you to accept the update or not. Please keep in mind that the first time you run conary for the first time, you will experience a delay as your entire system gets analyzed in preparation for the changes that are to take place. All subsequent actions performed will be much faster, I promise. If after a while you don’t feel like waiting for the prompt, add –no-interactive to the update command to have your system updated automatically.
Now, let’s just say that you decided to install something new, such as Banshee. Easy, just run sudo conary update banshee (remember to add –no-interactive for no-hands updates) and voilá!
Want to know what was actually installed on your system? conary q banshee will tell you what version of banshee was installed. How about what files were installed? conary q –ls banshee will give you a list of all the files that were installed and conary q –lsl banshee will give you the long list with file permissions and modes.
Changed your mind and want to remove banshee from your system? sudo conary erase banshee will take care of that. Want to actually roll your system back to the state it was before you installed banshee instead? sudo conary rollback 1 will rollback your system exactly one transaction. Want to go further back? Just increase that number to represent how many transactions to roll back. Want to rollback but don’t remember what point in time you want to go? sudo conary rblist will display a list of all transactions and what was changed. Note that each transaction is preceded by the letter “r“, so if you want to rollback to the point r.15, then use sudo conary rollback r.15 (and don’t forget that “r” or you’ll rollback exactly 15 transactions instead).
How about searching for a package? If it is something that it is already installed on your system, then conary q [package name] will give you the information you want. If the package is not installed on your system yet, then conary rq [package name] is what you need, though since conary does not yet make use of metadata, you’ll need to know the exact name of what you’re looking for. Now, let’s say you want to find out what package provides the command /sbin/service? Use conary q –path /sbin/service to find out that initscripts:runtime=8.81.2-0.11-1 is responsible for providing it (use rq if you want to search the remote repository).
Well, I think this is enough to get you going. You’ll probably want to install Flash and media codecs to enjoy browsing some sites and listening to your media, so let’s apply what we’ve learned so far and run: sudo conary update flashplayer group-codecs
If you’ve stayed with me until now, you may want to read up on what else conary can do or even consider packaging for GNOME Developer Kit. Your help will be greatly appreciated!
March 10, 2010 04:24 AM
Indonesia's President Yudhoyono confirms security forces killed terror suspect Dulmatin in raids in Jakarta on Tuesday.
March 10, 2010 04:21 AM
In the GNOME beer event, I had a nice chat with ebassi about the problems around our build configuration system and how things like CMake, SCons and Waf do not get the full picture and do not cover some of the really strange corncercases that autotools supports and therefore, coming up with a solution would be a 1 year work with a team of really experienced engineers.
As stubborn as I am, I decided to prove him wrong so I give you BuilDj:
The Problem
My main problem with our current Autotools situation are these:
- It is not portable as it encourages strong use of Bash and command line tools which ends up making it really hard to use on a non POSIX system, you know, like that used by 92% of the desktop users, even if the source code itself is perfectly portable.
- It gets on your way, a lot. Sometimes I refrained from writing some testcases just to avoid to add the Autotools boilerplate.
- Really bad documented, still.
- You need to learn M4/Autoconf, Automake, Make and Bash to use it properly, as if learning C, C++ or Vala and worrying about the problem the programmer is trying to solve is not hard enough.
- None extends it because it's hard to extend.
- Its hard to read and understand even if you eventually wrote it yourself, makes code refactoring a big pain.
- You simply can't parse autotools and have an IDE or a continous integration tool to understand what's there.
- The most important one, it scares peoples away, damaging our mindshare, making potential contributors go away. It drains the fun out of our platform.
Requirements
We need a human+machine friendly project description format, that it's pleasant to the eye when you read it, that it's intuitive enough to let you understand what's going on even if you never saw it before.
A format that gets out of your way!
It should support all of the common tasks a GNOME maintainer does (in-line .pc and .desktop file definition, mkenums, gobject introspection support, cross-compilation support, pkg-config oriented, xdg mimetype registration/definition, integration with intltool), but it should suppor them in a meaningful and unobtrusive way.
It should not be a programming language, but support embedable programming extensions with a well documented API, so that IDEs can integrate it.
My Proposal
A JSON description format called BuilDj that is build-system agnostic (although its reference implementation is done with Waf)
{
"project":
{
"name": "BuilDj Test",
"version": "0.0.1",
"url": "http://www.codethink.co.uk"
},
"requires":
{
"gtk+-2.0":
{
"type": "package",
"version": "2.14",
"mandatory": "True"
}
},
"targets":
{
"my_shared_lib":
{
"type": "sharedlib",
"tool": "cc",
"input": ["lib.c"],
"version": "1.2.3"
},
"my_gtk_program":
{
"type": "program",
"tool": "cc",
"input": ["gtk_program.c"],
"uses": ["my_shared_lib"],
"packages": ["gtk+-2.0"]
},
"my_vala_program":
{
"type": "program",
"tool": "vala",
"input": ["vala_program.vala"],
"packages": ["gtk+-2.0"]
}
}
I don't even need to explain what that means right? By the way, this stuff already works, check the git repository.
Currently it is implemented as a waf wscript that parses the project.js json file, I'm not really interested in entering the build system wars but focuing on having a reference implementation of the format.
I choosed waf because it was the only one that offered most of the features I want as an approachable API and it only adds python as a dependency.
Implementations of the format in other systems are more than welcome, but current development will stick to waf in the foreseeable future.
I'm planning to propose and mentor this work as a Summer of Code project so that we can implement the missing basic features and support for a few GNOME apps.
There's a lot of work to do, support for C++, library and function checking, system type sizes, full cross compilation support. We already have some mockups and plans for those, and the waf maintainer has shown himself quite happy to accept patches upstream for the general purpose tools and that make things easier.
Despite the missing features, it surprisingly itches some of my own scratches already.
P.S. Anjuta and MonoDevelop guys, if you're listening, I'd love to get your feedback!
March 10, 2010 02:55 AM
This blog entry represents the views of me, myself and I, and does not represent the views of my employer (Canonical) or System 76. While I have decided to write a review of this specific machine, there are many vendors out there who ship Ubuntu on their machines and this review does not favor System76 over these other vendors. Heck, I am happy to review their machines too if they want. 
Recently I got one of these new System 76 ultra-thin laptops, the Lemur:
System76 are well known in the Open Source community for shipping Ubuntu on their machines, being active community members and for helping LoCo teams with machines too. I have never owned a System76 box so I thought this was a good opportunity to give it a ride and share some feedback.
So first, the specs:
- Display: 14.0″ HD WXGA Super Clear Ultra-Bright LED backlit (1366 x 768)
- Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics
- Audio Output: Intel High Definition Audio
- Networking: Gigabit LAN (10/100/1000), WiFi
- Wireless: 802.11 agn
- Expansion: Express Card 34 slot
- Ports: HDMI, VGA, 3 x USB 2.0, Headphone Jack, Microphone Jack, SD Reader
- Camera: Built-In 1.3 MP Webcam
- Security: Kensington® Lock
- Power Management: Suspend & Hibernate
- Battery: Lemur UltraThin Li-Polymer Battery Pack
- AC Adapter: includes one AC adapter
- Dimensions: 13.38″ x 9.09″ x 0.90″ (WxDxH)
- Weight: 3.5 lbs
The machine I got has an Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 1.3 GHz 800 MHz FSB 3 MB L2 (10 Watt), 4GB RAM (DDR3 1066 MHz 1 DIMM) and a 80 GB Intel X25-M Solid State Drive.
Now, in the interests of full disclosure: I don’t really do reviews, so this is going to be a quick run through the details, not a 150-picture unboxing and War And Peace epic of every minor detail of the machine. I just wanted to get my experience down as quickly as possible so I could share my feedback with others.
The Machine
OK, let’s zip through the summary:
The machine is a really sleek looking bit of kit. The first thing that struck me is how well designed it feels: it doesn’t feel like a randomly thrown together collection of components. It is thin and incredibly light, and has a very Apple-ish feel to it. It passed what I am calling the Lost Test: that is, when laid in bed at night watching Lost on Hulu with said laptop rested on your chest (for that IMAX effect), how many episodes can you get though before you feel like your heart is about to overheat and stop working. It’s lightness and lack of heat helped it pass with flying colors.
The screen looks great, doesn’t seem to smudge easily and is nice and bright. I like the fact it is a widescreen, something I miss with my current Thinkpad.
The keyboard is pretty much ok: it ain’t no Thinkpad keyboard, but of all the laptops I have owned and that are buried in my laptop graveyard, the Lemur’s keyboard feels better than most. The keys are wide enough and I love the fact that there is no Windows key, but instead an Ubuntu key. I want to see more of that, yes I do.
The trackpad is long and feels pretty good, and the buttons don’t look like buttons but instead areas on the trackpad near the bottom where you can push down: this makes it look really sleek. Unfortunately at first the buttons are a little hard to press, but I have noticed that they are getting easier, so I think they just need breaking in a little.
With the current configuration of processor and RAM, this thing is shit off a shovel fast. It zips along like no-ones business, and Ubuntu is up and running in a matter of seconds. While I didn’t test any hardcore 3D games on there, it runs Compiz great with the extra effects switched on.
Sounds works great, the speakers sound surprisingly good and the built-in webcam works well too. Finally, the battery life seems fine in terms of life, but not outstanding. Then again, I am used to my extra-long-life Thinkpad batteries.
My only real gripe believe it or not is the packaging the machine comes in: it visually looks cheap with a large generic “notebook” logo and doesn’t reflect the swishness of the machine encased inside it. I spoke to Carl Richell, founder of System76 about this and he has acknowledged it is an issue and they are keen to fix it: he said they really want every essence of the System76 experience to feel sleek. Good man.
The Default Install: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala
It is just incredible driving back from picking up a computer from the UPS warehouse and knowing that it already has Ubuntu pre-installed. I have never bought a pre-installed Ubuntu computer before, so I was curious to see how it looked. I got it home, switched it on and it threw up the installer’s configuration settings: I entered my details and the system was ready to roll. I was left with pretty much a default installation of Ubuntu: there is not the horrible bundled collection of software you don’t want and ugly vendor wallpaper that you find if you buy a typical Windows pre-loaded machine. Good work System76 on shipping what I consider a great representation of Ubuntu.
Other than that, nothing much to say: everything just works as you would expect.
Running Lucid
Being part of the Ubuntu development team, I was keen to get Lucid on there. I used Update Manager to update to Lucid and installation was smooth. Once again everything works: any bugs that I have found have not been specific to this machine, but replicated on my other Lucid machine. What is really noticeable is boot speed on the SSD: it is bonkers fast.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think the Lemur is a beautiful machine, and combined with what I consider a beautiful Operating System, particularly with the new fit and finish of Lucid. When running the Lemur it really feels like great design in hardware and software meeting well. I would happily recommend this machine to others.
March 10, 2010 02:54 AM
A Belgian daily has issued what is thought to be Europe's first 3D newspaper - complete with cardboard viewing glasses.
March 10, 2010 01:35 AM
Deforestation in central Africa has revealed what could be an impact crater left by a giant space rock, scientists say.
March 10, 2010 01:26 AM
More schools in England are being judged as inadequate in Ofsted's new-style inspections, figures are expected to show.
March 10, 2010 01:25 AM
Rules to improve child protection after the Baby P case may leave children more vulnerable to harm, council leaders warn.
March 10, 2010 01:16 AM
Foreign Secretary David Miliband is to urge the Afghan president to seek a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.
March 10, 2010 01:04 AM
Foreign Secretary David Miliband is to urge the Afghan president to seek a political solution to the conflict with the Taliban.
March 10, 2010 01:04 AM
Universities are to be given £10m of National Lottery money to encourage more students to get involved in sport.
March 10, 2010 12:56 AM
One of the world's leading Scotch whisky suppliers warns Scottish jobs could go under plans for minimum drink pricing.
March 10, 2010 12:54 AM
Talks are to be held over Edinburgh's tram project in a bid to end a stalemate which has halted work on the route.
March 10, 2010 12:42 AM
Attempts to reach a cross-party deal on funding social care appear to be dead in the water ahead of a key summit.
March 10, 2010 12:36 AM
Can all species live side by side in unique ecosystem?
March 10, 2010 12:31 AM
The eggshells of long-dead and extinct species are a particularly good source to find preserved DNA, researchers say.
March 10, 2010 12:22 AM
Ban Ki-moon pays tribute to the 101 UN staff who died in the Haiti quake, as President Preval seeks US support for the economy.
March 10, 2010 12:12 AM
A £1bn government scheme to regenerate former coalmines has been poorly co-ordinated and lacks vision, MPs argue.
March 10, 2010 12:12 AM
Three men are arrested in connection with the theft of the corpse of Cyprus's ex-President Papadopoulos, officials say.
March 10, 2010 12:07 AM
Talks aimed averting strike action by BA cabin crew are due to resume later, after a deadline was extended.
March 10, 2010 12:04 AM
March 09, 2010
A US woman from Pennsylvania faces charges of using the internet to recruit female militant fighters for deadly attacks abroad.
March 09, 2010 11:56 PM
Why postal reforms are good news for direct mailers
March 09, 2010 11:31 PM
Brussels says it hopes European aerospace group EADS was not prevented from fairly bidding for a major US defence deal.
March 09, 2010 10:44 PM
Darren Bent scores a hat-trick as Sunderland claim their first league win of 2010 against ten-man Bolton.
March 09, 2010 10:28 PM
…that this part of my desktop could feel so sleek:
Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, we are ready for you.
March 09, 2010 10:25 PM
A County Durham artist charged with mocking Turkey's prime minister by portraying him as a dog is handed a fine.
March 09, 2010 09:51 PM
A professional gambler is found guilty of running a £34m pyramid scam which targeted people on low incomes.
March 09, 2010 09:46 PM
Two goals from Cameron Jerome inspire Birmingham to a battling win against bottom-club Portsmouth at Fratton Park.
March 09, 2010 09:41 PM
Nicklas Bendtner silences his recent critics with a hat-trick as Arsenal see off Porto in emphatic fashion to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.
March 09, 2010 09:41 PM
Second-half goals by Steven Whittaker and Kenny Miller help Rangers move 13 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premier League with victory over Kilmarnock.
March 09, 2010 09:40 PM
A US TV producer pleads guilty to attempting to blackmail US chat show host David Letterman over his affairs.
March 09, 2010 09:38 PM
Bayern Munich reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League on away goals after losing 3-2 to Fiorentina.
March 09, 2010 09:37 PM
President Barack Obama has 'responded positively' to calls to clamp down on market speculators, says the Greek PM after talks.
March 09, 2010 09:27 PM
UK painter defiant despite Turkish conviction
March 09, 2010 09:15 PM
Qaiku, the conversational microblogging service that launched a year ago had a refresh that launched today. While it hasn't yet convinced the twittering masses, it has already proven itself as a lot more thoughtful platform for the Finnish online community, and as a valuable workstreaming tool.
The new version looks quite nice and fresh. Notice the privacy information on the right-hand side, which is relevant as Qaiku allows channels and profiles that are private or invitation-only:
Technically the new version is also remarkable as it is the first major website to run fully on top of the legacy-free Midgard2 platform. So yes, every entry you see there is a GObject. And D-Bus signals fly when you post.
On to the challenge, then
To highlight Qaiku's threading, conversational nature I started a new "On my travels, I have" thread for sharing your most extraordinary travel experiences. This is not on Twitter or Buzz as with Qaiku it is so easy to keep the conversation together and accessible for the future as well.
To contribute, sign up on Qaiku, go to the thread and add your experiences as a comment. If you have a link or picture to include, you can also do so. My first entry was:
seen ice descend from the heavens and provide us with cold beer on a hot day in Lesotho
Will be interesting to see what comes out of this :-)
March 09, 2010 09:10 PM
Israel announces 1,600 new homes for East Jerusalem, threatening to overshadow the US vice-president's visit.
March 09, 2010 09:07 PM
Killer Peter Chapman 'should never see daylight'
March 09, 2010 09:06 PM
The UK goods trade deficit with the rest of the world widens in January, causing the pound to dip below $1.50.
March 09, 2010 08:38 PM
The US apologises for comments made by a spokesman after Libya's Col Gaddafi called for a holy war against Switzerland.
March 09, 2010 08:24 PM
A new medal to honour the courage of ordinary people who helped others escape the Nazis has been given to two men at Downing Street by Gordon Brown.
March 09, 2010 08:21 PM
A vigil has been held in honour of a father, mother and son who died after falling from a Glasgow tower block.
March 09, 2010 08:07 PM
The coroner at an inquest into the death of four soldiers in an Afghan blast says there were training "inadequacies".
March 09, 2010 08:00 PM
The devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland marks the end to decades of strife, Gordon Brown says.
March 09, 2010 07:50 PM
The US State Department apologises for comments its spokesman made after Libya's Col Gaddafi called for a holy war against Switzerland.
March 09, 2010 07:47 PM
// Because sometime you just need everything in the global context
var Module = imports.module;
for (i in Module)
this[i] = Module[i];
// note this only works from scripts eval'ed via the C API
// gjs_context_eval or gjs_context_eval_file
// as this == [global object]
[read this post in:
ar de es fr it ja ko pt ru zh-CN ]
March 09, 2010 07:40 PM
A ransom was demanded for the stolen and now-recovered body of Cyprus ex-President Papadopoulos, a minister says.
March 09, 2010 07:23 PM
Arsenal take on Porto for a place in the Champions League quarter-finals and, in the Premier League, Portsmouth host Birmingham and Sunderland play Bolton.
March 09, 2010 07:00 PM
Two students fighting deportation to Pakistan were arrested days before they planned a terror strike in the UK, a court hears.
March 09, 2010 06:46 PM
Interesting commentary:
I don't think this is really a case about ISP liability at all. It is a case about the use of a person's image, without their consent, that generates commercial value for someone else. That is the essence of the Italian law at issue in this case. It is also how the right of privacy was first established in the United States.
The video at the center of this case was very popular in Italy and drove lots of users to the Google Video site. This boosted advertising and support for other Google services. As a consequence, Google actually had an incentive not to respond to the many requests it received before it actually took down the video.
Back in the U.S., here is the relevant history: after Brandeis and Warren published their famous article on the right to privacy in 1890, state courts struggled with its application. In a New York state case in 1902, a court rejected the newly proposed right. In a second case, a Georgia state court in 1905 endorsed it.
What is striking is that both cases involved the use of a person's image without their consent. In New York, it was a young girl, whose image was drawn and placed on an oatmeal box for advertising purposes. In Georgia, a man's image was placed in a newspaper, without his consent, to sell insurance.
Also important is the fact that the New York judge who rejected the privacy claim, suggested that the state assembly could simple pass a law to create the right. The New York legislature did exactly that and in 1903 New York enacted the first privacy law in the United States to protect a person's "name or likeness" for commercial use.
The whole thing is worth reading.
March 09, 2010 06:36 PM
Seven people are arrested in the Irish Republic over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist for depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
March 09, 2010 06:24 PM
The monitoring of a sex offender who killed a girl he met on Facebook is to be investigated by the police watchdog.
March 09, 2010 06:23 PM
The Ministry of Defence names two British soldiers killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan on Sunday.
March 09, 2010 06:09 PM
A man goes on trial charged with murdering his five-month-old daughter by hitting her on the head and body.
March 09, 2010 06:08 PM
Planned new BNP constitution allowing non-white members may still be discriminatory, a court is told.
March 09, 2010 06:07 PM
Dutch bishops order an inquiry into alleged sexual abuses of children by Catholic priests, threatening a new scandal.
March 09, 2010 06:05 PM
The slides for my talk about the audio infrastructure of Linux mobile
devices at BOSSA 2010 in Manaus/Brazil are now available
online. They are terse (as usual), and the most interesting stuff is
probably in what I said, and not so much in what I wrote in those slides. But
nonetheless I believe this might still be quite interesting for attendees as
well as non-attendees.
The talk focuses on the audio architecture of the Nokia N900 and the Palm
Pre, and of course particularly their use of PulseAudio for all things audio. I analyzed
and compared their patch sets to figure out what their priorities are, what we
should move into PulseAudio mainline, and what should better be left in their
private patch sets.
March 09, 2010 06:04 PM
India's upper house sees a second day of uproar as it backs a bill to reserve a third of all parliamentary seats for women.
March 09, 2010 06:02 PM
Portsmouth will not be able to compete in Europe next season even if they win the FA Cup.
March 09, 2010 05:57 PM
The Chevron oil firm is looking for bids for a refinery that directly employs around 1,400 people in Pembrokeshire.
March 09, 2010 05:45 PM
A West Midlands police chief inspector hit a student in his car but failed to stop and later claimed he hit a post, a jury is told.
March 09, 2010 05:33 PM
Rock band Pink Floyd launch legal action in the High Court against EMI over payment of online royalties and marketing of their music.
March 09, 2010 05:31 PM
UPDATE: Thanks Alberto Ruiz for pointing out that VirtualBox can use .vmdk files, so the VMware image can be used for that purpose.
Thanks to the incredible work of Zhang “Jesse” Sen and Vladimir Melo, a brand new release of the GNOME Developer Kit has been published! “What’s new”, you may ask? Everything, since all packages are built directly from git.gnome.org! 
But that alone is not what makes this release so cool, but the fact that the final image went through a dramatic “diet”, shedding a lot of its “weight” and going from a 1.4GB monster to less than 700MB of pure GNOME goodness!!!
Firefox was replaced by Epiphany and codecs and fancy-Nancy stuff was scrapped to make room for a lightweight release for developers and translators!
So go ahead and try the new images today:
March 09, 2010 05:24 PM
A pensioner has admitted making a hoax bomb and leaving it outside a dental surgery he believed had overcharged him.
March 09, 2010 05:23 PM
All dog owners in England and Wales would need insurance against their animals attacking people under Labour proposals.
March 09, 2010 05:17 PM
Somalia's president says efforts are being made to release a Kent couple held by pirates at the "earliest possible date".
March 09, 2010 05:14 PM
A former Israeli spy who played a key role in Africa, the Middle East and the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal has died.
March 09, 2010 05:11 PM
Is a child told about a Caesarean birth genuinely "at risk"?
March 09, 2010 04:57 PM
The Tories say new figures back up its case that violent crime has risen under Labour, reopening a long-running political row.
March 09, 2010 04:52 PM
The Football Association is looking into a security breach after a recording emerged purporting to carry discussions between England coaches and players.
March 09, 2010 04:39 PM
David Beckham insists he will not show any nerves when he faces Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time with AC Milan on Wednesday night.
March 09, 2010 04:35 PM
AC Milan's David Beckham says he is excited to face Manchester United at Old Trafford for the first time but maintains he wants them to lose.
March 09, 2010 04:35 PM
Indonesian security forces kill three alleged militants and investigate whether one is key Bali bomb suspect Dulmatin.
March 09, 2010 04:24 PM
The UK donates £1m ($1.5m) to South Africa to buy 42m condoms, as the nation builds up to the football World Cup.
March 09, 2010 04:21 PM
Togo in trouble as election protests continue to rage
March 09, 2010 04:21 PM
A 24-year-old woman admits killing a businessman on his way home from a work night out in Aberdeen.
March 09, 2010 04:20 PM
The coroner at an inquest into the death of four soldiers in an Afghan blast says there were training "inadequacies".
March 09, 2010 04:16 PM
Microsoft schedules its security updates on the second Tuesday of the month. Adobe recently began following this schedule as well, and while there are no Adobe updates today, there was an out-of-cycle security update two weeks ago.
That update should now be applied if you haven't already done so.
Why?
Because we're now seeing the vulnerability (CVE-2010-0188) being exploited in targeted attacks (Microsoft also).
Our sample was submitted by a European financial organization and the file name includes a reference to the G20. The exploit drops a downloader and attempts to make a connection to tiantian.ninth.biz. We detect this attack as Exploit:W32/PDFExploit.G.
It doesn't surprise us to see this Adobe Reader vulnerability utilized so quickly.
Looking through our sample management system, we see a growing number of targeted attack files.
There were 1968 files in 2008. The number was 2195 during the year 2009. That isn't a very large increase in the overall total from 2008 to 2009 but we did see a greater percentage targeting Adobe.
And how about the first two months of 2010?
Well, so far the number is 895, which will more than double last year's number if the current pace continues.
The percentage targeting Adobe Reader continues to rise.
Here's a graph with a breakdown of the most common attack vectors used in targeted (espionage) attacks:
On 09/03/10 At 03:30 PM
March 09, 2010 04:15 PM
I'm doing a talk today in the Bossa Conference about using Midgard as a content repository for mobile applications. As part of my presentation I wrote some simple example code for using the Midgard APIs in Python, and thought they would be good to share to those not attending the event as well.
The idea of a content repository is that instead of coming up with new, isolated file formats or database setups for your application you can just work with objects and signals, and let Midgard handle the rest. This is something that lots of people are doing with CouchDB as well, but we feel Midgard, with its light footprint and native APIs for languages like Python, C, Vala and PHP fits better in the mobile applications context.
Installing Midgard
Midgard packages are available for many different Linux distributions through the OpenSuse Build Service. To find the right repository for your setup, go to the OBS project page. For example, on my Ubuntu Karmic netbook the URL to add to apt sources.list is deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/midgardproject:/mjolnir/xUbuntu_9.10/ ./. Then I just:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python-midgard2
Midgard is also available in Maemo extras and for OS X on MacPorts.
Defining a schema
The first thing when developing a Midgard application is to define your storage objects. This is done using the MgdSchema XML format. In this case we're doing a simple "attendee" object that amends Midgard's built-in person record with information related to the conference:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Schema xmlns="http://www.midgard-project.org/repligard/1.4">
<type name="openbossa_attendee" table="openbossa_attendee">
<property name="id" type="unsigned integer" primaryfield="id">
<description>Local non-replication-safe database identifier</description>
</property>
<property name="person" type="unsigned integer" link="midgard_person:id">
<description>Person attending the event</description>
</property>
<property name="registration" type="datetime">
<description>Registration date of the attendee</description>
</property>
<property name="likesbeer" type="boolean">
<description>Whether the attendee likes beer</description>
</property>
</type>
</Schema>
Then we just save this XML file into /usr/share/midgard2/schema/ so that Midgard will find it.
Initiating the repository connection
Once the MgdSchema is in place it is time to import antigravity and start hacking in Python. The code works pretty much in the same way in other languages Midgard is available for, but Python is used here for the sake of simplicity. First we load the Midgard extension:
import _midgard as midgard
Then we setup the repository connection. With these settings we will store our content into an SQLite database located in ~/.midgard2/data/midgardexample.db:
configuration = midgard.config()
configuration.dbtype = 'SQLite'
configuration.database = 'midgardexample'
# Open a Midgard repository connection with our config
connection = midgard.connection()
connection.open_config(configuration)
As this is the first time we're interacting with the repository we need to tell Midgard to prepare the storage for itself and also for our new openbossa_attendee class:
midgard.storage.create_base_storage()
midgard.storage.create_class_storage('midgard_person')
midgard.storage.create_class_storage('midgard_parameter')
midgard.storage.create_class_storage('openbossa_attendee')
Interacting with data
First we create a person object with our attendee:
person = midgard.mgdschema.midgard_person()
person.firstname = 'Leif'
person.lastname = 'Eriksson'
person.create()
Then we create our attendee object and link that with the person we just created:
attendee = midgard.mgdschema.openbossa_attendee()
attendee.person = person.id
attendee.likesbeer = True
attendee.create()
Querying data
Later we'll want to find out about all Leifs attending the event. We do this by using the Midgard query builder:
qb = midgard.query_builder('openbossa_attendee')
qb.add_constraint('person.firstname', '=', 'Leif')
attendees = qb.execute()
The query builder returns us a list of matching attendee objects. We can go through them and also fetch the associated persons:
for attendee in attendees:
person = midgard.mgdschema.midgard_person()
person.get_by_id(attendee.person)
if attendee.likesbeer:
print "%s, %s is attending the event" % (person.lastname, person.firstname)
Then we can update the persons with their email addresses:
person.email = 'leif@vinland.no'
person.update()
For basic data handling, that's it! When you need more, you can extend objects with file attachments or parameters. You can also create joined records using Midgard views. Midgard provides D-Bus signals, transactions, centralized metadata, synchronization and many other things.
March 09, 2010 04:10 PM
Israel and Syria both tell a conference in Paris they want to use nuclear power to generate electricity.
March 09, 2010 04:01 PM
The DOJ is breaking up ES&S, the country’s largest provider of voting machinery, the OSDV project seems to be gaining some attention, and RHAT stock recently hit a five-year high. This seems like as good a time as any to dig up my ‘Red Hat should be in electronic voting‘ post and followup. Take the gamble, Raleigh! Buy the ES&S assets at bargain prices and get into the game.
March 09, 2010 03:52 PM
We use lifts daily, but how common are accidents?
March 09, 2010 03:43 PM
The Supreme Court rules against a north London Christian registrar disciplined for refusing to conduct same-sex civil partnerships.
March 09, 2010 03:37 PM
The son of Rwanda's first President, Dominique Mbonyumutwa, protests at orders to exhume his father's remains.
March 09, 2010 03:25 PM
