p2pnet view

It’s as if some people come in looking desperately for something to “flame”.  No matter how clearly you think you’ve explained something, you always get a few acting as if you’re trying to hide something, or you’re just straight-out lying.

CASE IN POINT: “p2pnet runs NO trackers!”

This is not an opinion, an assumption, or some “foregone conclusion”.  I don’t need to “investigate” anything, or even be the site admin, to make this statement, because it is a FACT!

But, what keeps this fact from being accepted as just that?  The same thing that has all our backs up in the first place – all that F$%N’ CORPORATE INTERFERENCE we’re always talking about!

Before I ultimately get into the tracking thing again, let’s take a trip down Memory Lane, shall we?…

A HISTORY OF SELFISH, UNASHAMED INTRUSION

Ever since the inception of e-mail, the Great Marketing Machine saw it as another advertising tool, and a “cool new resource” for furthering its never-happy agenda.  We got direct spam.  First, server admins reacted by trying to inform everyone (very clearly, I might add) that their networks did not exist to promote “unsolicited business” of any kind, that e-mail was for personal use, and they needed the recipients’ consent to send anything to them.  Thus, spam was stigmatized early in the game as a very unacceptable activity.

Strangely enough, there was no actual need to stigmatize spam – it was clearly outlined in most of the very first Terms of Service agreements that were signed (and, at that point in time, they actually DID sign them!) by all early users of the Internet, private and corporate alike.  It was all included in the broader term “network abuse”, and people DID lose their accounts for violating their TOS on those grounds.

Well, spam may have been labelled “unacceptable”, but that obviously never mattered to the corporate mindset.  Spam increased quickly, and without a single hickup, despite network admins even threatening to cut their accounts and/or blacklisting other IPs and even full networks from accessing their networks.  We countered it with filters, then we got “spoofed” senders.  We countered with blocklists, and the corporates decided to do something that was nothing short of waging war on all e-mail users… we got viruses!

Sure, we were often lead to believe viruses were written by “rebels” (usually “living in a basement”) who were somehow only looking for some “misplaced recognition” that they could “sabotage” someone else’s computer in some way.  But, the fact is, that’s only a small part of the story.  You need only ask yourself, what would really make it *profitable* to do such a thing?

Virus writers were greeted with open arms, as they were commissioned by the determined corporate marketers, to help them fool the user into unwittingly allowing a number of things to happen to himself, such as direct pop-up ads served by their own browsers, or Windows Messenger service.  Some attempted to rewrite system files, in order to screw with the users’ ability to stop their future intended intrusions (such as reenabling messenger, should it be turned off).  The selfish, deceitful and malicious nature of a psychopathic agenda took on a very blatant form, and it should have been quite obvious (to anyone who was paying attention) that corporate interests were already the biggest threat to the health of the Internet, and the computers that were forming it in exponentially-increasing numbers.

Many of you know this story, but for the sake of others, I’ll continue a little more…

So, thanks to the determination of the corporate marketing community to prevent you from enjoying your computer without their interference, antivirus software became a necessity.  The corporates countered with socially-engineered virus delivery and malware, and exploiting alternate network ports (which were wide open and abundant at that point), to either do an end-run around your AV, or take down your defense entirely!  The new viruses began installing their own software, containing everything from independent network connection to e-mail and FTP capabilities, in order to ”phone home” without your immediate knowledge, download more stuff intended to “rewire” your configuration itself.  Soon, system setups and administrative controls were being altered, and people really were losing control of their computers to unknowns from remote locations.

Then came firewalls, as there was now the necessity to control not only who was connecting TO you, but also who YOUR machine was trying to reach (and by whose instigation).  We got things like web exploits, poisoned torrent files, and DNS hijackings as an answer to that.  Fast forward to the present day, and the whole thing has yet to stop.  We now play with peerblockers to cut down on the “bad peers” who would deliver us a virus or track us with intent to sue.  We’re running script blockers to stop malicious code from executing on our machines.

Code that was planted by the Great Marketing Machine, on some of our favourite websites, thanks to the cooperation of clueless hosts, who are in a position to allow it, and were paid to do so.

TRACKING ISSUE – QUANTSERVE

I’m still getting comments about Google and Quantserve injecting malicious code via WP.  And, in the case of Quantserve, at least, that’s correct!  In the case of including Google in the same complaint, however, there’s a problem.  You can’t have BOTH Quantserve and Google tracking operating through the same site.

The funny thing is, I NEVER DENIED the existence of EITHER of these scripts. What I denied, and still deny, was the accusation that *p2pnet* is the one serving either of them. Thus the persistent statement, “p2pnet runs NO trackers!”  Now that I have more of the facts, which I already promised to deliver once I had them, I can elaborate…

It is quite obvious that WordPress has acted against the very wishes of the “open community”, and very quietly tweaked a common plug-in used by many WP sites (WP-Stats), thus allowing Quantcast 3rd-party tracking of those sites.  This is totally UNACCEPTABLE for many sites… *especially* this one!

If anyone bothered to actually read what I’ve said, someone would’ve absorbed the part where I said the fact alone that a tracker was embedded in WP was enough for me to strongly recommend BLOCKING Quantcast and Quantserve AT THE FIREWALL LEVEL. Perhaps nobody understood the term “embedded in WP”??

The one thing I did get schooled on was that WP-Stats is no longer a “benign” thing.  But, I don’t feel guilty with that wrong assumption.  I was SUPPOSED to trust it!  Lots of people experienced with WordPress (of which I am not) were taken by the surprise, as it wasn’t just “unethical”, but a complete change in the way WP had been doing business up to this point.

Not only is the plug-in poisoned for WP users, but it also causes performance problems for many.

I wrote another thing people need to come to grips with that many seem to have failed to read: I’M NOT THE SITE ADMIN! I’m just handling the site’s comments and trying to keep it active while the owner is recovering from heart surgery and all its complications. I don’t have access to p2pnet’s server, and cannot effect network control changes. Even if I could, I’m not about to arbitrarily act on things like that without Jon’s input, or at least the involvement of the site’s administrator.

Naturally, I’m in the process of getting the proper approval (from someone who may not need this right now, I remind you), and intend to take that and get the proper assistance from the one who can address it at the server level, if required. I’m not going to take it upon myself to disable a plug-in, or install any counter-scripts, without his blessing, and have to consider what other factors may come into play, should I do such a thing.

Another piece of browbeating I’m getting says that “WP explains it in detail on their website. Full code and information is available on numerous websites about both.”

WordPress appears to be doing no such thing!
There’s no mention of Quantcast or the injection of the Quantserve script in any of their pages about WP-Stats. And, it looks like their admins are being very evasive on other forums that are asking about it. They’re simply downplaying what it does, and spinning it with talks of supposed “cool features” everyone’s going to get out of it, while the site admins are livid and ready to throw in the towel on WP over it.

If anyone has a link that shows WordPress itself detailing the Quantserve script (and I mean in an honest, unsuppressed way), please post it!

There has been a counter-script (another plug-in) released that is designed to block the 3rd party access, while keeping the user-pertinent functionality in it. Looks good, too, except that it’s still an alpha release. The author, a well-known coder who has written lots for WP, is stating that there may still be a bug in it.

Again, I don’t own or administer this site, nor do I have stake in it (other than deep personal interest, of course).  I’ve put this matter to the right people, and that’s all I *can* do.

TRACKING ISSUE - GOOGLE ANALYTICS

The jury’s still out on why the Google Analytics script even shows up in connection with p2pnet.

None of p2pnet’s plug-ins enable this, Jon doesn’t run any Google Ads or Google anything, and Quantserve is already present, thanks to WP-Stats.  (Remember, I said the 2 trackings can’t be run from the same site at the same time.)

At the moment I can only theorize 2 possibilities:

1. Analytics is getting permission to be injected DIRECTLY by WordPress.
2. Google is playing a mean game with cookies, and exploiting individual machines at the user level.

If WordPress is cooperating, Jon’s gonna freak when gets back into the game.

In the meantime, for those who still think p2pnet is some willing party to any of this tracking, have a look at these:

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/wordpresscom-stats-and-quantserve

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpresscom-stats-quantserve-code-in-stats-javascript

http://wordpress.org/search/quantserve?forums=1

Devil’s Advocate – p2pnet

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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With him (on both counts) is/are Dan ‘The Joker’ Glickman, the failed and now departed but still alive ex-MPAA boss.

Someone named Bob Pisano is currently the acting helmsman.

Anyway, The Mad Hatter left a comment link to the comic strip on the right, which appeared in Everybody loves Eric Raymond in 2007.

Under the strip are these immortal words >>>

“Nothing of value is free. It is very easy, Mr. Chairman, to convince people that it is in their best interest to give away somebody else’s property for nothing, but even the most guileless among us know that this is a cave of illusion where commonsense is lured and then quietly strangled.” - Jack Valenti, MPAA

“If you design your own machine, you can’t fuss at people, because you’re one of just a few. How many Linux users are there?” - Jack Valenti, MPAA

And these links

• Ars Technica: MPAA’s University Toolkit hit with DMCA takedown notice after GPL violation
• Matthew Garrett: MPAA don’t fuck with my shit.
• Matthew Garrett: More
• Wikipedia: MPAA’s Dan Glickman
• Wikipedia: Jack Valenti
• Wikiquote: MPAA’s Jack Valenti comedy goldmine
• ffii.org: Frits Bolkestein – digital copyright totalitarianism
• Wikipedia: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
• Geek t-shirts and stickers

(Cheers, Wayne )

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December 28, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

World War III will be a global information war with no division between civilian & military participation ~ Marshall McLuhan

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But the Chrome system “relies on a data connection to link to Google’s ‘cloud’ of servers, which are at unknown locations, to store documents and other information”, says the story, going on >>>

The risks include loss of legal rights to data if it is stored on a company’s machine’s rather than your own, Stallman points out: “In the US, you even lose legal rights if you store your data in a company’s machines instead of your own. The police need to present you with a search warrant to get your data from you; but if they are stored in a company’s server, the police can get it without showing you anything. They may not even have to give the company a search warrant.”

Google boss Eric Schmidt, however, waxes enthusiastic on the official company blog.

According to him, the Chrome OS is “the latest chapter in an epic journey” and “something computer scientists have been dreaming about for a very, very long time. The kind of magic that we could imagine 20 years ago, but couldn’t make real because we lacked the technology.”

Wow, eh?

However, “I think that marketers like ‘cloud computing’ because it is devoid of substantive meaning”, says Stallman in the Guardian post, declaring >>>

The term’s meaning is not substance, it’s an attitude: ‘Let any Tom, Dick and Harry hold your data, let any Tom, Dick and Harry do your computing for you (and control it).’ Perhaps the term ‘careless computing’ would suit it better.”

I suppose many people will continue moving towards careless computing, because there’s a sucker born every minute. The US government may try to encourage people to place their data where the US government can seize it without showing them a search warrant, rather than in their own property. However, as long as enough of us continue keeping our data under our own control, we can still do so. And we had better do so, or the option may disappear.

“Stallman only sees one aspect of ChromeOS to applaud: its GNU/Linux heritage”, says the story, quoting him as stating:

“In essence, Chrome OS is the GNU/Linux operating system. However, it is delivered without the usual applications, and rigged up to impede and discourage installing applications.

“I’d say the problem is in the nature of the job ChromeOS is designed to do. Namely, encourage you to keep your data elsewhere, and do your computing elsewhere, instead of doing it in your own computer.”

So, keep your head out of the clouds.

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Guardian – Google’s ChromeOS means losing control of data, warns GNU founder Richard Stallman, December 14, 2010
blog – Cloud computing: the latest chapter in an epic journey, December 12, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Open source drivers are now out there for Linux, thanks to Hector Martin.

Adafruit made it interesting and now “WE HAVE A WINNER – Open Kinect driver(s) released – Winner will use $3k for more hacking – PLUS an additional $2k goes to the EFF!” – it says.

Earlier in the month, “Hi from team Adafruit, we’re going to do our first ever ‘X prize’ type project. Hack the Kinect for Xbox 360 and claim the $2,000 bounty! NOW $3,000.”

“Kinect for Xbox 360, or simply Kinect (originally known by the code name Project Natal (pronounced /nəˈtɒl/ nə-tahl)), is a ‘controller-free gaming and entertainment experience’ by Microsoft for the Xbox 360 video game platform, and may later be supported by PCs via Windows 8″, says the item, going on >>>

Based around a webcam-style add-on peripheral for the Xbox 360 console, it enables users to control and interact with the Xbox 360 without the need to touch a game controller through a natural user interface using gestures, spoken commands, or presented objects and images.

The project is aimed at broadening the Xbox 360’s audience beyond its typical gamer base.

It will compete with the Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus and PlayStation Move motion control systems for the Wii and PlayStation 3 home consoles, respectively.

“Microsoft’s first statement on the success of Adafruit’s contest was filled with dark foreboding, promising the company would ‘work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant’,” writes Dana Blankenhorn on ZDNet, going on:

“A later clarification said OpenKinect was not a hack, but that the new code is not supported and people should use the Kinect as intended, only with the XBox.

“There are two reasons for the possible back-down: 1, Microsoft lawyers recognized it has no legal case against Martin, who made no changes to the hardware. 2, Microsoft marketers realized that the drivers might, in the end, be a gold mine for Microsoft.”

Meanwhile, “We have verified that it works and have a screenshot from another [above right] member in the hacking community (thanks qdot!) who was also able to use the code”, says Adafruit, going on, “Congrats to Hector! He’s running all this on a Linux laptop (his code works with OpenGL) and doesn’t even have an Xbox!

“Hector has decided to invest this bounty into hacking tools and devices for a group of people he works with closely (e.g. iPhone Dev Team members, Wii hacker team Team Twiizers, and a few others). They don’t have much expendable income to buy tools and devices to hack, and sometimes this hobby can be a bit expensive, this will be a good investment that will allow them to hack more and newer devices.”

What’s next?

“If you’d like to keep hacking there is a Google Group called ‘OpenKinect Google Group‘ – 100+ people and we’ve published our data dumps, our hello world motor code and now there is code/drivers from Hector (marcan)”, says the article, adding:

“We know this subsidized / commodity hardware can now be used for robotics, art, science, education and more. For $150 it’s loaded with tons of great sensors and cameras – now it’s unlocked for creativity.

“We expect to see a Chumby hacker board and/or BeagleBoard using a Kinect for it’s vision-system robot soon! Who knows FIRST robotics might use these for their next robotic competition.”

Stay tuned.

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Adafruit – We have a winner!, November 10, 2010
team Adafruit – What is Kinect?, November 4, 2010
ZDNet – Microsoft surrenders on Linux Kinect hack, November 12, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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But it’s based on Gnome.

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, who’s also the owner of Canonical, the company behind it, “surprised the hundreds of Ubuntu programmers at the Ubuntu Developers Summit” when he announced Unity is Ubuntu’s new netbook interface”, says Computerworld.

But Shuttleworth agreed it’s a “significant, risky step”, says the story, quoting him as admitting >>>

It will throw people’s confidence. I will preempt one important question: Unity is a shell for GNOME even if it isn’t GNOME shell. We’re committed to the principles and values of GNOME.

To make Unity “work on the desktop, rather than on the netbook, where one foreground activity at a time is the rule”, Shuttleworth said Ubuntu had “A lot of work to do around windows management”, says the story.

But “Lots of people are already committed to Unity — the community, desktop users, developers, and platform and hardware vendors”, it has him stating, noting in particular that original equipment manufacturers (OEM) like Unity and are “happy to ship it.”

“Shuttleworth also said that touch, which was introduced to Ubuntu in the most recent version as Utouch, will be integrated into Unity and applications”, says Computerworld.

But, the story, adds, “Not everyone is happy about Ubuntu’s desktop shift. Some see this move as creating yet another division in Linux circles.

“Shuttleworth admitted that ‘There is a group that will take offense,’ but he thinks if Linux users and developers focus more on what they have in common rather than their differences, this move will be good for Linux, GNOME, and Ubuntu.”

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Computerworld – Ubuntu changes its desktop from GNOME to Unity, October 26, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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It’s in-house sophists are the smartest and smoothest in the bidniz and if they say White is White, you can believe the reality is: it’s a murky shade of grey.

When it introduced its Android cellphone O/S it actually described it as a “semi-open-source structure”, said p2pnet at the time.

“ ‘Semi-open source’ reminds me of a term coined by Robin Williams,” observed Just my two cents in a Reader’s Write.

“… sort of like Partial circumcision …”

Or ‘a bit pregnant’.

“Until Android is read/write open, it’s no different than iOS to me. Open source means sharing control with the community, not show and tell.”

So says Joe Hewitt (right), a “Facebook staffer who has a long list of open source accomplishments: helping create Firefox, building the dev/debug tool FireBug, and working on Facebook’s ‘Touch’ mobile website and its native iPhone application (which TechCrunch suggests he may have built singlehandedly)”, says TMCNet, quoting the Guardian.

Joe’s comment comes in his Twitter page, where he also says >>>

Compare the Android “open source” model to Firefox or Linux if you want to see how disingenuous that “open” claim is.

And >>>

How does Android get away with the “open” claim when the source isn’t public until major releases, and no one outside Google can check in?

Still directly quoting the Guardian, “Andy Rubin, Google’s head of Android (formal title: VP of engineering), pitched in with one of the geekiest tweets ever on the definition of open, TMCNet continues, to wit >>>

mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make” Which, translated out of CommandLine, means: you too can build Android, the OS, by grabbing it from git. (Look, there’s Android!) Unfortunately this is as disingenuous as people are accusing Jobs of being, as that doesn’t mean that Google will approve your phone, or that you’ll have access to the baseband software that the phone needs. You can’t get what you want for free.

It goes on >>>

Here the path forks, in the best open source ways.

First, Rubin’s tweet might persuade those who love to root their phone that yeah, Android is really open. But the proportion of people who want to recompile their phone OS is even smaller than the number who want to root their phone, and that proportion is vanishingly small compared to the number of people who buy smartphones. You’ll be standing in the street a long time before you can stop someone who’ll react with pleasure when you tell them “Hey, you can compile Android’s code from source yourself so you can install it on an Android phone you’ve already got!” So while Rubin’s code might carry bragging rights, in the scheme of things it’s meaningless. You can compile Darwin, which underlies Apple’s Mac OSX, but that doesn’t mean your Dell will boot up with an Apple screen.

TMCNet adds, citing Hewitt’s Twitter tweet # 4, “I think it is the lack of visibility into daily progress that bothers me about Android more than the lack of write access.” (Google doesn’t let people know what’s being developed in code, or let them view how it’s progressing – unlike, say, projects like WebKit or Firefox, where everyone can view the changing source, try it out themselves and even offer suggestions; though on WebKit being an external contributor is a privilege that has to be earned.) A little later: ‘Point I am trying to make is, Rubin bickering with Jobs is a farce, because both refuse to share the one thing that matters: control.” Of course Jobs has never pretended that Apple has handed over control of the iPhone’s OS to anyone else. Google, though, is having a go.”

Stay tuned.

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p2pnet – Wanted: Android blogger, May 12, 2009
TMCNet – Android and RIM teams lay into Jobs – but Google criticised on ‘open’ claim, October 20, 2010

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

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Where there is a need for a specific work that is not otherwise available, it could be directly licenced with the copyright holder, thereby ensuring that the actual author receives full compensation for their work.

In the post, I used myself an example, noting that I am able to rely on openly accessible materials for my courses.

The fact that I rely on openly accessible materials led Access Copyright supporter John Degen to describe my approach as a “shockingly arbitrary and irresponsible policy that will only place artificial (and highly political) limits on education.” Degen then implies that the choice is based on attempting to find cheap materials or ones that are consistent with my political leanings.

Yet the only thing irresponsible is Degen’s effort to link cost with quality.

In my course, I use court cases, statutes, government reports, policy submissions, and academic articles.  These are all materials that are openly accessible either because of government policy or because the authors’ priority is to make their works available, not generate income directly from their academic scholarship.  It is hard to understand how asking students to read the Supreme Court of Canada CCH case or the Copyright Act or the CRTC’s Internet traffic management decision or the National Task Force on Spam report is irresponsible.

Indeed from a legal education perspective, there seems to be little, if any, use for an Access Copyright licence.  Cases and statutes form the foundation of many courses and they are all openly accessible.  In addition to purchased texts, all students have licenced access to legal databases that provide comprehensive coverage of the law, including primary (caselaw, statutes) and secondary (scholarship) materials. There is just isn’t much left for Access Copyright to licence to thousands of law students.

I don’t know if this is consistent with other fields, but my sense is that the reliance on the Access Copyright licence – both for ordinary copying and for “coursepacks” – is declining.

Cross-country licensing such as the Canadian Research Knowledge Network provide licenced database access to thousands of journals for 650,000 university researchers and students.  Coursepacks are giving way to database-generated course reading lists that build on this form of licenced access.  Beyond licenced databases, the growth of open access now means that there are over 5,000 open access journals and about 20 percent of the world’s peer reviewed journals are open access.  In many scientific areas, openly available e-prints is the standard – arXiv.org provides open access to over 620,000 articles in fields such as physics, mathematics, and computer science.  PubMedCentral provides access to millions of biomedical and life sciences articles.  The Social Sciences Research Network is used by thousands of professors in social sciences fields to make their work freely available to the world. The movement toward open educational resources and open data for science only add to the open availability of cutting edge materials that are the very best in their field.

Reliance on these works is neither irresponsible nor a function of seeking cheaper “minor league” material.  Supporters of Access Copyright often claim that they support the right of an author to choose where they publish and under what terms they make their work available.  Yet when researchers make their work freely available, it is derided as a cheap alternative.

This shows a deep misunderstanding of how higher education works and how the dissemination and use of research is rapidly evolving toward open access.

Michael Geist – Michael Geist’s Blog
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist @ uottawa dot ca]

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August, 2010

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DebConf, which includes Debian Day when the doors are open to the general public, kicks off free of charge, and it’s open to everyone who’s interested in Free Software.

There’ll be a full day of talks on subjects such as free software in government, design and free software, free software advocacy, as well as string of talks about the Debian project and operating system.

“The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common cause to create a free and open operating system”, it says, going on

This operating system that we have been creating is called Debian GNU/Linux, or simply Debian for short. Every year, DebConf allows new and existing Debian project participants from around the world to assemble, share knowledge and ideas, make collaborative contributions to Debian, build tighter community bonds and improve communication within the project.

To register (free), email yiour plans to to attend to: debianday@debconf.org If you’re registered for DebConf, you don’t need to register for Debian Day.

Debian Day Schedule and rooms

Map of the Columbia Campus

Directions to Davis Auditorium

Campus Disability Access Map (PDF)

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July, 2010

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But not to encourage the use of competitive biddung in the software market.

At least, that’s the implication.

However, RRQ acted illegally when in 2008 went to Microsoft for the update of 800 work stations, says a Quebec Superior Court ruling.

RRQ awarded contract without competitive bidding, says Le Devoir.

The ruling also “highlights the inconsistency of the government, while recognizing the economic and structural advantages of free software to ensure the durability and flexibility of its computers, is struggling to make up for this technology in its process for awarding contracts, and that the benefit of multinational software associated with owners of expensive ‘exclusive licensing rights’,” says the story.

“It’s a very good decision for us,” Le Devoir has Cyrille Béraud, president of Savoir-Faire Linux, a company that promotes free software which challenged the validity of the contract awarded to Microsoft by the Québec Pension Plan (QPP).

“But it is also a great victory for the Government of Quebec” which “now has a tool for liberation from the stranglehold of the multinationals on its information system”.

Justice Denis Jacques said the QPP had failed in its duty by awarding a contract for $722,848 to Microsoft distributor Compugen.

“The Court considers that a tender would have to compete various suppliers who could offer unique solutions to meet the needs of the board,” wrote the judge.

“It’s a decision that will set a precedent,” said Beraud, who’s been “battling for years against Microsoft’s monopoly in the equipment of public administration”.

RRQ is considering an appeal, says the story.

(Cheers, Seth)

[Note: I may complain about Google Street View and other products touted as 'services', but I have nothing but praise for Google translations, which interpreted this story. Any mistakes follow my use of the French-to-English translation as a source and in that case, I'd really appreciate corrections from French speakers. - JN]

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Le Devoir – Victoire pour le logiciel libre, June 4, 2010

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It’s “aimed at maximising network throughput while minimising network congestion, providing a better overall experience for both ISPs and end users”, says H-Online, going on,”Additionally, uTP is said to work well within home networks, preventing one system using BitTorrent from consuming the whole network.”

Blogs BT’s Simon Morris >>>

µTP is an upgraded lightweight BitTorrent protocol, introduced in v2 of our popular µTorrent client, that makes efficient use of bandwidth while reducing network problems. For the past several months we have been polishing our implementation of µTP in µTorrent, resulting in several minor upgrades of the client as we figure out how to make it perform optimally under an incredibly wide range of scenarios.

Today, we are announcing that we have created an open source implementation of the protocol in the hope of extending its adoption within the BitTorrent ecosystem and possibly beyond. This code has been posted here on Github, a popular collaborative software development environment, so that others may get the benefits from this technology as well as contribute back to the code on an ongoing basis.

We have spent a significant amount of time and resources on µTP because we believe that it can yield significant results for both consumers and network operators. If you are just now joining the µTP conversation, you may visit to some of our earlier blog posts on the topic. In short:

- µTP maximizes network throughput while minimizing network congestion by rapidly detecting congestion and slowing itself down when the network is overloaded. The result is faster downloads for users with lower network impact for both users and ISPs;

- µTP is user-friendly within a home network, so one computer using BitTorrent will not consume the whole network;

- µTP is an open protocol which has been publicly disclosed and submitted for review in standards-making bodies (learn more about standardization of µTP on bittorrent.org and at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) at the LEDBAT working group);

We continue to be polish and optimize µTP, but we’re very encouraged by the results that we have seen so far. We believe that open sourcing our implementation is a critical next step in ensuring adoption, compatibility and the best  experience for all BitTorrent users.

Download it at at GitHub

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H-Online – BitTorrent Inc. open sources new P2P protocol, May 26, 2010
Blog – µTP Open Source Implementation, May 21, 2010

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So did Anthony Ventura.

But in a true April Fool’s move, on April 1 Sony announced it was abandoning Linux support on PlayStation 3 because of “security concerns”.

“The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009″ he says on the on the PlayStation blog, going on:

“This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.”

Consumers and organizations that currently use Other OS can decide “not to upgrade their PS3 systems” said Sony.

But Ventura isn’t taking it lying down. He’s suing Sony.

In his filing,  ‘Sony’s decision to force users to disable the OtherOS function was based on its own interest and was made at the expense of its customers”, he states, says NowGamer, going on:

“MCV reported that one dissatisfied Amazon customer successfully secured a partial refund on their console after claiming the firmware update had left it ‘unfit for purpose’.

“Ventura’s lawsuit continues, ‘The disabling of Linux support is not only in breach of the sales contract between Sony and its customers, the suit says, but also a deceptive business practice perpetrated on millions of unsuspecting customers’.”

Sony’s response? In effect, ‘Screw You’.

It’s “free to change its system software as it pleases, as laid out in its terms and conditions”, the story has it saying.

Stay tuned.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

abandoning Linux support – Sony dumps Linux for PlayStation 3, March 30, 2010
NowGamer – Sony Sued For Blocking PS3 Linux, April 29, 2010

He’s now a holder of the Cross of Merit on the ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande), says the FSFE.

“Georg’s tremendous dedication to freedom in technology has been a driving force for Free Software in Europe and around the world”, says FSFE’s president Karsten Gerloff, going on >>>

He has put Free Software on the political agenda, and has created the structures to harness the community’s energy towards our common goals. His hard work over more than a decade has brought enormous progress for Free Software.

With FSFE, Georg worked hard to create the understanding of Free Software as a cultural technique. He gave Free Software a voice at the United Nations, including the “World Intellectual Property Organization” (WIPO) and the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). With FSFE’s Freedom Task Force, he was the architect for a centre of expertise on legal aspects of Free Software, and drove the concept of legal maintainability for Free Software projects. He initiated the community resistance against Microsoft’s OOXML format, and worked on some of the first EU-funded projects for Free Software. Under Georg’s leadership, FSFE was also a key player in averting the threat of software patents in Europe.

Greve, who has a classic scientific background as a physicist, has been developing software since he was 12 years old, says the FSFE, going on:

“In 1993 he came in contact with Free Software and GNU/Linux. In 1998, Georg Greve became the European speaker for the GNU project. At this time, he also started writing the ‘Brave GNU World,’ a monthly column on Free Software published in the German Linux-Magazin and other magazines worldwide, as well as online in up to 10 languages.

“In early 2001, together with a group of dedicated people he initiated the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), the first Free Software Foundation outside the United States of America and the largest transnational Free Software Foundation so far. Building and coordinating FSFE as a European non-governmental organisation was the focus of his work for most of the past decade.”

Now CEO of Kolab Systems, a Free Software busines, “He continues to be active amongst FSFE members and European core team”, says the FSFE.

(Cheers, Seth)

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

FSFE – FSFE founder Georg Greve awarded German Cross of Merit, April 28, 2010

“At Songbird, we’re ready for the future of music. ”

Unless the future includes Linux, apparently.

The quote in the intro comes from the Songbird ‘About‘ and section. But, “Songbird is now abandoning its Linux product, and instead is focusing on the Windows and Mac versions only”, TestFreaks points out.

“According to Songbird developers Pioneers of The Inevitable (POTI Inc.), they have limited resources and need to put focus where it makes the most sense”, says the story, quoting a post on the POTI blog as stating >>>

After careful consideration, we’ve come to the painful conclusion that we should discontinue support for the Linux version of Songbird.

Some of you may wonder how a company with deep roots in Open Source could drop Linux and we want you to know it isn’t without heartache. We have a small engineering team here at Songbird, and, more than ever, must stay very focused on a narrow set of priorities.

Nor is Songbird alone.

Sony recently said it’s pulling Linux support from Play Station 3, said p2pnet.

“The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009″ said the company’s Patrick Seybold on the on the PlayStation blog, going on:

“This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.”

But, “the real reason is  that maintaining the HyperVisor drivers through each firmware update was costing a bomb” says TechEye, going on:

“Microsoft has dropped Linux from its Enterprise Search product, although many open sourcers would have been surprised that Redmond supported the OS in the first place.

“But the question might be whether cracks are starting to appear in the Linux model.”

Says TestFreaks >>>

While a team of analysts could look at the data and circumstances regarding the Linux drops and no doubt come to varying conclusions, I can spare that expense and instead offer my own insight. To put it in a nutshell, in tough times people are not so willing to work for free.

Support for desktop Linux from major releases has almost been an afterthought. Usually a product has a customer base (and turning a profit) before it is ported to the other OS. In today’s times, companies are looking hard at the bottom line, and they are apparently not seeing the returns in either financial or intellectual properties from the Linux world.

But, “While no doubt the biggest response from the Linux community will include a dismissal of Songbird as a capable product (Philips apparently has a different opinion), the time might be better spent looking at the circumstances for the move”, it states, adding:

“Failure to do so may end up hurting the Linux movement long term, just when we will need alternatives the most.”

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TestFreaks – Open Source Songbird Drops Linux: A Sign Of Things To Come?, April 6, 2010
p2pnet – Sony dumps Linux for PlayStation 3, March 30, 2010
PlayStation blog – PS3 Firmware (v3.21) Update, March 28, 2010
TechEye – Open Source outfit snubs Linux, April 9, 2010

Patrick Seybold, senior director for corporate communications and social media, puts the move down to “security concerns”.

“The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009″ he says on the on the PlayStation blog, going on:

“This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.”

Consumers and organizations that currently use Other OS can decide “not to upgrade their PS3 systems” says Sony.

But if they so choose, these features will no longer be available >>>

• Ability to sign in to PlayStation Network and use network features that require signing in to PlayStation Network, such as online features of PS3 games and chat
• Playback of PS3 software titles or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3 system software version 3.21 or later
• Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under Settings)
• Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3 system software 3.21 or later

Adds Sony:

“For those PS3 users who are currently using the “Other OS” feature but choose to install the system software update, to avoid data loss they first need to back-up any data stored within the hard drive partition used by the “Other OS,” as they will not be able to access that data following the update.”

More about PS3 firmware updates, including v3.21 (once it becomes available), can be found at http://us.playstation.com/support/systemupdates/ps3/index.htm

PS3 owners with further questions should contact Consumer Services http://us.playstation.com/support/ask/
800-345-7669 (800-345-SONY), says the company.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

PlayStation blog – PS3 Firmware (v3.21) Update, March 28, 2010

It “brings together information on free and open textbooks and course materials in one location”, says Wired Campus, going on:

“Though the Web site was designed for California’s community-college faculty members, it could be a useful resource for anyone

“California Assembly Bill 2261, which was signed into law in the fall of 2008, authorized the center as a statewide pilot program for California’s 112 community colleges ‘to provide faculty and staff from community-college districts around the state with the information, methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resource centers’.”

It’s to give California’s community-college professors and deans “a way to save time and frustration by pulling together all the information they need if they want to embrace open textbooks on their campus,” the story has Judy Baker, director of the center and dean of the college’s distance-learning program, saying.

The site links to more than 400 open textbooks and peer reviews of open textbooks, says Wired Campus, adding:

“Ms. Baker said the center provided materials as well as instructions on how to use them. When traffic to the site increases, she said, she plans to add discussion forums.”

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Wired Campus – New Web Site Lists Free Online Textbooks, February 9, 2010

He  “installed Ubuntu desktops and Mandriva servers, and set students up with Open Source applications including OpenOffice, Mahara, and Moodle. The school’s network allows connections not just from its own systems, but (with appropriate security measures) from outside hardware as well — students have reportedly connected everything from Macs to the Playstation Portable.”

So says Ostatic, pointing out “the national government subsidizes Microsoft products, and pays up whether the software is actually in use or not.

“A fait accompli, as Osbourne notes: ‘The brilliance of Microsoft’s business model is they get the same amount of money regardless of who uses it’.”

The school “has the proud distinction of being the first state-funded senior high school to exclusively use open source software for every need,” says IT Wire, continuing:

“Or maybe that should be almost everything — the school has one PC that runs Windows XP as the business manager loves MYOB. But, Osborne told his audience, that would be disappearing soon too. The school also uses two proprietary Google applications but since those are accessed through Firefox, Osborne is willing to make the compromise until substitutes are found.”

Accordoing to Osborne, in keeping with the principle of open source, there are no classrooms, only “flexible learning commons.”

A total of 450 students started the year in 2010 and this is projected to increase to 1400, says the story.

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Ostatic – New Zealand School Shows Microsoft the Door, January 25, 2010
IT Wire – Auckland: where a FOSS school is a reality, January 19, 2010

Under discussion is a Chinese pirate version of Windows from Ylmf OS.

“Not happy with pirating Windows XP itself, these creative Chinese have gone one step further and hacked Ubuntu to look exactly like Windows XP,” says DownloadSquad, going on:

They went to Ubuntu because “their previous release — a pirate version of Windows XP itself — is being cracked down on by Microsoft”.

But the hackers are keeping things at home.

The download page is in Chinese and, “Unfortunately looking at the testing, and the screenshots, would suggest that the OS’s GUI is purely Chinese too,” says Fudzilla, adding:

“The only thing that can stop the pirates is the fact that Windows XP’s GUI is copyrighted as much as the main operating system. We suspect that Redmond is having a few words with Chinese authorities about the cloning.”

You think?

“It might not be Windows itself, but you can sue for GUI copycatting too!” – says Sebastian Anthony on DownloadSquad.

“All in all, despite the questionable legality, it really is a great-looking copycat; almost pixel-perfect.”

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Fudzilla – Chinese pirates clone XP, December 28, 2009
DownloadSquad – Infamous Chinese pirates launch Ubuntu that looks just like Windows XP, December 26, 2009

“openSUSE is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server,” says the download site. “You can surf the web, manage your e-mails and photos, do office work, play videos or music and have a lot of fun! – it states, going on:

“openSUSE 11.2 is finally out! The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of openSUSE 11.2. openSUSE 11.2 includes new versions of GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, Firefox, the Linux kernel, and many, many more updates and improvements.”

Great. But what you don’t get is DHT support.

Said the TPB blog recently »»»

Now that the decentralized system for finding peers is so well developed, TPB has decided that there is no need to run a tracker anymore, so it will remain down! It`s the end of an era, but the era is no longer up2date. We have put a server in a museum already, and now the tracking can be put there as well.

By moving to a more decentralized system of handling tracking (DHT+ PEX) and distributions of torrent files (Magnet Links), BitTorrent will become less vulnerable to downtime and outages:

FileShare Freaks has a great write-up on Magnet Links, and meanwhile, DHT is short for Distributed Hash Table and “Following in the footsteps of Ubuntu, OpenSUSE recently decided to include Transmission as the default BitTorrent client,” says TorrentFreak, going on:

“However, the addition of Transmission to openSUSE was not straightforward. Since Transmission comes with DHT support — a technology that helps BitTorrent users to find peers — Novell thought that the application could possibly make openSUSE liable for copyright infringement under German law.

To avoid legal problems, “Novell and openSUSE therefore decided to ship the operating system with a DHT-less version of Transmission while they tried to work out a solution with their lawyer,” says the story.

Does  Novell have “legitimate concerns, or was maybe a little paranoid in handling the DHT issue”? – it wonders, adding:

“That said, if BitTorrent indeed comes to rely more on trackerless torrents and DHT in the future, could BitTorrent clients potentially become a target for the entertainment industry?”

Stay tuned.

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go magnetic – The Pirate Bay goes magnetic, November 17, 2009
TorrentFreak – Novell Strips BitTorrent DHT Technology from openSUSE, November 22, 2009

Quoting analysis by web developer Denis Sinegubko, “the comprised systems all have one thing in common,” says the post. The lightweight web server nginx is, “running and serving content through port 8080″.

And, he warns on Unmask Parasites. Blog, “if this is not just a proof-of-concept attack that will cease to exist in a week, there is a real problem that server admins must address ASAP!”

The systems are, “inconspicuous and appear to operate quite normally,” says Heise, noting the “new tactic” was discovered afterlinks to malware posted in China were replaced by dynamic DNS names from DynDNS.com and No-IP.com.

“What we see here is a long awaited botnet of zombie web servers!” – says Sinegubko, continuing

A group of interconnected infected web servers with common control center involved in malware distribution. To make things more complex, this botnet of web servers is connected with the botnet of infected home computer (the malware they serve infects computers and turns them into zombies).

Who knows what else can those infected web server do? They may be involved in SPAM distribution, in DDOS attacks, etc. They can do just everything normal zombie computers do, but more effectively thanks to better Internet connection.

However, having a web server as a zombie has obvious downsides for hackers. Once the IP of the server is known, it`s only a matter of time to shut it down they are all on networks of reputable hosting providers that can switch off the server if its admin fail to remove the malicious service. On the other hand, server admins are usually much more experienced in terms of security than an average computer user, so the chances that a dedicated server gets hacked are significantly less than the chances that a home computer gets infected with some virus. At the same time, the number of dedicated servers, I believe, is also significantly less than the number of home computers connected to the Internet.

“So,” Sinegubko adds,  “if hackers want this attack to be active for more than just a week, they need to either have a ‘portfolio’ of thousands of already hacked servers waiting for their turn, or they know about some exploitable vulnerability in Linux (all servers I checked were Linux-based) so that they can easily turn any number of servers into zombies. ”

The pic on the right is a clip from David Vorel’s amazing map of interconnected, bot-infected IP addresses with Scott Berinato’s interactive controls which allow users to zoom in and explore botnets’ inner workings.

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Heise Online – Botnet discovered on Linux servers, September 14, 2009
Unmask Parasites. Blog – Dynamic DNS and Botnet of Zombie Web Servers, September 11, 2009

The giant online (for the moment) advertising company, “recently gobbled up ON2 Technologies who create high-quality video compression technology,” says ReelSEO, continuing:

“What`s that mean for the video web? One can never be certain, can one?”

On2`s technology powers client online and desktop apps including Adobe, Skype, Nokia, Infineon, Sun Microsystems, Mediatek, Sony, Brightcove, and Move Networks, says the post.

“That`s a pretty big list of heavy hitters,” it says.  Google has agreeds to purchase On2 for about $106.5 million, not too shabby to say the least.”

But, “the regulatory folks have their noses in it and have to vet the whole deal,” the story notes.

On2’s earlier VP3.2 is the basis for Ogg Theora and, “some believe by purchasing On2, Google is likely looking to take their much more advanced VP7 and VP8 codecs open source and possibly license-free,” says Zatz Not Funny!

That’d, “provide HTML 5 with very advanced video technology for free, and would create serious competition for other current codecs and/or platforms such as h.264, Flash, Silverlight, etc., while at the same time giving Google another point of real strength in future internet developments,” it says.

But, “Open source means different things to different people,” says CNet News.

“It can be a software development methodology, a distribution technique, or a marketing gimmick.”

But, “Could it also be a way to minimize patent infringement damages?” – it asks.

After all, Google, “contributes to open source for a variety of reasons, not the least reason being that it recognizes open source is an efficient way to create community around its products,” says the story, adding:

“But perhaps Google has this more subtle, and sophisticated, reason as well?

“Brilliant.”

Stay tuned.

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ReelSEO – Google Gets ON2 Video Compression, August 6, 2009
Zatz Not Funny! – Ramifications of Google`s On2 Acquisition, August 6, 2009
CNet News – Is Google’s open-source advocacy a patent-busting scheme?, August 6, 2009