Cast of Cranks:
threethirty
Peter64
Azimuth
jlindasy
klaatu
Xoke and Mrs. Xoke
Stories:
Australia to pull away from censoring the net (or trying to, anyway)?
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25542310-15306,00.html
“The Ruddy Government has indicated that it may back away from its mandatory internet filtering plan.”
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Ubuntu and Moblin Linux to work together
http://blogs.computerworld.com/ubuntu_and_moblin_linux_to_work_together
Sources at Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, tell me that Canonical will be announcing new partnerships with Intel, SanDisk, and RealNetworks. To me, the biggest news is that Canonical will be demonstrating the Moblin version of the UNR (Ubuntu Netbook Remix).
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Intel buys Wind River for $884 million
Intel is stepping up efforts to stay ahead of ARM in the embedded space by acquiring Wind River, creators of the VxWorks real time embedded OS. VxWorks is a proprietary embedded OS that runs on nearly any modern embedded CPU. VxWorks is trusted in the industry and is well known for being bullet proof and is used in little things like the Mars reconnaissance orbiter.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/06/intel-strikes-back-at-arm-buys-embedded-os-maker-wind-river.ars
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We’ve never been fans of Microsoft’s ability to put hard limits on netbooks with Windows XP; it’s this fact alone that has kept the entire sector from moving forward in terms of specification advancement. Though, we’d probably wager that MSI is even more livid, as bit-tech has reportedly learned that the company’s Wind U115 will soon be yanked from store shelves. The reason? The machine’s hybrid storage system, which puts Windows XP on an SSD and allows other applications and media to be loaded on the HDD. Oddly, the netbook is still for sale on MSI’s webstore, and just a few days ago we saw NEC unveil a hybrid netbook over in Japan. Please Microsoft, reconsider — do it for love, do it for justice.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/06/microsoft-reportedly-bans-netbooks-with-hybrid-storage-systems/
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Spice up YOur LUG
http://tuxradar.com/content/spice-your-lug
You might think that in the age of the internet and the wiki, physical entities gathering together into some form of communion would be considered out of date, but there’s nothing quite like meeting people with similar interests and seeing things for yourself. It’s for this reason that the local LUG is often the first port of call for people just beginning to ignite their love of Linux, as well as people who just want to meet people with similar interests. They provide a vital role in helping the spread of Linux adoption, and a focal point for local educational institutions and businesses.
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Driving the Linux drivers
“. It turns out that there really isn’t much hardware that Linux doesn’t already support. Almost all new hardware produced is coming with a Linux driver already written by the company, or by the community with help from the company.”
http://blogs.computerworld.com/driving_the_linux_drivers
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Unix turns 40: The past, present and future of a revolutionary OS
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9133570
Forty years ago this summer, a programmer sat down and knocked out in one month what would become one of the most important pieces of software ever created.
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OpenMoko turns the Freerunner over to the community, begins work on another device
After the recent layoffs at OpenMoko, the decision has been made to turn over detailed hardware plans, code, websites, and even the Openmoko brand and trademark to the community to continue working on the most open phone to date. Openmoko Inc will continue to sponsor the project and provide server infrastructure. Sales will continue on the remaining stock of the A7 Freerunner.
http://lwn.net/Articles/335878/
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Linux Game Publishing adds download and rental options
Resellers of the games can now provide full games for sale as downloads or the user can choose to rent the game for a week or a month at a time. Rental games will require an internet connection to start the game (to phone home), but the full versions (while keylocked) will not. Rentals allow for a significantly lower price for the customer. X3, Jets’n’Guns, and Sacred are currently the only games available for download.
http://blog.linuxgamepublishing.com/2009/06/01/downloadable-and-rental-games-now-available/
http://www.tuxgames.com/ (one of the first resellers to have the option available, so we can check prices)
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ubuntu open sources [most of] launchpad…soon.
http://blog.launchpad.net/podcast/launchpod-15-launchpads-going-open-source
Launchpad will be open source on the 21st July this year!
Karl Fogel joined the Launchpad team recently as the Launchpad Ombudsman.
listen to “Launchpod 15 - Launchpad’s going open source!” for the whole story
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KDE offers distros a distro-branding service: KDE wil create a wallpaper customized just for that distro so that KDE can maintain its identity and “brand” while the linux distro can be unique and maintain their brand. Theoretically a win-win situation……aside from art teams of distros which could, feasibly, object to an outside party like KDE coming in and offering to do wallpaper art for them….
http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2009/06/building-brand-together.html
http://pinheiro-kde.blogspot.com/2009/06/building-brand.html
……………which leads me [klaatu] on to wondering exactly what is the brand being pushed in Linux? Is it Linux, is it the individual distributions, is it the “brand” of free software? what common symbols do we have to rally around if “Linux” means something different to so many different groups?
ie, think of Maemo, which is based on Linux but does not include so many important things that it sometimes hardly feels like Linux. or eeeXandros, which is Linux but is fairly well despised among Linux proponents. And even Canonical — purveyors of the most successful Linux distro and yet highly controversial and, in some people’s eyes, not firmly rooted in the spirit of true Freedom.
So what is our brand? or do we each just have our own? or what?
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Pete(r64)’s Picks of the week:
GREEK GUYS ON Britains Got Talent - Stavros Flatly Act
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QkOwcXvT6s
Yes Ladies And Gentlemen,
Greeks can eat,
Greeks can have fun,
but most of all,
GREEKS CAN DANCE! Its part of being Greek anyway!
This is the “Stavros Flatley” Act, by a couple of Greek-Cypriot Guys on Britains Got Talent show.
Feel free to express your thoughts of this video, and of these two people, you “give up the cool, to play the fool” and “feel comfortable, by being uncomfortable”.
Copyright Info: ITV.
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Leo Laporte Blows up at Mike Arrington on the Gillmor Gang - June 6, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsV-lgnAjps
Leo Laporte calls out Mike Arrington of TechCrunch after Leo got mad at him for implying that his opinion of the Pre was effected by the fact he had a free review unit. Wow!!!!