Showing headlines posted by azerthoth

So we all complained about fglrx not working with gnome-shell and it was evil AMD closed source drivers ignoring Gnome users, at least that is what you would think. The opposite is true here it seems. As we can read in this bugzilla report. A bugzilla that is not owned by AMD.

I am no longer using GNOME but Xfce and this has nothing to do with GNOME Shell. I already switched a long time ago. But as the (co-)maintainer of several terminals in Fedora, I wondered how to enable users to easily switch their default terminal emulator in GNOME 3

My second reaction was to fire myself from #sabayon, with thanks to someone I respect to get me thinking outside my ego. I promptly did so, you can find the thread on the mailing list. Several conversations with the team members and project lead talked me out of removing myself and to chalk it up as a lesson learned. I had to sleep on that one, but decided that if they were still willing to have me I had more to offer.

Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Microsoft’s appeal in a case that could make it easier to invalidate a patent. If successful, Microsoft’s challenge should help in the fight against bad patents by leveling the playing field for showing that a patent is invalid. A Microsoft win in the case would benefit not only Microsoft, but also the free and open source software community. That’s why EFF, joined by Public Knowledge, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Apache Software Foundation, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court supporting Microsoft.

Virus-infected computers that pose a risk to other PCs should be blocked from the net, a senior researcher at software giant Microsoft suggests.

[That would take a significant amount of computers running their OS offline - Scott]

The best, refined blend of GNU/Linux, coming with bleeding edge edges is eventually here! Say hello to Sabayon Five-point-Fourhh, available in both GNOME and KDE editions! Dedicated to those who like cutting edge stability, out of the box experience, outstanding Desktop performance, clean and beauty. Sabayon 5.4 will catch you, anything that could have been compiled, has been compiled, anything cool that could have been implemented or updated, it's there: you will find outstanding amount of new applications and features, like XBMC, KDE 4.5, GNOME 2.30, Linux Kernel 2.6.35, and so forth.

A little more than four years since Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) acquired graphics and chipset specialist ATI Technologies, AMD (NYSE: AMD) has confirmed that it will no longer use the ATI name.

The Federal Communications Commission has ended its closed-door negotiations with a small group of players on opposing sides of the net neutrality debate, talks that had been aimed at finding a consensus on rules for the transmission of Internet traffic.

[Indirectly related, of interest and prior discussion here though -Az]

General Electric did not infringe on a power supplier's digital copyrights when it used protected software unlocked through a hacked security key, the 5th Circuit ruled.

[Does this ruling have ramifications for DVD's and Linux? -Az]

I've got good news and bad news for those of the misguided perception that Linux is somehow impervious to attack or compromise. The bad news is that it turns out a vast collection of Linux systems may, in fact, be pwned. The good news, at least for IT administrators and organizations that rely on Linux as a server or desktop operating system, is that the Trojan is in a game download so it should have no bearing on Linux in a business setting.

Here you go, munchkins. Judge Ted Stewart has ruled for Novell and against SCO. Novell's claim for declaratory judgment is granted; SCO's claims for specific performance and breach of the implied covenant of good fair and fair dealings are denied. Also SCO's motion for judgment as a matter of law or for a new trial: denied. Novell is entitled to waive, at its sole discretion, claims against IBM, Sequent and other SVRX licensees. CASE CLOSED!

I wrote up a how-to for PC World on how to put Android on the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 2G and it went up today. I wanted to be there to tweet about it when it went up, but I've been keeping really strange hours lately and I wasn't awake for it when it went up.

I know the binaries for the iPhone 3G are taking a while. Everything is basically done and all the code I have is in the source repositories so people are free to build it for themselves. However, I wanted to improve the packaging slightly to ease installation (no longer requiring people to modify ext2 partitions). The release of the binaries (and a how-to) will be sometime within the next week.

It seems Groklaw will have to open a new category, answering Florian Mueller FUD. As you know he recently claimed that IBM had violated its public pledge not to sue Linux for patent infringement. I think he's mistaken. IBM, when it announced the patent pledge, specifically reserved the right to defend itself from attack: "IBM has no intention of asserting its patent portfolio against the Linux kernel, unless of course we are forced to defend ourselves," said Nick Donofrio, senior vice president for technology and manufacturing, drawing applause in a speech at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. And in the TurboHercules story, who is suing whom? It's not IBM, folks. The complaint against IBM was filed with the EU Commission by TurboHercules. At that exact moment, did they not take themselves out from under the patent pledge's safety umbrella?

Most people use social media sites to keep in touch with old friends and to make new ones. But more and more, law enforcement agencies are using them to fight crime – and some criminals are making that task very easy. [not OSS related, but examples of why you should care about personal data, big brother IS looking - Az]

The Open Source Initiative has condemned the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) for unjust attacks on open source. The IIPA is pushing for the US government to blacklist a number of countries for their open source policies.

As the global tech media waits for Notion Ink to unveil the Adam at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we decided to hop across to Hyderabad and catch them before they caught the flight to MWC!

[The iPad just got soaked. -Azer]

A vulnerability in the creation of symbolic links (symlinks) in the free Samba file and printer server can be exploited to attain access to files outside of predefined paths. Attackers can even get access to the system's root directory (/). To exploit the flaw (directory traversing), attackers first have to have an account on the Samba server that includes write access to at least one share. However, if a share is defined as writeable for guests, the hole can even be exploited remotely without such an account on the server. Under standard settings, no shares are writeable for guests.

SourceForge, the open source project hosting site, has announced that it has turned off the "blanket block" on access from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan and Syria.

A top European official has announced plans to begin a major overhaul of European Union privacy laws, saying that the existing framework has failed to keep pace with technological innovation.