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LXer Feature: 17-Aug-2014
In the Roundup this week we have how to remove file metadata on Linux, USB ports are no longer our friends, Linux use grew 50% year-over-year in India, open source education for kids, hackers unveil their evil plans for e-mail, a new distrosharing website and a big conversation starter on why or why isn't all government software open source? Enjoy!
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Researcher Finds Potholes In Vehicle Traffic Control Systems: Smart traffic sensor systems that help regulate and automate the flow of traffic and lights contain security weaknesses that could be manipulated by hackers and result in traffic jams or even crashes, a researcher showed here today... the sensors include a Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller that runs a version of Linux.
Check Hard drive for bad sectors or bad blocks in linux: badblocks is the command or utility in linux like operating system which can scan or test our hard disk and external drive for bad sectors. Bad sectors or bad blocks is the space of the disk which can't be used due to the permanent damage or OS is unable to access it.
USB Ports Are No Longer Your Friend (If They Ever Were): That’s great for those tied to Windows, but doesn’t offer much help to those using Linux or OS X. As for the call for users to use good computer hygiene, most of us are doing that anyway — it’s not like this is the first security risk that’s arisen around the USB port.
How to remove file metadata on Linux: A typical data file often has associated "metadata" which is descriptive information about the file, represented in the form of a set of name-value pairs. Common metadata include creator's name, tools used to generate the file, file creation/update date, location of creation, editing history, etc. EXIF (images), RDF (web resources), DOI (digital documents) are some of popular metadata standards.
The best (and cheapest) ways to get Windows and Linux for virtual machines: You can install any modern Windows or Linux version, desktop or server, using Hyper-V in Windows 8.1. But you'll need to bring your own license and software for the base OS. Here's how to get that OS cheap or even free.
India opens up to operating system Ubuntu: The Linux-based operating system grew 50% year-over-year in India. Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has partnered with Dell and HP to bundle the OS with certain models of their laptops offered in India.
Open source education for kids with 4 friendly puppets: Brother team Jared and JR Nielsen are the puppet masters behind The Hello World Program, a video and tutorial series hosted by a penguin, a snake, a fox, and a robot. They bring to life the learning and fun of open source programming, web development, and computer science. Plus, all of the content is licensed under Creative Commons—so if you have kids or young friends, or if you are an educator, you are encouraged to share and use this material to teach others.
Hidden Linux Benefits, Clear Linux Challenges: I have tried and enjoyed a number of great Linux distributions over the years. Some were more popular than others. But the one thing they all have in common is each provides the end user with hidden benefits and unexpected disadvantages over proprietary desktop operating systems. In this article, I'll explore what make the Linux desktop a superb fit for some users while providing thoughts on overcoming the challenges had by others.
Hackers Unveil Their Plan to Change Email Forever: The creator of an ultra-secure email service once said to be used by Edward Snowden unveiled his next project at a major hacker conference Friday: he and others like him want to change the very nature of email forever.
Hidden Linux Benefits, Clear Linux Challenges: I have tried and enjoyed a number of great Linux distributions over the years. Some were more popular than others. But the one thing they all have in common is each provides the end user with hidden benefits and unexpected disadvantages over proprietary desktop operating systems. In this article, I'll explore what make the Linux desktop a superb fit for some users while providing thoughts on overcoming the challenges had by others.
Distroshare - Share and download customized Linux distributions: Distroshare is a new service for sharing and downloading customized distributions. The goal is to make it easier to install Linux, or other open source OSes and to share neat distros with a specific purpose. Too often is there something that needs to be fixed for certain machines after a fresh install. By allowing user submissions, users can upload fixed versions of their favourite distros for their machines.
How to install Linux on a computer without DVD drive: The -- very old -- laptop of a friend of mine died the other day and I offered to give her my old laptop as a replacement. Problem was, an old version of Windows was installed on my old laptop which I had to get rid of. Since I did not have any spare Windows product keys at the time, I decided to install Linux on the device instead. While the main reason was that I could do so without paying a dime, it would improve the overall system security as well which is always a good thing. Since I'm not really a Linux guy, I had to do some research on how to get Linux on the device. Turns out, it is pretty simple and straightforward.
Will Linux ever be able to give consumers what they want?: In the world of consumer electronics, if you don't give the buyer what they want, they'll go elsewhere. We've recently witnessed this with the Firefox browser. The consumer wanted a faster, less-bloated piece of software, and the developers went in the other direction. In the end, the users migrated to Chrome or Chromium.
Why isn't all government software open source?: The federal government is the single largest purchaser of code in the world. So why is this code—taxpayer-funded and integral to the day-to-day working of our democracy—so often hidden from public view? There are two sides to answering that question: Why does the government so often build on closed platforms, and once built, why isn't the code released to the public? |
