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Planet Ubuntu
09.09.10: Canonical Design Team: Charactersets
09.09.10: Chase Douglas: Magic Trackpad drivers land in Ubuntu Maverick and Upstream!
If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll note that I’ve been spending some time adding Magic Trackpad functionality to the current Magic Mouse driver in the kernel. I’m pleased to report that the changes have landed both in Ubuntu and upstream in Jiri Kosina’s HID tree as it awaits merging into Linus’ tree. It will be available in Ubuntu 10.10 and hopefully in Linux 2.6.37.
There is still one remaining issue with the driver, however. The protocol used by the device is unique, and this poses challenges when trying to work with the HID layer. In Ubuntu we are papering over the issue, but Michael Poole has a patch that may resolve it once and for all. I plan to test the patch out soon, and I hope it is suitable for inclusion upstream.
09.09.10: Canonical Design Team: Allow me to introduce myself…
My name’s Inayaili (most people call me either Yaili or Lily though) and I’m the new web designer in the Canonical’s design team — just started last Tuesday.
It was a busy and exciting week: lots of meetings to become familiar with the company and with everyone working here in the Millbank headquarters, and, of course, there was the dConstruct conference, in Brighton on Friday, which I had the pleasure to attend once again. (Watch out for my next post!)
A little bit about me: I’m Portuguese, I live in London, and I do web design and HTML and CSS. I also enjoy writing about those subjects and about the work that I do, so hopefully I’ll be able to set time aside as often as possible to write here on the design blog.
I’m really excited about working at Canonical: the team is formed by unbelievably clever people, driven and committed to making any project that they’re working on the best possible.
And who wouldn’t be happy about working with a view like this one, right?
09.09.10: Raphaël Hertzog: Can Debian achieve world domination without being on Facebook?
Facebook is not very popular among free software hackers. When I announced my Facebook page on identi.ca (see here) I got a few replies suggesting it was odd for me to use Facebook.
Indeed there are many good reasons why Facebook should be avoided: it is a centralized and proprietary service that is not very privacy-friendly. But the truth is that lots of people are using it (even Debian developers, can you recognize them on the picture?) and some are using their Facebook news feed as their main source of news.
You might wonder how many persons that represents, so here are the figures: the Debian Facebook page has 48,361 fans and the Ubuntu one has 247,932 fans. That’s right, an announce put on the Debian facebook page would reach more persons than the most popular announce list that Debian is currently running (debian-announce@lists.debian.org has about 29,000 subscribers). Unfortunately that Debian Facebook page is empty and I don’t even know who the administrator is. The Ubuntu page on the contrary is properly configured to relay news from The Fridge and Jono Bacon is posting some custom updates from time to time.
Debian contributors regularly mention “world domination” as the ultimate goal of the universal operating system (I even feature this in my blog header banner! 
). But working towards world domination means — in my opinion — that we should communicate our ideals of freedom to as many people as possible, even if they are using a service that we don’t want to promote.
The Debian social contract acknowledges that some users have to use non-free software and we provide the non-free section for them. In the same spirit, I believe we must have a presence on Facebook. That does not mean that we endorse Facebook, and we should surely promote Joindiaspora once it’s usable. But in the mean time we should reach out to Facebook users and allow them to follow us with the platform of their choice.
That’s the choice I recently made when I decided to setup a public facebook page featuring my free software work, my blog and my book. So if you are a Facebook user, click here to visit my page and click on “Like” if you want to follow this blog in your Facebook news feed. I also share interesting Debian or Ubuntu related articles that I discover while reading my RSS subscriptions.
Below are the usual facebook widgets for the 3 pages quoted in this article (they might not show up if you read this article through an RSS feed):
No comment | Support my work
09.09.10: Canonical Design Team: Meerkats like the sun?!
Today I got another e-mail from a statue. There’s a perfectly normal sentence … This time from a beach where Rick says he’s having an amazing time relaxing after his conference!
So what have we learned so far, apart from the fact that an unattended Meerkat is likely to wander off if left for too long? Well he seems to enjoy the beach and is making friends along the way. I think he’s still in Brazil …
If you see Rick please let me know!
09.09.10: Bilal Akhtar: Looking forward to Launchpad’s downtime
As we all know, Launchpad (aka LP) will be down today from 8:00 AM UTC to 9:30 AM UTC and read-only from then until 11:00 AM. I am looking forward to this disruption. Why? The reason is, when LP goes down, developers are forced to take a break.
My MOTU application is awaiting endorsements from more than a week, and there are only 5 days left for the meeting, yet I still have 4 more endorsements pending. The developers seem to be very busy these days, and this is a golden opportunity for me to poke then and get my application endorsed!
Now it appears LP has gone down 
Most of the channels are now filling up with people talking about offtopic things, and joking around. I’ll go and join them, see ya there!
09.09.10: Martin Meredith: Mini Rant: Emails
Please, those of you who send me emails, remember the following:-
- An email has a subject line – use it
- If you put a proper description in your subject line, it’s easier for me to find the email again
- The subject line is that – what the email is about. It’s NOT meant for the entire content of your message, no matter how brief
- If you send me an email entitled “FYI” – Don’t bitch at me when I don’t reply.
- If you ask a question, and it’s a vague one, don’t get annoyed at me when I ask for clarification
09.09.10: Ralph Janke: Evolution does not follow a path guided by scientific categories
Some of the discussions about the divergence or convergence of
the two stackexchanges sites Ubuntu and Unix/Linux shows that the discussion is lead not on the same dimension, but on two different ones.
The proponents of a convergence have a scientific categorization in mind, a taxonomy, similar to the way plants and animals are categorized, or the Dewey Decimal system in a library.
For these dimension of thinkers, sites that are subsets of one another, or sites that have considerable overlap in the possible set of questions are an aberration. It does not fit in the universe of this style of thinking.
The other dimension come from the observation of the communities. Communities do not grow according to the taxonomy scientist like to use. Taxonomies are simplifications which might be accurate for the purpose of a limited observation sufficient for the particular science. However, they are not sufficient for the needs and feelings of the communities.
09.09.10: Ralph Janke: Ubuntu.stackexchange has passed the 1000 question milestone
After only 41 days, the Ubuntu stackexchange site has reached a new milstone - 1000 questions. Thanks for everybody who has participated so far. Please continue on to make sure we will reach more than 2000 questions before the end of the public beta.
08.09.10: Jorge Castro: Some progress on Daily Builds
We’ve been working with the Launchpad team to give upstream projects the ability to spin up daily builds.
It’s pretty straightforward to make a recipe, the one I use for shotwell is:
# bzr-builder format 0.2 deb-version 1.0+{time}
lp:shotwell
nest shotwellpackaging lp:~ubuntu-desktop/shotwell/ubuntu debian
I was on holiday for a bit, so I clicked on this expecting it not to work, since it didn’t when I left. Then launchpad went ahead and did it.
NICE! What I’ve done here is basically grabbed upstream Shotwell trunk, the packaging from our desktop team, send to Launchpad, and it spit out dailies. Now we’re cooking with Crisco; we’ll be able to easily make daily builds of everything we ship on the desktop right off the bat, and anything we can import. That’s a pretty nice service for application authors, thanks Launchpad!
Check out the documentation, and please remember that it’s still a work in progress, but we’ve got top people working on it. ;)
08.09.10: Aaron Toponce: Create Your Own Graphical Web of Trust
I created my GnuPG key back in 2004, and I’ve been very active with it since (thank you Glen). I have also seen graphical representations of the Web of Trust for a specific public keyring, and I’ve always been curious how I could create my own. Well, last night I finally buckled down and figured it out. So, hopefully, this will be of interest for some. In case you’re curious, this is what I’m talking about.
First, make sure you have the gnupg, sig2dot, graphviz and imagemagick packages installed. You will need various tools from each of these. Of course, you’ll also need access to your public keyring. This is generally found in the ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg file.
First, the sig2dot package just provides a single Perl script that reads signatures in an OpenPGP/GPG keyring, and creates a “dot” file. This dot file is just an ASCII file that describes the relationships between the signatures in the file, and their distance to/from each other. However, the dot file by itself isn’t very interesting. So, we can covert that dot file to a PostScript file or an image directly. Personally, I have found that creating the PostScript file, then converting to an image from that to produce better results than going directly from the dot file to an image. Of course, one you have your image, you’re done.
So, here’s the commands in order that are needed to create your graphical web of trust. I do everything in my ~/.gnupg/ directory, as you can see. Feel free to do this wherever you wish:
$ gpg --list-sigs --keyring ~/.gnupg./pubring.gpg | sig2dot > ~/.gnupg/pubring.dot 2> ~/.gnupg/pubring.error.txt $ neato -Tps ~/.gnupg/pubring.dot > ~/.gnupg/pubring.ps $ convert ~/.gnupg/pubring.ps ~/.gnupg/pubring.gif
This should take a bit, depending on the size of your pubring.gpg file. On my dual core, with 4GB RAM, it takes about 45 seconds from start to finish, which is a bit longer than you initially would expect. Also, some have reported that the “neato” command doesn’t work for them. So, the graphviz package also provides the “dot” binary for working on dot file. So, instead, you could run:
$ gpg --list-sigs --keyring ~/.gnupg./pubring.gpg | sig2dot > ~/.gnupg/pubring.dot 2> ~/.gnupg/pubring.error.txt $ dot -Tps ~/.gnupg/pubring.dot > ~/.gnupg/pubring.ps $ convert ~/.gnupg/pubring.ps ~/.gnupg/pubring.gif
You’ll notice that I’m saving the STDERR output to “~/.gnupg/pubring.error.txt”. I’m only doing this for logging purposes. Also, feel free to experiment with the options for both neato/dot and convert. I like the GIF format, as it’s 1/10 the size of the equivalent PNG, so it’s great to put up on web pages to save bandwidth. I believe neato/dot supports SVG, so you could try that as well.
At any event, you might want to save the above in a script in your ~/.gnupg/ directory, in case you want to update your web of trust image. Here’s mine: http://aarontoponce.org/pubring.gif.
Happy hacking!
08.09.10: Jordan Mantha: from the crimsun files
Going through my “scratch” note I found the following quote:
C is beautiful. C++ makes me weep. Java stabs me in the gut. Python pours me wine.
That is all.
08.09.10: Thierry Carrez: The 6 dimensions of Open Source
Why do people choose to participate in Open Source ? It’s always a mix of various reasons, so let’s try to explore and classify them.
Technical
The first dimension is technical. People like open source because looking directly in the code gives them the ability to understand the behavior of their software. No documentation can match that level of precision. They also like the ability to fix it themselves when it’s broken, rather than relying on usually-broken support contracts. Any non-Fortune500 that tried to report a bug to Microsoft and get it fixed will probably get my point. Sometimes, they like the ability to shape and influence the future of the software, when that software uses open design mechanisms (like Ubuntu with its free and open-to-anyone Development Summits). Finally, they may be convinced, like I am, that open source software development methods result in better code quality.
Political
Next to the technical dimension, we have a political dimension, more precisely a techno-political dimension. People like Free software as a way to preserve end-user freedom, privacy and control over technology. Some powerful companies will use every trick in the book to reduce your rights and increase their revenue, so its more and more important that we are aware of those issues and fight back. Working on free and open source software is a way to contribute to that effort.
Philosophical
Very close to the political dimension, we are now seeing philosophic interest in open source software. The 20th century saw the creation of a consumer class with a new divide between those who produce and those who consume. This dissociated usage of technology is a self-destroying model, and contributing models (or participative production models) are considered to be the solution to fix our societies for the future. Be a producer and a consumer at the same time and be associated with technology rather than alienated by it. Open source is an early and highly successful manifestation of that.
Economical
Back on the ground, there are strong and rational economic reasons for companies to opt to fund open source development. From most virtuous to less, we first find companies using the technology internally rather than selling it : sharing development and maintenance costs among several users of that same technology makes great sense, and makes very virtuous open source communities. Next you find companies selling services around open source software: being the main sponsor of a project gives you a unique position to leverage your know-how around software that is freely available. Next you find open core approaches, from companies making a business selling proprietary add-ons to those using open source as crippleware. Finally, at the bottom, you’ll find companies using “open source” or “community” as a venture capitalist honeypot. They don’t believe in it, they resist implementing what it takes to do it, but they like the money that pretending to do open source will bring them.
Social
A very important dimension of open source is the social dimension. Many people join open source projects to belong to a cool community that allows you to prove yourself, gain mastery and climb the ladder of a meritocracy. If your community doesn’t encourage and reward those that are in this social dimension, you’ll miss a huge chunk of potential contributors. Another social aspect is that doing work in the open (and in all transparency) is also great publicity for your skills and to get employment. The main reason I got hired by Canonical was due to my visible work on Gentoo’s Security team, much more than to the rest of my professional experience. Finally, the sheer ego-flattering sensation you get by knowing that millions of people are using your work is definitely a powerful drive.
Ethical
The last dimension is ethical: the idea of directly contributing to the sum of the world’s common knowledge is appealing. Working on open source software, you just make the world a better place. For example, open source helps third-world and developing countries to reduce their external debt, by encouraging the creation of local service companies rather than encouraging to buy licenses to US companies. That sense of purpose is what drives a lot of people (including me) to work on open source.
Did I miss anything ? What drives you to participate on open source ? Please let me know, by leaving a comment !
08.09.10: TurnKey Linux: TKLBAM: a new kind of smart backup/restore system that just works
Drum roll please...
Today, I'm proud to officially unveil TKLBAM (AKA TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration): the easiest, most powerful system-level backup anyone has ever seen. Skeptical? I would be too. But if you read all the way through you'll see I'm not exaggerating and I have the screencast to prove it. Aha!
This was the missing piece of the puzzle that has been holding up the Ubuntu Lucid based release batch. You'll soon understand why and hopefully agree it was worth the wait.
We set out to design the ideal backup system
Imagine the ideal backup system. That's what we did.
Pain free
A fully automated backup and restore system with no pain. That you wouldn't need to configure. That just magically knows what to backup and, just as importantly, what NOT to backup, to create super efficient, encrypted backups of changes to files, databases, package management state, even users and groups.
Migrate anywere
An automated backup/restore system so powerful it would double as a migration mechanism to move or copy fully working systems anywhere in minutes instead of hours or days of error prone, frustrating manual labor.
It would be so easy you would, shockingly enough, actually test your backups. No more excuses. As frequently as you know you should be, avoiding unpleasant surprises at the worst possible timing.
One turn-key tool, simple and generic enough that you could just as easily use it to migrate a system:
- from Ubuntu Hardy to Ubuntu Lucid (get it now?)
- from a local deployment, to a cloud server
- from a cloud server to any VPS
- from a virtual machine to bare metal
- from Ubuntu to Debian
- from 32-bit to 64-bit
System smart
Of course, you can't do that with a conventional backup. It's too dumb. You need a vertically integrated backup that has system level awareness. That knows, for example, which configuration files you changed and which you didn't touch since installation. That can leverage the package management system to get appropriate versions of system binaries from package repositories instead of wasting backup space.
This backup tool would be smart enough to protect you from all the small paper-cuts that conspire to make restoring an ad-hoc backup such a nightmare. It would transparently handle technical stuff you'd rather not think about like fixing ownership and permission issues in the restored filesystem after merging users and groups from the backed up system.
Ninja secure, dummy proof
It would be a tool you could trust to always encrypt your data. But it would still allow you to choose how much convenience you're willing to trade off for security.
If data stealing ninjas keep you up at night, you could enable strong cryptographic passphrase protection for your encryption key that includes special countermeasures against dictionary attacks. But since your backup's worst enemy is probably staring you in the mirror, it would need to allow you to create an escrow key to store in a safe place in case you ever forget your super-duper passphrase.
On the other hand, nobody wants excessive security measures forced down their throats when they don't need them and in that case, the ideal tool would be designed to optimize for convenience. Your data would still be encrypted, but the key management stuff would happen transparently.
Ultra data durability
By default, your AES encrypted backup volumes would be uploaded to inexpensive, ultra-durable cloud storage designed to provide %99.999999999 durability. To put 11 nines of reliability in perspective, if you stored 10,000 backup volumes you could expect to lose a single volume once every 10 million years.
For maximum network performance, you would be routed automatically to the cloud storage datacenter closest to you.
Open source goodness
Naturally, the ideal backup system would be open source. You don't have to care about free software ideology to appreciate the advantages. As far as I'm concerned any code running on my servers doing something as critical as encrypted backups should be available for peer review and modification. No proprietary secret sauce. No pacts with a cloudy devil that expects you to give away your freedom, nay worse, your data, in exchange for a little bit of vendor-lock-in-flavored convenience.
Tall order huh?
All of this and more is what we set out to accomplish with TKLBAM. But this is not our wild eyed vision for a future backup system. We took our ideal and we made it work. In fact, we've been experimenting with increasingly sophisticated prototypes for a few months now, privately eating our own dog food, working out the kinks. This stuff is complex so there may be a few rough spots left, but the foundation should be stable by now.
Seeing is believing: a simple usage example
We have two installations of TurnKey Drupal6:
- Alpha, a virtual machine on my local laptop. I've been using it to develop the TurnKey Linux web site.
- Beta, an EC2 instance I just launched from the TurnKey Hub.
On both I install and initialize tklbam:
apt-get update apt-get install tklbam # initialize tklbam by providing it with the Hub API Key tklbam-init QPINK3GD7HHT3A
Note that in the future, tklbam will come pre-installed on TurnKey appliances so this part will be even simpler.
I now log into Alpha's command line as root (e.g., via the console, SSH or web shell) and do the following:
tklbam-backup
It's that simple. Unless you want to change defaults, no arguments or additional configuration required.
When the backup is done a new backup record will show up in my Hub account:
To restore I log into Beta and do this:
tklbam-restore 1
That's it! To see it in action watch the video below or better yet log into your TurnKey Hub account and try it for yourself.
Quick screencast (2 minutes)
Best viewed full-screen. Having problems with playback? Try the YouTube version.
Getting started
TKLBAM's front-end interface is provided by the TurnKey Hub, an Amazon-powered cloud backup and server deployment web service currently in private beta.
If you don't have a Hub account already, either ask someone that does to send you an invite, or request an invitation. We'll do our best to grant them as fast as we can scale capacity on a first come, first served basis.
To get started log into your Hub account and follow the basic usage instructions. For more detail, see the documentation.
Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. But you'll probably want to check with the FAQ first to see if they've already been answered.
Upcoming features
- PostgreSQL support: PostgreSQL support is in development but currently only MySQL is supported. That means TKLBAM doesn't yet work on the three PostgreSQL based TurnKey appliances (PostgreSQL, LAPP, and OpenBravo).
- Built-in integration: TKLBAM will be included by default in all future versions of TurnKey appliances. In the future when you launch a cloud server from the Hub it will be ready for action immediately. No installation or initialization necessary.
- Webmin integration: we realize not everyone is comfortable with the command line, so we're going to look into developing a custom webmin module for TKLBAM.
Special salute to the TurnKey community
First, many thanks to the brave souls who tested TKLBAM and provided feedback even before we officially announced it. Remember, with enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow, so if you come across anything else, don't rely on someone else to report it. Speak up!
Also, as usual during a development cycle we haven't been able to spend as much time on the community forums as we'd like. Many thanks to everyone who helped keep the community alive and kicking in our relative absence.
Remember, if the TurnKey community has helped you, try to pay it forward when you can by helping others.
Finally, I'd like to give extra special thanks to three key individuals that have gone above and beyond in their contributions to the community.
By alphabetical order:
- Adrian Moya: for developing appliances that rival some of our best work.
- Basil Kurian: for storming through appliance development at a rate I can barely keep up with.
- JedMeister: for continuing to lead as our most helpful and tireless community member for nearly a year and a half now. This guy is a frigging one man support army.
Also special thanks to Bob Marley, the legend who's been inspiring us as of late to keep jamming till the sun was shining. :)
Final thoughts
TKLBAM is a major milestone for TurnKey. We're very excited to finally unveil it to the world. It's actually been a not-so-secret part of our vision from the start. A chance to show how TurnKey can innovate beyond just bundling off the shelf components.
With TKLBAM out of the way we can now focus on pushing out the next release batch of Lucid based appliances. Thanks to the amazing work done by our star TKLPatch developers, we'll be able to significantly expand our library so by the next release we'll be showcasing even more of the world's best open source software. Stir It Up!
08.09.10: Aaron Toponce: An Open Letter To Pastor Terry Jones
Dear Pastor Terry Jones-
I understand that on September 11th, you plan on carrying out the act of burning Qur’ans with your local church. Do you seriously realize the significance of the act you’re about to carry out? This will create all sorts of complications and security concerns for our troops in Afghanistan. This will cause and fuel much emotion throughout our own country as well. You say that you and your church plan on carrying firearms to the event, in the case your lives are threatened. Do you realize that there could be a shootout at your event? You could die, as well as members of your congregation, for burning Qur’ans. Is this something you’re willing to do? Put your own congregation’s lives on the line for your personal hatred towards Islam?
I would ask if this is the Christian thing to do, but I already saw an interview of you on ABC News, and know what your response would be. Except, what does it mean when Jesus Christ said:
12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
Or again, in Luke:
31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise
Even a lawyer asked Jesus what he should do to obtain eternal life:
25 ¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
Most people, Christians and non-Christians alike, are familiar with this law knows as the “Golden Rule“. Even Islam, the religion you hate so much, teaches that a true Muslim must do good to others, and treat them as they would want to be treated. To be a Christian, that is, to follow the teachings of Jesus, means to actually follow the teachings of Jesus. Jesus never advocated war. He never advocated hate. He taught that you should
44. … Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
29. … unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
Do you understand what Christianity is about? Do you really?
It’s unfortunate that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon happened on September 11th, 2001. Not only did America mourn, but the world. The Council for American Islamic Relations, and other Islamic organizations, raised money and provided countless acts of service to help provide relief for those families that lost loved ones in the attacks. World leaders, including including those of Islamic faith, expressed their sincere condolences to our country. It’s been 9 years since the attacks, all of the rebuilding, all of the love and charity from others, all of the support from so many, you are willing to put on the line, for your own personal gratification and hate.
Even putting religion aside, I’m a member of the Ubuntu community. Ubuntu was chosen because of the philosophy it stands for and the meaning it conveys. It’s a philosophy everyone should stand for, and I’m proud to be a member of a community where such a high regard for human dignity and respect is held.
One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu – the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality – Ubuntu – you are known for your generosity. We think of ourselves far too frequently as just individuals, separated from one another, whereas you are connected and what you do affects the whole world. When you do well, it spreads out; it is for the whole of humanity.
– Archbishop Desmod Tutu
This past month, as a Christian, I’ve been fasting with Islam the entire month of Ramadan, from dawn to sunset. It’s been a difficult task, but I did it primarily to raise awareness that Islam is not a religion of terror. I’m fasting, because of prejudiced people like you and the radical, extreme actions they take and the views they hold. I’ve read the Qur’an, now four times. I know what it teaches. I know the basic tenets and beliefs of Islam. I have many, many Muslim friends. I understand what Islam stands for, and it’s not the message you are trying to convey. I hope, somehow, that my actions have an effect on others, and it would mean the world to me if they somehow changed your mind.
I know you’re upset. I know you have a lot of fiery emotions that have boiled over. You want to make a stand against terrorism, and you want to be heard. Well, you have been heard. You have had the spotlight. You have the world listening. Our own government is urging you to stop, and think what ramifications your act of burning Qur’ans could have on the American public, and the world stage at large. Don’t go through with it. Don’t put lives in danger, because of your feeling towards Islam. Your act of burning Qur’ans is no different than the terrorist act of those who flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Stand on higher ground.
If you do decide to continue with your act of terror, then I hope it rains in Gainesville, Florida, hard enough to prevent you from building your bonfire. Further, I hope that no one’s lives are taken by your decision to burn the Qur’an, both at your church, and around the world. Step down Pastor Jones, step down.
Sincerely, a loving Christian, praying for you,
Aaron Toponce
08.09.10: Canonical Design Team: Exciting things in the post!
A couple of months back Marcus and I got a call from a magazine in Japan who wanted to produce stickers for Ubuntu. We’d _just_ signed off the new logo and word mark and so we collaborated back and forth and finally yesterday the finished article arrived!
Ubuntu Magazine - Japanese edition
And here are the lovely stickers!
They look great! We’re very excited to see this stuff out there and being made by other people using the assets available in the design toolkit!
08.09.10: Maia Kozheva: A Tale of Two Houses
Once upon a time, there were two houses standing across a street. They looked quite different, and their residents didn’t meet each other much — only a few times a year did they meet on the Freedom Square to discuss things like maybe painting entrances the same color, so passers-by don’t get confused about the different looks. Sometimes those discussions actually led somewhere.
One resident, whose name isn’t important to our tale, once lived in house one for a few years, and a year ago she went to house two. She heard, of course, that this old crumbling house on the other end of the town was recently renovated with blue glossy walls and all-new windows, but she left that particular one years ago and had no intention of going back. (And the last time she went there to visit her parents, she found out that on the inside it was mostly the same old smelly stuff, just hastily swept under the carpet in most places.) One day, after a vacation, our resident returned to house two to find out it was torn down and rebuilt, and now looked promising both on the outside and on the inside — however, she also saw that most of its rooms sported nothing but bare walls, so, joining a pack of similarly minded residents, she packed her belongings and went back to house one, where her heart always belonged anyway.
And thus, another year has passed. One day, however, after returning from work, she suddenly found the house surrounded with yellow tape and “Under Construction” signs. The chief architect gathered the residents and explained that they learned from the history of house two, and so they were going to renovate this house one patch at a time. He showed some mockups, which most people agreed looked promising, and so they went their own ways, careful not to trip over newly dug pits in the ground.
Since then, our resident grew more and more confused with every passing month. Everywhere she went, she saw builders bickering about the direction of the effort, with everyone insisting on things being done their way. One day, when passing through the house’s garden, she overheard the following conversation:
Designer #1: [Wearing an orange shirt] Look at this garden — it’s grown old and unattended. The bushes are all different, some have overgrown, some look sickly. I say we demolish this garden and make another one on the same spot, give each plant a strict square spot, and my gardeners would tend to them.
Designer #2: Actually, on our New and Improved plan, it clearly shows that after the garden is destroyed, this spot is going to be cobbled with flat black bricks. We’re planning to make an all-new different garden on the other side of the house, so we have to reject your plan.
Six months passed, however, and the renovation was nowhere near finished, so the chief architect announced it was going to be delayed for another six months (and showed a different design for the final look, completely different from before). In the meantime, our resident thought she sort of liked the orange-shirted designer’s idea of bringing the old garden into shape, and went to ask what a well-known news announcer who lived in the same house thought of the idea. The response was:
“Pah! The only people who care about the new garden now are those wearing orange like you! Clearly, if I supported the idea I’d have to dress the same, and I like my grey and blue, so for now I’ll stick with the old garden.”
So our resident decided to wait again until the house was finished. However, a month before its new deadline, the chief architect gathered everyone yet again and said it was going to be delayed for six more months — and showed yet a third mockup, completely different from the other two, yet curiously similar to what the orange-shirted team was building a street away. Meanwhile, the construction effort continued to deteriorate. Keeping along with the “one patch at a time” motto, some floors of the house switched to using a newly-built different elevator, which was like the old one but different (and its cabin evidently had less attention put into decorations). So whenever she wanted to go to a floor, she had to learn, often by trial and error, which of the two elevators to use.
Finally, she decided that while the construction effort was still underway, she could as well redesign her own apartment to go along with the times. Seeing how her bedroom looked especially messy, she threw together a mockup for a new arrangement and wondered whom she could discuss it with. She was pointed to some big-name professional designers who helped renovate the exterior of the house, so she went to them with her plan. The following discussion ensued.
Resident: Look, I’ve got some plans for a new bedroom, and they’re shaping up nicely, so I wondered if maybe you could offer some suggestions to tweak it before I go along with it? I know you people are big on minimalism, so I kept it reasonably simple. Look, here’s a bed, a TV, a computer desk, and a closet. I tried to keep it in accordance to your Design Guidelines, but maybe I’ve missed something?
Designer: Well… [looks] First of all, do you really need a bedroom?
Resident: ?!
Designer: Many people don’t have a standalone bedroom, they just put the bed in one of the other rooms.
Resident: Well, as it stands, I like to sometimes keep the bedroom’s door closed when people are visiting, but it’s not like this is an issue — I can easily find my way there from anywhere in the apartment.
Designer: You could actually get rid of the TV.
Resident: Uh… as it stands I do watch TV, not often, but occasionally.
Designer: It’s extra clutter, and more electronics to take care of. You could just buy a bigger monitor and connect it to your computer.
Resident: Er… okay. Well, many people I know of have TVs in their rooms, but maybe it’s redunant in my case indeed.
Designer: And the computer desk can be merged with the closet.
Resident: What?!
Designer: Just make a shelf in the middle and put the computer on there, and keep your clothes and bedsheets in the compartments above and below.
Resident: [scratches head] Maybe…
Designer: You don’t need two doors, by the way. Scrap this one and reroute this other one to exit into your hallway.
Resident: Actually, that other door leads to the balcony, so I could breathe fresh air from that new garden.
Designer: Exiting from bedrooms directly to balconies is a bad paradigm, we discourage it. It confuses the residents — bedrooms are for sleeping.
Resident: But wait, all these people have balconies connected to their bedrooms… [lists a few big-name, well-respected residents]
Designer: Balconies will go away in the New and Improved house, to be replaced with slick smooth walls. We’ve talked to the guys in orange about this, and they agree with the change. They won’t be in the new edition of the Design Guidelines either.
Resident: [sigh]
At this point, a different designer starts talking about a mockup he has prepared for a new library room. Our resident, interested (she likes reading books), asks to see it. The mockup is on one half on the page, and shows one huge shelf stretched across the entire wall, with all the books on it. The other half has text about how having multiple shelves apparently interferes with the new planned “teleport around the house in two foot taps” feature. The design of yours shows that only a small portion of this new ubershelf is going to be shown at a time, and the user will have to press a button to make the slit slide and stop over books they want.
Resident: Why not just use multiple shelves like every other library out there? I use your current design exactly because it’s a traditional library with none of those newfangled ‘chromey’ features that all the libraries are adopting now.
Designer: Our research indicates that the frames of the shelves take valuable space that people would prefer to use for books.
Resident: I guess I’ll have to stick with my old library, then, or ask someone else to renovate it.
At this point, designer #2 turns around to show text written on the back of his blue shirt: “The construction industry is just a bunch of idiots hating each other”.
Resident: Erm… I realize it’s a joke, but that’s because I’ve grown thick enough skin over the years around you to let it pass. But imagine if someone completely new comes here and sees this — is it the impression we want to be promoting? Many neighbors give us weird looks as it is.
Designer: Well, that text is true.
Frustrated, the resident turns away and leaves, deciding to make her room over however she sees fit, and just let her guests judge.
The moral of this parable is left as an exercise to the reader.
07.09.10: Joe Barker: iPhone 4 – HDR Photo Feature
I’m sure that, to a lot of the people reading this on Planet Ubuntu, this post will be of little interest. If you’re one of these people, I apologise, please glance over this post 
To everybody else, what I’m about to discuss, and demonstrate, is some sample photos, and my thoughts, however brief, on the new HDR photo option coming in iOS 4.1 next week.
Sample 1
Sample 1
Sample 1 - HDR
As you can see here, the image on the left looks…ok, it’s not to bad, especially for something taken on a mobile phone. However, I feel that my laptop screen is looking rather bright, and almost dominates the shot, given that it’s just a huge blob of white. The cupboard on the left of the image is quite dark, as is the space to the right of the cupboard in the centre of the shot.
When we compare this to the second image, we can see that the cupboard on the left is that little bit clearer, and you can see that the wall on the right hand side is, in fact, red. Further to this, that overly-intrusive laptop screen, which was previously bright white, is now much clearer, and far less intrusive, you can make out much more of the on-screen detail. The cupboard in centre-shot also appears lighter, especially in the areas surrounding the unit.
Sample 2
Sample 2
Sample 2 - HDR
As we can see in the second sample image, the screen (funnily enough) dominates the image. Nothing wrong with that here, it was the point of the exercise. What we can see, is that it looks like I’m working in the lowest lighting conditions I could possibly find. This, I’m pleased to say, isn’t quite true. I did actually have a light on, as you can see more in the HDR example on the right. I have to say, however, that the HDR example makes the images on my screen look more washed out than those in the non HDR sample do, at least, in my opinion.
Summary
One thing I did notice, was the lack of flash on HDR photo’s. The software prevents the use of both at the same time, which, initially, I found somewhat odd and incredibly frustrating. I had a play around taking images with flash on, and HDR on, but still found no way to add the two together. It then dawned on me this morning, that when a photo is going to need a flash to provide the necessary lighting, chances are the HDR image would like almost exactly the same, and provide no benefits.
Nonetheless, I’d like to see the option, in a subsequent iOS update, for the ability to have both on, where it’s possible to set the flash to ‘Auto’ with HDR on, and if a flash is required due to low level lighting, don’t take a HDR photo. Something like this, in my opinion, would make the feature better than it already is. In all, I have to say, I’m pleased with the update – mainly because I don’t take photo’s all that often, so it doesn’t really benefit me to go out and purchase a proper digital camera, but a 5 megapixel camera with HDR functionality that’s on a device I carry around all day anyway, is perfect for me.
07.09.10: Kees Cook: cross-distro default security protection review
The recent work by MWR Labs does a reasonable job showing Debian’s poor pro-active security and why I am so frustrated about it: we have not been able to move very quickly at getting it enabled. While my hardening-includes package is available to maintainers that want to turn on protections for their builds, it’s still a far cry from having it be distro-wide, and it doesn’t protect people that build stuff by hand. We were able to solve this in Ubuntu very directly a while ago by improving the compiler itself.
Since SSP and FORTIFY_SOURCE can only be confirmed (it’s not possible without source analysis to see if it should have been enabled), it would be nice to see what binaries differed between distros on this. Most of the “SSP disabled” stuff are binaries that lack character arrays on the stack to begin with, and the FORTIFY_SOURCE stuff may have done all compile-time protections. The comments about “other distributions could potentially enable it for a few more binaries” is a bit misleading since, for all but Debian, both SSP and FORTIFY_SOURCE are enabled for all builds.
I did appreciate the nod to Ubuntu for being the only distro without by-default PIE that built Firefox with PIE. Given that Firefox is the #2 most vulnerable piece of software in a desktop distro, it was important to do it. (The #1 most vulnerable is the kernel itself — I’m counting number of fixed CVEs for this stat.)
The kernel analysis by MWR seems rather incomplete. Also, it’s not clear to me which distros were running a PAE kernel, which would change some of the results. I didn’t see any mention of several other userspace protections that the kernel can provide, for example:
- symlink and hardlink protections (Gentoo Hardened and Ubuntu 10.10 only)
- PTRACE protections (Gentoo Hardened and Ubuntu 10.10 only)
And a ton more that only Gentoo Hardened could boast, due to their use of grsecurity.
I’d also be curious to see performance comparisons, too. They compared 4 general-purpose distros against a tuned-specifically-for-security-hardening distro, which seems a bit unfair. How about comparing against vanilla Gentoo instead? I can tell you who would be best then. :)
07.09.10: Ubuntu QA blog: Announcing the Next Ubuntu Bug Day! - 2010-09-09
Fellow Ubuntu Triagers!
This week's Bug Day target is *drum roll please* apt!
* 100 New bugs need a hug
* 43 Incomplete bugs need a status check
* 100 Confirmed bugs need a review
apt is not the biggest name in packages, but it sure is important to
keep your system up-to-date. It gets involved whenever we use Synaptic
Package Manager, apt-get, and Software Center, to name a few places.
Bookmark it, add it to your calendars, turn over those egg-timers!
* Thursday, 2010-09-09
* http://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/20100909
Are you looking for a way to start giving some love back to your
adorable Ubuntu Project?
Did you ever wonder what Triage is? Want to learn about that?
This is a perfect time!, Everybody can help in a Bug Day!
open your IRC Client and go to #ubuntu-bugs (FreeNode)
the BugSquad will be happy to help you to start contributing!
Wanna be famous? Is easy! remember to use 5-A-day so if you do a good
work your name could be listed at the top 5-A-Day Contributors in the
Ubuntu Hall of Fame page!
We are always looking for new tasks or ideas for the Bug Days, if you
have one add it to the Planning page
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBugDay/Planning
If you're new to all this, head to
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs
Linux Q New Threads
09.09.10: can't find /sbin/init, drops to busybox
I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 i386 on a K9M6PGM-2 mainboard with an AMD Phenom Triple core @ 2.3 gig. I have 2 gig of RAM and Lucid is on a 320 gig HDD, /dev/sda1 shared w/Win XP. I have in the SDC...
09.09.10: Controlled Squid Proxy Rules
Hi All,
I am deploying a squid for my company, in which there will be three main groups. Group 1 having restricted access for sites, upload & download, Group 2 having restricted access only for...
09.09.10: Java threads, why does this work/not work?
Hi!
I'm writing a program to learn about threads in Java, consisting of one Main class and two different thread implementations (T1 and T2).
T2 is the one I have problems with. I have included a...
09.09.10: Mouse Issue in Slackware-13.1
On my laptop, the mice/meece/mouses(?) available to me are
1. Touchpad thing, w/2 buttons and a strip along the side which on a good day scrolls up and down. This gets 75% use
2. A Low res cheapo...
09.09.10: Start a daemon as general user
I need to allow certain users (who do not have root access) to be able to stop and start specific daemons. Can anyone tell how I can do this in Linux?
09.09.10: LXer: Google Faces a Tough Fight Against iTunes
Published at LXer:
With Android already on millions of devices, the upcoming Google Music service will have a waiting audience, but is Google prepared to run a commercial music service?
Read...
09.09.10: Why I cannot access my website?
Using Fedora 13,
The Website shows well in Local host, but no able to access it from any other host.
I get the error message " The server at xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is taking too long to respond".
Any help...
09.09.10: No Bootsplash in Ubuntu 10.04
Hey I have installed Ubuntu 10.04. But I don't have a 'bootsplash'/start up screen like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhmr3GAGO8w
All I have is a blank screen. How do I fix it? Shouldn't...
09.09.10: root password?
Hi,
Just got Ubuntu (latest, greatest) installed. IIRC I selected 'auto loggin' from the install CD, but I'm unsure how this works. I have a user loggin 'ray' and a PW that's all OK. In the GUI, if...
09.09.10: multiple monitors with latest Ubuntu
Hi All,
Brand new to this. Got Ubuntu installed with not much trouble, tho I found the install CD not as helpful as it might be. Anyway, I have three monitors and want to get them running, same...
09.09.10: LXer: The Key to a Successful Linux Conversion
Published at LXer:
People are resistant to change. This is a fact and it is not going to change any time soon. Because of this they will not want their entire computer to change on them all at...
09.09.10: BOOTLOADER question
I have a dual boot 40GB laptop, Windows 2000 & an old Mandrake 2.4 kernel edition. The Mandrake takes up 10GB and I would like to delete it and use a disk manager to convert it to NTFS to use on the...
09.09.10: Transfer Music to and from iPhone 4?
I just got my iPhone and I noticed that there are some blogs about iPhone being supported by Ubuntu and stuff. Digging a bit deeper it turns out that it might or may not include iPhone 4. Is this true...
09.09.10: Shorewall - Logwatch
Hello
Can anyone help me with a Howto or some pointers on how to get logwatch working with shorewall logs. I tried fwlogwatch but could not get that working.
Cheers
09.09.10: Fibre optic capacity 'auto-tuned' by novel device
"Scientists have shown off a system they say could "substantially" improve the data capacity of fibre optic networks."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11229085
Mandriva
08.07.10: Mandriva presents Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring
Mandriva, the leading European publisher of Linux solutions, announces today the launch of the final version of Mandriva Linux 2010 Spring.
08.07.10: Mandriva restructures to establish European leadership
Mandriva is one of the cornerstones of Open Source, a technological pioneer offering the sole independent Linux distribution on the European market. Nevertheless the company has been faced with a mounting financial challenge for several years due in part to its size and lack of a clear publishing strategy.
19.05.10: 3G modems certified on Mandriva Linux
Curitiba, 6th May, 2010 – Mandriva, Europe's leading publisher of Linux solutions, today announced the certification of its operating system Mandriva Linux for 3G modems.
The new generation of modems, adapted to the 3G, offers to users speedness, more quality and more possibilities to use diversified applications and to access the Internet.
It is more than natural for Mandriva to associate the simplicity and robustness of its distribution to this new technology.
Paris, 19th May 2010 – Paris Descartes University's UFR Biomédicale has installed the Mandriva Linux operating system on client desktops and servers to ensure a permanent stability and optimise the work of its 4,500 students.
The 'UFR Biomédicale' of Saints-Pères embraces within the Paris Descartes University different medical and life science academic units and 14 laboratories attached to the CNRS and INSERM research institutions.
08.04.10: Mandriva Announces Arnaud Laprévote as CEO
Paris, the 8th April, 2010 – Mandriva today announced that its board of directors has named Arnaud Laprévote on the 24th of March to serve as the company's Chief Executive Officer.
Arnaud Laprévote succeeds Stanislas Bois. Arnaud will surround himself with Hervé Yahi, Chief Stategic Officer and Stanislas Bois, Chief Financial Officer at Mandriva.
Red Hat Magazine
29.01.10: Now showing: opensource.com
Hi. We’re back. Well, not back exactly. We’d just like to take a minute to introduce you to somebody. Somebody that’s important to us. opensource.com We promised we’d let you know when we had news–and now we do. Opensource.com is our new adventure. It’s still sponsored by Red Hat, and still shining a bright light [...]
15.09.09: Where have we been?
It seems we’ve been a bit out of touch. Rather than bore you with excuses, let’s cut to the chase. Over the last year, we’ve slowed down—and then stopped altogether—publishing articles in Red Hat Magazine. And some of you have been contacting us to ask why. There’s really a couple of reasons. First of all, [...]
19.05.09: Video: Open source government
Download this video: [Ogg Theora] Open source is answering the call at government agencies on all levels as they look for opportunities to carve out costs and improve security, transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Why? Open source is stable, trustworthy, and secure, and Red Hat solutions are being used across government agencies to create efficiencies, [...]
28.04.09: Call for submissions: Innovation Awards and RHCE of the Year
It’s that time of year again–the Red Hat Summit and JBoss World are fast approaching, and with them, Red Hat’s annual awards ceremonies. But first, we need nominations. And for that we appeal to our customers, readers, partners, and friends. That’s you. Nominate that innovative business you worked with, or the admin who always has [...]
14.04.09: Red Hat and Intel: Smart processors, virtualization boost efficiency and performance
On Monday March 30, Intel announced the availability of their much anticipated new line of processors, the Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 series–nicknamed Nehalem. Red Hat, a long-time partner of the market-leading chip maker , collaborated on the chip’s debut, testing and optimizing the recently released Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® 5.3 on the new processor. Changes [...]
SuSE Linux
20.12.07: Elapsed Time 4
Determine elapsed time of LDAP searches.
12.12.07: One Giant Leap: Cool Solutions gets some New Digs
Eleven years after launching the first Cool Solutions site, we have just taken a major step forward. We have some new digs - a full-on community site with all the Web 2.0 bells and whistles. Check it out!
03.12.07: Deleting Private Data from Your Linux/Microsoft Windows Machine
Private data can still be recovered after you format your Linux/Microsoft Windows machine. Here's a tip from Damian Myerscough that will help you make sure your data cannot be recovered.
30.11.07: Finding Open Files and Network Connections
Mike Farrell shows you how to use the lsof and netstat commands to get a complete list of all open files or network connections on your system.
29.11.07: List Running Resources on V1-style Heartbeat Cluster Node
Small Python script to check for running resources on your heartbeat cluster node.
Linux Q News
09.09.10: Fibre optic capacity 'auto-tuned' by novel device
"Scientists have shown off a system they say could "substantially" improve the data capacity of fibre optic networks."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11229085
09.09.10: Intel and ARM to battle for the hearts of smartphones
"Intel is aiming for a slice of the smartphone market with a new chip with built in graphics."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11243108
08.09.10: One in four gives fake net names
"More than a quarter of people online have lied about their name and more than one in five has done something online they regret, says a new report."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11226786
08.09.10: European police in pirate raids
"Police have conducted a series of raids across Europe in one of its biggest crackdowns on file-sharing."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11227813
08.09.10: Toshiba Recalls T Series Notebook Computers
Toshiba Recalls T Series Notebook Computers Due to Burn Hazard (http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10330.html)
---Quote---
Description: This recall involves certain Toshiba Satellite...
07.09.10: PlayStation 3 update targets hardware hacks
"Sony has closed a loophole that allowed users to run software that enables pirated games to be played on the PS3 console."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11213618
05.09.10: Ripple open decentralized payment system
Ripple (http://ripple-project.org/) is a project to develop an open source distributed (p2p) payment system. There's an operational implementation called Ripplepay (https://ripplepay.com/). It's...
02.09.10: Dell pulls out of battle with HP for 3Par
"Dell has pulled out of bidding for 3Par after rival Hewlett-Packard raised its offer for the data storage company to $33 a share, or $2.1bn (£1.34bn)."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11166772
02.09.10: Memristor revolution backed by HP
"Electronics giant HP has joined the world's second-largest memory chip maker Hynix to manufacture a novel member of the electronics family."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11165087
02.09.10: UN reveals global disparity in broadband access
"The global disparity in fixed broadband access and cost has been revealed by UN figures."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11162656
02.09.10: Galaxy Tab unveiled as Samsung's first tablet computer
"Samsung has become the latest challenger to enter the tablet computer battle, unveiling its Galaxy Tab at the IFA conference in Berlin."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11163687
01.09.10: Piracy: Unlawful Noble Act
"The Internet is full of reports saying that Russian security agencies are going to stop the work of two major metropolitan centers selling electronics, home appliances and media vehicles Gorbushka...
01.09.10: Ohio LinuxFest Registration and Contest Deadline Extended
Columbus, Ohio -- September 1, 2010 -- Registration for the 2010 Ohio LinuxFest has been extended through September 8th, and the registration contest has also been extended until the 1,000th...
01.09.10: New official Nvidia driver released (version 256.53)
Nvidia's finally released a driver update. (http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=2309077) Anyone care to give it a spin?
31.08.10: LQ Reputation System is now in BETA
I'm happy to announce that the LQ reputation system is now in BETA. Thanks for all the feedback provided by members here...
Fedora News Weekly
09.09.10: New Feed for FWN
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 128
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 127
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 126
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 125
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 124
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 123
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 122
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 121
09.09.10: Fedora Weekly News Issue 120
Linux Security Hybrid
09.09.10: How Linux Land Got Better Since Last Summer
LinuxSecurity.com: "My favourite change in the world of GNU/Linux this year is that GNU/Linux is being accepted by more people as a better way to do IT on the desktop as well as the server," said blogger and educator Robert Pogson. "All the advantages of stability, efficiency, security, low cost, etc., that benefit us who use GNU/Linux on the server also apply to those using GNU/Linux on the desktop."
09.09.10: SMB Cloud Is A Hacker's Paradise
LinuxSecurity.com: Small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly turning to cloud computing as an easier, cheaper alternative to in-house IT or shared and dedicated server hosting solutions. And, they are finding social media to be an accessible, inexpensive way to build brands, distribute content, and assist customers.
09.09.10: Mozilla fixes Firefox holes, curtails clickjacking
LinuxSecurity.com: Mozilla released two new versions of its browser on Tuesday, Firefox 3.6.9 and Firefox 3.5.12, to close 10 critical security vulnerabilities in each and to help Web site operators block a risk called clickjacking. Firefox 3.6.9 is also available from CNET Download.com for Windows, Mac, and Linux
08.09.10: Why hackers hack
LinuxSecurity.com: Since the early 1980's the term "hacker" has been used to describe someone who tries to gain unauthorized access to a computer. Hacking is the activity of attempting to break in to a computer, and likewise, a computer that has been compromised is said to have been hacked.
08.09.10: String Of Deals Shows Demand for Cloud-Based Authentication
LinuxSecurity.com: The authentication and identity management market for cloud-based architectures has experienced a recent acceleration in consolidation, with two big acquisitions from VMware and CA Technologies, as well as Symantec's recent pick-up of VeriSign's security business, demonstrating how this market is maturing.
08.09.10: Quantum Cryptography Breached With Lasers
LinuxSecurity.com: Norwegian computer scientists have perfected a laser-based attack against quantum cryptography systems that allows them to eavesdrop on communications without revealing their presence.
09.09.10: Debian: 2107-1: couchdb: untrusted search path
LinuxSecurity.com: Dan Rosenberg discovered that in couchdb, a distributed, fault-tolerant and schema-free document-oriented database, an insecure library search path is used; a local attacker could execute arbitrary code by first dumping a maliciously crafted shared library in some [More...]
08.09.10: Ubuntu: 978-1: Thunderbird vulnerabilities
LinuxSecurity.com: Several dangling pointer vulnerabilities were discovered in Thunderbird. Anattacker could exploit this to crash Thunderbird or possibly run arbitrarycode as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2010-2760, CVE-2010-2767,CVE-2010-3167) [More...]
08.09.10: Ubuntu: 975-1: Firefox and Xulrunner vulnerabilities
LinuxSecurity.com: Several dangling pointer vulnerabilities were discovered in Firefox. Anattacker could exploit this to crash the browser or possibly run arbitrarycode as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2010-2760, CVE-2010-2767,CVE-2010-3167) [More...]
08.09.10: Ubuntu: 985-1: mountall vulnerability
LinuxSecurity.com: Alasdair MacGregor discovered that mountall created a udev rule filewith world-writable permissions. A local attacker could exploit thisunder certain conditions to cause udev to execute arbitrary commands asthe root user. [More...]
30.08.10: Review: The Official Ubuntu Book
LinuxSecurity.com: If you haven't used Linux before, are new to Ubuntu, or would like a quick update on the latest in open source advancements for the desktop, then The Official Ubuntu Book is a great place to start. Authored by a group of some of the most experienced open source administrators and developers, this 400-page user guide details everything you need to know about how to make the most of your Ubuntu, Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), and Xubuntu (Ubuntu with Xfce) computer.
09.08.10: Review: Zabbix 1.8 Network Monitoring
LinuxSecurity.com: If you have anything more than a small home network, you need to be monitoring the status of your systems to ensure they are providing the services they were designed to provide. Rihards Olups has created a comprehensive reference and usability guide for the latest version of Zabbix that anyone being tasked with implementing should have by their side.
Linux Security Features
30.08.10: Review: The Official Ubuntu Book
LinuxSecurity.com: If you haven't used Linux before, are new to Ubuntu, or would like a quick update on the latest in open source advancements for the desktop, then The Official Ubuntu Book is a great place to start. Authored by a group of some of the most experienced open source administrators and developers, this 400-page user guide details everything you need to know about how to make the most of your Ubuntu, Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE), and Xubuntu (Ubuntu with Xfce) computer.
09.08.10: Review: Zabbix 1.8 Network Monitoring
LinuxSecurity.com: If you have anything more than a small home network, you need to be monitoring the status of your systems to ensure they are providing the services they were designed to provide. Rihards Olups has created a comprehensive reference and usability guide for the latest version of Zabbix that anyone being tasked with implementing should have by their side.
08.06.10: Review: Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Second Edition
LinuxSecurity.com: If you've ever wondered what a "buffer overflow" was, or how a "denial of service" attack works beyond just a basic understanding, then there is no better book that will help you to delve into the nitty-gritty than Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Second Edition, by Jon Erickson.
25.05.10: Review: Ubuntu Unleased 2010 Edition: Covering 9.10 and 10.4
LinuxSecurity.com: Compiling a reference book of more than 800 pages, plus a complete DVD distributed with the book, is a huge project, even for four experienced Linux veterans such as those that wrote Ubuntu Unleased: 2010 Edition.
13.05.10: Review: A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux - Fifth Edition
LinuxSecurity.com: Mark Sobell again delivers the answers to common Linux administration challenges, and provides thorough and step-by-step instructions to configuring many of the common Linux Internet services in A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fifth Edition.
02.05.10: Review: Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming
LinuxSecurity.com: Mark Sobell has again compiled a great collection of applications and utilities in A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, and his experience shows in this second edition.
Ubuntu Advisories
09.09.10: Study: Spammers use e-mail ID to gain legitimacy
(Sep 9) With few junk e-mail filters supporting a protocol for verifying the source address of digital messages, spammers have adopted it themselves as a way to appear more legitimate, according to a report released on Wednesday. . . . ...
09.09.10: Review: The Official Ubuntu Book
(Aug 30) If you haven't used Linux before, are new to Ubuntu, or would like a quick update on the latest in open source advancements for the desktop, then The Official Ubuntu Book is a great place to start. Authored by a group of some of the most experienced ...
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 978-1: Thunderbird vulnerabilities
(Sep 8) Several dangling pointer vulnerabilities were discovered in Thunderbird. Anattacker could exploit this to crash Thunderbird or possibly run arbitrarycode as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2010-2760, CVE-2010-2767,CVE-2010-3167) [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 975-1: Firefox and Xulrunner vulnerabilities
(Sep 8) Several dangling pointer vulnerabilities were discovered in Firefox. Anattacker could exploit this to crash the browser or possibly run arbitrarycode as the user invoking the program. (CVE-2010-2760, CVE-2010-2767,CVE-2010-3167) [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 985-1: mountall vulnerability
(Sep 8) Alasdair MacGregor discovered that mountall created a udev rule filewith world-writable permissions. A local attacker could exploit thisunder certain conditions to cause udev to execute arbitrary commands asthe root user. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 984-1: LFTP vulnerability
(Sep 7) It was discovered that LFTP incorrectly filtered filenames suggestedby Content-Disposition headers. If a user or automated system were trickedinto downloading a file from a malicious site, a remote attacker couldcreate the file with an arbitrary name, such as a dotfile, and possibly runarbitrary code. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 983-1: Sudo vulnerability
(Sep 7) Markus Wuethrich discovered that sudo did not always verify the user when agroup was specified in the Runas_Spec. A local attacker could exploit thisto execute arbitrary code as root if sudo was configured to allow theattacker to use a program as a group when the attacker was not a part ofthat group. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 982-1: Wget vulnerability
(Sep 2) It was discovered that Wget would use filenames provided by the server whenfollowing 3xx redirects. If a user or automated system were tricked intodownloading a file from a malicious site, a remote attacker could createthe file with an arbitrary name (e.g. .wgetrc), and possibly run arbitrarycode. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 981-1: libwww-perl vulnerability
(Aug 31) It was discovered that libwww-perl incorrectly filtered filenames suggestedby Content-Disposition headers. If a user were tricked into downloading afile from a malicious site, a remote attacker could overwrite hidden filesin the user's directory. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 979-1: okular vulnerability
(Aug 26) Stefan Cornelius of Secunia Research discovered a boundary error duringRLE decompression in the "TranscribePalmImageToJPEG()" function ingenerators/plucker/inplug/image.cpp of okular when processing imagesembedded in PDB files, which can be exploited to cause a heap-basedbuffer overflow. (CVE-2010-2575) [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 976-1: Tomcat vulnerability
(Aug 25) It was discovered that Tomcat incorrectly handled invalid Transfer-Encodingheaders. A remote attacker could send specially crafted requests containinginvalid headers to the server and cause a denial of service, or possiblyobtain sensitive information from other requests. [More...]
09.09.10: Ubuntu: 977-1: MoinMoin vulnerabilities
(Aug 25) It was discovered that MoinMoin did not properly sanitize its input,resulting in cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. With cross-sitescripting vulnerabilities, if a user were tricked into viewing serveroutput during a crafted server request, a remote attacker could exploitthis to modify the contents, or steal confidential data, within the same [More...]