Posts published in “Media”

Sony & North Korea: Dumb & Dumber

By Christine Hall on December 22, 2014 |

Business, Copyright, Humor, Media, News, Politics and Security

Hacking, hacking, everywhere hacking. And not the good kind either. We’re talking cracking hacking.

Take the Sony hack for instance. Bunches of movies set for Christmas release are now available online for free, for those willing to break the law and invoke the displeasure of the MPAA while firing up the ol’ BitTorrent. Worse than that: even more bunches of Sony employees have had their financial lives turned upside down, with all of their personal information leaked. Not so bad, however, is the news that “The Interview” won’t be making an appearance on a screen near you anytime soon.

Oddly, it’s that last tidbit that’s been getting the most press. That, and the ongoing argument on who’s to blame for the Sony crack hack.

At first, U.S. authorities said that the North Koreans didn’t do it. Then they said they did. The North Koreans countered with a “no-way-Jose” and offered to help in the hunt to find the real culprit, which elicited an adamant “no-way-back-atcha” from the U.S.

Christine Hall

Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux

FOSSForce.com

MPAA Wants to Use DMCA to Effectively Bring Back SOPA

By Christine Hall on December 18, 2014 |

Business, Copyright, Internet, Media and News

In “Nineteen Eighty-Four,” Winston Smith’s job was to rewrite the past for the Inner Party. Mainly, he made people vanish from the pages of history. Anyone who came under the party’s bad graces suddenly disappeared from all media; from all newspaper articles, books, television archives and any other mentions. In Orwell’s world, anyone declared a nonperson was completely erased. S/he never existed.

According to memos leaked from the recent hack on Sony, the big studios would like to employ a Winston Smith to remove domain name listings from ISPs DNS directories, effectively removing entire websites from the Internet for most users, as if they never existed.

MPAA Logo

The movie moguls want to do this in the name of fighting their old monster-under-the-bed, content piracy. Not surprisingly, they plan on evoking an old enemy of a free and open Internet in the process, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), while attempting to revive at least a part of the ghost of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was killed back in 2011.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

Linux Outlaws Ride Into the Sunset

By Larry Cafiero on November 19, 2014 |

Community, Internet and Media

The introduction was inconspicuous enough. Philip Newborough, the lead developer for CrunchBang, tweeted to me: “They’re talking about you on LO.”

“LO?”

“Linux Outlaws.”

A few questions and a search or two later, I was at a Google Hangout where Dan Lynch, an English musician in the band 20lb Sounds from Liverpool, and Fabian Scherschel, a German tech journalist and rabid Pittsburgh Penguins fan, were discussing the FOSS issues of the day; Lynch with his subtle and deadpan delivery serving as an anchor and foil for Scherschel’s occasional — and hilarious — flights-of-ranting-fancy.

That was episode 303 of their podcast, and I was hooked on the Monday night taping of Linux Outlaws (usually on Monday nights, GMT, and fortunately for me, on the U.S. West Coast, Monday night GMT usually meant sitting in on the broadcast at around two in the afternoon).

Linux Outlaws is not for shrinking violets — it is portrayed on its site as “very much like listening to two friends sitting in a pub, having fun and talking about things they find interesting.” However, I think that sells the show short — it is far more entertaining than that (and when they say, “Not recommended for the faint of heart or the ignorant,” they mean it). Always straightforward and honest, always informative and humorous, Linux Outlaws never met an issue they couldn’t tackle with their unique brand of wisdom, insight and jocularity.

Now, Lynch and Scherschel — Dan and Fab to their relatives, friends, and a wide listener base — are at the crossroads. Recently, with the episodes well into the 360s in number, they decided to finish out the year with Linux Outlaws and ride off into the sunset.

I was able to catch up with them and ask where they’ve been, where they’re going, and other items of interest.

Larry Cafiero

Larry Cafiero, a.k.a. Larry the Free Software Guy, is a journalist and a Free/Open Source Software advocate. He is involved in several FOSS projects and serves as the publicity chair for the Southern California Linux Expo. Follow him on Twitter: @lcafiero

Firefox Turns 10, Making Reglue Stick & Outlaws Ride

By Larry Cafiero on November 7, 2014 |

Browsers, Internet and Media

FOSS Week in Review

Arguably it was a fairly miserable week in areas that are not exactly FOSS, but let’s not think about that now. Here’s what is on-the-radar worthy of mention as this week ends:

An anniversary worth celebrating: A while back, many in the FOSS world quaffed copious amount of Kool-Aid in celebrating the 10th anniversary of a particular vowel-laden distro. What unfortunately seems to be ready to fly inconspicuously under the radar is a far more important 10th anniversary celebrating a far more useful and ubiquitous software program.

Good thing I’m here to make sure the word gets out.

In a full-page ad in “The New York Times” on Nov. 9, 2004, the Mozilla project announced the release of Firefox 1.0, the first full version of the browser which has become the third most popular way to navigate the Internet, behind Google Chrome and Internet ~~Exploder~~, er, Explorer. What makes Firefox unique is that it’s the only one of the three leading browsers that’s completely open source. Ten years later, more than 450 million people use Firefox, of which about 40 percent of the code is written by volunteers. In addition, its reach can be measured by the fact that more than half of the users employ non-English versions. The browser is available in 75 languages.

Larry Cafiero

‘Hello World’s’ Indiegogo Campaign a Big Success

‘Hello World’s’ Indiegogo Campaign a Big Success

By Christine Hall on October 29, 2014 |

Community and Media

It’s all over for Hello World’s fundraising campaign on Indiegogo — and what a success it was.

You may remember that the project, which makes short educational videos on Linux and other tech subjects, began a crowdsourcing campaign on September 10th, hoping to raise $2,048 needed to purchase new equipment. On October 9th we reported that the project had exceeded its goal, with a total at that time of $3,145. The campaign ended nine days ago, on October 20th, with the total raised at $3,705 or 181 percent of the target.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

‘Hello World’ Indiegogo Fundraiser Reaches Goal

‘Hello World’ Indiegogo Fundraiser Reaches Goal

By Christine Hall on October 9, 2014 |

Business, Community and Media

Sometime overnight, the Hello World educational video project, which has been trying to raise a little money through an Indiegogo campaign, reached its goal — with twelve full days still to go in the campaign. The funds will be used to purchase new equipment.

As of 11 a.m. EDT, the organization’s Indiegogo webpage is showing that it’s so far received donations totaling $2,145, nearly $100 over the goal of $2,048. The organization had chosen to take an “in for a penny, in for a pound” approach to this fundraising effort by choosing the “fixed funding” option. This means that if the goal hadn’t been met, no funds would be received and all donations would be returned to the contributors.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

‘Tux Machines’ DDOS Attack Moves to ‘TechRights’

By FOSS Force on October 4, 2014 |

Media, News and Security

Editor’s note: This article was updated 9/4/2014 at 5:15 p.m. EDT to include latest update from Tux Machines publisher.

The DDOS attack that has rendered the popular Linux site Tux Machines virtually unreachable for nearly two weeks, now seems to be affecting sister site TechRights. Roy Schestowitz, publisher of both sites, told FOSS Force that the attack on TechRights began at about one o’clock Friday afternoon GMT.

“…an hour ago I got some automatic reports and some messages from readers saying that Tech Rights had gone offline,” he said. “I then checked logs, grepped on ‘NT’ (all the zombies are [running different versions of] NT), and saw pretty much the same pattern as on Tux Machines.”

As of eleven o’clock this evening EDT, both site were reachable from FOSS Force’s offices in North Carolina, but we’ve been unable to determine if this is because the attacks have ended or if this is only a temporary reprieve.

DDOS Attack Brings Tux Machines Down

By FOSS Force on September 29, 2014 |

Internet, Media and News

Editor’s note: This article was updated on 9/29/14 at approx. 5:30 p.m. to include update from Tux Machines publisher Roy Schestowitz.

Since sometime last week the popular Linux site Tux Machines has been under an apparent distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. For the last several days, those trying to visit the site have been redirected to Tech Rights, another site operated by Roy Schestowitz, the owner of Tux Machines, to a post dated Saturday by Schestowitz which reads:

“Windows botnets have been hammering on Tux Machines for nearly a week. It got a lot of worse yesterday and the site became unaccessible much of the time. We don’t know who the attacker is and what the motivations are, but in the mean time the site can be read via the RSS feed. The RSS feed links to all the latest news and the pages ought to work as usual. We apologise for this issue and we are working hard to find a permanent solution.”

Hello World: Videos That Teach Linux To Kids

By Christine Hall on September 15, 2014 |

Business, Media, News and Operating Systems

The Hello World Program needs a few bucks to buy some new equipment to enable them to continue to keep on doing what they do. What they do is make videos that teach Linux and other computer tech subjects to kids, using sock puppets, robots and animation — sort of Kukla, Fran and Ollie for the 21st century. Or Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop in color and high def.

They don’t need much. $2,048 by their estimation will do just fine — a mere drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things. They’ve been on Indiegogo since last Wednesday, where they’re making their case.

“We don’t have a proper studio to shoot video,” they wrote on their Indiegogo page, “the bulbs in our light kit are burned out, our cameras and lenses are dirty because we’ve been shooting in basements and (very cold) garages for the last year, our backdrop needs replacing, and our highly intelligent robot host requires an upgrade.”

They’re already a third of the way there, with $680 raised so far. But crowdfunding campaigns sometimes stall after getting off to a good start. It happens — ask Mark Shuttleworth. It’s not time to relax yet.

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

Are You Going Conferencing?

Are You Going Conferencing?

By FOSS Force on September 11, 2014 |

Media, Site News and Software

This year, we at FOSS Force are expanding our coverage of Linux, FOSS and OSS conferences. This got us wondering, in a self serving sort of way, how many of you regularly attend conferences?

At this point, it’s looking as if we’ll have boots on the ground at three conferences, all scheduled for late October. In fact, we’re already hard at work coordinating our efforts to cover these events.

All Things Open

First up will be our coverage of All Things Open (ATO), a two day conference to be held on October 22 and 23, which will be covered by Christine Hall. Last year, you might remember, we got our feet wet with Hall’s coverage of the inaugural bow of ATO. Hall says that last year was her first try at conference coverage, that she learned quite a bit and that this year’s coverage will be even better.

Tux Machines Ten Months Later

By Christine Hall on September 4, 2014 |

Internet and Media

On a Monday last October, Tennessee based publisher and writer Susan Linton decided her plate was too full and put the website Tux Machines up for sale. That Friday, October 28, she announced that she’d found a buyer in Roy Schestowitz, known in FOSS circles as the publisher of TechRights, a site which focuses on the political side of free tech.

For nine years, Tux Machines had been a place to read about Linux and FOSS, mainly from links to what others were writing on other sites. But it was also just a cool place to hang out and meet up with other Linux users. Certainly there were and are other sites doing almost the same thing — but Linton’s Tux Machines was different. It was kick-your-shoes-off-and-visit-a-spell homey. It was comfortable.

Tux Machines logo

It wasn’t a big surprise when Linton announced her intention to sell the site. For a while it had been obvious she wasn’t putting the time into it she once had. Since the site had started in 2004, it had been constantly maintained, with links to other sites being posted daily, if not more often. Recently, it had lost that dependability. Days, sometimes weeks, would go by without the site being updated.

“I’m just getting too old and tired to keep the site up the way it and its loyal visitors deserve,” she wrote. “It may get better next spring, but this fall I’ll end up losing all my visitors I’m afraid.”

Christine Hall

FOSSForce.com

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Posts published in “Media”

Sony & North Korea: Dumb & Dumber

MPAA Wants to Use DMCA to Effectively Bring Back SOPA

Linux Outlaws Ride Into the Sunset

Firefox Turns 10, Making Reglue Stick & Outlaws Ride

FOSS Week in Review

‘Hello World’s’ Indiegogo Campaign a Big Success

‘Hello World’ Indiegogo Fundraiser Reaches Goal

‘Tux Machines’ DDOS Attack Moves to ‘TechRights’

DDOS Attack Brings Tux Machines Down

Hello World: Videos That Teach Linux To Kids

Are You Going Conferencing?

Tux Machines Ten Months Later