I thought about ignoring this one and letting it slide, but it’s too priceless, too typically Microsoft, not to pass on. It seems that Redmond has been inadvertently infecting Windows computers with ransomware through its MSN website. Not to worry, however. The company is happy to hand you a tool to remove the malware, which is akin to locking the door after the horse is gone, as your files will by then be locked up tighter than a waterproof safe.
FOSS Force
On September 3, Bitcoin Magazine’s Joseph Young reported on GameCredits, or GMC, one of the first crypto currencies specifically designed for use in games. The secure open source currency will be supported on multiple platforms, including Linux, Windows, MAC, Android, iOS and Windows Mobile. The goal is to eventually replace the current model of in-game purchases.
Although the numbers behind the name do not reflect it, the currently-named “SpeechLess” front end for MaryTTS is now being released as beta software. I was able to assemble a three man team to create a GUI and to my way of thinking, it has come along nicely. Although the demo is web-based, these guys have been able to construct it so the entire thing is local. That means little to no latency between hitting enter and having the text replicated to speech.
I’ve talked at length about how TTS in the Linuxsphere is less than user friendly at about every turn. Our goal is to create a front end that makes MaryTTS easy to use for everyone. We’re getting there.
In last week’s wrap-up, I posted an item about both Sarah Sharp and Matthew Garrett ceasing their contributions to the Linux kernel, and I was going to leave it at that and let those who read their blogs, as well as reports here and elsewhere, draw their own conclusions.
But giving it some thought over the weekend — not dwelling on it, of course, because the baseball playoffs are currently in progress — it occurred to me that many of the issues are not being addressed, and that’s going to continue to fester. The result of that remains to be seen and, sadly, this is par for the course in FOSS circles. That has been mentioned on many occasions elsewhere, so we won’t go into it here.
Inside the Linux Kernel Mailing List where this drama transpired, my guess is that it’s business as usual: Square One at frat-boy central is moving along as usual, with caustic feedback to those participating. That is, when they’re not giving each other digital wedgies and noogies.
FOSS Week in Review
Grab some popcorn — make two bowls — and get comfortable.
Last week I told you about a few of the more than 130 speakers scheduled for this year’s All Things Open (ATO) conference in Raleigh, to be held October 19-20. Today, we’ll talk about the impressive lineup of keynote speakers who’re on tap this year.
Actually, it’s something of a miracle that the event is still good-to-go. IT-oLogy, the organization behind ATO, is headquartered in Columbia, S.C., which was subject to massive flooding last week in the wake of hurricane Joaquin. In fact, the organizations headquarters are located only blocks away from the Congaree River, the source of much flooding.
Thankfully, the organization’s infrastructure came through just fine, according to Todd Lewis, who is both the chair person for ATO and IT-oLogy’s Executive Director-Columbia.
Keeping in rhythm with using names from Toy Story characters, Raspbian Jessie was released this past week for Raspberry Pi users. This latest release marks many improvements and updates that Raspberry Pi users have been longing for. After using and experimenting with Raspbian Jessie for the past week, I have to say that I’m very pleased with the update.
What follows is a walk through of my first experiences with Raspbian Jessie and what I feel are the points that stand out the most. For this test, I used a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and a SanDisk 16g micro SD card.
It appears as if Java can be added to the list of things that Oracle spent big bucks acquiring from Sun for no apparent reason. Last Wednesday, InfoWorld’s Paul Krill wrote an article around an email the site received from “a former high-ranking Java official” who said, “Java has no interest to them anymore.”
The article prompted JAXenter to speculate, “It’s possible that Oracle sees few other ways to make money with Java than by suing Google, who many might argue have boosted the Java community with [what] is arguably one of the biggest Java-based innovations in years — Android.”
The day has changed, but the commentary remains the same: In a minor FOSS Force shuffle, I’ve moved from giving commentary on Wednesdays to giving it on Mondays. And while there is no one item that stands out in a grand way to start the week, there’s no reason we can’t begin the week with several smaller items, right?
LibreOffice has won, get over it: Last week, I innocently posted an article on Facebook about LibreOffice’s fifth birthday — yes, it has been five years, surprisingly — and for some reason it ran into some resistance from one friend who isn’t exactly too fond of the name “LibreOffice” — “Libre isn’t English” (huh?) — and he seems to think that the remnants of OpenOffice are better served if the LibreOffice folks just fold up their tent and rejoin OpenOffice. Yeah, I laughed too. That’s not going to happen because, for all intents and purposes, OpenOffice was fatally poisoned as soon as Oracle got a hold of it, making the LibreOffice fork necessary. If anything, OpenOffice developers should drop OpenOffice and join LibreOffice. Anyway, happy 5th, LibreOffice.
Photo: Joi Ito, CC-BY-2.0
Mediaoriente gave this report, and the Free Bassel Safadi Facebook page has also been active on Saturday, though details have been sketchy.