I received quite a few comments this past week following the publishing of California IT Policy Letter 10-01 which formally establishes “the use of Open Source Software (OSS) in California state government as an acceptable practice.” While many of my security colleagues offered words of caution following the announcement (and even a couple of “are you crazy” comments), most were pretty enthusiastic with remarks like, “Finally, enlightenment” and “It’s about time government joined the 21st century.” As a security guy, I’ve been on both sides of the OSS fence at different times but I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone who doesn’t think OSS has a place in today’s business or government simply hasn’t been paying attention.
The problem itself appear to be in the kernel from version 6.06, 8.04, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10. 7.xx versions are not affected . This is a serious problem because it could allow full system access among others.
Worldlabel: “Cloud computing is all the rage these days. But while the idea of using your browser to access your applications and documents sounds like a great idea on paper, in practice there are all kinds of reasons to stick to your desktop software.”
snydeq writes “Apple’s reticence to reveal details prior to a product’s launch is legendary. But when Apple extends this silence beyond a product’s unveiling, historically this has meant that the product cannot deliver the functionality that analysts and journalists are asking about. InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman lists eight key questions for the iPad, about all of which Apple has kept silent. Can you save and transfer documents to the iPad? Does the iPad support Microsoft Exchange email? Does the iPad support VPN? Configuration management? ‘I have no doubt the iPad will be compelling to some users. But I now have major concerns that it will fulfill the potential beyond being an iTunes delivery screen that I and other industry observers saw,’ Gruman writes.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Sun used to boast that it was one of the largest contributors to open source. That’s being demonstrated now that Oracle has acquired the company. Oracle’s acquisition of Sun, and subsequent layoffs, are having ripple effects on the open source community. The cuts are also hitting the GNOME accessibility (a11y) team and leading the project to think about the future of a11y efforts in GNOME.
Monday, February 08, 2010 When Linux Nerds Choose Mates from the Windows Herd. Look…let’s face this together. Dating can suck. Now when you are young, it’s an adventure. One has relatively little “baggage”, the emotional scars are few and the dating world is your oyster…so to speak. And you haven’t even begun to think about their therapeutic value yet. Ah, youth… But then you find yourself at midlife, choosing from a large pool of potential crisis’. So many to choose from. Maybe there is a divorce or two under your belt, some strong political or religious beliefs that are deeply ingrained, and oh yeah, there’s that messy incident with the hacking conviction… Those tend to narrow down the potential list of candidates for life-long bliss. Throw your use/obsession of Linux into the mix and what do you get? More than likely a room at your mom’s house and a NASA-level computer bank in her basement.
A piece up at Mashable explores how some schools and universities are finding success at integrating social gaming into their education curriculum. Various game-related programs are getting assistance these days from sources like the government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“For the less well-to-do educator, the Federation of American Scientists has developed a first-person shooter-inspired cellular biology curriculum. Gamers explore the fully-interactive 3D world of an ill patient and assist the immune system in fighting back a bacterial infection. Dr. Melanie Ann Stegman has been evaluating the educational impacts of the game and is optimistic about her preliminary findings. ‘The amount of detail about proteins, chemical signals and gene regulation that these 15-year-olds were devouring was amazing. Their questions were insightful. I felt like I was having a discussion with scientist colleagues,’ said Stegman. Perhaps more importantly, the video game excites students about science. Motivating more youngsters to adopt a science-related career track has became a major education initiative of the Obama administration. So desperate to find a solution that motivates students to become scientists, the government has even enlisted Darpa, the Department of Defense’s ‘mad scientist’ research organization, to figure out a solution.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Daniweb: “The world’s largest technical support, software and hardware companies use Linux on a daily basis for a variety of tasks and solutions. This post gives you an overview of all the ways in which large companies use Linux.”
More than 2,600 partners will converge at this week’s VMware Partner Exchange conference in Las Vegas. Lots of news will surface at the conference. But I’m looking behind the curtains for new clues involving VMware’s strategy for Zimbra, the recently acquired open source email provider. Here’s an update.
The KDE web team is pleased to announce a major redesign of the KDE.org frontpage and buzz.kde.org, just in time for the pending release of our updated Workspace, Application and Development Platform compilation. The redesign is the result of many hours of work by artists, coders, writers and testers. Keep reading to gain some insight into the people and processes behind the retooling.