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"gewg_" writes:

Linux.com reports

The arrival last week of Linaro's open source 96Boards specification--ARM's first pseudo-official [single board computer] form factor standard--shows that ARM is serious about bringing order to the chaotic ARM hacker board scene. 96Boards is a preemptive attempt to consolidate Linux and Android development before a new wave of ARMv8 hacker boards hits the scene later this year.

Linaro's 96Boards.org developer community and standards organization has defined a 96Boards Consumer Edition (CE) spec for ARM [SBCs] running Debian, Android, and other Linux-based distros. The spec defines either an 85 x 54mm or 85 x 100mm footprint, as well as standardized 40- and 60-pin expansion connectors for stackable boards. A higher-end Enterprise Edition (EE) spec will follow in the second quarter.

[...]The not-for-profit Linaro, a development firm that builds standardized, open source Linux and Android tools for ARM processors, is overseeing 96Boards.org via a new Linaro Community Board Group (LCG) that will help it certify boards for compatibility. Linaro, which was founded by ARM and its key licensees, boasts some 200 engineers and 29 members, including major vendors like Qualcomm, and is one of the top upstream contributors to the Linux kernel.

In recent years, Linaro has helped to clean up the chaotic and fragmented ARM Linux code base. Their progress has been remarkable

[...]It's unclear if board vendors will go for all the specified pin assignments on the expansion connectors, or agree with the size and power requirements.

ARM and Linaro do, however, make a compelling case, as presented in Linaro CEO George Grey's 96Boards presentation at last week's Linaro Connect Hong Kong (see video below). By standardizing on size, expansion connectors, and basic features, 96Boards enables faster time to market, as well as the potential for a robust add-on market ecosystem, said Grey. Meanwhile, software developers can benefit from a single community website for common Linux and Android builds, as well as other downloads.

If nothing else, ARM has given itself a chance for success by getting out in front of the ARMv8 deluge rather than following the unruly masses of ARM hackers. It remains to be seen whether they will follow or cry "Standards? We don't need no stinking standards!"

Is anyone being reminded of the first PC/104 hardware?

stormwyrm writes:

Business reporter Padraig Belton at the BBC has an article on the so-called 'Internet of Things' and the security implications of these so-called smart devices, which are often thrown together with little regard for security, and many of them are also designed to spy upon their users.

Some choice quotes from the article:

All kinds of gadgets, from toasters to sprinklers, fridges to domestic heating systems, are now boasting sensors, actuators and low-powered embedded chips. [...]

The number of networked things exceeded the number of humans in 2008, according to some estimates, and is expected to rise to 50 billion by 2020. [...]

The problem is that we don't view such everyday objects as worthy of the same security protection as our computers and smartphones. [...]

"So we have this bind: we either have devices that are horribly insecure, or we have devices that are capable, and often designed to spy on the user," [Dr. Nicholas Weaver at the University of California in Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute] says. [...]

Technology writer Glenn Fleishman says much of this weak security is because the IoT market is still very young. [...]

"As a standard practice, you're not going to find that in most home automation apps - companies don't want to restrict the customer base," he says. [...]

In other words, making home gadgets too secure can stop people buying them.

The Mighty Buzzard writes:

Yeah, I know some of you don't dig on PayPal, another CC processor is in fact on the to-do list to hopefully make it into the next site update. Still, it's interesting to see that the government is finally dragging itself into the 21st century.

Last year US government agencies collected a whopping $3.37 trillion in revenue. That's roughly $90 billion a day that the public pays into government coffers. In an attempt to bring this massive operation into the 21st century, the Treasury announced today that it will begin accepting some of those fees through PayPal and Dwolla.

The Treasury is starting small, with a pilot program on Pay.gov, a secure web portal which handles about $110 billion in collections each year. Still, the effort signals a willingness to experiment with new technologies that could save taxpayers money. "[The] objective is to provide a suite of electronic payment options to achieve the long term goal of moving to electronic transactions from less efficient paper-based transactions using services available in the private sector when possible," the Treasury said in a statement sure to warm the hearts of small government libertarians everywhere.

Even accepting third-party payment processors, Dwolla was kind of unexpected to me. Could a bitcoin/USD processor like BitPay be not that far off?

stormwyrm writes:

Mother Jones has an article debunking three common myths about breakfast.

First of all, it seems that breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. The studies which formed the basis for that old saw suffered from the proverbial "correlation is not causation":

Breakfast skippers are plagued with well-meaning spouses, partners, family members, and friends, all insisting that they should eat something in the morning. But, according to nutrition scientist P. K. Newby, that advice was based on what's known as observational studies, in which scientists follow groups of people and observe the outcomes. The results had seemed to indicate that people who lost weight or maintained a healthy weight ate breakfast. The problem, Newby told us, is that those studies didn't isolate breakfast as the important factor. It could be, she says, that those who ate breakfast also exercised more, or one of dozens of other variables.

More rigorous studies conducted recently have shown that breakfast-skippers actually showed no consistent pattern of weight loss, and they seem to consume fewer calories at the end of a day.

More following:

"gewg_" writes:

The European Union's interoperability page reports

The administration of the Italian region Emilia-Romagna will complete its switch to Apache OpenOffice next month, says Giovanni Grazia, an IT project manager for the region. Emilia-Romagna is making the Open Document Format (ODF) the default on all 4200 workstations, across 10 departments and 5 agencies.

Emilia-Romagna is adding several tools to the OpenOffice suite, "improving the user experience", says Grazia. Three of these are publicly available OpenOffice extensions, but others are being developed especially for the region. The latter will be made available as open source within the next few weeks, Grazia says. The first of the official OpenOffice extensions used in the region is Alba, which makes it easy to insert in a document one or more pages with a different orientation.

The second is Pagination, which improves the insertion of page numbers.

Third is PDFImport, which allows the import of PDFs into OpenOffice.

Emilia-Romagna is building a custom extension to let users view their ODF documents as if they were opened in the ubiquitous alternative. The tool is based on freely available document viewers and should help to avoid the most egregious lay-out errors, since the proprietary office suite does not fully support ODF.

The report continues after the break...

juggs writes:

This is an RFC (request for comment) from the SoylentNews community as a whole.

At this point it is clear that we are spending more than we are taking in from subscriptions — by roughly 1/3rd (33% for the less-fractioned). And that's just running costs.

We are taking steps to minimize our costs but there is only so much to be cut when running a site like this. Our Treasurer sums up our next 6 months here: http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Finances

What we have in progress is a revised Subscription functionality that allows for 1, 6, and 12 month subscriptions. That may not sound like a big deal, but the new functionality will allow you to pay what you think it's worth. i.e. we set a minimum, if you want to pay more, fill your boots [translation: "knock yourself out!"] Really, please do!

This RFC is about setting what those minimums should be.

To be clear, SN will never paywall people from content — you're basically getting a little happy star by your name (optional) if you subscribe; we're not offering "treats for bungs" ['goodies' in exchange for favors] or any other influence over what we publish.

What we are doing is trying to address previous comments that (1) subs were too cheap and that (2) people wanted to give more but couldn't; while still making our content open to all.

So 1, 6, and 12 month subscriptions — what should be the entry point and what are they worth to you?

wirelessduck writes:

After a failed attempt at reforming Pirate Parties International (PPI) from the inside, Pirate Party Australia (PPAU) has decided to resign from the organisation. In an email to the PPI mailing list, PPAU president Brendan Molloy outlined the reasons for leaving and the future direction that PPAU intends to take with regards to international collaboration on Pirate matters.

[...] The Party no longer believes that there is any potential for reform left in PPI, and we have spent all of the energy we are willing to in pursuit of that end. This was compounded by the callous abuse of power and outright hostile culture of the PPI board which has been very clearly demonstrated over the last week.

However, building a new model for collaboration starts today.

Pirate Party Australia will continue to collaborate on international projects, and we invite those interested parties to consider their options. Pirate Party Australia will be working with the Icelandic Pirate Party to conceive a Pirate journal project in association with the Pirate Times which should allow a more in-depth view of the Pirate way of thinking.

We are also preparing a shared resource portal for all Pirate Parties, but it is of course very early days as we did not expect to be forced into this position so suddenly.

The new site appears to be here although it contains little content as yet.

[Editor's Note: Some of the links seem to be intermittent but do appear from time to time]

frojack writes:

Microsoft Loves Linux, and Open Source. We know this because the press is telling us this almost every day.

The TechRights Blog, and writer Dr. Roy Schestowitz, explains that this is part of the Microsoft master plan. Just when you thought Embrace, Extend, Extinguish was going away, the article explains the multi-prong attack that Microsoft is quietly working in the background. And they are relying heavily on their friends in the press. Microsoft has always had its share of shills in the press, but, with the focus on Google Android and Apple its quietly become less of a Journalist career killer to be openly Pro Microsoft. Schestowitz explains the attack as killing Linux Softly with APIs and the lock-ins they bring as more Microsoft packages and services are ported to Linux, and by getting appointments to key Linux Foundation subcommittees, by slinging dollars and software contributions.

By becoming financially dependent on Microsoft partners like Nokia and Intel (Wintel) the Linux Foundation lost its ability to antagonize rivals and it might not be long before the Linux Foundation silently tells Torvalds not to denounce Microsoft because of his new senior colleagues from there and because “Microsoft loves Linux”, according to Microsoft. As we have shown before, several Linux Foundation sub-committees are having heads appointed to them from Microsoft (Neela, Ramji and more). It is like a coup in slow motion as we are gradually witnesses more of its impact.

In the area of cloud services, for storage, virtual machine platforms, communications - skype and email, Microsoft is moving slowly but steadily into the Linux world.

And of course we've already discussed Microsoft's Trojan Horse attack on Android via their $70 Million dollar investment in Cyanogen.

The press seems to be lapping it up, because Google has now become the company to hate, and many of the Journalist starting out today don't remember the never ending supply of dirty tricks used in the past.

I recommend you read the long-ish article, or at least scan its major points. It may explain why you will be seeing more and more stories about a company you had come to believe was irrelevant. [Corrected at 17:54 UTC]

"gewg_" writes:

TechDirt reports:

We're used to corporate battles over product placement, intellectual property and market share, but they usually take the form of courtroom disputes, targeted advertising and bland mission statements. But two major consumer electronics companies' recent fight has not only found its way into a courtroom, but also involves the alleged deployment of Mafia-esque tactics. [paywall]

Last fall, Samsung placed some of its washing machines in a German shopping mall as a teaser/advertisement for its appearance at an upcoming trade show. That's when things turned surprisingly unprofessional.

Samsung accused LG executives of breaking the doors of several of its washing machines at two Berlin shopping centers[paywall] in what they claim was an attempt to gain a competitive advantage in the cutthroat appliance business, which market-research firm Euromonitor International says was worth about $400 billion globally last year.

[...] This dispute eventually made its way from mall display to the Korean courts.

A top LG Electronics Inc. executive has been indicted by Seoul prosecutors for allegedly vandalizing several high-end washing machines manufactured by rival Samsung Electronics Co.

An LG Electronics spokeswoman said Sunday that Jo Seong-jin, head of the company's home-appliance division, has been indicted on charges of deliberately damaging four Samsung "Crystal Blue" washing machines ahead of a trade show in Germany last September [paywall]. Mr. Jo has also been charged with defamation and obstruction of business, she said.

Two other company executives have been indicted on similar charges over the same incident, the spokeswoman said.

LG had countersued for defamation and evidence tampering (it claims Samsung accessed the washing machines during their trip back from Berlin to be presented in court), but that will no longer move forward as a result of this court decision.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The New York Times offers a story on Wei-Hock ("Willie") Soon, a scientist often cited by climate change skeptics. Greenpeace, through a Freedom of Information Act request, turned up evidence that Soon has been paid more than $1.2 million by energy companies in the past decade. He refers to specific reports as "deliverables," but has not disclosed potential conflicts of interest to some journals. Soon, whose degree is in aerospace engineering, is known for his claims that solar activity can account for any shift in climate.

Mother Jones and Daily Kos also have articles based on the NYT report.

It's time for everyone's favorite game, poll the community! We're getting ready for one of the largest updates to the site since we went live originally. For those who are semi-familiar with this site, and its history, this trace from our devtest site should sum everything up on what's coming.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.2.29 (Unix) DAV/2 mod_apreq2-20090110/2.8.0 mod_perl/2.0.8 Perl/v5.20.1
X-Powered-By: slashcode 15.01
X-Bender: Yes! I got the most! I win X-Mas!
Cache-Control: no-cache
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1
Content-Encoding: gzip
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 21:30:43 GMT
X-Varnish: 568804918
Age: 0
Via: 1.1 varnish
Connection: keep-alive

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. We've finally got the monster to run on mod_perl 2, and are currently working to try and squish any remaining bugs for preparation to deployment. Since this long standing TODO item is finally about to be closed, I'd like to see any feedback from the community on what they feel some of the most pressing fixes or features should be.

Now, I know I've been somewhat quiet for the last few months, mostly due to dealing with personal issues, but I'm hoping I can sit down and get some serious work done on SN in the near future. I would like to thank both the staff and the community for coping with my absence, and let's make 2015 a year to remember.

[Update: Added link to our devtest site. If you find anything of interest, you can: note it as a comment in this story, mention it on our Internet Relay Chat (IRC) #Soylent, or submit a bug on GitHub. And THANKS!]

"gewg_" writes:

The Center for American Progress reports

[February 18], the Portland, [Oregon] city council voted unanimously to increase the minimum wage for city workers and contractors to $15 an hour, currently the highest minimum wage anywhere in the country.

They amended the Fair Wage Policy, which sets the floor for about 173 full-time city employees and contractors. Most of the affected workers are janitors, parking attendants, and security workers paid by contractors who are subject to the policy. The wage increase could also trickle out to those who work for third-party vendors that honor the Fair Wage Policy.

Workers who won't be covered include 1,800 seasonal and part-time employees mostly working for the Parks Bureau, many of whom have a capped number of hours they can work each year, often making their part-time status involuntary.

The wage hike comes as a bill is being considered[1] in the Oregon legislature to increase the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour from its current level of $9.25. It's the first state considering that wage level; so far it has only taken hold in cities. For example, it was adopted in Seattle and San Francisco and is under consideration in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

[1] One paragraph; the rest is paywall'd. (They talk in code instead of giving a link to the subscription page.)

Daiv writes:

Google is showing that it's not only the huge and entrenched internet companies that can roll out the highest speed fiber internet connections in the USA. In Detroit, Michigan, Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and Rock Ventures, said this weekend he has formed a new "community investment initiative" called Rocket Fiber LLC to provide faster internet connections in downtown Detroit. "The service will be up to 100 times faster than the current residential average."

Construction is already underway on an advanced fiber optic network that will make Internet service available to residents, businesses, and local governments in the greater downtown area. Eventually the goal is to expand the service to other parts of the city. This project is to be funded completely by private funds and is not subsidized by any tax or public dollars.

http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20150221/NEWS/150229974/dan-gilbert-confirms-plans-for-new-superfast-fiber-optic-internet

Appalbarry writes:

Susan Kare designed many of the original Apple icons, using a felt marker and graph paper no less. Kare is also noteable for designing "the first proportionally spaced digital font family that allowed text to breathe as naturally on the Mac’s white screen as it does in the pages of a book."

This updated article at PLOS is worth the time for anyone with even a passing interest in GUI design, or in the early days' decisions that form the basis for pretty much every icon used today.

This month Kare's sketchbook from that era is being displayed as part of the "This is for Everyone: Design Experiments for the Common Good" exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Kare also has self-published book available "Icons" — find it here.

wantkitteh writes:

UK Defence Minister Michael Fallon has made a number of statements following the incident on Wednesday, 18th February, in which Russian Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" bombers were escorted away from UK sovereign airspace by RAF Typhoon and French Mirage fighters. Asked if the world was facing a new Cold War, he said:

"It is warming up, you have tanks and armour rolling across the Ukrainian border and you have an Estonian border guard who has been captured and not yet still returned."

Mr Fallon added Mr Putin had also flown two other bombers "down the English Channel two weeks ago".

"It's the first time since the height of the Cold War, it's the first time that's happened."

Russia's Air Force spokesman said, concerning these incidents:

... [The] air patrol flights were carried out according to an approved plan, and conducted in strict compliance with international regulations of the use of airspace above neutral waters, without violating other countries' borders.

The Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" is classed as a strategic missile and bombing platform, only currently in service with Russian Federation air forces, with a payload capacity of 15,000 kg (33,000 lb). Footage of the incident has emerged, shot from the Russian bombers themselves showing the NATO aircraft closing on the Bears. Interestingly, it appears from the footage that the contra-rotating propellers of the bomber engines are actually shut down at the time the footage was shot, turning very slowly and visually distorted by the curved canopy the footage is shot through using a hand-held camera.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized for marketing 23andMe’s Bloom Syndrome carrier test, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic test to determine whether a healthy person has a variant in a gene that could lead to their offspring inheriting the serious disorder.

23andMe previously marketed a Personal Genome Service in the U.S. but it ceased providing direct health information to U.S. consumers after the FDA issued a 2013 Warning Letter. The letter directed the company to stop selling the product because of failure to obtain marketing clearance or approval to assure their tests were accurate, reliable and clinically meaningful.

Hugh Pickens writes:

Harry J. Kazianis writes at The National Interest that due to advances in big data and new detection methods modern attack subs may soon face the same problem as surface combatants around the world, where some areas are simply too dangerous to enter, thanks to pressing anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) (PDF) challenges:

"Since the Cold War submarines, particularly quiet American ones, have been considered largely immune to adversary A2/AD capabilities," says Bryan Clark, a former submariner and Navy strategist now with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment. "But the ability of submarines to hide through quieting alone will decrease as each successive decibel of noise reduction becomes more expensive and as new detection methods mature that rely on phenomena other than sounds emanating from a submarine. These techniques include lower frequency active sonar and non-acoustic methods that detect submarine wakes or (at short ranges) bounce laser or light-emitting diode (LED) light off a submarine hull. The physics behind most of these alternative techniques has been known for decades, but was not exploited because computer processors were too slow to run the detailed models needed to see small changes in the environment caused by a quiet submarine. Today, “big data” processing enables advanced navies to run sophisticated oceanographic models in real time to exploit these detection techniques. As they become more prevalent, they could make some coastal areas too hazardous for manned submarines."

"We need to think about a new strategy for undersea warfare," says Clark "Right now we tend to rely on submarines doing tactical operations on their own, in an environment where they can operate largely with impunity. All those things are going to change in the future. The threat is going to improve, opportunities to offload missions onto other vehicles are going to improve, and we can take advantage of that if we're going to again be the first mover into this new technology of undersea networks, unmanned vehicles and communication technologies."