United States cedes control of the internet - but what now?
In a meeting that will go down in internet history, the United States government last night conceded that it can no longer expect to maintain its position as the ultimate authority over the internet. Having been the internet's instigator and, since 1998, its voluntary taskmaster, the US government finally agreed to transition its control over not-for-profit internet overseeing organisation ICANN, making the organisation a more international body.
The US has recognised that it can no longer hope to control the internet. The next step is for everyone invited into the party this time to recognise that they too play only a small role in the global revolution that is this jumble of interconnected computer networks.
From: The Register
Myths, Lies, and Truths about the Linux kernel
Greg Kroah-Hartman recently spoke ath the Ottowa Linux Symposium addressing the most often heared myths and lies about the Linux kernel and debunked them, hopefully for good this time. The speech mostly deals with drivers, but is a very good speech indeed and I recommend that anyone interested in Linux read it. His key points that anyone should remember:
- Linux supports more devices than anyone else.
- Linux is evolution, not design.
- Closed source [kernel] modules are illegal.
- Documentation/HOWTO
- We need help with review and testing.
- Total world domination is proceeding as planned.
Good to hear, especially that last point.
Easy local and remote backup of your home network
by Sander MarechalUpdated on 2006-09-20 to add an exclude file and clear up some rsync confusion
I hate making backups by hand. It costs a lot of time and usually I have far better things to do. Luckily GNU/Linux comes with all the tools you need to backup your machines automatically and wide availability of broadband make it possible to have remote backups as well - to a friend's place for example.
This article will show you how to set up fast, fully automated local and remote backups for a small home network using standard GNU/Linux tools.
Microsoft Fined €280.5 Million by EU Commission
Microsoft has been fined €280.5 million, the first time the EU Commission has ever had to do so, and, Neelie Kroes stated at the announcement, hopefully the last. From the press release:
“The Commission is obliged to ensure compliance with EU law, and I have always underlined my determination to ensure that Microsoft fully implements the Commission’s March 2004 Decision”, said European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes. “I regret that, more than two years after the Decision, and despite an Order from the President of the Court of First Instance that the Microsoft appeal to the Court does not suspend Microsoft’s obligation to comply, Microsoft has still not put an end to its illegal conduct.”
A major sticking point: interoperability. The full text of Kroes' introductory remarks at the press conference is here. She says that Microsoft didn't even come close to complying. Nor does she buy their story that they didn't understand until recently what was required of them. To inspire compliance, they are raising the ceiling for potential fines to 3 million EUR per day.
From: Groklaw
Debian and Ubuntu binaries for Gnome Hearts
by Sander MarechalGnome Hearts is now available in the Debian GNU/Linux repositories for Debian unstable. Thanks to Josselin Mouette of the Debian pkg-gnome team for sponsoring the upload. Joss also split the card decks from the gnome-games-data package for gnome-hearts to depend on, so if you have installed gnome-games then make sure you update it before installing gnome-hearts.
Since gnome-hearts was added before Ubuntu's upstream version freeze on July 13th, it should appear in Ubuntu Edgy Eft as well, as soon as the Ubuntu team syncs the new packages in from the Debian servers.
The Ubuntu team will not backport gnome-hearts to Dapper Drake because gnome-hearts did not exist when Dapper was created. Therefor I have compiled i386 binaries for Dapper myself. You can find it on the download page.
