Linux OS Distribution Reviews
Kuka announced a 20,000 Euro Kuka Innovation in Mobile Manipulation Award for innovative mobile manipulation applications using its Kuka YouBot service robot. The open source Kuka YouBot is equipped with omnidirectional wheels and one or two 5-DOF manipulator arms, and runs Ubuntu Linux and ROS (Robot Operating System) on an Intel Atom-based Mini-ITX board. The [...]
LinuxGizmos.com
Three days just isn't enough to absorb all the info from Google I/O. In fact, it's physically impossible to get to every session, be it due to overlaps, overcrowding (only so many seats) or overexhaustion. It's a good problem to have, though, and Google handles it quite well.
In case you've been living under a rock, in addition to streaming a number of the key sessions live, Google also records them, so you can watch at your leisure. And that's what I've been doing since returning home from San Francisco, the better to get a grasp on all the new features and services announced. And if you've never seen one of these developer sessions before, you might be surprised just how entertaining and engaging they can be. This was my fourth Google I/O, and it still catches me a little off guard.
You can watch the developer sessions on YouTube.
Another surprise this year was the keynote address. Consolidated into a single address this year (as opposed keynotes the first two days at previous events), it went a whopping 3.5 hours. (Longer if you could the time spent waiting in line.) And it was time well-spent. There was so much information crammed into our brains in far less time than it took many of us to even get to San Francisco. But between all the new Google Play services, and the new Google Maps, and the improved Google+, and the Google Play game services — and that's just the major Android stuff — I could have gone another hour, easy.
There's not a lot I can say about Larry Page's appearance — his first such speech at Google I/O in the years I've attended — that you can't get from watching the recording. (And I recommend you do.) But I will say this: I've always believed a good CEO should overreach a little. The more Apple-friendly pundits love to poke fun at some of the things Eric Schmidt has said over the years, and perhaps rightfully so. There's certainly a fine line between cheerleading, inspiring and downright crazy talk. And occasionally crossing that line opens you up to jokes and criticism, but I love the sort of head-first-into-the-wall mentality. It's what makes Google Google, it's what gets things done, and it's what moves us forward.
A few more thoughts on the week that was:
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Android Central – Android Forums – News – Reviews – Help and Android Wallpapers
On Friday there was the controversial news about the Linux “ondemand” cpufreq governor no longer being fit for best performance and power-savings on modern processors. Fortunately, for better handling the CPU frequency stage changes on modern Intel CPUs, Intel recently introduced the new P-State kernel driver…
Phoronix
In m23 rock 13.1 there are a lot of visible changes: the web interface can now be adapted with themes, Linux Mint 13 with Mate and Cinnamon was added and you can now install m23 on a Raspberry Pi.
LXer Linux News
On April 19th the United States Patent and Trademark Office finally rejected an application for the trademark open source hardware. The grounds for the rejection were that the term was “merely descriptive.”
Trademarks are intended to identify a specific source of goods or services, protecting that source from confusion in the minds of consumers with other sources. Naturally then, if you try to obtain a trademark which is just a description of a type of product or service, it is proper that you should be refused; it would not be distinctive and it would distort the market by allowing one source to control the generic term. If I market a car for a hamster, I should not be able to get a trademark for the name hamster car, as that would improperly restrain competitors from bringing their own hamster cars to market. So, should we be pleased that the application was rejected?
Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz makes his “Top Ten Sleeper Distros” picks. What’s a sleeper? Read and find out.
LXer Linux News
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| Recoll 1.19 advanced search filters and user interface preferences |
Recoll supports wildcards (*, ?, []) as well as advanced searches such as:
For more info, see the Recoll user manual (chapter “3.5. The query language”).
Ubuntu users can install the latest Recoll by using its official PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:recoll-backports/recoll-1.15-on
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install recoll
To also install the Recoll Unity Lens, use the following command:
sudo apt-get install recoll-lensThe Recoll Lens doesn’t support Dash Previews yet and in Ubuntu 13.04 on which I’ve tested the latest version on, the icons that show up in the lens have an ugly black background – hopefully this will be fixed soon.
For other Linux distributions, see the Recoll downloads page.
Web Upd8 – Ubuntu / Linux blog
DNF is the experimental fork of the Yum package manager that premiered in Fedora 18. While much hasn’t been heard of this experimental Yum replacement since its debut, work on it has still been progressing and is turning out to be in great shape, is slowly approaching feature-parity with Yum, and is faster…
Phoronix
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Securing SSH On Ubuntu Precise With WiKID Two-Factor Authentication
SSH offers a highly secure channel for remote administration of servers. However, if you face an audit for regulatory or business requirements, such as Visa/Mastercard PCI, you need to be aware of some potential authentication related short-comings that may cause headaches in an audit. In this document we are going to demonstrate how to combine two-factor authentication from WiKID on Ubuntu. This document will also serve as the basis for additional tutorials because many services on Linux use PAM for authentication.
HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials – Linux
The ability of Google Glasses to inconspicuously take photos or videos of subjects without their knowledge has a group of lawmakers concerned about the privacy of individuals. Members of the Bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus of Congress headed by Rep. Joe Barton, Texas and seven others sent out a letter to Google’s Larry Page requesting answers on several issues of privacy concerns regarding the device.
The letter states that “As members of the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, we are curious whether this new technology could infringe on the privacy of average Americans. Because Google Glass has not yet been released and we are uncertain of Google’s plans to incorporate privacy protections into the device, there are still a number of answered questions that we share.”
Some of the questions being raised are
The concern of the committee is the possible use of facial recognition technology that will “unveil personal information about whomever … the user is viewing.” When Google Glasses will become available commercially it will only be a matter of time before someone will develop a program where you will only have to look at a person’s face to get their personal information such as their address, work history, marital status and measurements.
Google’s initial response stated that “We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues. Our Glass Explorer program, which reaches people from all walks of life, will ensure that our users become active participants in shaping the future of this technology.”
The search giant has until June 14 to reply to the letter sent by the lawmakers.
via zdnet
If in The Funding Crowd we do a weekly review of the Linux games being crowdfunded, here in The Cheapskate’s Corner you will find all the current bundles and major sales which include at least a Linux game.
LXer Linux News
Lenovo’s Android-based K900, the first phone to use Intel’s dual-core 2GHz “Clover Trail+” Atom Z2580 system-on-chip, began shipping in China, and ZTE announced a Z2580-based, 4.5-inch “Grand X2 In” aimed at Europe. Yet, Atom-based Android phones won’t truly shine until Intel’s “Merrifield” SOC arrives in early 2014 using Intel’s 28nm, Tri-Gate “Silvermont” architecture. The first [...]
LinuxGizmos.com
