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When the Xenoid threat was discovered, human society was thrust into an era of martial law. Security became top priority, at the cost of individual liberty.

On Friday, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the first public draft of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). EME enables content providers to integrate digital rights management (DRM) interfaces into HTML5-based media players. Encrypted Media Extensions is being developed jointly by Google, Microsoft and online streaming-service Netflix. No actual encryption algorithm is part of the draft; that element is designed to be contained in a CDM (Content Decryption Module) that works with EME to decode the content. CDMs may be plugins or built into browsers.

I was explaining on Hacker News why Windows fell behind Linux in terms of operating system kernel performance and innovation. And out of nowhere an anonymous Microsoft developer who contributes to the Windows NT kernel wrote a fantastic and honest response acknowledging this problem and explaining its cause. His post has been deleted! Why the censorship? I am reposting it here. This is too insightful to be ignored. [Edit: The anonymous poster himself deleted his post as he thought it was too cruel and did not help make his point, which is about the social dynamics of spontaneous contribution. However he let me know he does not mind the repost at the condition I redact the SHA1 hash info, which I did.]

Mozilla’s mission compels us to provide people with an Internet experience that puts them in control of their online lives and that treats them with respect. Respecting someone includes respecting their privacy. We aspire to a “no surprises” principle: the … Continue reading

Linux has finally come of age and is now a legitimate gaming platform. The release of quality commercial titles such as Left 4 Dead 2, Portal, and Day of Defeat bring real credibility to Linux as a first-class gaming platform. The bid to lure gamers away from Microsoft's platform has also been strengthened, in part, due to the official launch of Steam for the Linux operating system back on February 14.

'Windows 8 is a good product ... really!' Updated Microsoft has taken quite a pounding in the press over Windows 8, and it has only intensified the rumors that the planned update to the OS might roll back some of its more controversial features. But Redmond has had quite enough now, and it wants it all to stop.…

As described more fully below, we would affirm the district court’s judgment in its entirety and hold that the method, computer-readable medium, and corresponding system claims before us recite patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.

In essence, the USA Federal Circuit court has, in a majority (7/10) decision, affirmed that the software before the court cannot be patented. The ramifications of this decision are enormous and will affect software patents in general. One of the dissenting judges (Moore) wrote: “Let’s be clear: if all of these claims, including the system claims, are not patent-eligible, this case is the death of hundreds of thousands of patents, including all business method, financial system, and software patents as well as many computer implemented and telecommunications patents".

Edit the menu of grub is not the easiest thing to do, and if you do some mistakes there is the risk that you are not able anymore to boot into your Linux, for these reasons it’s usually suggested to use some tool to edit grub configurations, today I’ll show you Grub Customizer.

Grub Customizer is a graphical settings manager for GRUB2 and BURG that allows anyone to easily set the boot options.

Very often I have to setup new servers or harden existing servers during a security audit. As a result, secure passwords have to be chosen for root, cPanel accounts, etc. There are many composite practices that make a server secure but often overlooked is using secure passwords.

While Linux servers don’t typically run graphical user interfaces (GUIs) they are just as capable of doing so as any other computers, and there are certain situations in which serving up GUI applications over the network may be necessary or desirable. One solution which offers a lot of flexibility and speed is NX from NoMachine. Here's how to set it up.

We've pointed out over and over and over again that patents are not a proxy for innovation. In fact, there's little to connect the two at all, except potentially for how patents can hinder and hold back the pace of innovation. A new study really helps to drive home how little patents have to do with innovation. Pointed out to us by James Bessen, the study looks at "R&D 100 Awards" from the academic journal, Research & Development from 1977 to 2004. As you might expect, the R&D 100 Awards are given out each year by the journal in an attempt to name the top 100 innovations of the year. If patents were instrumental in driving innovation, you'd certainly expect most of these innovations to be patented.

The eCryptfs pull for the Linux 3.10 kernel has been merged. What's noticeable about this feature pull is the improved encryption performance for modern AMD/Intel CPUs supporting AES-NI...

Aaeon announced a Linux-friendly ‘EPIC’ form-factor SBC (single-board computer) based on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N2600 processor, which is bottom-mounted for efficient heat transfer. The EPC-CV1 supports up to 2GB RAM, offers dual-display HD video output, provides Gig-Ethernet, USB, serial, and SATA ports, and accommodates a 3G cellular module and SIM. Aaeon expects the EPC-CV1 [...]

As Linux users, we tend to take programs like GIMP for granted. Thankfully, as of version 2.8.2, GIMP is available as a native application for OS X! Because everyone reading this most likely is familiar with how awesome GIMP is for photo editing, it's worth mentioning there is another open-source photo-editing application for OS X named Seashore.

Linux Advocate Ken Starks expresses his discontent with the current state of affairs concerning Linux Kernel wireless regressions. Read why.

Intel has announced the release of an open-source Linux Thermal Daemon package for Linux. Intel's Linux Thermal Daemon is for monitoring and controlling platform temperatures...

On Tuesday, Reuters reported on shareholder unrest in Finland. It appears that the shareholders of Nokia have been reading the riot act to Chief Executive Stephen Elop, demanding he turn the ship around. They’re also suggesting that Nokia’s exclusive deal with Microsoft perhaps isn’t such a good idea:

Charlie's Games developer has confirmed via Twitter that "Scoregasm" is going to be on Steam for Linux.

Linux Advocate Dietrich Schmitz takes a look at Linux Kernel cgroups and how they are a BIG WIN for systemd. Read why.

This week, we look at The Open Compute Project's push into open source networking switches, how to determine if a new software language is a turkey and a developer who thinks he must be a bad programmer because he can't find a job.