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Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials... collect and retain raw traffic, which includes both metadata and content, about “U.S. persons” for up to five years online and for an additional 10 years offline for “historical searches.”

Open source news this week: September 23 - 27, 2013 What other open source-related news stories did you read about this week? Share them with us in the comments section. Follow us on Twitter where we share these stories in real time.

Just days after a brand new cloud operating system was released, IBM is out with a new operating system of its own. FusedOS is IBM's new research project that's now an open-source general purpose OS...

This year, I was privileged enough to speak at the Open Hardware Summit. It was a wonderful experience, and I hope to return again in the years to come. During my time making cool projects for Hackaday, I regularly experienced that fantastic feeling that came with the realization that people really enjoyed the things I made. I had a few that turned out to be fairly popular. This Portal Gun that levitates a companion cube, for example, has more than 1.6 million views. The Thor's Hammer with embedded Tesla coil showed up on TV screens in subways in China. Even though I felt really good about them, there are other projects that feel even better. Those projects are simple gaming controllers for people who have physical disabilities that make it difficult for them to operate standard, off-the-shelf controllers.

This article is part of an interview series highlighting the speakers of the upcoming All Things Open 2013 conference in Raleigh, NC

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This article is part of an interview series highlighting the speakers of the upcoming All Things Open 2013 conference in Raleigh, NC Joanne Rohde is CEO of Axial Exchange, which creates mobile tools to help patients overcome the challenges of living with chronic disease. She believes healthcare must become more consumer driven and transparent, and she doesn’t believe that’s at odds with patient privacy. Previously, she served as COO and Director of Health IT Strategy at Red Hat and CIO of UBS Investment Banking IT. In her talk at the All Things Open conference in October she will expand on the insights she provides in this interview, from the place where healthcare and technology meet, to include why open source is the answer for better healthcare and how it does not compromise privacy and security.

Starting in early October, Ninja Blocks will ship another 1,000 units of its redesigned open source Linux based home automation device kit. The $199 Ninja Block Kit incorporates a BeagleBone SBC and an Arduino-compatible microcontroller, and offers remote access via smartphone apps and a cloud service to sensor inputs including motion detectors, contact closures, temperature […]

At the age of 77, I have published my first eBook and have a MOOC. These were not endeavors I ever intended to undertake. I wanted to write Forms for a Future—a book about the civic discussions we need to have to have a future worthy of living. So, in the fall of 2007, after a 15 year absence from the world of education, I negotiated an adjunct position in the Honors College, figuring a small undergraduate class would help focus my attention. The course met three times a week and had three required full length textbooks.

Amazon has a new Android-based operating system for its new line of Kindles - for business as well as fun.

Before the summer Congressional recess, a broad coalition of job-creating businesses added their voices to the pro-reform chorus with a ringing letter to Congress urging that expansion of the Covered Business Method (CBM) program be a cornerstone of any patent reform legislation being considered.  The CBM program provides an innovative, carefully tailored means to address a particularly heinous abuse: manipulating the patent litigation system through aggressive use of unclear and overly broad business method patents by patent aggression entities (PAEs). It is currently limited to business method patents involving financial service products. attachments:  Letter opposing Covered Business Method program expansion

Want to start a unique and truly useful open-source project? These three guidelines on choosing wisely will get you there.

Which idea led you to a career in open source? I want to stand on the shoulders of giants I want to try something beyond conventional wisdom I want to change the world I want to be a part of a community Why not change the world? I have always been interested in science, technology and (most of all) computers. These are things that I always loved, even though they were sometimes difficult. I loved math and science class in school; I read science-fiction and fantasy novels in all of my spare time. I was the nerdy kid at school that was bullied and mocked. It would have been so easy to just give in and be "like everyone else." I could have stopped reading. I could have played more sports.

The four-day-long siege of a Nairobi mall ended Tuesday with a death toll of more than 60 people – a number that’s expected to rise as more bodies are recovered. Another 170+ people were reportedly injured in the attack by Islamist militants.

CompuLab announced four customized versions of its fanless, Linux-ready mini-PCs based on plug-in LAN, serial/CAN, USB/mSATA, and mini-PCIe personality modules. The company also introduced a signage and communication oriented mini-PC, as well as a $15 HDMI dongle that enables high-res VNC-based remote display from headless PCs by tricking proprietary video drivers into thinking an HDMI […]

On September 4 - 6 the open source electronic health records community came together at the 2nd annual OSEHRA Summit and workshop, in Bethesda, Maryland. Day 1: tutorials on a variety of topics Day 2: high-level presentations from members of the community with unique vantage points in the community

Packet queues are a core component of any network stack or device. They allow for asynchronous modules to communicate, increase performance and have the side effect of impacting latency.

Axiomtek announced a 100 x 72mm Pico-ITX form-factor motherboard based on Intel’s embedded-oriented Atom E6xx processors and EG20T chipset. The Linux-friendly PICO822 SBC provides LVDS display, HD audio, SATA-300, gigabit Ethernet, USB, and serial interfaces, comes with up to 32GB of onboard SSD, runs fanless, and supports -20 to +70? C operation. Axiomtek says the […]

The FlightGear open-source flight simulator has graduated to version 2.12 and with it comes many changes as it still sets out to try to compete with commercial flight simulators...

This article is part of an interview series highlighting the speakers of the upcoming All Things Open 2013 conference in Raleigh, NC Jason Weathersby is an experienced coder and co-author of Integrating and Extending BIRT. His earlier work with HTML and Javascript recently led him to join Mozilla as one of their many Technical Evangelists. "Every day I get to work on some of the coolest technology on the planet, and I really enjoy working with some of the brightest and passionate people I have ever met," Weathersby said.I caught up with Jason get his insight on the Firefox OS Geeksphone, as well as, learn more about what got him to where he is now, tips and tricks of the trade, plus a peak into his presentation for the upcoming All Things Open conference. Read on in this interview.

I attended the NSA Open Source Industry Day in Maryland this year and thought I'd summarize what did and didn't surprise me. We'll see if these observations prove controversial or helpful! More importantly we'll see if organizations can effectively manage, govern, and secure their applications given the reality of open source, agile development practices, and component-based development.