Category Archives: News

Ubuntu on your phone anyone?

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ubuntuphone

Yesterday, Canonical, the people behind the development of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution for desktop and laptops made an announcement that they would be putting Ubuntu on phones later this year or early next year. This will mark a significant change in the development of Ubuntu Linux specifically and Linux in general.

While this is not as revolutionary as when the first iPhones hit the market, it is important to note that the release of Ubuntu for smartphones will be an interesting development in the market segment. Provided the user interface is of as high quality as that on iOS and Android, it can provide a significant alternative to not only iOS and Android devices, but also the range of Windows Phone devices that are fighting for market and mind share in this segment.

This may sound like a wild imagination, but a smartphone that would support multiple user accounts could be an interesting change from what is currently available. This could facilitate several spaces in which a user could run applications. For example, one space could be dedicated to running experimental software, another for running day to day smartphone tasks and yet another could be for running corporate applications for work.

What could also appeal to the developer community could be the mention of some sort of control of device configurations so that the market becomes more addressable. I am not sure how this might translate into reality, but I can see that the benefit of developing for iOS and Windows Phone is the limited number of screen resolutions and device configurations that a developer has to address.

This year will prove to be an interesting one for developers as the Mozilla Foundation is also readying their own Gecko-based phone.

I don’t need no app for each website

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In the last few months, I have noticed that a lot of the websites that I have visited have been offering apps. It gets quite annoying after a while, as every time I visit the website, I am greeted by a modal pop-over asking me if I would like to install their app. The pop-over, invariably has a very large button to take you to Google Play Store (formerly known as “Android Market”) with a quite small link underneath it with a “continue to website” text. Continue reading →

Thinking about vodafone egypt and facebook tunisia

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Looking at the situation in Egypt and Tunisia recently, it is hard to deny the role of technology at work in both situations. In Tunisia, the role of social media, namely Facebook, came to the forefront in the organisation and discussion that took place, in and outside of, the country amongst those who opposed the incumbent regime. In Egypt, technology became an issue because of the government’s attempt to cut off connection between the masses and the rest of the world.

Both cases demonstrated the crucial role played by the internet in this age of digital communications. The Tunisian government attempted to censor discussions and remove any material that might provoke discussions and outrage, by hacking into the accounts of journalists and reporters who were writing about the situation. In Egypt, the government ordered the shut down of all operations by the few internet service providers in the country.

While Facebook took action, albeit a week late, by forcing users to login via the secure http protocol (https), Vodafone was one of the first internet service providers in Egypt to shutdown their services. The contrast between attitudes of the two corporations could not be more stark. Facebook decided to move to protect their users while Vodafone just complied with a ridiculous request from a government that has been well known to be a collaborator of the military state of Israel and an agent of the United States in the Middle East.

On the face of the issues, one should applaud Facebook for standing up for the privacy of their users. However, it may be the case that Facebook was just trying to protect their corporate image in the eyes of their users all over the world. In the cases of the journalists who had their accounts hacked and deleted by Tunisian government agents, Facebook would not let them open accounts without using their real names. It might be OK to enforce this policy under normal circumstances, but to force these journalists to publish in Facebook under their real names would be like giving them death sentences.

The actions of Vodafone Egypt, however, was completely deplorable for letting a corrupt government control the connectivity of the country to the rest of the world. Their action in complying with the Mubarak government’s request basically left their subscribers in the dark and unable to reach the outside world effectively to expose the goings on in Egypt.

Some food for thought, I guess.

Who’s gonna step up into Craigslist shoes?

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The shutting down of Craigslists adult services on a global scale has been applauded by some as a victory against the exploitation of women and children. While on the surface it seems like a victory, it could be just a hollow victory.

The move by Craigslists to shut down its adult services section came about after a few years of being hounded by various Attorney Generals in different states in the US. Many accusations of “enabling prostitution” have been leveled against the site, despite its taking certain measures to properly identify advertisers to make sure that there was no crime being committed through the use of the site.

The shut down of the Craigslists adult services section will mean that the advertisers will go somewhere else. There is no shortage of internet entrepreneurs out there who will be willing to take some dollars to advertise adult services. It should also be noted that the shutting down of an adult services section of a website does not in anyway bear any relationship to the exploitation of women and children, because the exploitation of women and children is not caused by Craigslists.

Kodak online photo display patent, is it obvious?

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In the age of software patent and patent for just about everything else to do with technology, Kodak has launched a patent lawsuit against Shutterfly. Shutterfly have fought back with counter claims, but this means that, if validated, the patent could have very wide ramifications for Flickr and other photo sharing sites such as Google’s Picasa.

What it means is that essentially anyone who publishes photos online could be infringing Kodak’s patents. This situation is just untenable for a lot of the smaller site operators, but for the bigger companies such as Yahoo!, which owns Flickr.com and Google, which owns Picasa, they are more likely to challenge such a lawsuit and seek to invalidate the patent, which is one of a claimed 400 related patents that Kodak has in its portfolio.

Let us hope that all parties can see some sense in the end.

When facilities are operated as a business…

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Heathrow airport, as it has emerged, refused offers of outside help from the airline operators to clear snow from the stands. It also emerged that it has fewer snow ploughs than Gatwick airport, which is half the size of Heathrow. Gatwick possesses 12 snow ploughs while Heathrow only has 10.

It seems ‘efficiency’ means running things down and making a profit without investing in infrastructure. This is the way of the future as privatised airports are now the norm.

Assange case file leaks to the press

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In what is widely believed to be a deliberate move to undermine Mr Assange’s defence case, the details of police allegations by the Swedish authorities have been leaked to the Guardian, an English newspaper. While some newspaper articles have implied that he deserves to be treated this way because he has leaked secret documents online, what is at stake here is the whole issue of journalistic freedom. Isn’t the job of newspapers to publish leaks?

If a journalist can be held as a criminal on some loose allegations made by people of dubious reputations, then the whole of newspaper business, or what we know as the press, should only be able to publish what has been vetted by the government as legal. As the case with Australia, the government has just been briefed by the Australian Federal Police that mr Assange and Wikileaks has not actually broken any laws.

The very newspapers that have been cooperating with Wikileaks in publishing the leaked documents are now getting cold feet and pretend that they have played no role in the distribution of what might actually be the truth for a change.

Exim remote exploit in the wild, with root access

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What seems like a perfect (from attackers’ point of view) remote exploit has been discovered in the mail server software called Exim. In the exploit, an attacker can compromise an entire system remotely and gain access to not only the mail server user privilege, but even root according to an article here. If that is not serious enough, the problem with the mail server agent has been around for at least two years. This vulnerability affects only version 4.69 and earlier versions, but since the upgrade to 4.7 did not mention the existence of any sort of vulnerability, many sysadmins did not upgrade. After all, if it ain’t broke…

If you are running Exim for your MTA, it is recommended to upgrade to 4.7 immediately.

Speaking the truth is not espionage

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According to this article on the Guardian, the US authorities are preparing to charge Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, with espionage. This shows, once again, the complicity of the Swedish government in the whole process, from the beginning to the very end. The next time people tell me that Sweden is a neutral country I’m gonna slap them, with this story.

As far as I know, exposing government and corporate machinations that they seek to hide from the people does not constitute espionage. Let the truth be known!

Sex without a condom is not the same as rape

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According to this article, Julian Assange, a founding member and editor of Wikileaks, has been charged not with rape, but with having sex without a condom. The nature of this charge and the decision of the Swedish authorities to use it, makes it very clear that this investigation has nothing to do with rape. Both complainants have indicated that they had sex with Mr Assange consensually and without being forced to do so.

It is very clear now what this “investigation” is about. It makes a mockery of real rape victims and it is nothing but an attempt at a political smear campaign and frame up that is carried out under pressure from the US authorities. The Swedish authorities still does not have the backbone to stand up for anything.