Information freedom for open source users.

Tech Broiler: “With little fanfare, Sun Microsystems released version 3.0 of xVM VirtualBox, the Open Source and multi-platform desktop virtualization tool for Unix, Linux, Windows and Mac.”

RobGoldsmith writes with this snippet from Space Fellowship: “If you’ve never seen a spaceship with your own eyes, now’s your chance. The International Space Station (ISS) is about to make a remarkable series of flybys over the United States. Beginning this 4th of July weekend, the station will appear once, twice, and sometimes three times a day for many days in a row. No matter where you live, you should have at least a few opportunities to see the biggest spaceship ever built.”

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Today the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit has started, bringing KDE and Gnome developers together in the biggest conference of its type. It is situated on the beautiful Atlantic island of Gran Canaria and housed in the spectacular Albert Kraus Auditorium which dominates the skyline of Las Palmas, capital of Gran Canaria. The conference was opened by a series of talks from various people in the Canaries local government and the organisation. After that the keynotes started with star speakers and impressive announcements including an Open PC developed by the community and Maemo switching to Qt. Read on for an impression of the GCDS!

Linux Magazine: “Apple refuses to implement Ogg Theora in QuickTime by default in Safari, complaining of lack of hardware support and patent issues.”

ranjix writes “I need a handheld device which would allow me to read ebooks and/or browse the internet while actively and intensely laying in the hammock (and Yes, I do have a hammock in my mom’s basement). I’ll try to sum up the basic requirements: (good) PDF reader (and ebooks of whatever sort), WiFi connectivity and Internet browser, screen minimum 4.5″, readable in sunlight, etc, fairly responsive, at least 4-5 hours battery. Obviously I looked at the usual suspects: Kindle/Amazon tries to grab one into the proprietary formats and their own network (while other ebook readers don’t really browse the internet), laptops/netbooks are pretty hard to hold, and the UMPC arena seems a hodge-podge of ‘to be released’ (Viliv S5? Aigo whatever?) with ’seriously expensive’ (Sony, OQO) or plain ‘we recommend you don’t buy’ (Samsung Q1Ex). Is there anything else I could use in the given circumstances?”

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suka writes “During a keynote at the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit, Nokia’s Quim Gil announced that a future release of Maemo is going to be built around Qt. Maemo Harmattan is going to switch away from GTK+ / Hildon, derStandard.at reports from the conference.” Michael Pyne also writes with a post describing day one of the conference from a KDE perspective.

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For those of you not out celebrating the Independence Day / 4th of July in America, there is a new release candidate for the Linux 2.6.31 kernel that is now ready for testing. In this second release candidate there is a new DRM pull bringing various fixes and improvements, including Intel DisplayPort support for hardware with such new connectors.

Hugh Pickens writes “Launched in May, BBC reports that Europe’s Planck observatory has reached its operating temperature, a staggering minus 273.05C — just a tenth of a degree above what scientists term “absolute zero.” and although laboratory set-ups have got closer to absolute zero than Planck, researchers say it is unlikely there is anywhere in space currently that is colder than their astronomical satellite. This frigidity should ensure the bolometers will be at their most sensitive as they look for variations in the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) that are about a million times smaller than one degree — comparable to measuring from Earth the heat produced by a rabbit sitting on the Moon. Planck has been sent to an observation position around the second Lagrange point of the Sun-Earth system, L2, some 1.5 million km from Earth and Planck will help provide answers to one of the most important sets of questions asked in modern science — how did the Universe begin, how did it evolve to the state we observe today, and how will it continue to evolve in the future. Planck’s objectives include mapping of Cosmic Microwave Background anisotropies with improved sensitivity and angular resolution, determination of the Hubble constant, testing inflationary models of the early Universe, and measuring amplitude of structures in Cosmic Microwave Background. ‘We will be probing regimes that have never been studied before where the physics is very, very uncertain,’ says Planck investigator Professor George Efstathiou from Cambridge University. ‘It’s possible we could find a signature from before the Big Bang; or it’s possible we could find the signature of another Universe and then we’d have experimental evidence that we are part of a multi-verse.’”

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The ERACC Web Log: “Is it correct to compare the freedom of Free Open Source Software (FOSS) to the freedom gained from the Revolution of the States?”

The first change it jumps into the eye is the new Plasma appearance, called Aero now. It is brighter than the old one, but I found it looking not so appealing, at least not for the desktop widgets. Here’s how the desktop looks in Kubuntu Jaunty, with several widgets running on the desktop:

At the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Grounds facility in the Utah desert, scientists look for ways to protect soldiers against various chemical and biological weapons they might encounter in combat.

Harry writes “In 1968, computers tended to occupy entire rooms, and were therefore hard to take with you. But Computerworld reports on Anderson Jacobson’s 75-pound Teletype-terminal-in-a-case, an early attempt to let folks compute from anywhere. (Well, anywhere they had power and access to a telephone for the Teletype’s acoustic coupler.) Wheels were optional.”

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Ubuntu Manual: “But there is an option to download it from PPA launchpad repo itself, which is always the safer bet. Special thanks to the Zgegblog guys for contributing these out of the world themes for Ubuntu users.”

At the start of the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit on the Canary Islands, Richard Stallman, Robert Lefkowitz and Walter Bender rallied open source developers in their common tasks.

Slatterz writes “The Tesla Roadster has almost mythical status among electric car enthusiasts. It’s fast, with high torque over a wide RPM range, and can beat a Ferrari in terms of acceleration. Now Tesla has released new video of its upcoming new electric car, called the Model S, which Tesla Motors claims is the world’s first mass produced fully-electric vehicle. Unlike the Lotus-Elise based Roadster, the Model S is a traditional sedan of the type millions of commuters might actually drive. Tesla claims it will fit seven people (if two of them are ‘children under 10′), and has mounted a rather large 17in LCD in the dash. Key to Telsa’s future will be the evolution of lithium-ion battery technology. Tesla Motors claiming the new Model S can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge, but the battery will still take 45 minutes to quick-recharge.” (And for those in countries where it matters, this article mentions that it should also be available in right-hand drive.)

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An anonymous reader writes “A new Canadian study deconstructs how copyright lobby groups manipulate public opinion by laundering proposals through seemingly independent groups. The study started after the Conference Board of Canada was shown to have plagiarized several of its IP reports and now shows the connections that all lead through the MPAA and RIAA. Michael Geist writes, ‘It is not just that these reports all receive financial support from the same organizations and say largely the same thing. It is also that the reports each build on one another, creating the false impression of growing momentum and consensus on the state of Canadian law and the need for specific reforms.’”

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While I’m still chipping away at my AmigaOS 4.1/sam440ep review (try writing a thesis and a large review at the same time), Cloanto released AmigaForever 2009. AmigaForever is a very full-featured AmigaOS emulation tool, packed with various different ROMs and AmigaOS versions (1.3-3.x), as well as tons and tons of included games, software, and demos. This new version comes with even more stuff.

Oracle Goddess writes “After 30 years, CompuServe is all but dead, as AOL has pulled the plug on the once-great company. The original CompuServe service, first offered in 1979, provided its users with addresses such as 73402,3633 and was the first major online service. CompuServe users will be able to use their existing CompuServe Classic (as the service was renamed) addresses at no charge via a new e-mail system, but the software that the service was built on has been shut down. Tellingly, the current version of the service’s client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999.”

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Sure, Wikipedia still has a page for everything from Charlemagne to Chewbacca, but it seems more attention now is focused on kick-back-and-have-fun social networks, not hit-the-books-and-contribute-some-research wikis. Has the wiki well run dry?

Linux Magazine: “According to an anecdote, a person born before the Twentieth Century might amass enough information in a lifetime to fill one edition of today’s Sunday New York Times.”