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"The European Commission is asking the public critical questions about the future of our online world, but these questions are buried throughout a lengthy consultation survey that will probably make your eyes water. We need you to tackle the survey and make your voice heard. It's not easy, so we're here to help. Go ahead, take a look at the public consultation. It's got five pages of oblique questions and too much smallprint for anyone's taste. But it's really all asking one thing: what are the roles and responsibilities of service providers in the digital world? Our survey survival guide helps you overcome the bureaucratic barrier and answer that question, because it's at risk of being ignored."

"The European Commission is asking the public critical questions about the future of our online world, but these questions are buried throughout a lengthy consultation survey that will probably make your eyes water. We need you to tackle the survey and make your voice heard. It's not easy, so we're here to help. Go ahead, take a look at the public consultation. It's got five pages of oblique questions and too much smallprint for anyone's taste. But it's really all asking one thing: what are the roles and responsibilities of service providers in the digital world? Our survey survival guide helps you overcome the bureaucratic barrier and answer that question, because it's at risk of being ignored."

"Jan 14, 2016 By Greg Bledsoe in HOW-TOs Security Servers SysAdmin Server hardening. The very words conjure up images of tempering soft steel into an unbreakable blade, or taking soft clay and firing it in a kiln, producing a hardened vessel that will last many years. Indeed, server hardening is very much like that"

"Jan 14, 2016 By Greg Bledsoe in HOW-TOs Security Servers SysAdmin Server hardening. The very words conjure up images of tempering soft steel into an unbreakable blade, or taking soft clay and firing it in a kiln, producing a hardened vessel that will last many years. Indeed, server hardening is very much like that"

"Nov 30, 2015 By Greig Paul in HOW-TOs Security UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is the open, multi-vendor replacement for the aging BIOS standard, which first appeared in IBM computers in 1976. The UEFI standard is extensive, covering the full boot architecture. This article focuses on a single useful but typically overlooked feature of UEFI: secure boot. "

"Nov 30, 2015 By Greig Paul in HOW-TOs Security UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is the open, multi-vendor replacement for the aging BIOS standard, which first appeared in IBM computers in 1976. The UEFI standard is extensive, covering the full boot architecture. This article focuses on a single useful but typically overlooked feature of UEFI: secure boot. "

" Rick Falkvinge on March 4, 2011 C: 104 Opinion We see it everywhere. Corporations are trying to take control over our communications tools, citing copyright concerns. Frequently, they are assisted by hapless politicians, who are also aspiring for the same control, citing terrorist concerns or some other McCarthyist scareword of the day. We should see this in perspective of the revolts happening right now in the Arab world."

" Rick Falkvinge on March 4, 2011 C: 104 Opinion We see it everywhere. Corporations are trying to take control over our communications tools, citing copyright concerns. Frequently, they are assisted by hapless politicians, who are also aspiring for the same control, citing terrorist concerns or some other McCarthyist scareword of the day. We should see this in perspective of the revolts happening right now in the Arab world."

"What Is Speed? Many non-technical people will say "I want to have a fast Web site." From a technical perspective, however, that's not a very useful statement, because it neither differentiates between the different types of speed, nor does it consider the multiple layers involved in a modern Web application, nor does it take into consideration multiple people and the crunch that comes from a sudden surge of interest in the site. "

"What Is Speed? Many non-technical people will say "I want to have a fast Web site." From a technical perspective, however, that's not a very useful statement, because it neither differentiates between the different types of speed, nor does it consider the multiple layers involved in a modern Web application, nor does it take into consideration multiple people and the crunch that comes from a sudden surge of interest in the site. "

"October 7, 2016 Joe Collins 4 Comments How To There is much talk in the Linux world about the mythical "average user." There is no such thing with Linux. First off, people who use Linux usually are those who know a thing or two about computers to begin with and want to take advantage of all the choices Linux offers. "

"October 7, 2016 Joe Collins 4 Comments How To There is much talk in the Linux world about the mythical "average user." There is no such thing with Linux. First off, people who use Linux usually are those who know a thing or two about computers to begin with and want to take advantage of all the choices Linux offers. "

"October 14, 2016 Sean LeRoy 2 Comments Opinion The prowess and power of Open Source is undeniable. From servers, to the desktop, mobile, to the underpinnings of the so-called "Internet of Things", Open Source spans sectors and continents, public and private. One profession, however, that has traditionally been dominated by closed, proprietary software solutions - and usually very expensive ones at that! - is the field of design. In this article, we'll take a look at some free and open source options"

"October 14, 2016 Sean LeRoy 2 Comments Opinion The prowess and power of Open Source is undeniable. From servers, to the desktop, mobile, to the underpinnings of the so-called "Internet of Things", Open Source spans sectors and continents, public and private. One profession, however, that has traditionally been dominated by closed, proprietary software solutions - and usually very expensive ones at that! - is the field of design. In this article, we'll take a look at some free and open source options"

" Ernesto on October 23, 2016 C: 59 News The Pirate Party in Iceland continues its shakeup of the local political arena. According to the latest polls the party now has a serious shot at taking part in the next Government coalition, with roughly 20 percent of all votes one week before the parliamentary elections."

" Ernesto on October 30, 2016 C: 68 Breaking The Pirate Party in Iceland booked an important victory in the local parliamentary election today, scoring 14.5% of the total vote. While lower than most polls predicted, it marks the first time that a Pirate Party, anywhere in the world, has a serious shot at taking part in a government coalition."

"If you're a writer, then there's a strong chance you pay a lot of attention to getting your work published. And rightly so. It's important for writers to know their options so that they can make the best choice for their completed work."

"For those in Education, there are quite a number of specialized Linux distributions that are geared towards education. We take a look at some of the top notch distros that are available in this space."

"Fiona MacAlister September 1, 2016 In March we hosted the second Institute for Open Leadership. In our summary of the event we mentioned that the Institute fellows would be taking turns to write about their open policy projects. This week's post is from Fiona MacAlister, OER Specialist at Wits University in Johannesburg, South Africa."

"Phil Shapiro The open source development model is taking over the enterprise. Two companies that were late coming to the OSS table but which now contribute much code are Cisco and Capital One."

"It was in Russia that the word "oligarchs" was first used to denote very rich businessmen. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has adopted the term to refer to billionaires who create or take over media empires to serve their business or political interests. There is a worldwide trend towards increasingly concentrated ownership of conglomerates that combine media outlets (TV channels, radio stations, newspapers and news websites) with banks, telecoms, property firms and construction companies. All this suits the rulers of countries such as China that espoused capitalism in order to better suppress democracy. "

"Robert Glen Fogarty In this week's installment, our GNU/Linux newbie decides to go all in and take the training wheels off his Linux laptop."

"Every Fedora system runs a kernel. Many pieces of code come together to make this a reality. Each release of the Fedora kernel starts with a baseline release from the upstream community. This is often called a 'vanilla' kernel. The upstream kernel is the standard. The goal is to have as much code upstream as possible. This makes it easier for bug fixes and API updates to happen as well as having more people review the code. In an ideal world, Fedora would be able to to take the kernel straight from kernel.org and send that out to all users."

"Disruptions By NICK BILTON MARCH 16, 2016 Share This Page Photo Credit Ellen Weinstein For a glimpse of what teenagers are into these days, all you have to do is visit Abbot Kinney Boulevard in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles. On weekend nights, the half-mile shopping drag is packed with style-conscious kids who traipse past coffee shops, ice cream parlors and boutiques, often while taking selfies."

"One of the world's largest academic publishers has launched a wide-ranging takedown spree, demanding that several different universities take down their own scholars' research."

"PageOneX makes it easy to track, code, and visualize major news stories based on the proportion of newspaper front pages that they take up. "

"Executive Summary GMO Myths and Truths report Genetically modified (GM) crops are promoted on the basis of a range of far-reaching claims from the GM crop industry and its supporters. They say that GM crops: Are an extension of natural breeding and do not pose different risks from naturally bred crops Are safe to eat and can be more nutritious than naturally bred crops Are strictly regulated for safety Increase crop yields Reduce pesticide use Benefit farmers and make their lives easier Bring economic benefits Benefit the environment Can help solve problems caused by climate change Reduce energy use Will help feed the world. However, a large and growing body of scientific and other authoritative evidence shows that these claims are not true. On the contrary, evidence presented in this report indicates that GM crops: Are laboratory-made, using technology that is totally different from natural breeding methods, and pose different risks from non-GM crops Can be toxic, allergenic or less nutritious than their natural counterparts Are not adequately regulated to ensure safety Do not increase yield potential Do not reduce pesticide use but increase it Create serious problems for farmers, including herbicide-tolerant "superweeds", compromised soil quality, and increased disease susceptibility in crops Have mixed economic effects Harm soil quality, disrupt ecosystems, and reduce biodiversity Do not offer effective solutions to climate change Are as energy-hungry as any other chemically-farmed crops Cannot solve the problem of world hunger but distract from its real causes - poverty, lack of access to food and, increasingly, lack of access to land to grow it on. Based on the evidence presented in this report, there is no need to take risks with GM crops when effective, readily available, and sustainable solutions to the problems that GM technology is claimed to address already