Open Source Subnet: An independent Open Source community

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  Open Source Matters

  Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix Rolls Out by Rikki Endsley

  "Before anyone gets all worked up and conspiratorial: everything in the remix is available from the standard Software Centre," Shuttleworth explains. "Packages out, packages in. No secret sauce for customers only; we’re not creating a RHEL, we already have an enterprise-quality release cadence called LTS and we like it just the way it is."Shuttleworth says that the remix was first discussed at the developer summit in October 2011. "Remixes can include non-free software and still retain the...

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  Open Source Fact and Fiction

  Ruh Roh, Now The Bad Guys Are Using Open Source Too by Alan Shimel

  What is good for the goose, is good for the gander, right?  Open source has been so successful in giving us software like Linux, Apache, Hadoop, etc., why wouldn't the open source method work with other types of software?  Probably no one expected that the criminals behind vast malware trojans would adopt open source methods to make their malware more dangerous, but they have.  According to this report from Seculert Research, the makers of Citadel, a variant of the Zeus Trojan...

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  Google Reed-er

  More Google Wallet follies by Brad Reed

  Well, well, well!  It looks as though Google Wallet users who don't root their Android phones have something to worry about after all!  And when you read about the details of this particular flaw, you will slap your head because it's a major bone-headed error on Google's part.  Go read The Smartphone Champ for the scoop: All a person who wants to access your Google Wallet has to do is go into the application settings menu and clear the data for the Google Wallet app....

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  Google Reed-er

  Google to users: "Hey dummies! Don't root your Android phone and expect Google Wallet to be safe!" by Brad Reed

  So website categorization company zvelo caused a wee bit of a stir today when it exposed a potential security vulnerability in Google's near field communications (NFC)-enabled Google Wallet mobile payment platform.  You can see a video of their efforts below:To sum up: zvelo created an applciation that's capable of retrieving your Google Wallet PIN from your device, meaning that if someone were to steal your phone and use the application, they could use Google Wallet to go on a spending...

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  Google Reed-er

  My favorite Android browser is... something you may not have heard of! by Brad Reed

  So as you've likely seen, Google is finally releasing a mobile version of Chrome for Android, albeit on a very limited basis.  This is good news for a lot of reasons, the chief being that the default Android browser is pretty boring and nowhere near up to Chrome's standards.  The folks at Opera have predictably been all like, "Uh-UH!  You don't need no Chrome browser to have a first-rate browsing experience on Android!  We've been there for years!"But I've actually found a...

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  Open Source Fact and Fiction

  Without It's Own Horse HTC Could Be On The Sidelines by Alan Shimel

  The mobile device market is a brutal place where only the very strongest survive. If you don't have your own horse in the race, you can easily go from first to back in the pack pretty quickly. Now it looks like one time industry darling, HTC may be one of the first casualties of the Google-Motorola Mobility merger. HTC rode the Android wave and was one of the leading Android headset makers, even producing a Google Nexus phone. But with Google's own Motorola rising rapidly and Samsung becoming...

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  Open Source Fact and Fiction

  DataBase As A Service With Support by Alan Shimel

  It seems like everything IT is being consumed as-a-Service (aaS) these days. So it should not be shocking that DBaaS, Database-as-a-Service is now available too.  EnterpriseDB, the company that has built a business supporting the PostgreSQL database announced last week that is now offering DBaaS through the Amazon Cloud. The idea is to offer almost "instant on" easy database to anyone who desires it. From the announcement: Postgres Plus Cloud Database combines the advantages of cloud...

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  Open Source Matters

  Google Summer of Code 2012 Announced by Rikki Endsley

  Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is an international program that pairs students with mentors and mentoring organizations. Students receive a stipend to write code and contribute to open source projects during their participation in the program.In 2011, 175 organizations participated in the Summer of Code. On February 27, 2012, mentoring organizations can start submitting applications for this year's event. The deadline for applications is March 9, and accepted organizations will be announced on...

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  Google Reed-er

  Tech's original Great Satan calls out Google for being evil by Brad Reed

  My, how the tables have turned!  Microsoft is apparently placing ads in major newspapers this week (I say "apparently" because no one reads newspapers anymore and I thus have no way of fact-checking) that call out Google for being too evil and not "putting people first."  Yes, it's pretty amusing that Google, which has long branded itself as the good-guy tech company, is now under fire from Microsoft, which happens to be tech's original Great Satan.  Let's take a look at the post...

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  Open Source Matters

  Who's Afraid of Night of the Living Maps? by Rikki Endsley

  "It's a LAN-party like feeling for map enthusiasts, and because you may have blood-shot eyes after 8hrs of non stop mapping, we decided to give it a zombie theme," the wiki announcement says. The mapathon is open to experienced "OSMers" and novices alike.To participate, join a party near you or start your own. And it might not even be necessary to BYOB! "The OSM Foundation and the FOSSGIS e.V. will support your local party with a small amount of money, so you can buy junkfood and drinks," the...

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