Byte Into It - 09 Jul 09

Community to Gilliard: 'Consider Open Source' - Linux & Open Source - iTnews Australia

The Australian Open Source community has called for the consideration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in the implementation of the Rudd Government’s Digital Education Revolution Policy.

In an open letter that was submitted last week to the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gilliard, members of the community expressed its support of the Government’s investment in Australian ICT capabilities, education and training.

The letter is signed by nine leading FOSS advocates, including: Open Source Victoria’s Education Spokesperson Donna Benjamin; OLPA Australia Director Pia Waugh; Red Hat Australia General Manager Max McLaren; and Samba Developer Andrew Tridgell.

Central to the FOSS argument is the low cost associated with Open Source Software, which could enable more flexible use of the $1000-per-unit National Secondary School Computer Fund (NSSCF).

Vodafone accidentally announces iPhone plans - Telecommunications - iTnews Australia

Vodafone is offering four different plans, which are modelled after its current schemes, for both cap contract and business customers.

The cheapest monthly plan runs for $69 a month for $310 worth of minutes and texts, and 250MB worth of data. With this plan, customers will pay $189 for the 8GB and $309 for the 16GB.

With a $169 a-month contract, customers can get the 8GB iPhone for free, and the 16GB device for $89. This plan is worth $1200 of minutes and 1GB worth of data.

The other plans charge $99 a month for $600 worth of talk and text and 500MB of data, and $119 for $800 worth of text and talk and 500MB of data.

Vodafone said it will release more details on launch-day Friday

Opinion: Year of the penguin - Linux & Open Source - iTnews Australia

It’s taken the confluence of several disparate but connected events to create the perfect breeding ground for desktop versions of Linux to finally flourish.

Firstly, credit where it’s due, Apple’s decision to switch to a Unix core proved that you didn’t need to be a geek and/or a master of the command line interface to enjoy the benefits of Bell Labs’ near 40-year-old gaming platform. You could now watch the pretty pictures with the click of a mouse and have no need to know what was under the covers of MacOS X.

And of course, credit to über-geek Linus Torvalds for rescuing Unix from the litigators arguing over who owns which bit of what was once basically free anyway. Your correspondent purchased the full source code for Unix, on magnetic tape of course, for US$1 back in 1980.

IBM and Linden teleport avatars beween virtual worlds - Internet - iTnews Australia

Linden Labs, creators of Second Life, and IBM say they have developed have created a set of compatible avatars that can be used on either companies systems.

The two companies said that they have successfully transported avatars from IBM's OpenSim virtual world server to a Second Life Preview server. The 3D characters were 'teleported' from one server to another and were able to function in both worlds.

The companies said that the occasion marks an important milestone in their interoperability efforts.

EU may regulate social networking sites over security issues

Social networking sites need more regulation in order to ensure that they won't pose major security risks to users, according to the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The agency issued a preliminary version of its General Report (PDF) covering online security this morning, pointing out that it views social networks as a "positive social phenomenon" that are not without their own set of security problems, and the organization has a set of recommendations meant to protect users online.

ENISA said that some of the main threats identified so far through social networks involve digital dossiers, face recognition, and social engineering attacks on enterprises. Phishing attacks, reputation damage, ID theft, stalking, and cyberbullying are common as well. The organization says that, because of the human desire to connect and the growing popularity of social networks, it's easy for users to let their guards down and not be aware of the size of the audience accessing their information. "Social Networking may be seen as a 'digital cocktail party,'" read the report. "However, compared with a real-world cocktail party, [social networking service] members broadcast information much more widely and sometimes unadvisedly, either by choice or unwittingly."

AMD set to ship first retail Mac Pro-ready graphics card

AMD has announced the ATI-branded Radeon HD 3870 for Mac & PC Edition, its first retail video card for the Mac Pro. Apple offers a version of the Radeon 2600 as the standard option for the Mac Pro, but this card is the first 3000-series available for that system. The card is also the first graphics card that is both Mac and PC compatible out of the box.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Google must divulge YouTube log

Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".

The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.

BBC NEWS | Technology | It's not the Gates, it's the bars

Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for advances which it only took advantage of, such as making computers cheap and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.

Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental degradation and illness in the same poor countries.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Firefox download record official

Mozilla has officially made history with a new Guinness world record for the largest number of software downloads in a 24-hour period.

The final record breaking 8,002,530 downloads for web browser Firefox 3.0 took place in June.

bfish.xaedalus.net » Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird.

Stay in Sync with GCal and Thunderbird.

HOWTO Make online videos without getting sued - Boing Boing

American University's Center for Social Media has just concluded a long, in-depth project to establish a set of "Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video." They worked with video makers, legal scholars, eminent sociologists, fans and others to create something that reflects the law, practice and future of fair use for video remixing and sharing online.

Digg - G-Park iPhone App Lets the Forgetful Bookmark Their Cars

Park your car and tap "Park Me" to take a GPS reading; on the way back, hit "Where Did I Park" for turn-by-turn directions back to the whip.

Digg - 12 Quick Hacks For Firefox 3

It's time to hack it.

Slashdot | Google Open Sources Its Data Interchange Format

Google's open sourcing of their internal data interchange format, called Protocol Buffers (here's the code and the doc). Google elevator statement for Protocol Buffers is "a language-neutral, platform-neutral, extensible way of serializing structured data for use in communications protocols, data storage, and more." It's the way data is formatted to move around inside of Google. Betanews spotlights some of Protocol Buffers' contrasts with XML and IDL, with which it is most comparable. Google's blogger claims, "And, yes, it is very fast — at least an order of magnitude faster than XML."

Extra storage as students go Gmail | Australian IT

GOOGLE has edged out some of the biggest brands in the enterprise IT services market to pick up another major contract win in Australia's education sector.

Google partner SMS Management and Technology has emerged as the leading bidder to supply the NSW Department of Education with 1.5 million student email services using a customised version of the search giant's Gmail service, Acting NSW Minister for Education and Training John Hatzistergos said.

"This commitment is a further demonstration of the NSW Labor Government's commitment to equip teachers and students with the best possible means to compete successfully in the constantly evolving world of information technology," he said.

NSW education department chief information officer Stephen Wilson said the department was yet to finalise its contract with SMS but confirmed that it had lodged the winning bid.

SMS will be the prime contractor alongside Google and Telstra to fulfil the contract, valued at $9.5 million over three years. It's expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

The department rejected bids from Hewlett-Packard, Telstra subsidiary Kaz, and incumbent provider Unisys, to award the contract to SMS.

It's understood that the contract will be one the largest private deployments of Gmail in the world.

The win is Google's second major victory in the academic sector after Macquarie University signed up for Gmail in September last year. It could have massive implications for the Australian software market, as it places Gmail's online word processing software, Google Docs, in a strong position to challenge Microsoft's Office software suite in the education sector.