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Handhelds

Replicant Hackers Find and Close Samsung Galaxy Back-door 81

Posted by timothy from the in-their-spare-time dept.
gnujoshua writes "Paul Kocialkowski (PaulK), a developer for the Replicant project, a fully free/libre version of Android, wrote a guest blog post for the Free Software Foundation announcing that whlie hacking on the Samsung Galaxy, they "discovered that the proprietary program running on the applications processor in charge of handling the communication protocol with the modem actually implements a back-door that lets the modem perform remote file I/O operations on the file system." They then replaced the proprietary program with free software.

While it may be a while before we can have a 100% free software microcode/firmware on the the cellular hardware itself, isolating that hardware from the rest of your programming and data is a seemingly important step that we can take right now. At least to the FSF anyhow. What do others think: is a 100% free software mobile device important to you?"
Education

US Forces Coursera To Ban Students From Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria 306

Posted by Unknown Lamer from the knowledge-is-a-controlled-export dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Coursera is an online website that offers free courses from many of the world's top universities. Now, all students from Syria, Sudan, Iran and Cuba will no longer be able to access Coursera. The official blog provides more info regarding the ban: 'Until now the interpretation of export control regulations as they relate to MOOCs has been unclear and Coursera has been operating under the interpretation that MOOCs would not be restricted. We recently received information that has led to the understanding that the services offered on Coursera are not in compliance with the law as it stands ... United States export control regulations prohibit U.S. businesses, such as MOOC providers like Coursera, from offering services to users in sanctioned countries, including Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Under the law, certain aspects of Coursera's course offerings are considered services and are therefore subject to restrictions in sanctioned countries, with the exception of Syria.'"
Microsoft

Microsoft Donates Windows 8.1 To Nonprofit Organizations 224

Posted by samzenpus from the you-get-a-copy-and-you-get-a-copy... dept.
An anonymous reader writes in with good news for Windows loving nonprofits and libraries. "Microsoft today announced the availability of Windows 8.1 for nonprofits. The move is an extension of the company's nod to the nonprofit community with the launch Windows 8. The announcement means eligible nonprofit organizations and public libraries can request Windows 8.1 through Microsoft's software donation program."
HP

Submission + - HP Back in Tablet Game with $169 Slate7

Submitted by theodp
theodp writes: You know the old adage, 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me?' Still, even if you got bit by the HP TouchPad debacle, HP's newly-announced $169 Slate7 tablet could prove hard to resist. Specs-wise, the Slate7 sports an ARM Dual Core Cortex-A9 1.6 GHz processor, 7-inch 1024x600 HFFS screen, Android 4.1 (Jellybean), three-megapixel camera on the back, front-facing VGA camera, 8GB of on-board storage, HP ePrint, Beats Audio, and a micro SD expandable card slot. It measures 10.7mm x 197mm x 116mm thin, and weighs in at 13-ounces. It will be available in the US in April via HPDirect.com. Engadget has some pics and their initial hands-on take.
Linux

Submission + - Lenovo Thinkcentre M92p only like Winows and RHEL (dreamwidth.org)

Submitted by
Nagilum23
Nagilum23 writes: "It looks like Lenovo only knows of Windows8 and RHEL when it comes to Secure Boot. While investigating UEFI boot issues Matthew Garrett found that the Thinkcentre M92p BIOS actually checks the descriptive string:
"there is a function that compares the descriptive string against "Windows Boot Manager" and appears to return an error if it doesn't match. What's stranger is that it also checks for "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" and lets that one work as well."
Phoronix is also running the story: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTIyOTg ."
Media

Submission + - Microsoft's Windows 8 training videos popped up on the web – No user left (pureinfotech.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It seems that Microsoft undeniably sees the challenge for new Windows 8 users, so much that the software maker is gearing up with a set of Windows 8 video training to teach associates how to move around the new operating system, and to make a smooth transition for users.
Linux

Submission + - Linux Developers Still Reject NVIDIA Using DMA-BUF (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Many Linux laptop users are quick to bash NVIDIA over their lack of proper Optimus support. In August NVIDIA confirmed they were working on NVIDIA Optimus Linux support. As part of their Optimus Linux implementation they want to use DMA-BUF for the multi-GPU interactions just like the open-source drivers, so that they can all work together. Unfortunately, the developers of the linux kernel prevent NVIDIA to finish their implementation by not allowing non-GPL drivers to use this unified buffer sharing infrastructure.

Should NVIDIA use the F-word to respond to their intransigence ?
Censorship

Iran Plans To Unplug the Internet, Launch Its Own 'Clean' Alternative 301

Posted by timothy from the good-thing-they're-not-western-imperialists dept.
suraj.sun writes "Iran topped a recent list of repressive regimes that most aggressively restrict Internet freedom. The list, published by Reporters Without Borders, is a part of the 2012 edition of the organization's Enemies of the Internet report. One of the details addressed in that report is the Iranian government's bizarre plan to create its own 'clean' Internet. The proposed system, an insular nation-wide intranet that is isolated from the regular Internet, will be heavily regulated by the government. In addition to developing its own Intranet system, the Iranian government is also creating its own custom email service and a national search engine called Ya Haq (Oh Just One) that is intended to replace Google. In order to obtain an account on the state-approved mail service, users will have to register their identity with the government." The "clean Internet" part, at least, was also mentioned earlier this year; Iran is one of the recurring champions when it comes to such dubious honors.
Government

Submission + - FBI Taught Agents They Could 'Bend or Suspend the Law' | Danger Room | Wired.com (wired.com)

Submitted by politkal
politkal writes: According to the FBI's internal inquiry on counterterrorism training, the FBI taught agents that the Bureau "has the ability to bend or suspend the law to impinge on the freedoms of others"; that agents should "never attempt to shake hands with an Asian"; that Arabs were "prone to outbursts" of a "Jekyll & Hyde" nature.
Space

Submission + - There should be billions of habitable alien planets in our Galaxy (tech-stew.com) 1

Submitted by
techfun89
techfun89 writes: "A new study has shown that in our Milky Way galaxy alone, there should be billions of habitable, rocky planets around faint red stars called red dwarfs. These red dwarfs are thought to make up about 80% of the stars in our galaxy.

Astronomers using the European Southern Observatory telescope observed 102 of the most common stars, red dwarfs, in our galaxy over six years. They came up with an estimate of the planets in the habitable zones around each star.

160 billion red dwarfs, the fainter and cooler/longer lasting stars than the Sun exist in the Milky Way according to research team leader Xavier Bonfils. Bonfils is of the University of Grenoble in France. He stated, ''Because red dwarfs are so common this leads us to the astonishing result that there are tens of billions of these planets in our galaxy alone." There are probably 100 of these super-Earths within 30 light years of Earth, he said."

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