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Submission + - SourceForge MITM Projects (github.io) 2

Submitted by lister king of smeg
lister king of smeg writes: What happened?

SourceForge, once a trustworthy source code hosting site, started to place misleading ads (like fake download buttons) a few years ago. They are also bundling third-party adware/malware directly with their Windows installer.

Some project managers decided to leave SourceForge – partly because of this, partly just because there are better options today. SF staff hijacked some of these abandoned accounts, partly to bundle the crapware with their installers. It has become just another sleazy garbage site with downloads of fake antivirus programs and such.

How can I help?

If you agree that SourceForge is in fact distributing malicious software under the guise of open source projects, report them to google. Ideally this will help remove them from search results, prevent others from suffering their malware and provide them with incentive to change their behavior.

As this story has been submitted several times in the past several days, by various submitter and is going around various other tech forums( https://news.ycombinator.com/i... , https://soylentnews.org/articl... , https://www.reddit.com/r/progr... ,) this submitter wonders has our shared "glorious Dice Corporate overloads" been shooting this story down?

Submission + - SourceForge assumes ownership of GIMP For Win, wraps installer in adware (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It appears that SourceForge is assuming control of all projects that appear "abandoned." In a blog update on their site, they responded saying in part "There has recently been some report that the GIMP-Win project on SourceForge has been hijacked; this project was actually abandoned over 18 months ago, and SourceForge has stepped-in to keep this project current. "

SourceForge is now offering "to establish a program to enable users and developers to help us remove misleading and confusing ads."

Submission + - Sourceforge staff takes over a user's account and wraps their software installer (arstechnica.com) 11

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Sourceforge staff took over the account of the GIMP-for-Windows maintainer claiming it was abandoned and used this opportunity to wrap the installer in crapware. Quoting Ars:

SourceForge, the code repository site owned by Slashdot Media, has apparently seized control of the account hosting GIMP for Windows on the service, according to e-mails and discussions amongst members of the GIMP community—locking out GIMP's lead Windows developer. And now anyone downloading the Windows version of the open source image editing tool from SourceForge gets the software wrapped in an installer replete with advertisements.

Submission + - SF Says AdWare Bundled with Gimp Is Intentional (google.com) 5

Submitted by tresf
tresf writes: In response to a Google+ post from the Gimp project claiming that "[Sourceforge] is now distributing an ads-enabled installer of GIMP", Sourceforge had this response:

In cases where a project is no longer actively being maintained, SourceForge has in some cases established a mirror of releases that are hosted elsewhere. This was done for GIMP-Win.

Editor's note: Gimp is actively being maintained and the definition of "mirror" is quite misleading here as a modified binary is no longer a verbatim copy. Download statistics for Gimp on Windows show SourceForge as offering over 1,000 downloads per day of the Gimp software. In an official response to this incident, the official Gimp project team reminds users to use official download methods. Slashdotters may remember the last time news like this surfaced (2013) when the Gimp team decided to move downloads from SourceForge to their own FTP service.

Therefore, we remind you again that GIMP only provides builds for Windows via its official Downloads page.

Note: SourceForge and Slashdot share a corporate parent.

Comment Re:I'm shocked ... (Score 4, Insightful) 249

Their job is hard (and quoting stats comparing cops to fisherman is pointless, ...

Why is using actual data on how dangerous the job is compared to other jobs pointless? Because it doesn't support your argument?

... fish don't have shotguns in the back seat)

Neither do the vast, vast majority of people.

Comment Re:Wow (Score 1) 280

by tweak13 (#49588225) Attached to: New Study Suggests Flying Is Greener Than Driving
Your link to mh-aerotools.de pretty clearly illustrates why this isn't going to be happening to commercial aircraft anytime soon. By making some fairly absurd assumptions about efficiency gains from changing aircraft design (and ignoring all aspects of aircraft design other than efficiency) you still need batteries that have 6x the energy density of modern technologies. Using some numbers that might actually be realistic and you'd need more like 10x the energy density.

Comment Re:This is stupid (Score 1) 280

by tweak13 (#49587971) Attached to: New Study Suggests Flying Is Greener Than Driving
The Cessna 150 is a pretty terrible design. To be fair, it is really old and there have been a lot of advancements in aerodynamics, as well as in materials and construction techniques that make more efficient designs easier to make. A more modern two seat aircraft would get more like 150mph ground speed at 5 gallons per hour. That's 30mpg.

Comment Re:danger vs taste (Score 1) 630

by tweak13 (#49571133) Attached to: Pepsi To Stop Using Aspartame
Sorry, but rubycodez is 100% right here. You can not take a single study of limited substances on a single species and claim that it applies to every sweet tasting thing in humans. We have no clue by what mechanism that insulin response is triggered. They may have a good theory, but we won't know until extensive testing is done. That's the way science works. A single study may be interesting, but proof it most certainly is not.

Comment Check_MK (Score 3, Informative) 170

by tweak13 (#48214575) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: Smarter Disk Space Monitoring In the Age of Cheap Storage?
We switched to Check_MK for monitoring. It's basically a collection of software that sits on top of Nagios.

The default disk monitoring allows alerting based on trends (full in 24hours, etc.) or thresholds based on a "magic factor." Basically it scales the thresholds so that larger disks alert at a higher percentage, adjustable in quite a few different ways to suit your tastes.

Submission + - Canonical Asked Linux Mint Maintainer to License Binary Packages

Submitted by tweak13
tweak13 writes: According to statements made by Clement Lefebvre, the maintainer of Linux Mint, Canonical's legal department informed him that Mint needed to license Ubuntu's binary packages. These packages are critical for a wide range of Ubuntu-based distributions, and the loss of the availability of these packages would doom many of those projects. According to Lefebvre, the request for licensing was probably not about money, but about controlling Ubuntu's position in the commercial marketplace.

From Distrowatch:

Clem responded, "Money isn't a primary concern. Although the original fee was in the hundreds of thousands pounds, it was easily reduced to a single digit figure. The licensing aims at restricting what Mint can and cannot do, mostly in relation to the OEM market, to prevent Mint from competing with Canonical in front of the same commercial partners."

Comment Re:Unhelpful article (Score 3, Funny) 449

by tweak13 (#42435351) Attached to: FAA Device Rules Illustrate the Folly of a Regulated Internet
This is exactly what I was thinking. It's the FAA's job to keep planes flying and keep the people on them safe. It sure as hell is not their job to promote internet usage.

Basically the article is saying: "When you arbitrarily assign a job to a government agency, they're not very effective." Wow, I'm so glad that got cleared up. I was about ready to tell the local water works that they need to get me faster internet speeds.

Comment Re:Also opening up their code isn't simple (Score 1) 946

by tweak13 (#41625533) Attached to: Alan Cox to NVIDIA: You Can't Use DMA-BUF

Go look it up, OpenGL isn't a free "do whatever you like" setup. There is licensing for it for companies like nVidia.

I decided to do exactly that. This is from their licensing website.

The following are the currently available licenses:

Open source license, for use of the S.I.. This is a Free Software License B closely modeled on BSD, X, and Mozilla licenses.

Trademark License. for new licensees who want to use the OpenGL trademark and logo and claim conformance. This license is available free of charge if you are developing open source implementations on open source platforms. For closed source licenses or licenses on proprietary platforms, a charge will be associated with a trademark license.

Emphasis mine. There's also a note on the page that former licensees can open source their code and no longer need a license. If you're making an open source implementation, OpenGL seems pretty open.

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