For the NSA, Tor and Trails Linux users are "extremists"

The source code of the XKeystore shows that the U.S. agency seeks to trace and identify all those interested directly or indirectly in "Tor" or "Tails Linux".

If you use the Tor network or Tails secure Linux operating system - or you are simply connected to the websites of these programs - know that there is a good chance the NSA has you now on sight and tagged as an "extremist". 
This is what the German WDR and ARD sites just revealed after they've got their hands on some of the XKeystore source code, the famous NSA search engine .  
 
In a video report, we find lines of code with the obvious goal to "identify potential Tor users". But this is not all, The same type of marking is for visitors of the Tor website. You only have to go to the website without installing the software, and you're stuck with the NSA. Same for Linux Tails. 
Even a simple Google search on this operating system is enough to get you in the databases of the monitoring agency. As for the term "extremist", it is used by the author of the code in a comment field to refer to all those people who have the nerve to use the "anonymizer" software.

  

Source: 01net.com

The code also shows that the marking is done either for users using SSL connections to the "bridges.torproject.org" website or for emails sent to "bridges@torproject.org".  
Note that Xkeyscore can scan the contents of an email, as shown by the command "email_body ('https://bridges ....".

Source: http://www.tagesschau.de/inland/nsa-xkeyscore-100.html

What's really going on between Google and Nestlé?

After the quite unexpected announcement Google made about the name of the next version of Android, some additional explanations were published today to clarify that this agreement was non monetary .
  
  

For every major new version of Android, Google gives a new name corresponding to a dessert. And for each new version, the first letter is incremented in an alphabetical order. Thus, with the letter K we were expecting Key Lime Pie, but finally Android 4.4 KitKat has been announced to take us by surprise.

Obviously, many questions have been raised about this partnership with the Swiss food giant. Many tech writer started to talk about a financial settlement that has been reached between the two firms. But this is not the case.

Thanks to a publication of the BBC, we learn that this marketing operation began in a telephone meeting between the Android sales manager and Nestlé's advertising consulting agency. Then all that was finalized at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, last February. More importantly, no money has been raised, only an exchange of visibility between the two giants has been concluded.

Shortly, you now should expect to find Android shaped chocolate bars since Nestlé plans to distribute more than fifty million of these treats, stamped Android. And maybe we'll get then the chance to win one the latest Nexus, or gifts from Play Store.

And finally to learn more about this, visit http://kitkat.com, which is, I might say the most perfectly designed website I've seen so far. It is just AWESOME!

Make every screen 3D-compatible with a simple plastic film

A team of researchers from Temasek Polytechnic and the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) has developed a new screen filter. It's not only a protector, but this filter allows you to view in 3D format without recourse to the famous glasses.

This plastic filter has been called revolutionary. Install it, simply to see with the naked eye 3D content on the screen of a phone. In fact, this screen protector is designed from the nanoimprint technology specially developed for this purpose. Boasting a thickness of less than 0.1 mm, this innovative accessory enables viewing in landscape and portrait mode. Meanwhile, the team is developing applications for iOS and Androidfor users to read 3D content. Even 2D images can be converted into 3D with a compatible application. Game developers will also have their share with the software development kit that transforms games into 3D.
 

Firefox 20 available in final version

While Netscape freed, 15 years ago, the source code of its Web browser, resulting in the birth of the Mozilla project, Firefox is celebrating today its twentieth release. While the version numbers do not mean much anymore, but each Firefox version has brought a lot of new yet important updates so far. 
In addition to traditional invisible but important improvements, Firefox 20 has two new special updates to the user: 
First and the most visible, the new download manager and button at the top right of the toolbar. No need to start the download window, a single click will display the latest downloads and progression of downloads appears below the button. It is still possible to display a specific window, called "Library" which allows you to organize the downloaded files.
 

 
Another innovation will address the fans of  porn (private) mode that is particularly useful. Firefox offered previously the choice to reboot in private mode when it was selected, then closing the session where you were and preventing juggle between as it is possible such as Chrome.  
This twentieth release now offers navigation window that no longer requires the user to have to close the session to enjoy the incognito mode.

Note that this latest development is also valid for the Android smartphones version of Firefox. 
Finally, for developers, we note the integration of WebRTC's getUserMedia API, a toolbox allowing faster access to development tools. Firefox is available for: Windows, OS X, Linux, Android.

What Apple has to say before the launch of Galaxy S4?

Apple has decided to intervene a few hours before the launch of Samsung Galaxy S4 that run Android.

 

Android is honored tonight with the presentation of the Galaxy S4.
But Apple wanted to intervene a few hours before the launch through their Marketing Director, Phil Schiller. He severely tackled the Google OS claiming that it does not offer an experience worthy of the name. He believes that there are too many Android devices and this diversity brings many market share in this OS. The marketing director for Apple affirmed that this strategy is not effective because it creates a real confusion in the marketplace. The company does not see the interest to increase the number of terminals. 
Phil Schiller adds in his interview with BeGeek that a person who wishes to buy a Android device must subscribe to multiple accounts. Thus, the iOS experience is much better, because there is only one phone model, operating system, and one way to manage their Smartphone. So Apple wants to focus on quality and not quantity. The  iOS experience is best.

Now let's put all that crap away and focus on this paragraph, for it summarize what really Apple wanted to say.  

Still quoting Phil Schiller : Apple has absolutely no fear of Galaxy S4, it will continue to work and share innovations keeping the same line of quality.  

Comments of the Director of Apple were not picked up by the major stakeholders. Thus, Google and Samsung would not comment on his remarks. 

Finally, all I have to say that regardless of what Apple stated, The iPhone 5 is going to have a serious competitor in a few hours since the Galaxy S4 is going to be launched via a huge event.

Update: The event will be brought to you live by Samsung Mobile on this link :

Blackberry Z10 unveiled!

During his conference to launch BlackBerry 10, RIM presented its new product: BlackBerry Z10. Supposed to relaunch  the machine, the Z10 OS features impose a heavy wait on the phone.

BlackBerry Z10 has a 4.2 inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels and a rate of 356 ppi. It is equipped with a dual-core processor clocked at 1.5 Ghz, 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable memory via micro-SD. The Z10 is also equipped with an 8 Megapixels camera, a front camera 2 MP, Bluetooth 4.0, a 4G chip and NFC. 

As expected, BB10 focuses on social action and allows you to send emails through your Facebook messaging via BlackBerry HUB. Everything is managed by a virtual keyboard that allows you to write quickly with a system similar to Swype.  
 
BlackBerry Z10 will also allow you to share your content easily. RIM unveiled its function Screenshare Z10. A classic video system, that also allows to instantly share your screen, in order to benefit your partner with your photos or your applications.
Z10 seems to perfectly manage multi-task, and as promised no latency. Full of little features that will help the user in his daily life.

RIM introduced its smartphone filled with promise, therefore, they focuses more on the OS than on hardware.  Z10 will be available in Europe tomorrow at  € 579.99.

How to break linux?

20 ways to break Linux 

Linux is a robust OS but there are still lots of ways you can trash it.

Linux has a reputation for robustness but there are still plenty of ways to damage a perfectly working system.
Here we share some of the ways you can trash Linux so you don't make the same mistakes we did.
Read the Complete article on techradar.com

I just came across this article, and I did some "Googling" and I found it to be discussed on many blogs and forums so I just wanted to write some notes about it.

First I'm gonna start by enumerating the 20 ways and you can always go back to the original article to find out more:

Linux in 2012: Distro of the year, Top and bottom 10, and upcoming releases

Top 10	Bottom 10	Upcoming releases
1 Mint 4237 2 Mageia 2226 3 Fedora 1639 4 Ubuntu 1593 5 Debian 1363 6 Arch 1183 7 openSUSE 1179 8 PCLinuxOS 1096 9 Puppy 869 10 OS4 856	308 Mangaka 11 309 Karoshi 11 310 Jibbed 11 311 IDMS 11 312 TFM 10 313 Ekaaty 10 314 Burapha 10 315 Omoikane 9 316 Càtix 9 317 LinEx 7	2013-01-08: Fedora 18 Ubuntu 12.04.2 2013-02-04: Frugalware Linux 1.8 2013-03-05: Mageia 3 RC 2013-03-13: openSUSE 12.3 2013-03-20: Mageia 3 2013-04-25: Ubuntu 13.04

Distro Of the year:

The Winner of The platform trophy is :

• Based on: Arch
• Origin: Spain
• Architecture: i686, x86_64
• Desktop: Cinnamon
• Category: Desktop, Live Medium

Cinnarch is a modern, elegant and powerful Linux distribution and live CD based on Arch Linux. It uses LightDM as the login manager, Cinnamon as the graphical desktop and Chromium as the web browser. Cinnarch is a rolling-release distribution and the Cinnarch live CD includes a simple text-mode system installer.

Cinnarch has made a breakthrough the distro watch ranking table since it's first release.

It started at #112 in the ranking table in January 2012 and ended at #15.

Ratings and information regarding distros in this post are featured by distrowatch.com

Bill Gates , Steve Jobs and Linus Trovalds

Written by h20 on 14 dec 2012.

Three names that shined over the years because of their contributions to technology in general 

and to computers specifically, here's the timelines of each one of them.

Who had the most influence ? you be the judge.

“Microsoft looks at new ideas, they don’t evaluate whether the idea will move the industry forward, they ask, ‘how will it help us sell more copies of Windows?”  – Bill Gates

Bill Gates enters Harvard	Bill entered Harvard with the intention of getting his pre-law majors, but quickly switched to technology and graduated with max level mathematics and science courses.
Gates calls MITS	Bill called MITS from his dorm room asking them if they would let him develop software for their computers.
"Microsoft"	Gates and Allen register the trademark "Microsoft". Gates writes a letter to computer hobbyists.
Leaving Harvard	Gates leaves Harvard and sets up Microsoft in Albuquerque N.M. where MITS is headquartered.
Money made from Microsoft in one year!	at the end of the year of 1978 Bill Gates's "Microsoft" had already made 1 million$. Gates Gains a huge reputation for being tough.
Microsoft relocates	Microsoft Headquarters relocates to Bellevue, Wash. near Gates's hometown.
Microsoft’s investments	Microsoft buys the rights to the operating system "DOS" form Seattle Computer Products. Microsoft modifies the "DOS" and renames it "MS-DOS".
Knighthood	Queen Elizabeth II bestows an honorary knighthood on Gates for his contributions to the United Kingdom. Time names him a “Person of the Year” along with Melinda Gates and Bono
Retirement	Gates retires from day-to-day duties at Microsoft on June 27 2008, but stays in the role of chairman and adviser on important development projects. He tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that he plans to pour the same amount of energy into his foundation that he did into Microsoft. He stated in 2006 that his intentions,  is to spend more time working with The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“Picasso had a saying. He said 'Good artists copy, great artists steal.' And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas” – Steve Jobs

Buddhism	He quits his first job at Atari to backpack across India, take psychedelic drugs, convert to Buddhism, and shave his head . . . experiences that he credits with shaping his creative vision.
Apple	STEVE JOBS and STEVE WOZNIAK form Apple Computers and build their first personal computer . . . in Jobs’ parents’ garage.
Apple II	Apple releases the Apple Two, which becomes the first widely-used personal computer in the world.
Macintosh	Apple launches the Macintosh 1984, a desktop computer with the screen built in.  One year later, Jobs would leave Apple.
Out of Apple	Jobs ousted from Apple and founds NeXT
Pixar	Jobs buys Pixar Animation Studios for $10 MILLION.  In 1995 they release “Toy Story”, the first movie made entirely with computer animation.  It changes animation forever.  When Pixar goes public, Jobs becomes a billionaire.
Return to Apple	With Apple dying and about to be sold or killed off, Jobs returns, and becomes CEO.  He takes a salary of $1.
iProducts	1998- iMac for 1,299$ 1999- iBook 2003- iTunes Music store and iPod 2007- iPhone 2007- Apple TV 2008- Macbook Air 2010- iPad 2011- iCloud

“Really, I’m not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect”

“Talk is cheap. Show me the code” – Linus Trovalds

Why linus?	Torvalds was named after Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize-winning American chemist, although in the book Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution, Torvalds is quoted as saying, "I think I was named equally for Linus the Peanuts cartoon character", noting that this makes him half "Nobel-prize-winning chemist" and half "blanket-carrying cartoon character"
In the army	His academic career was interrupted after his first year of study when he joined the Finnish Army, selecting the 11-month officer training program to fulfill the mandatory military service of Finland. In the army he holds the rank of second lieutenant, with the role of a ballistic calculation officer.
His own os	Linus Torvalds, a 21-year-old student at Helsinki University, decided to write his own computer operating system.
Why linux?	Initially, Torvalds wanted to call the kernel he developed Freax (a combination of "free", "freak", and the letter X to indicate that it is a Unix-like system), but his friend Ari Lemmke, who administered the FTP server where the kernel was first hosted for downloading, named Torvalds' directory linux.
Why the penguin?	The penguin was trovald’s personal mascot nicknamed Tux, which has been widely adopted by the Linux community as the mascot of the Linux kernel
Top innovator	In 1999 he was named by the MIT Technology Review TR100 as one of the top 100 innovators, under the age of 35, in the world
More good news in 1999	In 1999 Red Hat and VA Linux, both leading developers of Linux-based software, presented Torvalds with stock options in gratitude for his creation. That same year both companies went public and Torvalds' share value temporarily shot up to roughly $20 million.
2006	approximately two percent of the Linux kernel was written by Torvalds himself
2012	his own personal contribution is mostly merging code written by others, with little programming. Torvalds remains the final authority on what new code is incorporated into the standard Linux kernel
Currently	Currently, the Linux Foundation sponsors Torvalds so he can work full time on improving Linux.

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