Papal Indulgences - PyPy, Timelines, Moto X, HTTPS and Lego

• PyPy 2.1 ARMs up - The Raspberry Pi Foundation helped support the work in finishing PyPy's ARM support and now, PyPy 2.1 has arrived with official ARM support. The update bring JIT support of ARM6 and ARM7 architectures with hard and soft float. PyPy 2.1 targets Python 2.7.2 but also arriving is a beta of version 2.1 of PyPy3, the version of PyPy that targets Python 3 (3.2.3 to be exact).

• JavaScript Timelines - Timelines can always help put things in context and TimelineJS looks an interesting way of making them. The developers have a generator which starts with a Google spreadsheet which is generated with their template, you publish it to the web and then tell their application where to find it and it churns out all the assets and bits needed to embed a timeline in a site. And the timeline component (which can read JSON, JSONP and Google Docs) is up on Github under the MPL 2.0.

• Moto X - So, Motorola... your new phone... Always on phone listening for voice commands... interesting. Only hearing one activation command which includes the company name, "Ok Google"? not interested. Fast activating camera by flipping the phone over twice? The engineers need to get out more. Not available in Europe? Well, that saves us some time... put the Popemobile away chaps, we aren't going not shopping.

• Compression sucks - In the war on HTTPS, a lot has been made of oracle attacks on the compressed data which exploits compression to help reveal the contents of smaller encrypted chunks of data. Ars Technica takes a look at the latest to use that trick, BREACH, which builds off the older CRIME attack.

• XKeyShootsAndScores - And while HTTPS is being whittled away at, Wikimedia joins the HTTPS-by-default club though its got lots of work to do.

• Let me Lego - Now some may be interested in the new $350 Lego Mindstorms EV3 Robot, due in the US and UK in September. But I'm more interested in the Lego Architecture Studio which looks like a wonderfully creative thing to work with... but its only in the US because obviously Lego must think we don't have architecture in Europe

Swiss Guard - BIND 9 denial of service in the wild

Watch out if you run BIND 9 for domain name services . It appears that if you put together a specially malformed rdata part of a request you can take the DNS server down, and that means a denial of service weapon. It appears to be being used in the wild already.  The news comes via the Internet Storm Center and takes us to an ISC Advisory for CVE-2013-4854. BIND 9 versions are all affected, except for BIND 9.6 and 9.6-ESV, but including BIND 9.7 and later. BIND 10 is unaffected. You should see updates from your repositories soon if you use a distro supplied BIND. If you roll your own, head to the ISC downloads page and get to work.

And if you don't have to worry about it, here's a name related song for you to enjoy.

Cuts off a bit sharpish but you can find the full version on Live Lounge 3.

Papal Indulgences - Tor, Peak+, Async C#, Android 4.3 and FAQs

• Want to run a Tor exit node - check your terms and conditions first. Tim Janik explains 

• Thats more like it - the Geeksphone Peak+ puts a little bit of muscle into a Firefox OS phone doubling the memory but not a lot else. It's no Edge, but then it's €149+taxes and you could have one in September. The change here is that this phone is for consumers rather than developers. 

• Xamarin shipped out their async support for C# 5.0. Asynchronicity is a powerful tool, but you do have to make the mindset jump to use it well or be forced into it by the nature of the language environment.

Music Break

• Waiting for Android 4.3 to land on your device ... here's the official What's New list. Feature I like? Pseudo Locales which are locals designed for English speakers to test their UIs in non-English fonts without making the content inaccessible and therefore untestable. Lots of other small improvements too, visible GPU profiling, notification listeners for context aware apps... 

• And finally... The Government Digital Service's Sarah Richards FAQs as an anti-user pattern.

Close to the Edge^H^Hit

The Ubuntu Edge project seems to be a worthy attempt to crowd-source a phone. The "Formula 1" analogy that Shuttleworth uses is broken though; Formula 1 cars are prestige platforms for transporting brands in front of television cameras at carefully regulated speeds. A better analogy would be the production-concepts that car makers put out, in runs of tens at best which contain a lot of new tech and ideas. 

The Edge specs are interesting enough, but not that remarkable - 3GB low power RAM chips are just going into production so 4GBs should be coming on stream early next year. 128GB SSDs are around now, though there'll have to be some squeezing done to get them in and quick; one assumes SSDs being used to move the levelling tech off the CPU and onto hardware but I'm not sure what this buys apart from a device which can run with standard desktop Linux filesystems. 

4 core processor with no other detail, not even architecture; well yes we have quad-cores now... in ARM and in ULV Intel chips (so I wouldn't assume the Edge is ARM yet) thats all possible though no talk of GPU leaves that all vague. 1280x720 display with good colour repro... easy enough. Sapphire glass display - hardly new and in the volumes being talked about, pretty doable, but expensive. 

And then there's the elephant in the room. The battery. The non-removable battery. The non-removable Silicon Anode battery. What is Silicon Anode? Well, your current generation of mobile phone battery uses a graphite anode and thats pretty much what sets how much juice you can squeeze into the battery. Silicon is more juice absorbing, so clever chemists have been working on making anodes of silicon. 

But there's a problem; silicon anode batteries are prone to swell and crack when being recharged. So there are a number of startups working on how to solve this problem and turning out iteratively improved versions of batteries as prototypes in early trials.  Right now, these batteries are only being produced on pilot lines and these are first generation partial silicon batteries. Second generation batteries are scheduled for 2014, but full silicon anode batteries are further out. 

So, the real bet on the Ubuntu Edge is the first generation, new technology battery. I'm not a betting man, but if specifications are subject to change, I'd be putting my money on that specification changing.

A $59 Billion Myth

For a licence compliance company, Black Duck can sure generate some real nonsense. Take for example their latest ... "Black Duck Unlocks $59B Opportunity for Enterprises Using Open Source"

Here we are told of the terrible number of projects out there that have no explicit licence. Fair enough, modern public repositories have the problem that people can put code up on them with no licence. Black Duck go on then to say there are often "embedded licences" though so if you know that they are, you can comply with the licences and thats how you can use the code because you are complying with the embedded licences. And so Black Duck software unlocks this software because it lets you comply.

DING DING DING.

So not Numberwang. The problem with this position is that it ignores the fact that the entire project did not have a licence on it. There may well be embedded licences but they (a) probably belong to exisiting standalone components and (b) only in some very particular cases would the embedded licence pull unlicensed code into a licensed form. This is like some sort of open source fracking process.

Now, Black Duck's backup position is probably "Ah but we can tell you when that is". To which I say, firstly it won't be very often, and secondly where's the probity in yanking unlicensed code off the net and working out that because component X is under license Y, then all the code is under licence Y.

Thirdly, the process shows a distinct lack of regard to the author of the unlicensed code,  gaming what possibly could have been an error or an accidental inclusion, to grab their code. There's this thing called email, it lets you contact people. Modern repositories also have ways of contacting the author. Hey, clone the project, add a license and send a pull request... the author will soon get the message.

But lets be blunt. The value of unlicensed code of unknown provenance on the net is $0. No magic wand is going to turn it into money. If you see an unlicensed repository, drop the repo owner a line, and point them at http://choosealicense.com/ or similar so they can get a better feel for licensing.

Coming back like I was never away

BAWOOP BLOG REACTIVATING BAWOOP

Must turn that alarm off.

Yes, it's back, Codepapacy, the old blog which went into disrepair and bitrottage while I was busy with The H. Well, no more – The H that is – and lots more me, me, me. STOP RUNNING AWAY. Come back. Sit down. Yes, I'll be handling this as gracefully as one man handles a Jaeger in Pacific Rim (not seen it? It's great; it takes all the stereotypes of Japanese anime/manga robot/monster movies and reblends them into the best robot/monster movie... sorry where was I)... anyway yes, handling this as gracefully as I can. 

Here I will be a little more opinionated. So if you are looking for a The H replacement, now you can RUN AWAY.

Ok. Ready. Here we go... oh hang on, there'll be some music too...

Ok. Now here we go.

Strangeness is.....

Blogger telling me this blog in "confirmed as in violation of our Terms of Service for: NONE. In accordance to these terms, we've removed the blog and the URL is no longer accessible."

As you can see, because of NONE, we are still here, but wouldn't it be nice if the folks at Blogger learnt about the "if" statement?

if violations==NONE

send "We've restored your blog mail"

There Blogger, I fixes it for you. Simples!

The H Handy Size - Help me test...

Just an experiment. This is a QR Code for "The H Handy Size" Android app. Do let me know if it works for you. The code is available on Google code and all hints are welcome.

Goodness, that long...

Goodness, has it been that long since I last posted? I've been kinda busy what with all the editor in chiefing at The H, I seem to have let things slip.

So, let's see what's on the agenda this week.....

1) Waiting for a new Mac Book Pro 17".... (Anyone want to buy a lovingly cared for aluminium Mac Book?)

2) Waiting for a Cusinart grill... Mmmm Bacon

3) Setting up Alfresco 3.2 which is out today, and writing some news about it

4) Going to Online Gaming High Scaling on Thursday

5) Looking forward to Charlie Brookers "You Have Been Watching" on Channel 4 tomorrow....

6) Deciding on something to write, software wise. I've been fiddling about with a "MST3K" library manager, but I think I might turn it into a general "What can I watch" application.

7) Writing something in a long quiet blog

8) Twittering @codepope

9) Oh, and the editor in chiefing thing....

Oh where was I....

Spent the morning fighting RS232 connections to the BeagleBoard. No success yet, but getting there. Updating the EEE PC 901's Ubuntu 8.10 Array.org kernel. Generally nerding about a bit. Which is nice.

A metaphor for free software?

I feel that this tale may serve as a useful metaphor for free software too.

And if you listen to Mark Watson makes the world substantially better... sing along... "Exemplum exemplum, an example from your own life, except in this case it's from a theme park employee, so it's probably a themeparkempluuuum". And if you don't, give it a go.

Ah Drugs Specials....

This just replaced the "Just Say No" song as the worst drugs special ever.

I want that one... big flash drives...

I want that one.... 64TB of flash, 64GB of cache... Mmmmm...

A Pondering....

For the people who think Linux should be referred to as GNU/Linux to properly credit the GNU software used in Linux distributions;

If the attribution of credit is so important, shouldn't the GPL have had an attribution clause?

And a supplementary ponder.... Why GNU/Linux and not Linux/GNU? Answer for that found at the gnu site... fair enough... now back to the primary ponder.

What I look for in a phone...

Oooh I said, a new release of OpenMoko OM2008.8 ....

I wonder..... Looks down page .... Ah Known Issues....

"GSM not working properly after x hours"

Ok... well that can be work....

"Can not make phone call after GSM on/off/on"

Right, well at least we got the source and....

"No Pin-Dialog is showing up and so GSM is not usable at all"

Oh for goodness sake... at least there's the Wifi...

"WiFi can only connect once"

..... Still maybe there's another distro for the OpenMoko eh?

Yes, I've been quiet.... There's a good reason...

You can see what I'm doing during the day by following Heise Online UK's Open Channel. Look out for some useful, interesting and possibly fun stuff about open source and the community around it coming up on there. And if you think I should be writing about something, drop me a mail on djwm [at] heise-online.co.uk.

It Strikes Me....

It strikes me that a phone that uses Linux inside but has locked down DRM is a far greater offence than say a phone with a proprietary OS and locked down DRM. I'm reading here about the motorola Linux based phones... But then I am also finding it very hard to track down info on how to develop for those phones. 95% of what I seem to be finding is how to unlock these phones... Which again strikes me with the thought that "hey, wasn't it also some sort of heinous offence to sell a locked phone too?"... Oh my head hurts with all these strikes....

Some people....

Some people(1) will do anything to justify getting their picture(2) out there...

(1) Ok, me...
(2) Or image that resembles the side of their head.

Well, That Worked

And it reminds me how really really neat the iPhone app store is.

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Trying Out Lifecast

Interesting idea, it seems to be a little multichannel diary which you can wire to multiple blogs (or not) which strikes me as simple and .... Well let's see if it posts this first shall we.

Geolocate this post

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