Tag: stephen kelley

This week’s links involve a plethora of technology updates and some geek and movie culture.

Unix

• Fedora 20 Released (LXer): Carla Schroder talks about the new release of the OS sponsored by Red Hat.  What’s interesting to note is the improved support for the ARM architecture.
• Steam OS Review (Muktware): Swapnil Bharttiya takes a look at Valve’s new OS, currently in beta.
• HP Chromebook 11 Chargers Recalled (MaximumPC): While Chrome OS can be seen as stable, the hardware can be another matter.  Certain chargers for HP’s Chromebook 11 are overheating and as a result have been recalled.

Overlooked Pop Culture

• Lords of Salem SUCKED!! (Promises Are Kept): Mitchell Brown offers his take on Rob Zombie’s latest film.
• The Stone Tape, a 1972 film, reviewed (An American View of British Science Fiction): Stephen Kelley takes a look at a 1972 film from Nigel Kneale.  This is apparently the final script accepted by the BBC before he went to ITV.
• Tone Deaf NSA (Foreign Policy Magazine): This article offers insight into the thinking of those who work for the NSA.

As the holiday sales season kicks into high gear, we learn about some cool things in the technology sphere as well as an update in regards to an earlier podcast episode.

Hopefully, this week’s links will help blast things off for the most intense part of the year.  For those who are studying for finals in college and/or going through finals week, we at The *Nixed Report wish you all the best of luck.  Happy studies.

Unix

• iBuyPower plans to put out their own Steam Machine (The Verge):  The current prototype has a 500 GB hard drive, multicore AMD CPU, a discrete Radeon R9 270 graphics card, Wifi, Bluetooth, and Valve’s Steam Controller.
• The City of Munich Has Walked Away From Microsoft (TechRepublic): An entire German city has walked away from Microsoft and is relying on free and open source software instead.  In the process, the city discovered that their IT infrastructure also needed an overhaul.
• Malware can spread via rogue networks utilizing the sound system of an OS for transmission, but Linux-based systems may already have a defense against it (Journal of Communications): Research done by Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz indicates that creating a rogue mesh network may serve as an opportunity to spread malware in unexpected ways.  As it turns out, the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) and Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Audio Plugin API (LADSPA) may already have the ability to defend against such attacks via configuration of audio filters.  Yet another reason why Linux-based systems may be more secure than solutions from Microsoft.

Overlooked Pop Culture

• Bitcoin theft occurs in the dark web yet again (Layfield Report): Stephen Kelley talks about Sheep Marketplace and how bitcoins have been stolen from individual participants.  Though the marketplace has claimed that emergency procedures were in place to return the remainder of bitcoins to users, Kelley speculates as to whether it was a ruse by the site operators.
• Government chemist tampered with evidence in 40,000 cases (Filming Cops): Though this item of news isn’t entirely new, it’s here to serve as a reminder that though the justice system in the U.S. is by far among the most sophisticated, it doesn’t guarantee that cases will be 100% accurate, especially when evidence is altered.
• Dragon Con co-founder Ed Kramer Avoids Prison (The Atlanta-Journal Constitution): He will serve the remainder of five years confinement under house arrest.  For the remainder of his 20 year sentence, he’ll be on probation and must register as a sex offender for life.  He also has to pay $100,000 USD in restitution to the three individuals who claimed he molested and abused.  Furthermore, it appears that he will no longer profit from the Dragon Con convention.

Welcome back to Wednesday Weekly Links, where we scour the Internet and other sources for news items that are often overlooked.  This week, we focus on innovation in computer software and a change at a major software company as well as pro wrestling, a government agency, and a really strange 911 call.

Unix

• Microsoft Drops Reward and Curve System (MaximumPC): Microsoft is scrapping the curve system, because it caused a bit of tension between employees.  Emphasis is going to be placed on team work and employee growth and development.
• Fedora 20 Goes Beta (ZDNet): Nicknamed “Heisenbug,” the beta release of version 20 of Red Hat’s community oriented operating system brings enhancements to virtualization and clouds, updated development software, GNOME 3.10, and an added emphasis on the ARM architecture.  Hat tip to Steven J. Vaughn-Nicols
• More AMD Patches Released (Phoronix): Those who follow hardware-based encryption solutions and use Linux may be jumping for joy at this.  AMD has released drivers for a Cryptographic Coprocessor.  A variety of encryption standards is supported through said driver including SHA and AES among others.  Hat tip to Michael Larabel.

Overlooked Pop Culture

• US Postal Service Bailed Out…. by Amazon? (Layfield Report): Amazon has made an arrangement with the US Postal Service for their Prime customers in time for the holiday season.  In New York City and Los Angeles, Sunday delivery of packages will soon be possible (with plans to expand to other areas).  Hat tip to Stephen Kelley.
• 911 Called Over Snoring Partner (The Smoking Gun): A Wisconsin man called 911 due to a woman snoring too loudly in his bed.  It turned out that she had sleep apnea, and he was advised that it wasn’t a police matter.
• Buff Bagwell Speaks on Different Issues in Terms of Pro Wrestling (24 Wrestling): Bagwell was interviewed about a variety of topics including his brief run in WWE.  He acknowledged that the match between himself and Booker T was a horrible idea and both were booed out of the arena.

Welcome back to The *Nixed Report.  After encountering spam issues with e107, the decision was made to go back to WordPress.  The site will always be changing, but the core of it is done.

Podcast Generator is being used for the podcast feed from here on out.  All the episodes are archived and available in that feed, so anyone will be able to catch up on previously missed episodes.

The Distro Journey series will be getting better due to the acquisition of more hardware, thus allowing for more well rounded reviews of different operating systems.

Finally, the previous co-hosts of the podcast and I have parted ways due to creative differences.  Steven Tompkins is the new co-host of the podcast and Stephen Kelley has returned.  Tompkins has a background in technology and gadgets, which will immensely help the show.

I want to end by saying thank you for visiting the site.  There will be more content in the coming days.  For now, you may feel free to check out our podcast as well as our social networking links in the left margin.

Remember to entertain yourself, educate yourself, and empower yourself.

Thomas Holbrook II

Founder and Editor in Chief