Keeping Tech Skills Up to Date From Anywhere, Anytime

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March 25, 2020

In a world where teams are distributed around the country, if not the world, it becomes difficult and expensive to conduct training in person. In addition to the instructor and materials fees, you have to account for travel expenses and the time employees will not be working both for travel and participation in the course. This is time consuming and cost prohibitive enough in normal times, but essentially impossible during periods of travel bans like right now.

Thankfully, the same technology enabling distributed work is also making it easier for teams to keep their tech skills up to date from anywhere. Modern training delivery and testing methods, including self-paced eLearning, instructor-led virtual courses and remotely proctored exams, mean anyone with a computer and stable internet connection can participate in training and certification activities from the comfort of their own home or remote work location.

To help workers working remotely – whether temporarily or on a full-time basis – stay up to speed on the latest advancements in open source tech, the Linux Foundation is offering 30% off all courses and certification exams purchased through April 7 by using code ANYWHERE30 at checkout. This applies to both self-paced eLearning and instructor-led virtual courses. Our goal is to help as many professionals become qualified in open source software as possible by lowering the barriers to entry. We also have nearly two dozen completely free training courses.

[Source: Linux Foundation Training]

Singapore government to open source contact-tracing protocol

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 24, 2020

Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) is contributing the source codes of the protocol that powers the TraceTogther contact-tracing app to the open source community to help stem the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Launched on 20 March 2020, TraceTogether works by exchanging short-distance Bluetooth signals between phones to detect other participating users in close proximity using the BlueTrace protocol developed by GovTech.

The development team behind the protocol said in its manifesto that mobile apps and wearable devices that deploy the BlueTrace protocol will be able to blend decentralised and centralised models of contact tracing.

[Source: ComputerWeekly.com]

Poland-based VentilAid project 3D prints open-source ventilator

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 24, 2020

Engineers and designers from Poland-based Urbicum have banded together to launch the VentilAid project, an effort to design an open-source ventilator which can be reproduced using a 3D printer and an assembly of basic, easily accessible parts. The open-source ventilator is being designed to help medical professionals in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic in cases where more traditional hospital resources are limited or exhausted.

“We are facing a serious threat due to COVID-19,” the VentilAid team writes on its website. “Most of the countries are suffering severe shortage of medical equipment, that cannot be produced and delivered in a short time. Ventilators are essential to keep breathing when faced with the complications of COVID-19.”

[Source: 3DPMN]

Microsoft Defender for Linux is coming. This is what you need to know

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 24, 2020

When Defender came to macOS as well as Windows, Microsoft announced that the name of the software was changing, from Windows Defender to Microsoft Defender. Hidden in the presentation was a hint about the future: a Linux laptop with a penguin sticker on. Now Microsoft Defender ATP for Linux in is in public preview for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7+, CentOS Linux 7+, Ubuntu 16 LTS or higher, SLES 12+, Debian 9+, and Oracle Enterprise Linux 7. But what does it actually protect those OSes from?

Microsoft already has Linux malware detection in the Defender agents on Windows and Mac, because files get moved from one device to another and you want to catch malware wherever it is — ideally before it gets onto a vulnerable system. If you’re using WSL, Defender already protects you against threats like infected npm packages that try to install cryptominers.

[Source: TechRepublic]

Habana Labs Preps More Linux Code For Their AI Accelerators With The 5.7 Kernel

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 24, 2020

Habana Labs, the AI accelerator start-up being acquired by Intel, has more driver improvements on tap for Linux 5.7.

Habana Labs has been a good open-source supporter with punctually working on their mainline Linux driver enablement for their products. Their upstream Linux driver work started off at the start of 2019 with their for their Goya inference accelerator and increasing work on their Gaudi AI training product. They have been aiming to land their Gaudi enablement in Linux 5.7~5.8 but now it’s looking like that will be the latter kernel if not longer.

For Linux 5.7 is more work on prepping their driver for Gaudi and future products but for now are not supported.

[Source: Phoronix]

Linus Torvalds Announces New Linux Kernel 5.6 Release Candidate

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 24, 2020

Linus Torvalds has just announced a new Linux kernel 5.6 release candidate at a time when the world is in lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. Torvalds explains that Linux kernel version 5.6-rc7 is actually “pretty small,” adding that this is also likely the effect of the COVID-19 which is keeping everyone at home focusing on other stuff.

“Nothing really stands out, it’s all pretty small. I’m going to be optimistic, and say that it’s because we’re nicely on track for a normal calm release, but obviously it may be partly because everybody is distracted by virus worries. But I haven’t seen anything that looks hugely worrisome on the kernel side,” Torvalds explains.

[Source: Softpedia News]

Linux 5.7 To Improve Spreading Of Utilization, Other Scheduler Work

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 23, 2020

More improvements were queued in recent days to sched/core of CPU scheduler improvements on the table for the forthcoming Linux 5.7 kernel cycle.

One of the main patches to land was the work we talked about earlier this month for improved/faster spreading of CPU utilization. The change in the load balancing code is about ensuring there are pending tasks to pull otherwise the load balance will fail and further delay the spreading of system load. With the change now queued in sched/core, Linaro developer Vincent Guittot found that the average time for sysbench dropped slightly but the average peak time was a great deal less going from 21ms to 10ms while the absolute peak of 41ms to 21ms.

[Source: Phoronix]

Purism Says Its Linux Laptops Aren’t Affected by the Latest Intel Vulnerability

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 23, 2020

Intel vulnerabilities are slowly but surely becoming something that’s very common nowadays, with researchers recently coming across a new issue that could allow a malicious actor to extract the hardware signing keys from a computer.

Needless to say, the security flaw, which is tracked as CVE-2019-0090, is worrying for everyone whose devices might be impacted, especially as the number of exploits launched by attackers with local access could grow in the short term. But if you’re using a Librem Linux laptop launched by Purism, you’re perfectly safe, as the company says its implementation of the Intel ME doesn’t allow an attacker to exploit the flaw on its Intel-based computers.

[Source: Softpedia News]

Tracking the real US coronavirus testing numbers with open source

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 23, 2020

Want to know something scary? We really don’t even know how many people have been tested for the coronavirus, never mind how many have it. Despite the Trump administration’s promise of millions of tests and President Donald Trump’s claims that anyone can get tested for COVID-19, it’s clear there’s still not enough tests available.

Fortunately, researchers and Atlantic writers are pulling together data from numerous sources and using open-source software to give us the most accurate possible numbers on those tested, those found to be ill, and those who haven’t gotten it.

Isn’t this the job of the gutted Centers for Disease Control (CDC)? Yes. But, with insufficient resources, thanks to Trump’s CDC budget cuts, it’s no longer trying.

[Source: ZDNet]

Best Android tablet for 2020

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Swapnil Bhartiya

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March 23, 2020

With many tablet buyers opting for Apple iPads, the Android tablet market isn’t in the best place. Fewer and fewer manufacturers even make them now. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few good Android tablets available that try their best to rival the iPad.

While some might question the sanity of a potential Android tablet buyer, a good one can fulfill a range of tasks for any professional or casual need and, in some cases, do things an iPad or iPad Air still can’t, such as work with a touchpad or mouse. Plus, if you’re already invested in Android apps, you won’t have to buy them again for iOS. Whether you’re looking for an inexpensive device for media consumption or a possible laptop substitution, there are options worth exploring. We did the research, taking into consideration everything from screen size to battery life to ease of use — basically, all the factors that go into a great tablet. Here are our picks for the best android tablet out there.

[Source: CNET]