I'm sure you all will be a bit disappointed (I know I am) that there are no ascii screenshots in this weeks report. But let me make it up to you by telling you a story. I was at the FOSDEM in the year 2012 and I went to a nice workshop on sunday afternoon in the Virtualization Devroom. Renzo Davoli was the host of this workshop and he started with a little introductory talk to get everyone to agree on a common terminology first. He began by asking the question, what virtualization meant in the most general way. He defined the ability to virtualize a resource as the ability to freely and transparently control how someone (say a process) is interacting with said resource. So for example if you LD_PRELOAD a library to impersonate fopen(3) and friends, you have virtualized the filesystem (for some small values of virtualized). He then went on to discuss various methods of virtualization that are commonly available on Linux, not only full system virtualization solutions, but also all kinds of methods allowing a more fine-grained control over what resources are virtualized. Of course every method had its strengths and its weaknesses. Having seen Samuels talk about all the awesome things Hurd can do for virtualization I approached him with a question in the free discussion part of his workshop. I asked whether he would agree that once a resource is moved from the kernel to the userspace, the problem of virtualizing that resource is almost trivially solved, and he agreed. So I said that this was awesome, because then the trivial and elegant solution for all his virtualization (and tracing) needs are micro kernel operating systems, and he also agreed to that but (as far as I can recall) he mentioned that there is none that would meet his needs (I believe he is a computer science professor and heavily relies on virtualization techniques for his lab and for teaching purposes). And even though a microkernel operating systems has a cost (message passing instead of function calls for example) it also has its merits such as scaling better from a development point of view. Also, many cool features can emerge just from the design. For example think about the container support in Linux and how painfully long it took to make all the resources namespace aware (with one of the most critical, the user namespace being the most difficult one). On Hurd you get the same functionality for free. If you are curious, read Samuels awesome slides. So what have I done this week?

• procfs should ignore --no dev,exec,suid : http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2013-07/msg00076.html
• libnetfs does not respond properly to file_get_translator requests on nodes with a passive translator record: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2013-07/msg00148.html
• As the mtab translator is a translator of its own, there needs to be a way to bind it to /proc/mounts. I figured the easiest way would be to just serve a node with an appropriate passive translator record: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2013-07/msg00149.html
• There was no clean way to start the console-client. I added daemonizing support to the console-client and created an appropriate initscript: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2013-07/msg00165.html
• I also worked a lot on my mtab translator prototype: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-hurd/2013-07/msg00183.html

Next week I'm going to work on the two remaining sysvinit related issues. These are the only ones preventing me to come up with a clean patch series against the sysvinit package and I figured that it would be nice to propose such a series rather sooner than later so that I will have plenty of time to discuss any issues with the sysvinit maintainers. See you next week :)

John W. Dean wrote in insightful series of three articles for Findlaw about Authoritarian Conservatives [1]. In summary there are Authoritarian Followers who follow their leader blindly and Authoritarian Leaders who do whatever it takes to gain and maintain power. The Authoritarian mindset lends itself towards right-wing politics. Mick Ebeling gave an inspiring TED talk about his work developing a system to produce art that is controlled by eye movements [2]. The development work was started to support the quadriplegic graffiti artist TEMPT1. Mick s most noteworthy point is that all the hardware design and software are free so anyone can implement it without asking an insurance company or hospital (this is one of the few occasions when a TED speaker has received a standing ovation during a talk). The Eyewriter.org site has the designs and source which is licensed under the GPL [3]. Morgan Spurlock (who is famous for Supersize Me ) gave an amusing TED talk titled The Greatest TED Talk Ever Sold [4]. He provides some interesting information about the brand sponsorship process and his new movie The Greatest Movie Ever Sold . Ralph Langner gave an interesting TED talk about reverse-engineering the Stuxnet worm and discovering that it was targetted at the Iranian nuclear program [5]. The fact that the Stuxnet environment could be turned to other uses such as disrupting power plants is a great concern, particularly as it has special code to prevent automatic safety systems from activating. Angela Belcher gave an interesting TED talk about using nature to grow batteries [6]. She is evolving and engineering viruses to manufacture parts of batteries and assemble them, the aim is to scale up the process to manufacture batteries for the Prius and other large devices at room temperature with no toxic materials. She is also working on biological methods of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen which has the obvious potential for fuel-cell power and also solar PV cells. As an aside she mentions giving a copy of the Periodic Table to Barack Obama and he told her that he will look at it periodically . Bruce Schnier gave a good overview of the issues related to human perceptions of security in his TED talk about The Security Mirage [7]. There isn t much new in that for people who have been doing computer work but it s good to have an overview of lots of issues. TED has an interesting interview with Gerry Douglas about his work developing touch-screen computer systems for processing medical data in Malawi [8]. This is worth reading by everyone who is involved in software design, many of the things that he has done go against traditional design methods. Mike Matas gave an interesting demo at TED of the first proper digital book [9]. The book is by Al Gore and is run on the iPad/iPhone platform (hopefully they will have an Android version soon). His company is in the business of licensing software for creating digital books. The demonstration featured a mixture of pictures, video, audio, and maps with the pinch interface to move them around. Dr Sommers of Tufts University wrote an interesting post for Psychology Today titled Why it s Never About Race [10]. It seems that there are lots of patterns of people being treated differently on the basis of race but for every specific case no-one wants to believe that racial bias was involved. The Register has an amusing article about what might have happened if Kate had left Prince William at the altar [11]. Fiorenzo Omenetto gave an interesting TED talk about synthetic silk [12]. He is working on developing artificial fibers and solids based on the same proteins as silk which can be used for storing information (DVDs and holograms), medical implants (which can be re-absorbed into the body and which don t trigger an immune response), and cups among other things. Maybe my next tie will have a no pupae were harmed in the production notice. ;) The CDC has released a guide to preparing for a Zombie apocalypse [13], while it s unlikely that Zombies will attack, the same suggestions will help people prepare for the other medical emergencies that involve the CDC. Salon has an interesting article by Glenn Greenwald who interviewed Benjamin Ferencz about aggressive warfare [14]. Benjamin was a prosecutor for war crimes at Nuremberg after WW2 and compares the US actions since 9-11 with what was deemed to be illegal by the standards of WW2. Eli Pariser gave an interesting TED talk about Online Filter Bubbles [15]. He claims that services such as Facebook and Google should give more of a mixture of results rather than targetting for what people want. The problem with this idea is that presenting links that someone doesn t want to click doesn t do any good. It s not as if the filter bubble effect relies on modern media or can be easily solved. Terry Moore gave a TED talk about how to tie shoelaces [16]. Basically he advocates using a doubly-slipped Reef Knot instead of a doubly-slipped Granny Knot. Now I just need to figure out how to tie a doubly-slipped Reef Knot quickly and reliably. Terry uses this as a mathaphor for other ways in which one might habitually do something in a non-optimal way.

• [1] http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20070925.html
• [2] http://www.ted.com/talks/mick_ebeling_the_invention_that_unlocked_a_locked_in_artist.html
• [3] http://www.eyewriter.org/developer/
• [4] http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html
• [5] http://www.ted.com/talks/ralph_langner_cracking_stuxnet_a_21st_century_cyberweapon.html
• [6] http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_belcher_using_nature_to_grow_batteries.html
• [7] http://www.ted.com/talks/bruce_schneier.html
• [8] http://blog.ted.com/2011/04/29/fellows-friday-with-gerry-douglas/
• [9] http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_matas.html
• [10] http://www.psychologytoday.com/collections/201104/happy-birth-certificate-mr-president/why-its-never-about-race
• [11] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/28/operation_pumpkin/
• [12] http://www.ted.com/talks/fiorenzo_omenetto_silk_the_ancient_material_of_the_future.html
• [13] http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp
• [14] http://www.salon.com/news/osama_bin_laden/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/05/13/nuremberg
• [15] http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles.html
• [16] http://www.ted.com/talks/terry_moore_how_to_tie_your_shoes.html

lorenzo wrote:

"This is a comprehensive report - right down to the sugar free Mintos. I'm going to an AGM next week - so maybe i should do something in this interesting vein instead of a four line summary."

michael harriott wrote:

"Cheers for this. I was also at the AGM. Your report is very conprehensive. Do you mind if i create a link from my blog to yours.?"

Of course you can link here. Let me know if you put something relevant on your site, or spot something on another site and I'll link to it.

Before anything else: Please excuse some grammatical mistakes I've made in this post. You should understand the topic is really upsetting, and typing while searching for links, listening to news, and gathering the basic information for a five month old conflict is not exactly compatible with me spewing out proper English ;-)
Just to re-state the obvious: Mexico is, once again, on fire. This posting is mainly written with the Debian people in mind - An important number of them, after Debconf 6, went to visit Oaxaca - In late May, during the first weeks of this incredible, stupid and scary conflict we are now facing.
I've written in my blog every now and then about our political situation. Many of us had high hopes on our current government. We thought that the authoritarian regimes were a thing of the past, we hoped for real democracy, we hoped for a government that would honor human rights and solve long-standing topics for our society - Yes, we all knew president Fox came from a right-wing party, and didn't expect much advance in the social agenda -which many of us perceive as the real problem in Mexico- but still, hoped for openness and reconciliation with the past.
I won't repeat what I've extensively said over and over - The thing is, Fox's government continues to amaze us with its stupidity, with its near-sightedness, with its hypocresy. Fox's term is really close to an end - In one more month, the govt. will change hands to the first de-facto president since Carlos Salinas (going over another story we hoped to forget).
As some of you wittnessed, there was a popular protest taking place mainly in Oaxaca - Basically, the State's public elementary school teachers demanding better payment for their work. Such a protest is already a common occurrence in Mexico, as public school teachers are among the worstly paid workers (no wonder, then, our country is still undeveloped - Make public education worse, and you have the warranty of an unprepared, ignorant population). The teachers went on strike in early May, briefly returned to classes on late June to properly close the 2005-2006 lective year, but went back on strike afterwards.
Of course, the local government (Mexico is a federative republic, each state is autonomous and makes decisions independently) took a very long time to act - and acted the worst way possible: By sending policemen to forcefully throw the teachers from their camps in the downtown streets, with no negotiation, no answer, not a drop of common sense.
That led to the formation of the (pleonasmicaly named) APPO: Popular Assembly of Oaxaca's People - A group of people, partly formed by the unhappy teachers, mainly demanding the Oaxaca state governor to step down, after he proved he is inept for his office. And yes, I'm oversimplifying here, but I don't want to dig too much - There is fortunately plenty of available information in this regard.
That happened over four months ago. APPO kept control of the city. Nobody denies that this has caused Oaxaca, a city that attracts national and international tourism like few others in the country, a great deal of economic damage - Oaxacan people are, however, still sympathetic to APPO's demands. Governor Ulises Ruiz (from PRI, the party that ruled the country for over 70 years) has not been able to be seen in public in his state for some months already. The legislative power has also been unable to work properly, and the judicial power is half-dead, doing only its most basic tasks. Renowned jurists, such as Miguel ngel Granados Chapa, have repeatedly stated that this is enough for the Federal Senate to declare the governing powers in Oaxaca have disappeared - This would put an end to the conflict, leading to immediate elections, but the Senate has denied taking this course of action. Not only that, but the Federal government took the command of the local security forces, tacitly recognizing the local government is unable to coherently excersise their authority. After almost five months, last week they issued an unanymous -but mild- exhort, asking Ulises Ruiz to consider stepping down.
So far, 15 people have been killed in the different represive actions taken, first by the local police under local command, later by the local police under federal command, and starting last week, by the federal police. Today, it seems the army is getting in the conflict as well, despite promises of not doing so by the federal authorities - Of course, they have become masters in the art of breaking promises.
Why is the federal government upholding Ulises Ruiz? Simple: After the undeniable electoral fraud we had some months ago, there are too many indicatives pointing out that our (supposedly) elected president Felipe Calder n (FeCal, as he is better known as) will have a hard time becoming the president, and many people doubt he will be able to hold the authority for the six years. So far, he has shown no better aptitude as a statesman than Vicente Fox: Instead of boldly facing the claims of fraud, he just chickened out and has spent many months hiding from the public, appearing only for selected, friendly audiences. For many months already we have heard "Ulises ya cay , le sigue Calder n" (Ulises has fallen, Calder n is next). This country has not been so badly shaken in decades - Of course, Great Statesman Vicente Fox insists the country is in peace and there are no red spots. Fox even was stupid/blind enough to state that the problems in Oaxaca would be dealt with easily and successfully, just as the problems in Chiapas and Atenco were doing his term. During Fox's campaign, he promised to solve the centuries-old Chiapas problem (that resulted in the EZLN uprising in 1994) in just 15 minutes - He just has not had time to do so. Atenco? Yes, in 2002 an angry people made him step back from the most important project of his term (a new airport for Mexico City). In May 2006, Atenco sprang again to the news because of a massive repression - I'm not going into details on Atenco right now, as it would be off-topic, but you can look at my article in FeCal.org.mx or watch a very strong video by Canal Seis de Julio (both in Spanish only) for further details.
Last Friday, however, something was different. In a repressive action, a USA citizen, the Indymedia reporter and cameraman Brad Will was killed by a paramilitary group. Even more, he was killed while doing his work, and we can clearly see this evidence on his last tape. Of course, the US ambassador issued a warning, asking the US citizens not to go to Oaxaca. And, as Lorenzo Mayer says, hay de muertos and muertos - There are different categories of dead people. A highly visible US citizen is more important than the other 14 dead Mexicans, and now the Federal Preventive Police is clashing in Oaxaca.
What should be shocking, but is not so much to those of us who know this beaten country, is the attitude of the authority when taking the city. After five months of occupation, the Oaxacan people have got used to living with APPO - be it for good or for bad. Tourism has diminished, but the people's living sources have not been attacked. Of course, as soon as the Federal Police took the downtown areas, all sorts of reports of looting have been reported. The policemen are robbing even sodas and chips, and up to TVs and microwaves. As many people state, this is a very Kafkian country.
Of course, we don't know what will come next. Most of the city has been "freed", and the APPO is holding at the University. The University is autonomous, and the PFP commands have promised not to break its autonomy - but we don't believe that. There are fights very close to the University. The Rector himself spoke a couple of hours ago at Radio Universidad, the main broadcasting point for real news on this subject (I am following on the news thanks to KeHuelga, 102.9MHz FM in Southern Mexico City, or at their webpage, from where they link to many other underground or Internet radio stations joining in the broadcast), and the reports are dramatic. Dramatic, as well, is the way all of the commercial news sources are ignoring the facts.
I want to keep you updated, as one of the very few reasons things are not worse is the public opinion and, even more, the international pressure. I'm sorry I'm not giving more links right now, but I will soon. I don't want, of course, to flood people that read my blog through the different syndications with a technical profile, so updates via my blog will be quite sparse. If you can read Spanish, we have posted many articles at FeCal, and many other individual sites are also joining in. A couple of links, and I'm off for now.

• APPO main site
• Spanish Wikipedia article on APPO
• La Hora del Pueblo
• Several videos in this regard in YouTube
• Centro de Medios Libres M xico
• Sendero del Peje

Yesterday was the international Software Freedom Day, and the Linux Accra User Group, which I just found out about last week, held a small expo in the "India-Ghana Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in Information and Communications Technology". On the program was a keynote speech by the group members, introducing the concept of Free Software, an exhibition of Linux installations and some programs as well as the showing of the first Open Source movie, blender-made movie "Elephants Dream" and its making-of.What I did not expect at such a meeting would be such a Linux guru: Swedish guy, who was an Amiga fan but had to start using PCs in November 1991(!) and looked for an operating systen, heard of Linux and used it since then. For all those newbies as myself: That was when "Linux From Scratch" did not exist, but you had to do it that way anyways, since there were no distributions. He has been living in Ghana vor 10 years now, bound by a family, the warm weather and by a job where he get's paid to do OpenSource development. Envy, anyone? Read more about him on his recently opened blog.
Someone already uploaded his pictures of the event, my pictures will be uploaded in a short while.In other news: At the College in Tema, where I am working at the moment, we agreed on installing Linux on the library computers to let the students have a shot at it, if they want, and after that the enrollment in the regular labs will be discussed. I shall also give an introction lesson to the IT teachers so that they can help a student during class, should he try to use Linux.

Just in case you missed it before…Fernando Herrera and Lorenzo Gil came up with a lovely bit of code that allows the parts of the GNOME experience written in Python to send traces via bug-buddy when something goes wrong. Pessulus will soon have this and i’m working on doing it for Deskbar. Update: Forgot the link to the code…bug-buddy-integration.py.