Congratulations to @Lakshmana who landed a new job and is starting today.

Thanks to @Digium for getting the word out. We just stumbled on this one...

https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1764325-other-online-it-forums

Also very cool that SW decided to feature it and promote it. Thanks to SW as well!

Softpedia reports on a new open source project that just came to light this past week. UbuntuBSD is an attempt to merge the Ubuntu ecosystem with the FreeBSD kernel, which does not use the much maligned SystemD. This is a very new project but could be very interesting. Use of the BSD kernel means that ZFS is available as a native filesystem (and is used by default) and XFCe is being used as the desktop. Downloads in ISO form are already available for those interested in checking things out.

Scale and Spiceworks are presenting Scale's Can Your Disaster Recovery Plan Cook the Bacon (aka the Waffle House Talk) as a webinar today at noon eastern / 11:00 am central time. @scottalanmiller will be guesting on this webinar to mirror the "jump in" anecdotes from the same Waffle House presentation given in Austin at SpiceWorld back in September.

Sign up and join Scale to find out if your critical data is bacon or sausage.

Congrats to @JeffReady on his new brewery: http://www.townepost.com/indiana/center-grove/centerpoint-brewing/

...It all began five years ago when Jon Robinson invited Argiris to his house to taste his homebrew beer. The fellow Rose-Hulman graduate was intrigued. The pair began crafting their own recipes and entering competitions. They were having fun and learning a lot, but when they took the Blue Ribbon at the Indiana State Fair in 2014 for their category they knew they had something special. They started kicking around the idea of opening a brewery and developed a business plan. That’s where Center Grove resident and fellow Rose-Hulman graduate Jeff Ready joined the team.....

MangoLassi and Unitrends would like to invite you to participate in a Full day all about Unitrends May 12, 2015

• @Minion-Queen and @scottalanmiller will be posting from SpiceWorld London about the launch of the new addition to Unitrends offerings.

• There will be questions posted by a couple Unitrends installation Engineers and they will be here to answer your questions as well

• There will be giveaways!

• Follow @Minion-Queen on twitter @theminionqueen for other pics and hilarity that happens at SpiceWorld!!

In Germany, a Linux kernel author and the Software Freedom Conservancy have sued hypervisor giant VMware over allegations that VMware has used copyrighted and GPL licensed Linux code belonging to Christoph Hellwig without securing a proper license nor meeting its obligations under the GPL (Gnu Public License v2.) This is an extremely serious lawsuit as the players involved are very large and the codebase in question is very valuable. In question is the VMware vmkernel, the company's likely most valuable technological asset. VMware asserts that it has done nothing wrong.

Under the terms of the GPL, if GPL code has been used in another product, that other product is, in turn, automatically licensed under the GPL. That means that VMware faces the potential scenario where the vmkernel, and therefore the majority of ESXi itself, is GPL'd making it open and free to the world and no longer under VMware's control. Linux, KVM and Xen, for example, would have unfettered access to use the code and merge projects.

The question will likely come down to whether or not the two parties can provide that code truly was or was not misappropriated. It is a common statement made about VMware that they have used Linux code in their products, but that claim is based on the misconception that the shell used on ESXi, which has no relationship to Linux, is Linux and therefore ESXi is Linux. That misconception is nothing more than that and is completely unrelated to this question of whether or not VMware has accidentally or intentionally used copyrighted, GPL'd code in their products.

Red Hat's new Fleet Commander system is designed to manage RHEL and Fedora desktops at scale. FC combines Cockpit and FreeIPA to give group policy like control to the RH ecosystem.

https://fleet-commander.org/

Zuckerberg wants Facebook to become online 'metaverse'

Mark Zuckerberg has laid out his vision to transform Facebook from a social media network into a “metaverse company” in the next five years.
A metaverse is an online world where people can game, work and communicate in a virtual environment, often using VR headsets. The Facebook CEO described it as “an embodied internet where instead of just viewing content - you are in it”. He told The Verge people shouldn't live through “small, glowing rectangles”. “That’s not really how people are made to interact,” he said, speaking of reliance on mobile phones. “A lot of the meetings that we have today, you’re looking at a grid of faces on a screen. That’s not how we process things either.”

Kaseya gets master decryptor to help customers still suffering from REvil attack

REvil ransomware struck as many as 1,500 networks, but a master key is now available.
Kaseya—the remote management software seller at the center of a ransomware operation that struck as many as 1,500 downstream networks—said it has obtained a decryptor that should successfully restore data encrypted during the Fourth of July weekend attack. Affiliates of REvil, one of the Internet’s most cutthroat ransomware groups, exploited a critical zero-day vulnerability in Miami, Florida-based Kaseya’s VSA remote management product. The vulnerability—which Kaseya was days away from patching—allowed the ransomware operators to compromise the networks of about 60 customers. From there, the extortionists infected as many as 1,500 networks that relied on the 60 customers for services.

Akamai Edge DNS outage brings down Playstation Network, Steam, others

Contrary to popular belief, it's not always DNS... but it is today.
A massive Internet outage today has downdetector.com covered in warnings for popular websites and services such as the PlayStation Network, Steam, Fidelity Investments, Airbnb, FedEx, LastPass, UPS, Amazon, and others. The root cause of the outage appears to be a failure in Akamai's Edge DNS Service. Its system status page reports that Akamai is aware of "an emerging issue with the Edge DNS service"—one downgraded to "Minor Service Outage" with no further explanation as of press time.

Covid: China rejects WHO plan for second phase of virus origin probe

China has rejected the next stage of a World Health Organization (WHO) plan to investigate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO wants to audit laboratories in the area the virus was first identified. But Zeng Yixin, deputy health minister, said this showed "disrespect for common sense and arrogance toward science". WHO experts said it was very unlikely the virus escaped from a Chinese lab, but the theory has endured. Investigators were able to visit Wuhan - the city where the virus was first detected in December 2019 - in January this year. But earlier this month WHO head Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus outlined the terms of the inquiry's next phase. This included looking at certain science research institutions.

California sues Activision Blizzard over alleged harassment

One of the world's largest game companies is being taken to court over an alleged "frat boy" culture that discriminates against women.
Activision Blizzard is accused of unequal pay, promoting men over women, and widespread sexual harassment. California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) is taking legal action against the company, following a two-year investigation. ctivision called the action "disgraceful and unprofessional". And it called the DFEH "unaccountable state bureaucrats".

China floods: 12 dead in Zhengzhou train and thousands evacuated in Henan

Twelve people have died after record-breaking rainfall flooded underground railway tunnels in China, leaving passengers trapped in rising waters.
Video shared on social media shows evening commuters just managing to keep their heads above water. Water is seen rushing onto platforms. More than 500 people were eventually rescued from the tunnels in Henan province, officials said. Days of rain have caused widespread damage and led to 200,000 evacuations. Above ground, roads have been turned into rivers, with cars and debris swept along in fast moving currents. A number of pedestrians have had to be rescued. More than a dozen cities in Henan province are affected. President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that there had been "significant loss of life and damage to property". Several dams and reservoirs have breached warning levels, and soldiers have been mobilised to divert rivers which have burst their banks. Flights and trains in many parts of Henan have also been suspended.

Zoom offers app store with team-building games

Zoom is integrating third-party apps into its video conferences, as it looks to stay ahead in the post-pandemic world.
It hopes that the addition of apps will "make meetings more engaging, more productive and actually even more fun". Zoom is betting on a future of hybrid working, and hoping to maintain its 300 million daily meeting participants. Experts say it is also keen to compete with rivals such as Microsoft Teams. Zoom already has a marketplace that has 1,500 apps, but they need to be downloaded and added to meetings separately. At launch, 50 apps will be available, including meeting planning app Asana and Dot Collector, which allows for real-time feedback and polling. In an interview with the BBC, Zoom's product lead for Apps, Ross Mayfield, explained how he saw apps being used in Zoom: "Using apps for things like taking notes, whiteboarding, logging action items and managing your tasks to make you more productive."

Jeff Bezos launches to space aboard New Shepard rocket ship

Billionaire Jeff Bezos blasted into space on Tuesday, in the first crewed flight of his rocket ship, New Shepard.
He was accompanied by Mark Bezos, his brother, Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pioneer of the space race, and an 18-year-old student. They travelled in a capsule with the biggest windows flown in space, offering stunning views of the Earth. All four passengers have now parachuted safely back to Earth after their 10-minute, 10-second trip. New Shepard, built by Bezos' company Blue Origin, is designed to serve the burgeoning market for space tourism. On this flight was the oldest person who has been to space - Ms Funk - and the youngest, student Oliver Daemen. The spacecraft lifted off at 14:12 BST (09:12 EDT) from a private launch site near Van Horn, Texas.

Apple under pressure over iPhone security after NSO spyware claims

Apple urged to work with rivals after alleged surveillance of journalists, activists.
Apple has come under pressure to collaborate with its Silicon Valley rivals to fend off the common threat of surveillance technology after a report alleged that NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used to target journalists and human rights activists. Amnesty International, which analyzed dozens of smartphones targeted by clients of NSO, said Apple’s marketing claims about its devices’ superior security and privacy had been “ripped apart” by the discovery of vulnerabilities in even the most recent versions of its iPhones and iOS software.

Oregon Bootleg Fire: Evacuations as largest US fire burns 300,000 acres

In the US state of Oregon, the nation's largest active wildfire has burned through more than 300,000 acres, prompting thousands of evacuations.
The Bootleg Fire, already among the biggest in the state's recent history, is one of more than 80 major blazes raging across 11 western states. Fed by hot temperatures and intense winds, the Bootleg has been burning since 6 July. In neighbouring Canada, heat waves have also fuelled hundreds of fires. Wildfires have torn through more than 1.1m acres in the US - mainly in western states - according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Climate change increases the risk of the hot, dry weather that is likely to fuel wildfires. The world has already warmed by about 1.2C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.