Steam for Linux Beta Survey Is Out

Lately, Valve Software, the vendor for steam has been showing lots of interest to develop games for linux platforms and offer linux users one of the best gaming experiences. Valve has today announced its survey for steam for linux beta.

Valve Software writes: We're looking for Linux gamers to install and test our new Steam for Linux client. We are primarily interested in experienced Linux users.



In order to take the survey, you need to first login with your Steam account to link your response with your Steam ID. Once you are ready for beta testing, you can login from this link. 1000 steam users will be chosen based upon the responses in the survey.

Steam community recently got its dedicated linux section and good for us, all these signs seem to indicate that Valve is trying to extend its market over the linux platform.


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Ubuntu Tweak Development Will Continue

Three days ago, Ubuntu Tweak developer Tualatrix had posted a blog post mentioning that the Ubuntu Tweak will no longer be developed but he has now changed his mind and has decided to continue the development because of support he received.

The developer writes
You made me know that Ubuntu Tweak is still valuable, and as the first software project I made 5 years ago, it is just like my baby, I don’t really want to give up the development.

and thanks all the good people who left the message for him and forked the app in github.

The blog post also mentions
Back to 5 years ago, I developed it just because of my practice on Linux programming, I felt freedom when I make things on Linux (Although I didn’t have developing experience on Windows and Mac then). But now I don’t feel any freedom about developing this software any more. The initial motivation is changed, and I’m still looking for new motivation.

Overall, he is not too satisfied with his current overload for working on this personal project while still managing time for his job and personal life.

Anyway, Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1 is out and you can download from PPA.

PPA DEB link

Release Notes


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Pinkie Pie Wins $60K In Pwnium2

The teenage hacker who goes by the handle "Pinkie Pie" once again successfully exploited the google chrome browser in the Pwnium 2 event held in HITB2012 conference in Kuala Luampur. With the goal to reward the exceptional vulnerability researchers, Google Chromium team had started Pwnium earlier this year and this is the second installment of Pwnium.

Google software engineer Chris Evans writes in a blog post:

" We’re happy to confirm that we received a valid exploit from returning pwner, Pinkie Pie. This pwn relies on a WebKit Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) compromise to exploit the renderer process and a second bug in the IPC layer to escape the Chrome sandbox. Since this exploit depends entirely on bugs within Chrome to achieve code execution, it qualifies for our highest award level as a “full Chrome exploit,” a $60,000 prize and free Chromebook. "

Chromium team has already released the patched and updated google chrome in less than 10 hours after the exploit was confirmed. The Stable channel has been updated to 22.0.1229.94 for Windows, Mac, and Linux which contains the fix for the security exploit discovered by Pinkie Pie


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Keccak Wins The SHA-3 Competition

After five years of competition, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the winner of SHA-3 competition. The Keccak has been selected as the standard for SHA-3 algorithm among the 64 entries made for SHA-3 cryptographic algorithm announced by NIST back in November 2, 2007.

After three rounds of competitions, the finalists were five hash algorithms. On December 9, 2010, NIST announced five third-round candidates – BLAKE, Grøstl, JH, Keccak and Skein, to enter the final round of the competition. And, the winner is Keccak.

Keccak was designed by a team of cryptographers from Belgium and Italy, they are:

• Guido Bertoni (Italy) of STMicroelectronics,
• Joan Daemen (Belgium) of STMicroelectronics,
• Michaël Peeters (Belgium) of NXP Semiconductors,
• Gilles Van Assche (Belgium) of STMicroelectronics.

The NIST team praised the Keccak algorithm for its many admirable qualities, including its elegant design and its ability to run well on many different computing devices. The clarity of Keccak’s construction lends itself to easy analysis, and Keccak has higher performance in hardware implementations than SHA-2 or any of the other finalists.

“Keccak has the added advantage of not being vulnerable in the same ways SHA-2 might be,” says NIST computer security expert Tim Polk. “An attack that could work on SHA-2 most likely would not work on Keccak because the two algorithms are designed so differently.”

Though SHA-2 is still considered to be still secure enough for general usage, SHA-3 is thought to provide a new security tool for system and protocol designers, and that may create opportunities for security in networks that did not exist before.

If you are interested in quick summary about the pseudocode of Keccak, you can read the summary of Keccak.


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Mozilla Announces First Beta Release Of Persona

Persona is finally ready for use. Today, Mozilla is going to announce the first public beta release of Persona, a login management system that eliminates per-site passwords in websites while being safe, secure and easy to use. Mozilla Persona is a completely decentralized and secure authentication system for the web based on the open BrowserID protocol. To get started with Mozilla Persona, you'll have to signup here. FYI, Persona was first introduced as BrowserID.

Persona is now ready to use for authentication and will be available from today to the public as the first beta release. It works in all major smartphone, tablet, and desktop browsers and the user experience has been thoroughly reviewed and polished.

Available in more than 25 languages, Persona does not need any API keys and it will always remain free. Persona is an open source project and you can easily use persona with your site. Persona is safe, secure, and built on top of public key cryptography. Instead of a password, the user's browser generates a cryptographic "identity assertion" that expires after a few minutes and is only valid on a single site. Because there are no site-specific passwords, websites using Persona don't have to worry about securely storing or potentially losing a password database.

The sites such as OpenPhoto and Times Crossword are already using Mozilla Persona in their websites.

Persona is built upon BrowserID protocol. Once popular browser vendors implement BrowserID, they will no longer need to rely on Mozilla to log in. You can easily integrate Persona in few minutes. Persona is already getting integrated in different applications.

Lets see how successful will be Mozilla Persona, its success depends upon the adoption by websites and applications and then the subsequent use by the users.

Want to read more?

Announcing the Beta release of Persona

Mozilla Persona Documentation

New API for Persona


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Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 2 Released

The ubuntu developers have just released the Beta 2 of Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal which gives the preview of the next version of ubuntu. The final ubuntu 12.10 release is scheduled for 18^th October this year. The Beta 2 release is intended to give the preview of how the final release of Quantal Quetzal will be like. The previous beta 1 release was released on 6^th September.

As always, Ubuntu has chosen the Quetzal as codename for Ubuntu 12.10. According to Wikipedia, Quetzals are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests and woodlands, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus Pharomachrus being exclusively Neotropical, while the single Euptilotis species is almost entirely restricted to western Mexico.

Like we heard earlier, Ubuntu 12.10 releases are no longer available as Live CD.

Download Quantal Quetzal 12.10 Beta 2 Release


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Things To Do On The Ocassion Of Software Freedom Day

If you are FOSS enthusiast then you are possibly seeking for some ideas to celebrate Software Freedom Day in different way. I have come up with some ideas I could think of doing on the ocassion of software freedom day today.

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is annually celebrated on the third saturday of September with the aim of increasing awareness of Free Software and its virtues, and encouraging its use. SFD was first observed in 28^th of August back in 2004 and since 2006, it is observed on the 3^rd saturday of september. Software Freedom International acts as the central legal body for organizing software freedom day and each local team is responsible for organizing the local chapters of Software Freedom Day.

Software Freedom Day is not just about attending an event that is organized locally in your area. Rather, you can do anything that hits your mind to celebrate software freedom day. Below are some of the ideas in my mind.

• Attend local SFD events
You can attend the local SFD events being organized today. You can find the local events through SFD 2012 events map. Locate the nearby event and attend it. Maybe you will find someone to discuss with :)


• Listen to the SFD and other FOSS songs
Download the SFD song or FSF song on your favorite music gadget and listen to them the whole day. You can also listen the musics at MUSOpen.org.


• Listen to the free audio and video speeches from FSF and GNU
You can listen to several audio and video speeches related to the free software foundation and GNU movements which are available at audio-video.gnu.org. Quite a good way to pass the time while getting to know about FSF, GNU and related events.


• Watch some open source movies and documentaries
You can download and watch the open-source or free-content films for time pass. You can also watch the movies and documentaries. Some of them are Revolution OS, Freedom Fry, The Codebreakers, Code Rush, Still This 1, Still This 2, The Code, Arduino documentary and few others you can find on net. If you got any suggestions, do drop them as comments.


• Run an install fest anywhere possible
You could run the installation fest and help your friends and relatives install different linux distros. It can be anywhere. I mean anywhere. You can do it in your own home, in your school, and in your office. After all, its fun to motivate your friends and relatives to use open source softwares if they are not already using them. Literate the people who are around you. Believe me its fun.


• Try finding bug on some open source softwares
Grab some open source softwares; it can be desktop app or web app. Try finding bugs or errors in them and report them. You have just helped to improve one of the open source softwares and your contribution will be counted for sure :). If you are geek enough, try finding some critical bugs and vulnerabilities. It can be kind of tough and challenging task but its always fun to do so.


• Do some blogging about software freedom and free and open source softwares
If you got your own blog or website, make some entries related to software freedom. You could include the event you just visited or you could discuss about the free and open source softwares available in the market. If you don't have blog already, start today. Its a good day itself to start blogging on open source softwares.


• Write some code snippets and useful little softwares
If you are a good programmer, why not write and distribute the small software projects by today itself. You could do small stuffs like command line file transfer app, nepali calendar or anything you can think of. Try to develop some local software that will be useful for you and your community.


• Join any beginner IRC channel and help the beginners
Search for some IRC channels in freenode or other networks and try helping the beginners. You can preferably choose the IRC channels related to linux, programming, hacking, and open source softwares and then dedicate some hours of your day to help other people.


• Donate some amount to your favorite open source softwares
Got some bucks to spare? Why not donate some amount to your favorite open source software. This can be very motivating to the developers of open source softwares.

Any other idea that hits your mind? Share as the comment :)

And at last, happy software freedom day to all the freedom lovers :)


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Ubuntu Desktop Edition No More In LiveCD

The ubuntu team has announced that they have dropped the LiveCD option for Ubuntu and now onwards Ubuntu will be available as a single 800MB image that can be used from USB or DVD.

The mailing list reads "For the client, this release now has a consolidated Ubuntu image. There is no longer a traditional CD sized image, DVD or alternate image, but rather a single 800MB Ubuntu image that can be used from USB or DVD. This change does not affect Ubuntu Server, which remains a traditional CD sized image.

That is, starting from Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal", we will have a single 800 MB disk image that can only be used with USB or DVD. The decision does not seem to affect Ubuntu's user base since DVDs and USBs are getting cheaper and LiveUSBs are being popular these days.


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