Daily Archives: June 29, 2017

Supreme Court Justices Call Second Amendment Case ‘Distressing … – FOX News Radio (blog)

Posted: June 29, 2017 at 11:55 pm

Audio clip: Listen to audio clip.

FOX's Eben Brown has this week's 'FOX Bullet Points':

I'm Eben Brown.

Second Amendment advocates are a bit upset the U.S. Supreme Court didn't take up the case of a California man suing over a denial of a concealed carry permit. In Peruta v. California, the sheriff in San Diego says he can refuse to issue concealed carry permits if the applicant doesn't show a real need for one. Justices Thomas and Gorsuch published a dissent to the court's rejection, calling it 'distressing.'

Meanwhile, in Kansas, it'll be legal to carry without a permit on college campus' starting this Saturday.

You know PayPal, and Square, and Stripe? All three are used more and more by retailers to complete electronic payments. But the three outfits, which are not banks, are now the target of a class action lawsuit. Firearms retailer Blar Gladwin of California, who has his federal firearms license, say the three agencies deny him their services because he sells guns. Gladwin claims it's a civil rights violation.

Those are your Bullet Points! I'm Eben Brown, FOX News!

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Dispatches from gun country: This Italian immigrant loves the Second Amendment – Guns.com

Posted: at 11:55 pm

Fabrizio Vianello, Second Amendment supporter and owner at Eltenda Channel on Youtube, photographed in Illinois with his Bushmaster AR-15 rifle and his dog Peanut. (Photo: Ben Philippi)

Originally from Italy, Fabrizio Vianello fell in love with an American girl and immigrated to America. Although still fond of his homeland, Fabrizio loves his new country for its infinite possibilities, freedom, and especially, the right to keep and bear arms.

Im the new kid in town.

I moved to America from Europe a few years ago, and since then I have learned so much about what it means to be an American and the importance of the Bill of Rights. People like me have come from all over the world looking for the kind of freedom that America was known for.

The Second Amendment, like all the others, is one of the basic rights that every American in every state should defend. I am surprised at the disinformation campaign of the media and the propaganda against firearms and I hope the people of this great country never forget the importance of their right to bear arms.

Godspeed!

Read more perspectives on Americas gun culture in Ben Philippis book We The People.

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Federal judge blocks new California gun control law requiring disposal of large-capacity magazines – Los Angeles Times

Posted: at 11:55 pm

Many California firearm owners were given a reprieve Thursday from making a tough decision after a federal judge temporarily blocked a key provision of the states gun control laws approved last year in the wake of the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

At the request of attorneys for the National Rifle Assn., U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez issued a preliminary injunction blocking a law that requires Californians to dispose of large-capacity ammunition magazines by Saturday or face fines and possible jail time.

If this injunction does not issue, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of otherwise law-abiding citizens will have an untenable choice: become an outlaw or dispossess ones self of lawfully acquired property, Benitez wrote. That is a choice they should not have to make.

The NRA and its state affiliate are still pursuing lawsuits seeking court decisions on the law, and those may take months to resolve.

NRA attorney C.D. Michel welcomed the granting of the preliminary injunction.

My clients are pleased the Court affirmed that the Second Amendment is not a second class right, and that law abiding gun owners have a right to choose to have these magazines to help them defend themselves and their families, Michel said in a statement.

The plaintiffs include gun owners from the San Diego area and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn., the NRAs state affiliate which is headed by Michel, an attorney for the national group.

Gun rights advocates and some law enforcement officials said few people who own the newly outlawed magazines have turned them in to police and expect many people will hang on to them until courts decide the pending challenges to the law on the merits.

Until this is litigated, I think some will hold on [to the magazines], Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Others who are concerned about ramifications might sell them in another state.

No magazines have been turned in to the Kern County Sheriffs Office in the last three months, he said.

Youngblood, who is immediate past president of the California State Sheriffs Assn., said his deputies would not be going to homes and businesses with the primary purpose of searching for the outlawed magazines, even if the law had not been blocked.

If they show up in an investigation, they could be a tool for further investigation, he said.

In 2000, California banned the sale of large-capacity magazines, but those who owned the devices were allowed to keep them. That changed when 63% of California voters approved Proposition 63 in November. That initiative, and legislation adopted at the time, bans the possession of magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Sean Brady, an attorney for gun owners, estimates tens of thousands of Californians still have large-capacity magazines. The law says that options for owners of the magazines include transferring them to a federally licensed gun dealer, destroying them or turning them over to law enforcement.

Anyone in possession of a banned magazine starting Saturday would have faced a citation for an infraction punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 per magazine, or could have been found guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not to exceed $100 and up to a year in jail.

Patrick Lovette, a resident of San Diego County and a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, says the ban on the magazines is unfair and unwarranted. The retired Navy veteran said in court papers that he owns multiple magazines that he would like to pass on to his heirs.

Updates from Sacramento

But Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, the primary proponent of Proposition 63, said the law was important to enforce.

Large-capacity magazines serve only one purpose: efficient and effective mass murder, Newsom said. Used in almost every mass shooting in the U.S. since the 1990s, large-capacity magazines enable murderers to unleash dozens of rounds without having to stop and reload. They belong in theaters of war, not peaceful communities.

State Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra argued in court papers that the ban on large-capacity magazines is justified because they have been found at the scenes of mass shootings at an Orlando nightclub, Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School and in San Bernardino, where two terrorists in 2015 killed 14 people attending a holiday party.

These large-capacity magazines are disproportionately used in crime, and feature prominently in some of the most serious crime, including homicides, mass shootings, and killings of law enforcement officers, Becerra said in his written answer to the lawsuit.

In a statement released Thursday night, Becerra vowed to defend the state law.

Restricting large-capacity magazines and preventing them from ending up in the wrong hands is critical for the well-being of our communities, he said in the statement. I will defend the will of California voters because we cannot continue to lose innocent lives due to gun violence.

The restraining order was sought by the California Rifle and Pistol Assn., which argued that the ban on large-capacity magazines violates both the 2nd Amendment rights of Californians to bear arms as well as protections against taking property without due process or compensation.

Banning magazines over ten rounds is no more likely to reduce criminal abuse of guns than banning high horsepower engines is likely to reduce criminal abuse of automobiles, the lawsuit says.

Becerra argued in court papers that plaintiffs have not demonstrated that any of these constitutional guarantees are even implicated by the challenged legislation, let alone violated by it. Possession of [large-capacity magazines] is not protected by the Second Amendment.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Twitter: @mcgreevy99

ALSO

Gun control language tucked into California's budget bill, irking the NRA

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Lawsuit Calls Seattle’s "Democracy Vouchers" Compelled Speech and a First Amendment Violation – Reason (blog)

Posted: at 11:54 pm

justgrimes/FlickrSeattle homeowners are tired of being forced to contribute tax dollars to candidates they do not support, some of whom campaign to further restrict their property rights.

A Pacific Legal Foundation lawsuit challenges Seattle's Democracy Voucher program, which has so far dispensed $233,175 in special tax contributions to fund vouchers of up to $100 for city voters to contribute to their favorite local political candidates.

"When you are forced to give a certain amount of money to someone who then uses it to contribute it to a candidate," Ethan Blevins, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, says, "that's compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment."

Blevins is representing Mark Elster, a Seattle homeowner and self-described "robust supporter of free markets," who objects to being made to underwrite any part of a campaign for candidates, none of whom warrant his support.

So far, the voucher program isn't quite as democratic as envisioned by its progressive sponsors. More than half of the total amount of contributions has gone to Jon Grant, a candidate for an open city council seat and someone who could charitably be described as left-of-center.

A former head of the Washington Tenants Union, Grant has endorsed a range of left-wing housing policies including rent control, mandating affordable housing units in new developments, caps on move-in fees, and giving collective bargaining privileges to tenants.

His opponent, Teresa Mosqueda, and the incumbent candidate for city attorney, Pete Holmes, are the only other candidates who have met the eligibility requirements for the vouchers.

Grant is a strong proponent of Democracy Vouchers, having received 93 percent of all his campaign donations from the program. Prior to the program, "only 1.5 percent of Seattleites donated to a local campaign. This lawsuit clearly demonstrates that the Pacific Legal Foundation is only interested in protecting the interests of the 1%," Grant wrote in a blogpost on his campaign website.

A good deal of his field outreach has been directed at getting homeless people to sign up for the vouchers, and then give that money to him, a practice his campaign manager assures Seattle Weekly is not "exploiting the homeless."

Grant has called the Foundation lawsuit "anti-democratic" and "desperate."

The voucher program, Blevins said, has allowed Grant to do something remarkable. He has "pretty much drawn all his campaign money from a constituency that is inherently opposed to his positions," Blevins said.

Few of the 410,000 registered voters in Seattle can make use of the Democracy Voucher program, even if there were candidates they wanted to support. The tax dollars that fund the vouchers is first come first serve, and not nearly enough is collected each year to ensure that each Seattleite gets a chance to participate.

The funding is capped at $3 million a year, meaning 30,000 or 7 percent of eligible Seattle voters are allowed to make campaign contributions in an election year. As the Seattle Times noted when it editorialized against the 2015 ballot initiative that created Democracy Vouchers, "the proposal counts on people not participating."

In this first election since the program launched, it remains to be seen whether Grant's manipulation of it will be followed by other candidates. The City Council designed the program for a review after 10 years.

Blevins hopes the court recognizing the vouchers for the constitutional abominations they are will end the program years before a review.

"When you are forced to become an unwilling vessel for a message you disagree with," Blevins says, "that violates human dignity and it certainly violates the First Amendment."

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Do we still believe in free speech? Only until we disagree – Miami Herald

Posted: at 11:54 pm


Miami Herald
Do we still believe in free speech? Only until we disagree
Miami Herald
I do think the First Amendment tradition is under siege, said Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Pamela Geller, a firebrand commentator and founder of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, added, Freedom ...

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Jewish Federation’s Sets 10th Anniversary First Amendment Dinner … – The Chattanoogan

Posted: at 11:54 pm

The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga invites the Chattanooga community to its 10th annual First Amendment Dinner on Thursday, July 13 at 6 p.m. at the Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 North Terrace Road.

"This event educates us about our first amendment rights and honors local veterans for their military service," officials said.

The keynote speakers will be Pam Sohn and Clint Cooper opposing editors of the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

We felt that Sohn and Cooper represent the Chattanooga Times Free Press statement attributed to Adolph Ochs To give the news impartially, without fear or favor," said Michael Dzik, executive director of the Jewish Federation.

The cost for this annual event is $12 (free for veterans and current military personnel) if reserved before July 11. After July 11, the cost is $14 for both veterans and non-veterans. RSVP to 493-0270 ext. 10 or rsvp@jewishchattanooga.com. Space is limited.

The First Amendment Dinner was started ten years ago as a way to honor veterans as well as military personnel and inform the public of their First Amendment Rights. Past speakers have included Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hedy Weinberg of the ACLU, Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist Clay Bennett, among others. It is increasingly important for the public to understand the importance of keeping the freedoms we have grown to enjoy and to respect those who serve our country in order to keep these freedoms. said Mr. Dzik.

The Times Free Press publishes two editorial pages. On the left side, the Times opinion page offers a more liberal perspective and commentary. On the right, the Free Press editorial page presents a conservative viewpoint.

Mr. Cooper, a writer and editor in Chattanooga for 37 years and Chattanooga native, is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He began his journalism career in 1980 as sports writer for the Chattanooga Free Press. For 20 years, Mr. Cooper was sports news editor for the Free Press, and was named assistant sports editor in 1999. Until taking this editorial post,, he was a feature writer primarily covering the faith beat.

During Mr. Cooper's time in the sports department, the Free Press received the Tennessee Sports Writers Association award for Best Section. He has been honored by the Southern League Baseball association for team coverage of the Chattanooga Lookouts. Mr. Cooper is a well-known figure in Chattanooga's faith community, having written a weekly column on religion for more than a decade. Mr. Cooper represents the conservative right side of the editorial page.

Pam Sohn has been an award-winning reporter and editor in Chattanooga for more than 30 years. Ms. Sohn began her journalism career at the Anniston (Al.) Star before coming to work for the Chattanooga Times and later the Chattanooga Times Free Press. In those years, she has been a reporter, assistant lifestyle editor, wire editor, city editor, Sunday editor, projects team leader, and now opinion editor

Ms. Sohn has won numerous writing and editing awards in both Alabama and Tennessee, including first-place honors for breaking news, investigative news, public service, features, reporting without a deadline, and editorials. During her tenure as Sunday editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the paper received the 2002 first-place honors for Best Sunday editions and Sweepstakes Award -- best paper in the state. Ms. Sohn represents the liberal left side of the editorial page.

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FAQ | Jitsi | Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Posted: at 11:54 pm

Featured questions (hide)

How do I get the latest Jitsi source code?

You could either clone the Git repository from GitHub (see Retrieving and Building the Sources for details) or use one of the nightly source snapshots (check the Download page).

Ive discovered a bug, what can I do?

Please, report it to the developers! Take a look at the Reporting bugs guidelines page describing the steps to report bugs effectively.

Where is the user profile directory?

Jitsis user profile directory is where Jitsi keeps its configuration, logs, etc. Its location depends on the operating system.

Where do I find the log files?

The easiest way to get hold of the log files is to save them to a location of your choice using Jitsis GUI. You can do so by clicking on ToolsOptions (JitsiPreferences on OS X), then selecting the Advanced tab and opening the Logging form. Youll see the Archive Logs button in there.

Check out the screenshot for an even better description.

Important Note: When asked for logs, please make sure that you provide the full set of logs, or better yet, the zip that Jitsi generates when following the above instructions. Please do not send separate files or file snippets as those are likely to be insufficient. If you need to provide the logs for a GitHub issue, send them to Dev Mailing List and link to the thread in the archive or create a Gist and link to it. Please DO NOT paste the log as a comment.

Otherwise, if you really want to know, the log files are located in:

Where is the configuration file?

Jitsis main configuration file is called sip-communicator.properties and is in the user profile directory.

How do you spell Jitsi and what does it mean?

The correct spelling of the application name is Jitsi (jitsi also works). The origin of the name is Bulgarian (spelled ). It means wires and the point is that the application allow you to connect to many network and people just as wires do. Of course no one other than Bulgarians is supposed to know what this means and we picked the name mainly because it was short and sounded good.

Id like to see a new feature in Jitsi, can you do that for me?

Yes, developers take feature requests into account. Send an email to the development list with a detailed description of the requested feature. After we examine its feasibility and decide whether it can be included in the Jitsi distributions you would likely be asked to open a ticket in our issue tracker. It is worth mentioning though, that handling feature requests is highly dependent of the developers availability and there is no guarantee that all requests will be satisfied.

How do I subscribe to mailing lists?

Please visit the Mailing Lists page to learn more about Jitsis mailing lists.

How do I contact the project developers?

You can ask questions concerning usage of the Jitsi on the dev mailing list (Note that the mailing lists are moderated, so, unless you subscribe to them, there may be a delay before your post shows up). For all urgent queries you could also use IRC at irc.freenode.net, channel #jitsi.

How do I send a patch?

Mail patches to the dev mailing list, with a subject line that contains the word PATCH in all uppercase, for example

A patch submission should contain one logical change; please dont mix N unrelated changes in one submission, send N separate emails instead.

The patch itself should be generated from within the project root directory using unified diff format. The following example shows one way to generate it:

You should give your patch files meaningful names. For instance if you fix a socket bug in the foo class do not call your patch file patchfile.txt but instead call it foo-socket.patch.

If the patch implements a new feature, make sure to describe the feature completely in your mail; if the patch fixes a bug, describe the bug in detail and give a reproduction recipe. An exception to these guidelines is when the patch addresses a specific issue in the issues database in that case, just make sure to refer to the issue number in your log message.

Note that unless you are describing a change rather than posting one, we would probably need you to sign our contributor agreement as either an individual or a corporation

I would like to update this wiki what can I do?

Currently, only project developers are permitted to update the wiki. Please send your suggested changes to the dev mailing list.

A wiki page can be updated by appending the string ?action=edit to the current url and refreshing the page. The page will then be displayed with an extra menu line that includes a Page Edit item.

If you click on the Page Edit item, you will be redirected to a logon page. Enter your developer username and password and you should be redirected back to the original page. Click on Page Edit again to access the source content of the page (a quick reference to wiki markup syntax is also displayed).

How do I reset my XMPP or jit.si password?

You can reset your jit.si password from within Jitsi. You can do the same for any XMPP account that allows it.

In the case of jit.si, you can also change your password via the web

Why cant I connect to ekiga.net?

NB: the problems described in this section also apply to other providers such as 1und1.de

Short Answer: The ekiga.net SIP servers are configured in a way that prevent Jitsi (and many other SIP user agents for that matter) to register with the service. Please use iptel.org or ippi.com instead.

Slightly Longer Answer: The service at ekiga.net is configured to only accept SIP REGISTER requests that contain a public IP address in their Contact header. This means that registration from Jitsi would fail unless you actually have a public IP address. The Ekiga client circumvents this by using STUN to learn the address and port that have been allocated for the current session. It then uses the pair in the SIP Contact header. This kind of use was common for the first version of the STUN protocol defined in RFC 3489 which was sometimes referred to as classic STUN.

The IETF has since significantly reviewed the way STUN should be used. The new version of the protocol is now defined in RFC 5389 which, among other things, advises against the use of STUN as a standalone NAT traversal utility:

Today STUN represents one of the tools used by complete traversal mechanisms such as SIP OUTBOUND (RFC 5626) or ICE (RFC 5245). Neither of these includes sending a STUN obtained address in a Contact header.

So, where does Jitsi currently stand on all this? At the time of writing, we support the ICE protocol but only use it with XMPP. Use with SIP is likely to come in the near future. The reason we havent implemented it yet is that most SIP servers currently open to use over the Internet, use a technique called latching. When such servers detect you are connecting from behind a NAT, they would start acting as a relay, receiving media from your peers and then forwarding it to you (and vice versa). While this is by far the most reliably way of traversing NATs, it does indeed imply some scalability constraints.

ICE on the other hand would only fall back to relaying if no other way was found to connect the two participants. This is why it is considered as a more optimal solution and why its also on our roadmap.

Note however that the constraints on ekiga.net would continue preventing Jitsi from connecting even when we do implement support for ICE.

Why do I see ICE failed errors when trying to make calls.

Jitsi implements a number of NAT traversal methods as described here. In many situations we will be able to setup a call directly between you and other users but in order to be able to reliably establish calls, your XMPP or SIP provider has to provide relaying capabilities such as TURN, Jingle Nodes or . If looking for services that support these you can try jit.si or ippi. Also note that both you and your partner need to have unhindered outgoing UDP access to the Internet or at least to your VoIP service provider. You DO NOT however need to map any port numbers on your home router. At best this is going to have no effect.

Does Jitsi support STUN? (and how about TURN, UPnP and Jingle Nodes?)

STUN, together with TURN, Jingle Nodes, IPv6 and UPnP, is one of the techniques that Jitsi uses as part of the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) protocol to handle NAT traversal for calls made over XMPP.

For its SIP calls, Jitsi currently relies on servers to relay media (a technique also known as Hosted NAT Traversal or latching, which would be the case of the majority of the SIP servers used on the Internet today. Note that in terms of reliability Hosted NAT Traversal gives the same results as use of ICE. It even works better in some ways because the connection is setup immediately and no time is waisted for gathering candidates and making connectivity checks. The only downside of HNT is that it may put a strain on SIP providers requiring more bandwidth. This could become a problem especially in environments with a high number of all IP high quality video calls.

It is likely that ICE support for SIP calls would also be added to Jitsi in 2014 especially since this would also help with WebRTC compatibility.

Standalone support for STUN is NOT going to be part of Jitsi. Check out the ekiga entry for more information on the shortcomings of STUN as a standalone NAT traversal utility.

I have a few questions regarding ZRTP, SRTP and VoIP security in general. Where can I find some answers?

Check out our ZRTP FAQ.

Why does my call stay in the Initiating Call status and I can never connect?

A common reason for providers not to respond to calls is that they simply dont get the INVITE request Jitsi sends to them. This can happen if you are using UDP. The Jitsi INVITE requests may often exceed the maximum allowed packet size (MTU) for your network or that of your server. In such cases packets may be fragmented by your IP stack and fragmentation for UDP does not always work well in certain networks. This is what happens when a client supports multiple features ;). To resolve the issue you can do one of the following:

How does on-line provisioning work?

On-line provisioning is the feature that allows Jitsi to connect to an http URI every time it starts and retrieve part or all of its configuration there. On-line provisioning is often used by providers to remotely configure the clients they maintain. It can be used to set any property in Jitsi such as the codecs used, the features that users can manually configure and even protocol accounts.

When requesting its provisioning information Jitsi can transmit any of a number of parameters to the server, like for example: the OS it is running on, user credentials, a unique ID and others. This way the provisioning server can fine-tune the parameters it sends to Jitsi.

For more information, please check our on-line provisioning manual

Are my chat sessions protected and if so, how?

Jitsi supports the OTR encryption protocol. OTR stands for Off-the-Record Messaging and once youve set it up (i.e. clicked on that padlock icon in a chat window and verified the identity of your contact) it allows you to make sure that no one other than you two can read your messages, not even your service provider. You can find more on the OTR mechanisms here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Off-the-Record_Messaging

Should logging be disabled by default when using OTR?

By default Jitsi stores all chats so that if you need any information from them it would always be available. If you would like to disable this behavior you can currently do so by opening Jitsis Options/Preferences, selecting the General pane and then unchecking the Log chat history option near the top. It is also possible to disable chats for specific contacts, to erase their history. An indicator in the chat window makes it aware at all times whether history is on or off while chatting with someone.

OTR protected chats follow the same pattern and some users have expressed concerns that this might be incompatible with their security expectations. Our position on this is that Jitsis role is to protect your communication. We also strive to offer usability. The current defaults represent these objectives: most people would prefer for their private communication not to be readable by third parties and most of the time people use Jitsi from personal devices where they are in control of the access policy.

In some cases users may wish for their communications not to be stored locally. This can be the case when using Jitsi on devices that others may also have access to. In such cases users need to be able to easily see whether history is being logged. They would also need to easily turn this off and potentially even erase previous history.

Note however that this subject is entirely different from the encryption one. They are separate measures meant to protect you against separate attacks or problems. We dont believe that the need for one would necessarily imply the need for the other. We are hence committed to also keeping that separation in the user interface.

Force SIP Message support.

Some SIP servers (Asterisk in particular) do not announce the MESSAGE support, despite supporting it. If you enable the account property FORCE_MESSAGING, Jitsi will attempt to use MESSAGE for chats, despite your configured SIP server not explicitly announcing this support to connected clients. For example, if your SIP account is john.smith@example.com, go to property editor type that in the search field and look for something like

net.java.sip.communicator.impl.protocol.sip.acc0123456789.ACCOUNT_UID with the value SIP:john.smith@example.com

The property to add in that case would be:

net.java.sip.communicator.impl.protocol.sip.acc0123456789.FORCE_MESSAGING with the value true.

How to add/edit configuration properties.

You can do so by clicking on ToolsOptions (JitsiPreferences on OS X), then selecting the Advanced tab and opening the Property Editor form. There you can search edit/delete or create new properties.

Is there an an Android version of Jitsi?

Yes, but it is still in an early alpha stage and further development has been put on hold until further notice. A lot of the user interface is not yet implemented. You can find the apk on the Download page.

Is there an iPhone/iPad version of Jitsi?

No. Due to the restrictions imposed by the platform it is highly unlikely this answer is going to change.

The cc-buildloop target of ant fails with the following error message: Could not create task or type of type: junitreport.

On some Linux distributions such as Debian, the ant package is actualy subdivided into multiple packages. So when you chose to install junit and ant with the distribution specific package system, dont forget to install ant-optional too.

The cc-buildloop target of ant fails with the following error message: No test with id=IcqProtocolProviderSlick.

Have you created your own accounts.properties file in the lib directory? Youll need to define two ICQ test accounts at least, and preferably some test accounts for the other supported protocols.

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Why Can’t US Citizens Participate in Cryptocurrency ICOs? – The Merkle

Posted: at 11:53 pm

Given the recent popularity of cryptocurrency ICOs, it was to be expected some things would be unclear to a lot of people. One of the most recurring questions is why all of these ICOs try to prevent US citizens from participating. There are many different reasons as to why this is the case, even though the countermeasures can be bypassed quite easily.

Anyone who has recently participated in a cryptocurrency ICO or pre-ICO may have noticed how these offerings are, in theory not available to residents in the US. Some projects even go as far as trying to dissuade residents from Singapore to participate as well. It is evident these two regions do not take kindly to cryptocurrency ICOs, mainly due to regulatory reasons.

To put this into perspective, the United States is quite strict when it comes to investment regulations. Only accredited investors can partake in private placements of securities. While some people would urge all cryptocurrency ICOs are tokens and not securities, regulators will have a very different opinion regarding this matter. A lot of the ICOs we have seen can be labeled as traditional sales of equity.

As is to be expected, the team organizing a cryptocurrency ICO cannot guarantee only accredited US investors will partake. They can take the necessary steps to prevent most US citizens from investing, although these measures can be bypassed. Right now, the ICOs tend to ask if you are a US citizen, but there is no verification of whether or not one speaks the truth. Some projects use geolocation to block US citizens, but those can be bypassed with a proxy or VPN. It is impossible to prevent US citizens from participating, but these measures have to be taken regardless.

Some of the bigger cryptocurrency ICOs will ensure they hire lawyers who can create a more workable environment for interested parties. If they would not take these steps, their entire token sale would be liable to criminal charges in the US. That is, assuming the SEC would ever decide to investigate a particular crowdsale for those specific reasons. It is highly unlikely that will happen, even though the SEC is looking to regulate ICOs moving forward.

Once the SEC will effectively intervene in cryptocurrency ICOs which is only a matter of time things will get very interesting, to say the least. A lot of previous ICOs didnt take the necessary steps to deny US citizens from investing. All of those projects and their teams are at the mercy of the SEC for the time being. Violating US securities laws is not something anyone wants to deal with. Additionally, these laws can also be enforced upon non-US companies, which makes it even more important to take countermeasures.

It is evident this unregulated space will be of keen interest to financial watchdogs all over the world in the coming years. The bigger question is how many companies will get burnt for not doing their due diligence. It is bad enough to know most of these projects may ultimately fail. Worrying about future criminal charges will certainly have a big impact on all of these crowdsales moving forward.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Why Can't US Citizens Participate in Cryptocurrency ICOs? - The Merkle

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SolarCoin Is A Cryptocurrency Earned By Generating Solar Electricity – CleanTechnica

Posted: at 11:52 pm

Published on June 29th, 2017 | by Derek Markham

June 29th, 2017 by Derek Markham

Solar electricity production + blockchain = a currency based on sunshine

Just as cryptocurrency has become a disruptive technology, so has renewable energy, and although those two distinct sectors havent really come into their own just yet, an innovative solar incentive program is incorporating both solar electricity production and the blockchain, with the intent of boosting and supporting one with the other.

Instead of a digitally mined product, this cryptocurrencys proof of work happens in the physical world, and those who have photovoltaic arrays can earn SolarCoin just for generating solar electricity. Its essentially a global solar rewards program, and is designed to help incentivize more solar electricity production, while also serving as a lower-carbon cryptocurrency than Bitcoin and similar alternative currencies.

We initially covered SolarCoin in 2014, right after it launched, and since then, the project has rewarded more than 10,000 solar installations for their electricity generation (totaling somewhere north of 200 megawatts). [As a side note, its actually somewhat surprising to me that the number is only 10,000 solar generators, considering that the currency is granted essentially for free to any solar producer that gets verified.]

This 90-second intro video explains SolarCoin in a nutshell:

SolarCoin is like airmiles for global solar electricity producers. Joseph Zitoli, The SolarCoin Foundation

This longer (5 minute) video explains where SolarCoin gets its value from:

As of January of 2017, more than 34 million SolarCoins have been put into circulation, with that figure growing by about 5,000 per week, and some 240,000 SolarCoins have gone to solar producers in 23 countries. In addition, two solar-focused crowdfunding platforms, Lumo and TheSunExchange, are now incorporating SolarCoin, the Belgian energy monitor company Smappee includes SolarCoin in its features, and in March 2017, the French collaborative energy supplier ekWateur became the first energy company to accept SolarCoin as a means of payment.

SolarChange, the SolarCoin Foundation platform that integratesthe SolarCoin Blockchain and incorporates a host of other monitoring and energy management features, was recently chosen to participate in the four month MassChallenge Israel accelerator program, which could help ramp up the solar currencys adoption.

The Goal for SolarChange in the MassChallenge program is to dramatically scale its AI-Blockchain interface solutions and Prosumer incentive capabilities from a Startup company to SME and expose its technology to utilities and the solar industry.

As far as cryptocurrecies go, SolarCoin (SLR) has a lot of growing to do, as it is shooting for an eventual $30 price but is currently hovering just over $0.20. Aside from getting a lot more solar generators onboard, there are also issues with scaling up its adoption as an alternative currency for both buyers and sellers of goods. The Swiss currency marketplace Lykke Exchange has added SolarCoin to its offerings, with Lykke CEO Richard Olsen (who ended up joining the SolarCoin Foundation advisory board) putting it succinctly, Our users can now convert sunshine directly into francs, euros or bitcoins.

Bringing the SolarCoin currency into the Lykke Exchange is a logical extension of our long-term plan. We are always looking for ways to expand market access and increase participation. Challenging conventional wisdom is what we do best, and we will be able to do it that much better with the passionate, forward-thinking SolarCoin community on our exchange. Olsen

A recent article in PV Tech by Florent Andrillon sums up the challenges facing SolarCoin, as well as a key selling point for the currency:

SolarCoins success will depend on the capacity to generate a large and robust ecosystem, and leverage social added value to differentiate from other cryptocurrencies.

In contrast to most other cryptocurrencies, its not just the financial value of the SolarCoin currency thats at the core of its strength. Sure, SolarCoin could be a legitimate investment option for those looking for a future return, but far more value may come from its incentivizing of solar energy production, which the project hopes to underwrite for some 40 years, to the tune of about 97,500 TWh of solar electricity.

And it is gaining acceptance, as IRENA and Solar Power Europe have endorsed the currency, but there are still many challenges to overcome:

Stakeholder engagement with power producers, investors, companies and individuals to convince, educate and reconcile on economic and financial and technical challenges is critical. Convincing power producers to share generation data is also a key challenge. At last, driving consensus among companies to promote SolarCoins depends on its liquidity and consumer attractiveness compared to other cryptocurrencies. Andrillon

Learn more at SolarCoin and SolarChange.

Hat tip: Karl Graves. Images: SolarCoin

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Tags: Bitcoin, Cryptocurrencies, cryptocurrency, SolarCoin

Derek Markham lives in southwestern New Mexico and digs bicycles, simple living, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyle design, slacklining, bouldering, and permaculture. He loves good food, with fresh roasted chiles at the top of his list of favorites. Catch up with Derek on Twitter, RebelMouse, Google+, or at his natural parenting site, Natural Papa!

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SolarCoin Is A Cryptocurrency Earned By Generating Solar Electricity - CleanTechnica

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The 3 Cryptocurrencies to Watch This Month – HuffPost

Posted: at 11:52 pm

A look at three cryptocurrencies that show tons of promise.

June 2017 has been a wild month for cryptocurrency. First, Bancor set the industry record for the largest-ever ICO at just over $150 million. A week later, Status.im (SNT) raised $275 million in under 3 hours during its ICO, contributing to an Ethereum flash crash.

And those are just two examples among many. Amid all the hullabaloo, it might feel hard to figure out which cryptocurrencies are worth investing in. So I sat down with Lucas Hendren, CTO of SimplyVital Health, to discuss the most promising cryptocurrencies to watch in July.

CoinJoker

Without a doubt, the name thats hot on every crypto-enthusiasts lips this month is Tezos, a new decentralized blockchain that governs itself by establishing a true digital commonwealth. With its ICO occurring July 1 (yep, thats tomorrow), the buzz of speculation is inescapable. Jeremy Epstein of Never Stop Marketing recently heralded its ICO as the Netscape of the blockchainin other words, the ICO that inflates the blockchain bubble by capturing the attention of the broader public. Naysayers point out that, while the ethos of Tezos is sound, it wont be able to hit critical mass in the face of a stronger and more established competitor. Proponents cite its robust security, capability to scale, and emphasis on true decentralization as natural next steps in the evolution of the ideas laid out (and arguably, confirmed) by Ethereum.

Tezos could theoretically have all the abilities of Ethereumbut in addition, its switching straight to proof-of-stake, said Hendren. The idea behind proof-of-stake is that its much less energy and time intensive, which would lead to faster transactions at a lower cost.

By launching the system with a proof-of-stake model from the onset, Tezos could sidestep some of the growing pains that have faced Ethereum. Furthermore, the governance system Tezos has built into its system gives it the capability to grow over time.

Tezos allows for a much easier way to upgrade and manage the system and insure that it has constant upgrades, said Hendren. If youve been following Bitcoin and Ethereum, a big problem theyve been having is how they go about upgrading. With Tezos, if you join part of that system, therell be a periodic vote to determine if theyre going to upgrade the system, and if so, what theyre going to upgrade it tothis is a massive simplification of itbut if a certain quorum is met and a vote passes, the entire system upgrades.

As to the Tezos vs Ethereum argument, Hendren expressed confidence in both, citing Tezoss upgrade-ability as a cause for genuine excitement.

Long-term it very well might be a competitor with Ethereum, but at the moment the space is so large and empty that theres room for both of them to grow, said Hendren. The main reason to be excited about it is that theyve potentially solved the problem of upgrading that many of the other blockchain networks have had.

Golem purports to be the new way the Internet will work, and when you start to look under the hood, you realize how and why they can make such a bold claim. (And if youve kept up with the latest season of Silicon Valley, itll sound eerily familiar).

The whole idea behind GNT is it allows you to sell your processing power, said Hendren. That basically means that you as an individualif you have, say, any laptop that you arent usingyou can sell your laptop as a server and make money from it. So you end up with this massive distributed computing network; it basically turns into the worlds largest supercomputer in a decentralized format. I think that is a very powerful idea that has a lot of potential.

GNT has already ICOed, but will entering its Alpha in very short time (very likely this month)and that Alpha is aiming to make high-intensity computing tasks like animation and CGI rendering much easier and cheaper.

Their Alpha will allow you to do CGI rendering and other animation rendering on their Golem network, potentially at a much cheaper cost than normal, said Hendren. And thats going to be released very soonmaking it something to watch right now. Theres a very high chance that GNT could gain a lot of value.

On the flipside of the computing equation, MaidSafe offers users the chance to sell their computers storage on the network.

MaidSafe allows you to safely secure your assets on a distributed network and distributed applications, said Hendren. So its similar to Golem but its more set up for data storage than it is for processing, and that is also a very useful, powerful idea.

The idea here is that theres tons of storage going to waste right now, and MaidSafe lets users sell this storage the same way one might rent out their apartment on Airbnb.

If you have a laptop, you can sell your storage space on this network, said Hendren. This is a simplified version, but: I have a laptop in my room Im not using at the momentI could load my computer up to this network and store data for other people for money.

For hopeful investors, Hendren explained that the next month will be the best time to get in early before MaidSafe enters its Alpha.

One big reason to watch it is that theyre releasing their Alpha on August 12, said Hendren. Whenever I advise tokens I usually advise you to go read the white paper and do your own researchbut if you want to get in early for this one, you have til August 12 to get in.

By letting users store encrypted data in a distributed format, MaidSafe effectively offers user privacy and autonomy in a way no current cloud storage solution does.

Hendren also advised newcomers to these markets to adopt two strategies when it comes to investing.

The main thing right now for everyone in there: in my opinion, you should try to avoid technical analyses, said Hendren. If you buy into something, you should plan on either holding for a long time or selling it at a certain point youve already planned out.

Why? Hendren references last weeks flash-crash as one example.

The reason for that is because this market is so young and immature, which is also some of the reason you can get great returns, said Hendren. There a few fish that have a massive amount of these currencies just waiting to sell that can basically move the market singlehandedly in any direction they want to. Any single event could have a massive influence on these things. My advice is not to be emotional, to buy in, sell out, buy in, and sell out again. Otherwise there are large sharks out there that will destroy you.

Disclosure: Damiani and Hendren have invested in GNT and MAID, and intend to participate in the Tezos ICO. Neither are professional financial analysts or advisors.

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The 3 Cryptocurrencies to Watch This Month - HuffPost

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