December 2014 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Unity 8 Will Bring 'Pure' Linux Experience To Mobile Devices
by Peter Reutemann 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

'If you have tried the live images of Ubuntu Next you may worry that Canonical is trying to do a Windows 8 with Ubuntu. That's not true. There is no need to worry though: A great deal of work is happening at a deeper level that may not have yet surfaced. It will surface eventually, however. Will Cooke of Canonical clarifies: "We are trying to make it clear that Unity 8 desktop will look like the traditional desktop and will behave like a normal desktop. We are very aware that our users expect a normal desktop there." Unity 8 will offer the traditional desktop interface when it detects a desktop. The same OS will switch to a touch-based interface on touch-based devices such as tablets and smartphones.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/12/09/1516240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Just-Announced X.Org Security Flaws Affect Code Dating Back To 1987
by Peter Reutemann 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

'Some of the worst X.Org security issues were just publicized in an X.Org security advisory. The vulnerabilities deal with protocol handling issues and led to 12 CVEs published and code dating back to 1987 is affected within X11. Fixes for the X Server are temporarily available via this Git repository.' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/12/09/1747212 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora 21 Released
by Peter Reutemann 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

'The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 21. "As part of the Fedora.next initiative, Fedora 21 comes in three flavors: Cloud, Server, and Workstation. Cloud is now a top-level deliverable for Fedora 21, and includes images for use in private cloud environments like OpenStack, as well as AMIs for use on Amazon, and a new "Atomic" image streamlined for running Docker containers. The Fedora Server flavor is a common base platform that is meant to run featured application stacks, which are produced, tested, and distributed by the Server Working Group. The Fedora Workstation is a new take on desktop development from the Fedora community. Our goal is to pick the best components, and integrate and polish them. This work results in a more polished and targeted system than you've previously seen from the Fedora desktop." Here are screenshots for Fedora 21: GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, and MATE.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/12/09/2059252 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Google Releases Android Studio 1.0, the First Stable Version of Its IDE
by Peter Reutemann 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

"After two years of development, Google today released Android Studio 1.0, the first stable version of its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) aimed solely at Android developers. You can download the tool right now for Windows, Mac, and Linux from the Android Developer site. Google first announced Android Studio, built on the popular IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE, at its I/O Developer conference in May 2013. The company's pitch was very simple: this is the official Android IDE." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/12/08/2129255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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POODLE Flaw Returns, This Time Hitting TLS Protocol
by Peter Reutemann 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

"If you patched your sites against a serious SSL flaw discovered in October you will have to check them again. Researchers have discovered that the POODLE vulnerability also affects implementations of the newer TLS protocol. The POODLE (Padding Oracle On Downgraded Legacy Encryption) vulnerability allows attackers who manage to intercept traffic between a user's browser and an HTTPS website to decrypt sensitive information, like the user's authentication cookies." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/12/09/0423210 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Blockly Versus Scratch
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Dec '14

09 Dec '14

You may have heard of MIT Scratch <http://scratch.mit.edu/>, a visual programming language oriented to teaching children programming. Initially I was put off by the non-Free licence (you couldn’t redistribute modified code), but that seems to have gone now, and the source is available <https://github.com/LLK/Scratch_1.4> under completely Free licences, the core being GPLv2, plugins under an MIT licence, and support materials/samples under CC-BY-SA. Google has its own alternative along the same lines, but Web-based, called Blockly <https://code.google.com/p/blockly/>. And Barack Obama has successfully used it to become the first US president to write a computer program <http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/08/barack-obama-just-became-the-first-us-pr…>.

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Linux 3.18 Released, Lockup Bug Still Present
by Peter Reutemann 08 Dec '14

08 Dec '14

"As anticipated, Linus Torvalds officially released Linux 3.18. The new version is now out there, though that nasty lockup issue has still yet to be resolved. Dave Jones is nearing the end of dissecting the issue, but since it also affects Linux 3.17 and not too many people seem to get hit by the lockups, Linus Torvalds decided to go ahead and do the 3.18 release on schedule. Linus was also concerned that dragging out the 3.18 release would then complicate the Linux 3.19 merge window due to the holidays later this month. Now the Linux 3.19 kernel merge window is open for two weeks of exciting changes." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/12/08/2020251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Powerful, highly stealthy Linux trojan may have infected victims for years
by Peter Reutemann 08 Dec '14

08 Dec '14

"Researchers have uncovered an extremely stealthy trojan for Linux systems that attackers have been using to siphon sensitive data from governments and pharmaceutical companies around the world." -- source: http://goo.gl/JG2Jh3 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fwd: [NZOSS-Openchat] LCA 2015 Keynote Session - Q&A with Linus Torvalds
by Peter Reutemann 08 Dec '14

08 Dec '14

Excuse the cross posting, but here is an amazing incentive to get to LCA 2015 in Auckland this year. - Way, way back in 2003, at LCA in Perth, there was a Q&A session with Linus Torvalds, Bdale Garbee and Andrew Tridgell. It’s time for a follow-up so at LCA 2015 in Auckland it’s going to happen! The Q&A session is scheduled for 09:00 am Friday, 16 January 2015 and will be moderated by Bdale Garbee with the assistance of Andrew Tridgell. Helsinki-born Linus, who simply calls himself a Software Engineer, was the principle force behind developing the Linux kernel. It all started from an initial usenet posting in August of 1991 and made what has proved to be a historic debut with the release of version 1.0 on March 14 1994. In June 2003 Linus started working for Open Source Development Labs. After merging with the Free Standards Group it became the Linux Foundation where Linus continues to work as the project’s coordinator and is Chief Architect of the Linux kernel. In 2005, after criticism for for his use and alleged advocacy of BitKeeper, proprietary software for version-control in the Linux kernel, Linus wrote a free-software replacement for BitKeeper called GIT which is now the most widely-adopted version-control system for software development. Linus is an accomplished diver and in 2011, frustrated with the lack of decent divelog software on Linux, he developed Subsurface (http://subsurface-divelog.org/) an Open Source divelog program that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. We know that there are a number of beautiful diving spots not too far from Auckland... The LCA 2015 Auckland team would like to thank the Linux Foundation for their assistance in making this possible. -------------------------------------------- Steven Ellis - Technical Director OpenMedia Limited - The Home of myPVR email - steven(a)openmedia.co.nz _______________________________________________ Openchat mailing list Openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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moving the mailing list - recap
by Peter Reutemann 02 Dec '14

02 Dec '14

Hi everyone >From what I can gather, the main reason for moving the mailing list (aggressive spam filtering), no longer seems to be an issue. Therefore, I think that we can end the discussion and leave things just as they are. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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