April 2016 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Tauranga Makerspace
by Chris McClimans 20 Apr '16

20 Apr '16

http://onurcelebi.com/blog/how-a-diode-changed-my-life/ I've been working with electronics over the past year, including making a keyboard with batteries, and charging ports, etc for use with various embedded systems, usb, and bluetooth. Reading this article actually helped me solve some of the charging and power problems, and makes me realize I don't know much about electronics. I'm looking forward to getting together with other folks who solder, and see what happens. (Still trying to find housing, but I'm hanging around @basestationnz most mornings)

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Intel To Sack “Up To 12,000” Staff
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

<http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/04/intel-announces-evolution-away-from…> ...the firings were meant to "accelerate [Intel's] evolution from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and billions of smart, connected computing devices." And yet they still insist on trying to push unpopular x86 chips on these markets, instead of the ARM chips that everybody else wants to use.

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topics for next monday?
by Peter Reutemann 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

Hi everyone At the moment, we don't have anything lined up for next Monday. Any ideas for topics? New distros or applications uncovered? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Cybersecurity Report From 1970
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

<http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/flashback-declassified-1970-dod-cyb…> The Ware Report included a list of conclusions and recommendations that (based on recent data breaches and security failures) many have failed to take to heart. “Plus ça change”, as they say...

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by rowan schischka 19 Apr '16

19 Apr '16

> What about a MIPS-oriented distro like OpenWRT? I have never tested OpenWRT. I would think that the strength of openWRT would be in its web interface and it has been customised for specific hardware. Both my embedded devices are capable of running debian and I have no need for a web interface. I think you would use OpenWrt if you already have the hardware for it.

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Re: [wlug] The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by Roger Hardy 18 Apr '16

18 Apr '16

I run several instances of pfsense on both pcengines APU boards and as Xen VM's, and I would use that over pretty much anything these days. Good throughput, easy to manage, and lots of features. In my case this was because my iptables script was getting to be handful as well as IPSec and OpenVPN installations that are now much easier to manage and monitor. Industrial strength magic for home router price from my point of view.

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by rowan schischka 18 Apr '16

18 Apr '16

A few years ago I built an ap on a pc engines alix board. Of course the choice of wireless card is going to be the deciding factor in performance as the alix's cpu and ram is higher than most wireless appliances. My performance was good but not as good as similar priced appliances. I am not using it atm because I'm using a skinny 4g modem. If I needed a wireless ap in the future I would buy an appliance over built due to cost, time, and performance. What you loose out on appliance ap is software and security upgrades. Also the coolest thing with building a router based on debian is you can install anything you want. But if you want to install proxy server, file server and virus scanners don't go for an embedded chip, get a proper pc with decent cpu and hard drive. And lastly I tested the original raspberry pi as an ap. Throughput was terrible. About 1mb per second file transfer speed using rsync, my understanding is that is due to everything running through its USB controller

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The Ars guide to building a Linux router from scratch
by Peter Reutemann 17 Apr '16

17 Apr '16

"After finally reaching the tipping point with off-the-shelf solutions that can't match increasing speeds available, we recently took the plunge. Building a homebrew router turned out to be a better proposition than we could've ever imagined. With nearly any speed metric we analyzed, our little DIY kit outpaced routers whether they were of the $90- or $250-variety." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-ars-guide-to-building-a-linux-ro… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Will Bring Snap Packages For Up-To-Date, More Secure Apps
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '16

13 Apr '16

"Canonical, Ubuntu's parent company, has announced that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Long Term Support) will come with support for the snap packaging format and tools. As a result, end users will get more up-to-date apps, something that proved tricky in the past due âoethe complexity of packaging and providing updates,â which prevented updates to some apps being delivered. Snaps will make the Ubuntu platform more unified, developers will more easily be able to create software for PC, Server, Mobile, or IoT devices. The other major benefit of snaps is that that they're more secure than software installed through deb packages. Snaps are isolated from the rest of the system, meaning that malware packaged with a snap won't be able to affect your Ubuntu installation." -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/13/1627204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The Future of Firefox is Chrome
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '16

13 Apr '16

"Mozilla seems to think a new future for Firefox [lies in Chrome]. While they claim that it is only about new ways of browser design, it is also an open secret that they are running into more and more problems lately with web compatibility. [Senior VP Mark Mayo caused a storm by revealing that the Firefox team is working on a next-generation browser that will run on the same technology as Google's Chrome browser. The project, named Tofino, will not use Firefox's core technology, Gecko, but will instead plumb for Electron, which is built on the technology behind Google's rival Chrome browser, called Chromium.] The benefit of Chromium/Electron would be that it is a solution they could pull much faster forward than their own Servo plans [Servo being Mozilla's Rust-based web engine]. What the real outcome of all this will be, only Mozilla knows so far. But inside Mozilla there is much resistance against such plans... Interesting times are ahead." -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/04/12/2025215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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