December 2019 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Facebook is Building an Operating System So it Can Ditch Android
by Peter Reutemann 20 Dec '19

20 Dec '19

'Facebook doesn't want its hardware like Oculus and Portal to be at the mercy of Google because they rely on its Android operating system. >From a report: That's why Facebook has tasked a co-author of Microsoft's Windows NT named Mark Lucovsky with building the social network an operating system from scratch, according the The Information's Alex Heath. "We really want to make sure the next generation has space for us," says Facebook's VP of hardware Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth. "We don't think we can trust the marketplace or competitors to ensure that's the case. And so we're gonna do it ourselves." By moving to its own OS, Facebook could have more freedom to bake social interaction -- and hopefully privacy -- deeper into its devices. It could also prevent a disagreement between Google and Facebook from derailing the roadmaps of Oculus, Portal, or future gadgets. One added bonus of moving to a Facebook-owned operating system? It could make it tougher to force Facebook to spin out some of its acquisitions, especially if Facebook goes with Instagram branding for its future augmented reality glasses.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/12/19/1747243 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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Apple, Google, and Amazon team up to create “CHIP,” a new smart home standard
by Peter Reutemann 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

'Apple, Google, Amazon, and the Zigbee Alliance have all teamed up to make a new smart home standard. The new working group went live today under the name of "Project Connected Home over IP" with announcement blog posts from Google, Apple, Zigbee, and a new website, connectedhomeip.com. The name doesn't sound too catchy until you realize "Connected Home over IP" abbreviates to "CHIP" which, across all these blog posts, is quietly used only a single time in the official FAQ. According to the new website, "The goal of the Connected Home over IP project is to simplify development for manufacturers and increase compatibility for consumers." But thanks to XKCD, we all know that one new standard to "unite them all" often just results in making one additional standard available, but assuming the companies involved actually support their own standard, this could—maybe—make things easier for consumers.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/12/apple-google-and-amazon-team-up-for… 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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Hate Speech Row: Fine Or Jail Anyone Who Calls People Boffins, Geeks or Eggheads, Psychology Nerd Demands
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

>From <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/18/nerds_hate_speech/>: Labeling super-smart people with terms like nerd, geek, or boffin is hate speech, and should be punishable as such, argues lecturer and Harley-Street psychotherapist Dr Sonja Falck. ... She then embarked on a “contextual analysis of literature” and decided that calling someone a boffin was equivalent to the worst racial slurs. A couple of points occur to me. One is, one should be careful of the logical pitfalls of arguing “A is no better than B”. Because the flip side of that is that you are also saying “B is no worse than A”. In the process of trying to demonize A, and in the absence of any additional evidence for your position, you could be seen to be trivializing B. The other point is that targeted groups seem to be granted a licence to own terms which are used as slurs against them. These terms become accepted as commonplace inside the group, that nobody outside is allowed to use.

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IoT is becoming popular
by leoole123＠yandex.ru 19 Dec '19

19 Dec '19

Smart technologies are rapidly spreading among ordinary users. More and more intelligent and remotely controlled equipment appears in our lives. But let’s see not from the user’s side. Let’s mind like a creator’s. Where is it better to place a “control center”? More and more integrators are transferring their capacities to the public cloud; there is formed a system for management. Labels from all things come through the gateways and are processed directly in the cloud. If the Internet connection is interrupted, all modules continue to work, and immediately after the appearance of the connections are synchronized. More details here: https://www.sim-networks.com/en/blog/iot-solutions-in-sim-cloud

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Open Source Gets No Respect, Episode #310
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

The developer of FUSE for macOS <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/12/16/fuse_macos_closed_source/> found that, while many companies were including his software in their commercial products, they were curiously reluctant to offer him any actual monetary support for his work. So he took the drastic step of making the latest version closed-source. While it continues to be available for non-commercial use at no charge, commercial vendors will need to license it for inclusion in their products. The result? He has actually got a bunch of licensing deals signed now.

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Dyktando
by jakub.adecki＠interia.pl 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

Zachęcaj swojeg dzieco aby uczyło się ortografi. Zasady gramatyki i ortografii są konieczne do sukcesu w życiu. Za każdym razem warto dokonać korekty niewłaściwej pisowni. Dlatego tak ważne jest systematyczne ćwiczenie i nauka prawidłowej pisowni wyrazów. Sprawdź https://dyktanda.pl/

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Microsoft Begins Accepting Extensions For Its Edge Chromium Browser
by Peter Reutemann 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

'Microsoft's new Chromium-based Edge browser is now open to developers to submit extensions. The updated version of Edge is set to launch on January 15. From a report: Microsoft says that if a developer has already created an extension for Google Chrome, there shouldn't be any additional work to port it over to Edge Chromium. The browser will be the new default delivered to all 900 million Windows 10 users, so developers should have no reason not to port their extensions over.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/19/12/17/1621248 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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Mozilla To Add Second DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) Provider in Firefox
by Peter Reutemann 18 Dec '19

18 Dec '19

'Mozilla has announced that NextDNS would be joining Cloudflare as the second DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) provider inside Firefox. From a report: The browser maker says NextDNS passed the conditions imposed by its Trusted Recursive Resolver (TRR) program, and can now be added as a second option for DoH inside Firefox. These conditions include (1) limiting the data NextDNS collects from the DoH server used by Firefox users; (2) being transparent about the data they collect; and (3) promising not to censor, filter, or block DNS traffic unless specifically requested by law enforcement. DNS-over-HTTPS, or DoH, is a new feature that was added to Firefox last year. When enabled, it encrypts DNS traffic coming in and out of the browser. DNS traffic is not only encrypted but also moved from port 53 (for DNS traffic) to port 443 (for HTTPS traffic), effectively hiding DNS queries and replies inside the browser's normal stream of HTTPS content. This encrypted DNS traffic reaches a so-called DoH resolver. Here, the DoH traffic is decrypted and the DoH resolver makes the DNS query on the user's behalf, receives the result, encrypts it, and sends it back to the user's browser -- also disguised inside encrypted HTTPS content.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/12/17/1922254 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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Npm Team Warns of New 'Binary Planting' Bug
by Peter Reutemann 17 Dec '19

17 Dec '19

' The team behind npm, the biggest package manager for JavaScript libraries, issued a security alert yesterday, advising all users to update to the latest version (6.13.4) to prevent "binary planting" attacks. From a report: Npm (Node.js Package Manager) devs say the npm command-line interface (CLI) client is impacted by a security bug -- a combination between a file traversal and an arbitrary file (over)write issue. The bug can be exploited by attackers to plant malicious binaries or overwrite files on a user's computer. The vulnerability can be exploited only during the installation of a boobytrapped npm package via the npm CLI. "However, as we have seen in the past, this is not an insurmountable barrier," said the npm team, referring to past incidents where attackers planed backdoored or boobytrapped packages on the official npm repository. Npm devs say they've been scanning the npm portal for packages that may contain exploit code designed to exploit this bug, but have not seen any suspicious cases. "That does not guarantee that it hasn't been used, but it does mean that it isn't currently being used in published packages on the [official npm] registry," npm devs said.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/19/12/16/1513245 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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Google Halts Chrome 79 Rollout After It Breaks Some Android Apps
by Peter Reutemann 16 Dec '19

16 Dec '19

'Chrome 79 is creating an issue with WebView (the Android component that allows apps to display content from the web), reports 9to5Google: On Friday morning, Android developers reliant on WebView and local storage began encountering an issue where their apps lost data after users updated to version 79 of WebView. Those affected took to Chromium's bug tracker, and have described the incident as a "catastrophe" and "major issue." To end users, it's as if apps were entirely reset and just downloaded for the first time. This includes saved data disappearing or being logged out. Given the level of system opacity, most will blame developers for a problem that's out of their hands. By that afternoon, Google engineers responded and isolated the issue to "profile layout changes" where "local storage was missed off the list of files migrated." A member of the Chromium team apologized Saturday morning, with the Chrome/WebView rollout halted after 50% of devices already received the update. At the highest priority level (P0), Google is currently "working on a solution that minimizes the data loss, and that can be rolled out safely." The last guidance for a patch is 5-7 days.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/12/15/181240 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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