February 2019 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

The Second Navstar GPS Rollover Approaches
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Feb '19

12 Feb '19

The US GPS* protocol represents times using a 10-bit field for the week number. This has already rolled over once, from 1023 back to 0, back in 1999, which broke some devices that hadn’t been designed to cope with it. A second rollover is now approaching, as of April 6th (the first Saturday in April). Guess what’s going to happen this time ... <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/12/current_gps_epoch_ends/> *Seems the original official name “Navstar” has been dropped, and “GPS”, instead of being a generic term for such satellite-based navigation systems, is now the specific name of the US one.

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Bruce Schneier: Blockchain And Trust
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Feb '19

12 Feb '19

Another thoughtful essay <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2019/02/blockchain_and_.html> from the well-known computer-security guru: Trust is essential to society. As a species, humans are wired to trust one another. Society can't function without trust, and the fact that we mostly don't even think about it is a measure of how well trust works. .... Most blockchain enthusiasts have a unnaturally narrow definition of trust. They're fond of catchphrases like "in code we trust," "in math we trust," and "in crypto we trust." This is trust as verification. But verification isn't the same as trust. .... Any blockchain system will have to coexist with other, more conventional systems. Modern banking, for example, is designed to be reversible. Bitcoin is not. That makes it hard to make the two compatible, and the result is often an insecurity. Steve Wozniak was scammed out of $70K in bitcoin because he forgot this. .... Honestly, cryptocurrencies are useless. They're only used by speculators looking for quick riches, people who don't like government-backed currencies, and criminals who want a black-market way to exchange money.

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Android Phones Can Be Hacked Remotely By Viewing Malicious PNG Image
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '19

12 Feb '19

'An innocent-looking image -- sent either via the internet or text -- could open your Android phone up to hacking. "While this certainly doesn't apply to all images, Google discovered that a maliciously crafted PNG image could be used to hijack a wide variety of Androids -- those running Android Nougat (7.0), Oreo (8.0), and even the latest Android OS Pie (9.0)," reports CSO Online. From the report: The latest bulletin lists 42 vulnerabilities in total -- 11 of which are rated as critical. The most severe critical flaw is in Framework; it "could enable a remote attacker using a specially crafted PNG file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process." Although Google had no report of the security flaws being actively exploited, it remains to be seen if and how long it will take before attackers use the flaw for real-world attacks. Android owners were urged to patch as soon as security updates becomes available. But let's get real: Even if your Android still receives security updates, there's no telling how long it will be (weeks or months) before manufacturers and carriers get it together to push out the patches. ' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/02/11/2338245 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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Raspberry π Goes Retail
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Feb '19

11 Feb '19

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has opened its first retail shop, in its home town of Cambridge <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/11/pi_shop/>. Some video here <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-47143411>.

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Raspberry Pi Gets Its Own Brick-and-Mortar Retail Store
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '19

08 Feb '19

'The Raspberry Pi, believe it or not, now has its very own retail store. From a report: Located on the first floor of the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, U.K., the Raspberry Pi Store is open through the day, every day, and sells everything from Raspberry Pi microcomputers and accessories, to branded coffee mugs, soft toys, and more. [...] Despite its popularity -- more than 19 million Raspberry Pi units have been sold since 2012 -- the Raspberry Pi still feels a little niche to merit its own dedicated retail store. Indeed, most people who would be interested in building their own electronic gadgets from scratch are likely well-versed in the wonders of online retail. But conversely, that is likely the same reason why the Raspberry Pi Foundation wants its own space in the physical retail realm: it needs a new audience.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/02/07/1332202 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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LibreOffice 6.2 Brings New Interfaces, Performance Improvements To the Open Source Office Suite
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '19

08 Feb '19

'New interface styles and feature improvements are available in version 6.2 of LibreOffice -- the most popular open-source office suite -- released Thursday by The Document Foundation. As with any software update, bug fixes and feature enhancements are present, making this release a significant upgrade, particularly for users coming from Microsoft Office, or working with files created with those programs. LibreOffice now supports SVG-based icons for toolbars in the Breeze, Colibre, and Elementary icon sets as an experimental feature, to better support HiDPI displays increasingly found in notebook PCs. The Elementary icon set was also improved significantly, adding a 32px PNG version, and fixing inconsistencies between the 16, 24, and 32px versions, as well as adding more icons across the set to prevent reverting to defaults. In LibreOffice 6.2, the "Tabbed" interface is now available for Writer, Calc, Impress, and Draw, and is considered sufficiently stable to be a default option. This interface mimics the oft-maligned "Ribbon interface" in Office 2007. The "traditional" Office-style toolbar is default, though the Tabbed interface can be enabled through the "View > User Interface" menus.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/02/07/1737222 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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Blender Wins Annie Award
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Feb '19

06 Feb '19

The “Annies” are the annual awards given out by the International Animated Film Society, aka ASIFA-Hollywood. As part of these, there is a special prize known as the Ub Iwerks award for technical advancement in the art of animation, named for the Disney animator who so famously brought Mickey Mouse to life, back in the day. This is only given out in any particular year when the judges feel that somebody deserves it. Well, the latest winner is none other than Blender, the open-source CG software. Past winners have included software, companies and people, but this appears to be the first time that a piece of Free software has been so honoured. <http://www.cgchannel.com/2018/12/blender-creator-ton-roosendaal-wins-annie-…> <https://www.blender.org/news/ton-roosendaal-and-blender-to-receive-asifa-ho…>

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Old Computer Gear
by Andrew Crosby 06 Feb '19

06 Feb '19

Hi Guys I'm moving cities shortly and have a couple of decades of old computer and electronic gear to pass along. Mainly periferals and parts from AT/ATX era, Also have some old laptops getting up core2duo era, and not sure what else I'll find while I pack. Anyone around here interested in that sort of stuff. Cheers

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