January 2020 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

List Of IPTV Resources
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Sep '24

22 Sep '24

This user <https://github.com/iptv-org> just popped up in my GitHub feed. One repo <https://github.com/iptv-org/iptv> claims to be a list of links to over 8000 streaming TV channels from nations all over the world, while the other is a list of tools*, providers and other resources. Do be aware it’s a bit of a mixed bag: yes, there are legitimate channels (no encryption so far that I have noticed), but also some dubious-looking links. *Oddly, FFmpeg and youtube-dl aren’t in the list.

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Stopping Alert Volume Going To 100%
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Jan '21

20 Jan '21

For quite a while now, I’ve been annoyed by the system notification volume going to 100% on my Debian systems, regardless of my attempts to set it to a lower level. For example, when I open the KDE System Settings app, change something, then try to close the window, the sound that accompanies the save/discard/cancel alert is always startlingly loud. I think I have finally found a fix: in your /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, put in a line saying flat-volumes = no (You should find an existing comment “; flat-volumes = yes” that indicates the default.) You can make this new setting take effect in the current session immediately without having to logout or reboot, by executing the following as the currently-logged-in user: pulseaudio -k (This kills and restarts the PulseAudio daemon for your user session.) There are several discussions of the pros and cons of this issue online, going back some years. For example, here <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1265267>. Also a mention about the “flat-volumes” setting in the ever-reliable Arch Linux Wiki here <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio>.

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How Qualcomm Shook Down The Cell Phone Industry For Almost 20 Years
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Aug '20

15 Aug '20

A pretty sobering read <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/05/how-qualcomm-shook-down-the-cel…>: Qualcomm's first weapon against competitors: patent licensing terms requiring customers to pay a royalty on every phone sold—not just phones that contained Qualcomm's wireless chips. Sound familiar? Judge Koh draws a direct parallel to licensing behavior that got Microsoft in legal trouble in the 1990s. Microsoft would offer PC makers a discount if they agreed to pay Microsoft a licensing fee for every PC sold—whether or not the PC shipped with a copy of MS-DOS. This effectively meant that a PC maker had to pay twice if it shipped a PC running a non-Microsoft operating system. There’s a lot more--the article reads like a catalogue of gangster-like tactics. All of which is perfectly all right under the US interpretation of “Free Enterprise”, of course ... Also, reading the details of how Qualcomm managed to sabotage Intel’s efforts to develop 5G chips, it seems to me that Qualcomm is directly responsible for the situation today where US companies are lagging behind Chinese ones like Huawei in 5G capability.

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Edge TV Now Online-Only
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Apr '20

22 Apr '20

If there is anybody else besides me who wondered what happened to Edge TV, as of the beginning of this month it is no longer on Freeview, it can now only be viewed as an online stream <https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/113928839/the-edge-tv-remove…>. In the last few days of June, there was a promo announcing that it was going HD, but I don’t recall it mentioning that it was leaving the broadcast airwaves. Quote: MediaWorks chief executive Michael Anderson says the move is in line with audience trends, which show people primarily consume music videos online. While that may be mostly true, personally I would go look for videos on YouTube after seeing them first on Edge TV.

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The State Of Video Streaming In NZ
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Feb '20

03 Feb '20

Apple’s TV+ streaming service is coming soon, followed by Disney’s one <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=122666…>. Note: Disney+ will break Sky's longtime near-monopoly on Disney content in these parts. Disney says that, ultimately, Disney+ will be the exclusive home of its content. So to get a comparable range of TV content to that you currently have free-to-air, you are going to have to subscribe to two or three or maybe more different streaming services. The increasing multitude of things to pay for isn’t about choice, but about no choice at all.

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Mozilla Moves To Monetize Thunderbird, Transfers Project To New Subsidiary
by Peter Reutemann 31 Jan '20

31 Jan '20

'The Mozilla Foundation announced today that it was moving its Thunderbird email client to a new subsidiary named the MZLA Technologies Corporation. From a report: Mozilla said that Thunderbird will continue to remain free and open source, but by moving the project away from its foundation into a corporate entity they will be able to monetize the product and pay for its development easier than before. Currently, Thunderbird is primarily being kept alive through charitable donations from the product's userbase. "Moving to MZLA Technologies Corporation will not only allow the Thunderbird project more flexibility and agility, but will also allow us to explore offering our users products and services that were not possible under the Mozilla Foundation," said Philipp Kewisch, Mozilla Product Manager. "The move will allow the project to collect revenue through partnerships and non-charitable donations, which in turn can be used to cover the costs of new products and services," Kewisch added.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/01/29/1430253 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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64-Bit Times On 32-Bit Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Jan '20

31 Jan '20

Some more patches have gone into the Linux kernel <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/30/linux_5_6_2038/> to allow 32-bit builds to deal with times past the year-2038 barrier. Basically the fix involves offering a 64-bit alternative to the original time_t type, without the whole app having to go 64-bit. One point I noticed is that certain filesystems (e.g. ext2, presumably ext3 as well) store on-disk fields with 32-bit timestamps, so if you’re using one of these, you’ll have to reformat the disks as well. And that would apply even if you’re already using a 64-bit OS.

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GetTogether.community - alternative to meetup.com
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jan '20

30 Jan '20

Hi everyone Based on our discussions at the AGM on Monday night... Next year, I'll be advertising our meetings also on GetTogether, a free/open-source alternative to meetup.com. If you've been using meetup.com, please consider helping me test-drive GetTogether by creating an account and joining the WLUG team/group. WLUG is accessible here on GetTogether: https://gettogether.community/waikato-linux-users-group/ 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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autoremove
by john 29 Jan '20

29 Jan '20

Hi all, At our last meeting Tom was concerned about Linux bloating with surplus files. I have always found this to seldom be the case due to : a. The new download removes the older files or: b. The command autoremove clears the unused kernels and other not required files. eg. john(a)polomint:~$ sudo apt autoremove Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED: linux-headers-4.15.0-72 linux-headers-4.15.0-72-generic linux-image-4.15.0-72-generic linux-modules-4.15.0-72-generic linux-modules-extra-4.15.0-72-generic 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 5 to remove and 4 not upgraded. After this operation, 332 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Cheers John..

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Intel Is Patching Its 'Zombieload' CPU Security Flaw For the Third Time
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jan '20

28 Jan '20

'For the third time in less than a year, Intel has disclosed a new set of vulnerabilities related to the speculative functionality of its processors. On Monday, the company said it will issue a software update "in the coming weeks" that will fix two more microarchitectural data sampling (MDS) or Zombieload flaws. This latest update comes after the company released two separate patches in May and November of last year. Compared to the MDS flaws Intel addressed in those two previous patches, these latest ones have a couple of limitations. To start, one of the vulnerabilities, L1DES, doesn't work on Intel's more recent chips. Moreover, a hacker can't execute the attack using a web browser. Intel also says it's "not aware" of anyone taking advantage of the flaws outside of the lab. In response to complaints of the company's piecemeal approach, Intel said that it has taken significant steps to reduce the danger the flaws represent to its processors. "Since May 2019, starting with Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS), and then in November with TAA, we and our system software partners have released mitigations that have cumulatively and substantially reduced the overall attack surface for these types of issues," a spokesperson for the company said. "We continue to conduct research in this area -- internally, and in conjunction with the external research community.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/01/27/2126231 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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