April 2020 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Raspberry Pi Gains a New 12.3-Megapixel Camera and Interchangeable Lenses
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '20

01 May '20

'The Raspberry Pi can be used for all sorts of maker projects, and the foundation has offered camera modules for it since 2013, adding vision-related functionality. The first module was a modest 5-megapixel affair that was eventually replaced by an 8-megapixel Sony sensor four years ago. Today, sees the arrival of a new much higher 12.3 megapixel quality camera, and a range of interchangeable lenses. >From a report: The new camera is compatible with all Raspberry Pi models -- from Pi 1 Model B onwards -- with the exception of early Pi Zero boards. The camera is available to buy from today for $50.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/04/30/1554232 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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Predictive Text Patent Troll Tries To Shake Down Wikipedia
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

'WordLogic (patent troll) claims it has the rights of the concept of predictive text writing and went after the Wikimedia foundation. WordLogic offered a "discounted, lump sum fee of $30,000 in exchange for a paid-up one-time license," an easy win they thought, but Wikimedia fought back. "Wikimedia notes that (1) WordLogic's patents are invalid due to prior art, (2) that they are invalid for not covering patentable subject matter, and (3) that anyway, it doesn't even infringe on the patents if they were valid," reports Techdirt. Now we are waiting to see what will happen. Will the patent troll desist, or will it push forward?' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/04/29/216210 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 Data Hoarders
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

Turns out there’s a whole Reddit subforum devoted to the subject of digital data hoarding. And of course the activity has a long history, from well before the era of digital electronic computers <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/04/digital-hoarders-our-terabytes-are-p…>.

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A bit of light relief!!
by john 30 Apr '20

30 Apr '20

A plain computer illiterate guy rings tech support to report that his computer is faulty. Tech: What’s the problem? User: There is smoke coming out of the power supply. Tech: (keep quite) Tech: You’ll need a new power supply. User: No, I don’t! I just need to change the startup files. Tech: Sir, the power supply is faulty. You’ll need to replace it. User: No way! Someone told me that I just needed to change the startup and it will fix the problem! All I need is for you to tell me the command. Tech support:: 10 minutes later, the User is still adamant that he is right. The tech is frustrated and fed up. Tech support:: (hush hush) Tech: Sorry, Sir. We don’t normally tell our customers this, but there is an undocumented DOS command that will fix the problem. User: I knew it! Tech : Just add the line LOAD NOSMOKE.COM at the end of the CONFIG.SYS. Let me know how it goes. 10 minutes later. User : It didn’t work. The power supply is still smoking. Tech : Well, what version of DOS are you using? User : MS-DOS 6.22 . Tech : That’s your problem there. That version of DOS didn’t come with NOSMOKE. Contact Microsoft and ask them for a patch that will give you the file. Let me know how it goes. 1 hour later. User : I need a new power supply. Tech support : How did you come to that conclusion? Tech support : (hush hush) User : Well, I rang Microsoft and told him about what you said, and he started asking questions about the make of power supply. Tech: Then what did he say? User: He told me that my power supply isn’t compatible with NOSMOKE. Cheers John..

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OS Vulnerabilities
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

While fixes for security bugs on the Linux platform usually come out quickly, there do seem to be a lot of laggards in deploying them <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/vulnerabilities_report_9_million/>. Why is this? The researchers speculate that "Windows admins are more accustomed to regular reboots after decades of conditioning," while "tooling for managing Linux fleets at scale generally lags behind that of Windows." Also perhaps the Linux installations include a lot of embedded/IoT devices that never get manufacturer updates.

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Alternatives To The OOM Killer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

By default, if a process asks for more (virtual) memory, the Linux kernel never says no. (It can be easily configured to do so, if you want.) Therefore, it is possible for a process to try to access more memory than the system has available. This situation triggers the dreaded “OOM Killer” <https://lwn.net/Articles/317814/>, which hunts around for resource-hogging processes and kills them according to a priority scheme that nobody quite understands. To avoid things getting this bad, various people have come up with alternatives in the form of userspace daemons that monitor system resource usage, and implement their own (configurable) rules for killing processes before things get dire enough to wake up the OOM Killer. The announcement of Fedora 32 mentions <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/28/red_hat_summit/> the inclusion of one of these solutions, “EarlyOOM”. Looking at the project’s <https://github.com/rfjakob/earlyoom> readme page shows mention of two others: “nohang” (written in Python) and “oomd” (from Facebook). I see all three available as standard Debian packages, at least as of Debian Unstable.

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One Space Or Two?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Apr '20

29 Apr '20

>From the “Yet Another Subject For A Holy War” Department, Microsoft is planning for the next update to Word to flag two spaces after a full stop and before the next sentence as a typo <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/27/microsoft_roundup/>. Two spaces after a full stop was long-standing practice for typewritten text, and carried over to some extent to computer users. But with the advent of WYSIWYG word processing and proportional fonts, it became more common to adopt the practice of typeset text, and only put one space after a full stop, before the next sentence. Where do you stand? Microsoft ran a poll on the question, and it seems the majority favoured a single space.

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Lenovo is joining Dell in the “OEM Linux Laptop” club
by Peter Reutemann 28 Apr '20

28 Apr '20

'It looks like Lenovo may upstage Dell as the big name in OEM Linux laptops—not counting specialty retailers like System76, of course. Red Hat and Lenovo are announcing pre-installed and factory-supported Fedora Workstation on several models of ThinkPad laptops at Red Hat Summit this week. Dell's Linux support has generally been limited to one or two very specific laptops—first, the old Atom-powered netbooks and, more recently, the XPS 13 Developer Edition line. Lenovo is planning a significantly broader Linux footprint in its lineup. Fedora Workstation will be a selectable option during purchase for the Thinkpad P1 Gen2, Thinkpad P53, and Thinkpad X1 Gen8 laptops—and Lenovo may offer even broader model support in the future. Lenovo Senior Linux Developer Mark Pearson, who will be the featured guest in the May 2020 Fedora Council Video Meeting, expresses the company's stance on forthcoming integration: "Lenovo is excited to become a part of the Fedora community. We want to ensure an optimal Linux experience on our products. We are committed to working with and learning from the open source community."' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/lenovo-is-joining-dell-in-the-oem-l… 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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Hackers Are Exploiting a Sophos Firewall Zero-day
by Peter Reutemann 28 Apr '20

28 Apr '20

'Cyber-security firm Sophos has published an emergency security update to patch a zero-day vulnerability in its XG enterprise firewall product that was being abused in the wild by hackers. From a report: Sophos said it first learned of the zero-day on late Wednesday, April 22, after it received a report from one of its customers. The customer reported seeing "a suspicious field value visible in the management interface." After investigating the report, Sophos determined this was an active attack and not an error in its product. "The attack used a previously unknown SQL injection vulnerability to gain access to exposed XG devices," Sophos said in a security advisory today. Hackers targeted Sophos XG Firewall devices that had their administration (HTTPS service) or the User Portal control panel exposed on the internet. Sophos said the hackers used the SQL injection vulnerability to download a payload on the device. This payload then stole files from the XG Firewall.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/04/27/162211 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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New CPU Performance Testing Concludes AMD Beats Intel
by Peter Reutemann 27 Apr '20

27 Apr '20

'If you're looking for the best gaming CPU or the best CPU for desktop applications, there are only two choices to pick from: AMD and Intel. That fact has spawned an almost religious following for both camps, and the resulting flamewars, that make it tricky to get unbiased advice about the best choice for your next processor. But in many cases, the answer is actually very clear. In fact, for most users, it's a blowout win in AMD's favor. That's an amazing reversal of fortunes for the chipmaker after it teetered on the edge of bankruptcy a mere three years ago, making its turnaround all the more impressive as it continues to upset the entrenched Intel that enjoyed a decade of dominance... Pricing is the most important consideration for almost everyone, and AMD is hard to beat in the value department. The company offers a plethora of advantages, like bundled coolers and full overclockability on all models, not to mention complimentary software that includes the innovative Precision Boost Overdrive auto-overclocking feature. You also benefit from the broad compatibility of Socket AM4 motherboards that support both forward and backward compatibility, ensuring that not only do you get the most bang for your processor buck, but also your motherboard investment. AMD also allows overclocking on all but its A-Series motherboards (see our article on how to overclock AMD Ryzen), which is another boon for users. And, in this battle of AMD vs Intel CPUs, we haven't even discussed the actual silicon yet. AMD's modern processors tend to offer either more cores or threads and faster PCIe 4.0 connectivity at every single price point. "We're not covering laptop or server chips," the article notes, adding "There's a clear winner overall, but which brand of CPU you should buy depends most on what kind of features, price and performance are important to you." Still, it's noteworthy that AMD beats Intel in 7 out of 10 comparisons. The three in which Intel won were gaming performance ("only because we measure strictly by the absolute top performance possible"), drivers and software ("the company has an army of software developers [and] a decade of dominance also finds most software developers optimizing almost exclusively for Intel architectures"), and overclocking, where Intel "has far more headroom and much higher attainable frequencies. "Just be prepared to pay for the privilege."' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/20/04/26/1622236 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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