August 2021 - 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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Enabling Case-Insensitive Filenames On Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Feb '24

06 Feb '24

The ext4 filesystem has had the “casefold” option for a while now <https://lwn.net/Articles/784041/>. This allows you to specify, when you initialize a new filesystem, that you want file/directory names to be treated as case-insensitive. At the same time, you have to specify that the filenames are to be interpreted as UTF-8 encoding; normally the kernel doesn’t care, it only singles out ASCII slash and NUL bytes for special interpretation, and simply passes through any other byte values in the names. I was able to create such a filesystem, but I wasn’t able to mount it in my last-upgraded-just-a-few-days-ago Debian Unstable setup. When I try, it fails, and in the dmesg log I see Filesystem with casefold feature cannot be mounted without CONFIG_UNICODE Turns out the Debian 5.10 kernel has not been built with this CONFIG_UNICODE option enabled. However, this situation looks set to change shortly, according to <https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=985689>.

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Outlawing Dark Patterns
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Nov '22

05 Nov '22

“Dark patterns” is a term coined to describe user interfaces designed to manipulate people into giving up time, money or personal data that they didn’t intend to. A common example is the obstacle course you often have to go through to cancel a subscription to something online. Another example is the use of countdown timers to rush buyers into hasty decisions. They may not be out-and-out deceptive, but they do come close. Now, the US states of California and Washington are looking to pass laws to restrict this practice. <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/01/lawmakers-take-aim-at-insidious…>

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Apple’s Windows 10
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Jul '22

19 Jul '22

Fred Brooks predicted long ago that complex pieces of software would eventually reach the point of irreducible entropy, where any attempt to fix a bug would simply introduce a new one. Microsoft’s Windows 10 seems to be about there, and it’s now clear that Apple’s macOS 10.15 “Catalina” has also joined that elite group <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/27/apple_catalina_update/>: The first spin of Catalina, officially released in October 2019, was a mess. ... The biggest issue was that all kinds of apps simply stopped working. ... Peripherals like mice, keyboards and printers stopped working. Email went missing; iCloud backups failed; users were constantly harassed by login requests; updates didn’t update ... ... So came for the first update to its new system one week after the main launch which fixed some, but not all, of the issues. ... Version two came in December 2019 and fixed some of those issues, but not all. ... More bug fixes came with version three in January 2020, but the OS seemed to have finally stabilized; something that was then spectacularly undone with version .4. ... Then we had the “supplemental update” to version 10.15.4, which fixed some, but not all, of the problems – most significantly the problem with Finder and transferring large files. And, amazingly, appeared to undo the good work that had been done with website security and broke SSH for some users. But now, with version point-five this week, that problem appears to have been sorted and, of course, your battery might last longer too.

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Linux On Mars: NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Flies
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 May '22

10 May '22

The first powered aircraft on Mars <https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/19/perseverance_computing_feature/> has proved its concept, taken flight for a few seconds, and made a controlled landing again. The control system is running Linux on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chip, not because NASA considered it the best tool for the job, but because it was the easiest solution available. The hardware “is tuned for use on Earth, not Mars”, so it is only planned to make brief flights of no more than 90 seconds at a time, always landing back at the same spot, and it is not expected to endure beyond the initial 30 days of the Perseverance mission.

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Hi, I have parcels going missing. Does anyone know of technology to trace parcels?
by Michelle 18 Sep '21

18 Sep '21

It would presumably use GPS. It would involve a very small device put in the parcel that a thief would very possibly not even see when the parcel is scanned at customs. The icing on the cake would be if the route of the parcel was able to be recorded as evidence. I will give more details later like it going on for 3 months and involving parcels posted in NZ as well. But this is trial run email because I haven't posted in a long time and I want to make sure I am doing it right. I am hoping that if anyone replies to this that there is a convenient reply to button or link that I can reply back to. Oh well, after I send this email I want to go to the site and see if it has posted. Thanks for any help.

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More On The NZ Reserve Bank Breach
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Sep '21

15 Sep '21

Seems hackers broke into a secure file-sharing service called Accellion, based in California. The RBNZ was using that to exchange documents with the likes of banks and insurance companies. <https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123911764/reserve-bank-reveals-more-detail…>

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On-Prem Windows Server: Are Its Days Numbered?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Aug '21

31 Aug '21

Microsoft has released yet another typically confusing update on the future of its family of Windows Server products <https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/28/windows_server_2022_sac/>. What’s clear from the details is that development is primarily going into the cloudy versions of Windows Server, with those who prefer to manage their own instances on their own hardware being increasingly left behind: At a high level, it seems that Microsoft is investing in Azure and [Azure Kubernetes Service], and that on-premises Windows Server users are in some respects being left behind. It is notable, for example, that Active Directory's functional level has not changed since Windows Server 2016, and this remains the case in Server 2022. ... SMB over QUIC, which promises secure access to Windows file shares from anywhere, is another key feature which will be available only in Windows Server Azure Edition. The article notes that on-prem Windows Server being slowly moved to the back burner in this way “will not go down well with on-premises users, nor perhaps with rival clouds running Windows Server”. But then again, given that Microsoft’s own cloud offerings are predominantly Linux-based, I can’t see other cloud services doing any better with Windows.

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ESR On GitHub
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Aug '21

29 Aug '21

NZ’s Institute of Environmental Science and Research (more commonly known as ESR) has a GitHub area at <https://github.com/ESR-NZ>. There are a few repos related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The data repo <https://github.com/ESR-NZ/NZ_COVID19_Data> in particular shows a nice attitude to openness: the data files are in CSV format, and the licence is CC-BY. I see quite a lot of use of Python and Jupyter there. Also some mention of .xlsx files ... hmmm ...

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Software Microsoft Trusts To Run As Admin
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Aug '21

27 Aug '21

You may have heard of this security bug involving Razer gaming mice <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/08/need-to-get-root-on-…>. Basically, when you plug such a mouse into a Windows system, it automatically downloads and runs an installer “wizard”, which opens a File Explorer window to let you choose where to actually put the additional software. However, this File Explorer instance is running with full admin privileges, without the user’s prior knowledge or consent. How does this happen? Because the buggy version of the installer has been accepted as part of Microsoft’s “Windows Catalog”, which means your Windows installation trusts it with extra privileges purely on Microsoft’s say so. As if we needed another reminder that, with a proprietary OS, you are never really in control of your own systems ...

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