- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

64-bit Raspberry Pi OS exits beta, is available for all Pi 3, 4, and Zero 2 boards
by Peter Reutemann 03 Feb '22

03 Feb '22

'The Raspberry Pi hardware has included a 64-bit processor since the Pi 3 launched in early 2016, but the Raspberry Pi OS (formerly known as Raspbian) has remained primarily 32-bit. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has been testing a 64-bit version of the OS since 2020, though, and today the organization announced that the 64-bit version is leaving beta and is now a fully supported OS option on all 64-bit Pi hardware. This includes the Pi 3, Pi 4, Pi Zero 2 W, and all variants thereof.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/64-bit-raspberry-pi-os-exits-beta-i… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Backblaze Hard Drive Reliability Stats For 2021
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

Data-backup company Backblaze has released its annual report on hard-drive reliability for 2021 <https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/01/backblaze_hd_reliability_stats_show/>. Interesting that there is an overall longer-term downward trend in drive failures, though this can fluctuate some. The company is in a good position to compare different brands and models, since they tend to shop around a lot (look at that list). Their whole system is designed to cope with drive failures, and given how many drives they have, they get a lot of failures. So there is plenty of raw data available to analyze, which they make freely available.

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Remembering Windows Vista
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Feb '22

02 Feb '22

Here is a look back <https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/01/happy_birthday_windows_vista/> at the troubled gestation of Windows Vista. It’s useful as a retrospective, full of links to reports on developments from that time. One of the article links is to this analysis <https://www.theregister.com/2001/08/07/ms_poised_to_switch_windows/> of where Microsoft was supposedly going at the time. (Re)reading that is like peering through a portal into an alien, forgotten world -- one where the company was full of grandiose plans for building an entire OS on Dotnet, making your Exchange mail folders look like a filesystem volume, tying the representation of Office documents to proprietary features of NTFS, and turning the filesystem itself into a database. And one where users and pundits took such plans seriously.

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German Court Fines Company For Linking To Google-Hosted Web Font
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

Seems lots of websites link to web fonts hosted by Google. But do they realize this means that users of their sites are sending their IP addresses to Google’s servers? And that not getting the consent of your users to such a thing can land you in legal trouble, at least in the EU? <https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/website_fine_google_fonts_gdpr/> I don’t know why people do this anyway -- depending on another site just introduces an additional potential point of failure to your site. Fonts are not that big‡: how great a hardship would it be to copy them to your own site, and link to them there? ‡Had a quick check of my /usr/share/fonts/truetype/noto/ directory, which contains an installation of Google’s entire Unicode-friendly “Noto” font collection; that’s got 2380 entries totalling not quite half a gigabyte.

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A Developer Watching QA Test The Product
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

Those with OCD tendencies might want to look away ... <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baY3SaIhfl0>

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Fwd: [NZLUG] Fwd: Flounder startup 5th Feb 1PM Melbourne time
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

Apologies for cross-posting, but this event might be of interest to some of you. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Russell Coker <russell(a)coker.com.au> Date: Sun, Jan 30, 2022 at 10:53 PM Subject: [NZLUG] Fwd: Flounder startup 5th Feb 1PM Melbourne time To: DL Neil <nzlug(a)etelligence.info>, Stephen Dalton <steve(a)refactor.com.au>, NZ Linux Users Group <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz>, Mark Foster <blakjak(a)blakjak.net> https://flounder.coker.com.au/2022/01/30/flounder-overview/ The FLOSS Down Under group (Flounder) group is starting next Saturday 1PM Melbourne time (the above page summarises it). https://b.coker.com.au/ The above URL will redirect to the meeting URL, it's deliberately short so if your primary device has an issue you can quickly type it into another device. We haven't entirely decided on the main feature, but thinking of having it be hands on training on BTRFS and ZFS while at the same time discussing new advances (both new technology and older technology that has become cheaper and thus more usable) in storage for FOSS systems. If there's someone who has experience with Optane on Linux who could give a 10+ minute talk about it then please contact me off list. The meetings will include a summary and discussion of new free software that is noteworthy (with input welcome from anyone who thinks we missed something noteworthy). We will also have some mention of recent security issues and other changes to the environment that we operate in. Anyone who wants to contribute to a meeting can contact me in advance to have some time reserved for a lightning talk or a feature talk at a future meeting. Please forward this message to all free software users groups in Australia and NZ. Note that this is not designed to compete with existing LUGs, but to offer something different. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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A Bug in Early Creative Commons Licenses Has Enabled a New Breed of Superpredator
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

'Here’s a supreme irony: the Creative Commons licenses were invented to enable a culture of legally safe sharing, spurred by the legal terror campaign waged by the entertainment industry, led by a literal criminal predator who is now in prison for sex crimes. But because of a small oversight in old versions of the licenses created 12 years ago, a new generation of legal predator has emerged to wage a new campaign of legal terror. To make matters worse, this new kind of predator specifically targets people who operate in good faith, only using materials that they explicitly have been given permission to use.' -- source: https://doctorow.medium.com/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-en… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Review: MNT Reform laptop has fully open hardware and software—for better or worse
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '22

01 Feb '22

'If you’re a Linux fan or open source advocate looking for a decent laptop, you actually have some solid options right now—much better, at least, than buying a Windows laptop, installing Linux on it, and hoping for the best. Dell has offered Ubuntu editions of some of its XPS laptops and other PCs for years now, and Lenovo sells a respectable collection of desktops and laptops with Linux. System76 sells a selection of Linux-friendly laptops preloaded with Ubuntu or its own Pop!_OS distribution. The repair-friendly Framework Laptop doesn’t ship with Linux, but it can be configured without an OS, and Framework promises robust Linux support from multiple distributions. But those laptops all have something in common with run-of-the-mill Windows PCs: a reliance on closed-source hardware and, often, the proprietary software and drivers needed to make it function. For some people, this is a tolerable trade-off. You put up with the closed hardware because it performs well, and it supports the standard software, development tools, and APIs that keep the computing world spinning. For others, it’s anathema—if you can’t see the source code for these “binary blobs,” they are inherently untrustworthy and should be used sparingly or not at all. The MNT Reform is a laptop for the latter group. It's a crowdfunded, developed-in-the-open, extensively documented device that cares more about being open than it cares about literally any other aspect of the computing experience. Perhaps predictably, this makes for a laptop that is ideologically pure but functionally compromised.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/review-mnt-reform-laptop-has-fully-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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GitHub Is Broken
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Jan '22

28 Jan '22

github.com is currently returning a server-error page.

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Only 90s Web Developers Remember This
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Jan '22

28 Jan '22

An only-slightly-tongue-in-cheek expletive-laden rant <https://zachholman.com/posts/only-90s-developers/> about how Web development used to be: the wonders of the 1×1 GIF (“To this day it is the only way to vertically center elements”) and the fun of “ ”, to the coming of JavaScript to create the “Technology of Terror”, DHTML (Dynamic HTML).

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