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GPSD Bug Will Switch Your Time-Keeping Systems To March 2002 This Weekend, Unless You Update
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '21

22 Oct '21

'"Apparently a bug in GPSD, the daemon responsible for deriving time from the GPS system, is going to trigger on October 24, 2021, jumping the time back to March of 2002," writes Slashdot reader suutar. "There's a fix that's been committed since August, but of course not everything is up to date." ZDNet's Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes: This will be ugly. Or, as Stephen Williams, who uncovered the bug put it, "I have a feeling that there will be some 'interesting moments' in the early morning when a bunch of the world's stratum 1 NTP servers using GPSD take the long strange trip back to 2002." GPSD maintainer Gary E. Miller has acknowledged the problem, and a fix has been made to the code. To be exact, the fix is in August 2021's GPSD 3.23 release. So, what's the problem if the fix is already in? Well, there are two problems. First, it won't be backported to previous releases. If you're still using an older version, you may be out of luck. Second, as Miller observed, not all distros "pick up GPSD updates or upstream their patches. [This] is a very sore spot with me." So, just because your operating system is up to date does not mean that it will have the necessary GPSD fix. Miller suggests that you check it and do it yourself: "I [am] gonna fall back on Greg K_H's dictum: All users must update." Oh, wondering what the mysterious root cause of all this commotion GPS Week Rollover? It's a legacy GPS problem. The GPS signal GPS week number uses a 10-bit code with a maximum value of 1,023. This means every 19.7 years; the GPS week number rolls over to zero. Or, as Miller noted, "This code is a 1024 week time warp waiting to happen." So, check your systems now for this problem. And, if, like most of us, you're relying on someone upstream from you for the correct time, check with them to make sure they've taken care of this forthcoming trouble.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/21/10/21/2053248 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Software Freedom Conservancy Sues Vizio for GPL Violations
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

'Jeremy Allison - Sam writes: Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit organization that promotes open-source software and defends the free software General Public License (GPL), announced today it has filed a lawsuit against Vizio for what it calls repeated failures to fulfill even the basic requirements of the GPL. The lawsuit alleges that Vizio's TV products, built on its SmartCast system, contain software that Vizio unfairly appropriated from a community of developers who intended consumers to have very specific rights to modify, improve, share, and reinstall modified versions of the software.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/10/19/2043203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel Versus The Chip Foundries
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

Nice backgrounder <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/intel-slipped-and-its-future-no…> on how Intel (and American chipmakers generally) slipped from their leadership position by overlooking an important new business: manufacturing chips according to other people’s designs. We’ve all heard of Taiwan-based TSMC, which is the world leader in this area; when it was founded way back in 1987 (with help from the Taiwanese Government and from Philips), none of the US companies would take such an idea seriously. They didn’t think it would amount to a very profitable business, and anyway they wanted to control their own Intellectual Property. Plus, a company that made chips both for its own internal businesses and for others could never be seen to be entirely above accusations of conflict of interest. Note also the role played by Carver Mead, basically the father of the whole concept of RISC. He wanted a place to go to, where his students (and those of other teachers) could get their designs turned into actual working chips. He had special personal connections with Intel to get access to their fabs, but he knew others were not so lucky. So he played an influential part in getting TSMC started.

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Google Removes Support for FTP and Old-gen U2F Security Keys in Chrome 95
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

'Google today released Chrome v95, the latest version of its popular web browser and a version that contains several changes that will likely cause problems for a considerable part of its users. The problematic changes include: removing support for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) URLs -- ftp:// removing support for the Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) standard, used in old-generation security keys (Chrome will only support FIDO2/WebAuth security keys going forward) adding file size limits for browser cookies removing support for URLs with non-IPv4 hostnames ending in numbers, such as http://example.0.1 In addition to breaking changes, Chrome 95 also comes with a new UI component called the "Side Panel," which can be used to view the Chrome browser's Reading List and Bookmarks.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/10/20/206210 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Supply chain woes lead to a “temporary” Raspberry Pi 4 price hike
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '21

21 Oct '21

'Pandemic-driven supply chain problems have prompted the first-ever price increase for a Raspberry Pi product, according to Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton. Acknowledging that the 2GB configuration of the Raspberry Pi 4 and the Raspberry Pi Zero had been particularly hard-hit by shortages, Upton announced that the price of the 2GB Pi 4 would increase from $35 to $45 and that a previously discontinued version of the Pi 4 with 1GB of RAM would be reintroduced at $35.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/supply-chain-woes-lead-to-a-tempora… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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New Linux laptop offers RTX 3080 and 144 Hz 17-inch screen
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

'Linux users like to game, too, and the Juno Neptune 17-inch V3 laptop announced this week ensures that people on Ubuntu can play their favorite titles on the go. Keeping up with the Alienwares, Asus ROGs, and other Windows-focused gaming brands, the new portable packs up to an RTX 3080 discrete graphics card and the 8-core Intel Core i7-11800H. And it lets you experience all the action on a spacious, 17.3-inch screen with a 144 Hz refresh rate. A colorfully backlit keyboard completes the package.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/new-linux-laptop-offers-rtx-3080-an… Well, if you have a spare USD3,699, then the maxed out version can be yours... ;-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Brave Removes Google as its Default Search Engine
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '21

20 Oct '21

'As Paul Thurrott reports, Brave is removing Google Search as its default search engine. From the report: Going forward, the Brave web browser will default to Brave Search. "Brave Search has grown significantly since its release last June, with nearly 80 million queries per month," Brave CEO and co-founder Brendan Eich says. "Our users are pleased with the comprehensive privacy solution that Brave Search provides against Big Tech by being integrated into our browser. As we know from experience in many browsers, the default setting is crucial for adoption, and Brave Search has reached the quality and critical mass needed to become our default search option, and to offer our users a seamless privacy-by-default online experience." Brave Search is built on top of an independent index, and doesn't track users, their searches, or their clicks, the firm says. And starting with Brave 1.3 on desktop and Android, and Brave 1.32 on iOS, it will be the default search engine in the browser, instead of Google, in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It is also replacing Qwant in France and DuckDuckGo in Germany, and Brave says that more locales will be added in the next several months. Existing users can keep their chosen search engine default, of course, and new users who prefer other search engines can configure as needed. Brave Search doesn't display ads today, but the free version of the service will soon be ad-supported. An ad-free Premium version is coming "in the near future," Brave says. Along with this search engine news, Brave announced the Web Discovery Project (WDP), "which it describes as a privacy-preserving system for users to anonymously contribute data to improve Brave Search results," writes Thurrott. "The WDP is an opt-in feature that protects user privacy and anonymity by ensuring that contributed data is not linked to individuals, their devices, or any set of users." It has a GitHub repo available to help you learn more about this system.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/21/10/19/2121251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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(virtual) meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '21

19 Oct '21

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next week. Due to the small venue size, we will still hold it in a virtual manner, even if Hamilton should go back to level 2 (though we will record it): 'Peter Reutemann will demo Syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, respecting your privacy. Runs on Linux, Windows, Mac and Android among other platforms.' Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/274861093/ You will get access to the meeting link when RSVPing on meetup. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Quote Of The Week
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

From <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/10/fixes-for-amd-ryzen-performance-oth…>: Now that Windows 11 is out, the arduous process of fixing the new operating system's bugs can begin. So goodbye Windows 10, no PrintNightmare fix for you...

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PowerPC Fork of Firefox Reaches End of the Road
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

'Ars Technica: It has been well over a decade since PowerPC Macs roamed the earth -- so long that the Intel Macs that replaced them are themselves being replaced by something else. But to this day, there's a small community of people still developing software for PowerPC Macs and Mac OS 9. One of those projects was TenFourFox, a fork of the Firefox browser for G3, G4, and G5-based PowerPC Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5. Maintained primarily by Cameron Kaiser, the TenFourFox project sprang up in late 2010 after Mozilla pulled PowerPC support from Firefox 4 during its development. And amazingly, the browser has continued to trundle on ever since. But continuing to backport Firefox features to aging, stuck-in-time PowerPC processors only got more difficult as time went on. And in March of this year, Kaiser announced that TenFourFox updates would be ending after over a decade of development. The final planned release of TenFourFox was earlier this month. Kaiser's full post is long, but it's worth a read for vintage-computer enthusiasts or anyone who works on software -- Kaiser expresses frustration with the realities of developing and supporting a niche app, but he also highlights TenFourFox's impressive technical achievements and ruminates on the nature of the modern Internet and open source software development [...]. Kaiser doesn't intend to fully halt work on the browser, but he is downshifting it into what he calls "hobby mode." He will continue to backport security patches from newer ESR releases of Firefox and post them to the TenFourFox Github page, but anyone who wants to use these will need to build the app themselves. Kaiser also won't commit to providing support for these additions or providing them on any kind of schedule. Other developers are also welcome to continue to release TenFourFox builds on their own. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/21/10/14/2116255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 (office) +64 (7) 577-5304 (home office) http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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