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The Most Popular Linux Desktop Programs
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'The most recent Linux Questions poll results are in. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing for ZDNet: LinuxQuestions, one of the largest internet Linux groups with 550,000 members, has just posted the results from its latest survey of desktop Linux users. In the always hotly-contested Linux desktop environment survey, the winner was the KDE Plasma Desktop. It was followed by the popular lightweight Xfce, Cinnamon, and GNOME. If you want to buy a computer with pre-installed Linux, the Linux Questions crew's favorite vendor by far was System76. Numerous other computer companies offer Linux on their PCs. These include both big names like Dell and dedicated small Linux shops such as ZaReason, Penguin Computing, and Emperor Linux. Many first choices weren't too surprising. For example, Linux users have long stayed loyal to the Firefox web browser, and they're still big fans. Firefox beat out Google Chrome by a five-to-one margin. And, as always, the VLC media player is far more popular than any other Linux media player. For email clients, Mozilla Thunderbird remains on top. That's a bit surprising given how Thunderbird's development has been stuck in neutral for some time now. When it comes to text editors, I was pleased to see vim -- my personal favorite -- win out over its perpetual rival, Emacs. In fact, nano and Kate both came ahead of Emacs.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/13/1652238 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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Active Browser Tabs Vs Active Browser Windows
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

I have noticed some interesting behaviour with video playback on various websites, at least with Firefox. Videos on the NZ Herald website, for example, don’t start playing until the tab becomes the active one in the window. Also on YouTube, sometimes after an ad, there is a display inviting you to take part in some kind of survey. This displays for a fixed amount of time, but that time only accumulates while the tab is active -- make it inactive, and the time counter stops until it becomes active again. *But* ... the active tab is still considered to be active even if the window is not the frontmost one. This means if you want to do something else while waiting for a YouTube ad to finish playing (with the sound off, of course) and the extra display to disappear, you just have to do it in an entirely separate window.

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Facebook is Pushing Its Data-tracking Onavo VPN Within Its Main Mobile App
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'Onavo Protect, the VPN client from the data-security app maker acquired by Facebook back in 2013, has now popped up in the Facebook app itself, under the banner "Protect" in the navigation menu. Clicking through on "Protect" will redirect Facebook users to the "Onavo Protect -- VPN Security" app's listing on the App Store. We're currently seeing this option on iOS only, which may indicate it's more of a test than a full rollout here in the U.S. Marketing Onavo within Facebook itself could lead to a boost in users for the VPN app, which promises to warn users of malicious websites and keep information secure as you browse. But Facebook didn't buy Onavo for its security protections. Instead, Onavo's VPN allow Facebook to monitor user activity across apps, giving Facebook a big advantage in terms of spotting new trends across the larger mobile ecosystem. For example, Facebook gets an early heads up about apps that are becoming breakout hits; it can tell which are seeing slowing user growth; it sees which apps' new features appear to be resonating with their users, and much more. Further reading: Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not Download Onavo, Facebook's Vampiric VPN Service (Gizmodo).' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/02/13/2026211 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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Camera Makers Still Showing Zero Interest In Protecting Users With Built-In Encryption
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

From <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180204/07404639150/camera-makers-still-…>: The Freedom of the Press Foundation sent a letter to major camera manufacturers in December 2016, letting them know filmmakers and journalists would appreciate a little assistance keeping their data out of governments' hands. ... We've covered many cases where police officers have seized phones/cameras and deleted footage captured by bystanders. ... Unfortunately, it doesn't look like camera manufacturers are considering offering encryption. The issue still doesn't even appear to be on their radar, more than a year after the Freedom of the Press Foundation's letter -- signed by 150 photographers and filmmakers -- indicated plenty of customers wanted better protection for their cameras. ... If a government can search something, it will. Encryption may not thwart all searches, but it will at least impede the most questionable ones.

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meeting next month
by Peter Reutemann 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

Hi everyone At the last meeting, Ian suggested to have cryptocurrencies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency) as topic for our meeting next month. One aspect is the increasing amount of power that is consumed in order to mine "coins". The other interesting aspect introduced by, but not limit to, cryptocurrencies is the concept of the blockchain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain) an open, distributed ledger of transactions. Is there interest? Any volunteers to talk about something regarding this topic (history, current status, etc)? 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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That mega-vulnerability Cisco dropped is now under exploit
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'Hackers are actively trying to exploit a high-severity vulnerability in widely used Cisco networking software that can give complete control over protected networks and access to all traffic passing over them, the company has warned. When Cisco officials disclosed the bug last week in a range of Adaptive Security Appliance products, they said they had no evidence anyone was actively exploiting it. Earlier this week, the officials updated their advisory to indicate that was no longer the case.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/that-mega-vulnerabil… 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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VideoLAN VLC releases version 3.0 with HDR and 360-degree video
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'The popular cross-platform, open-source video player VLC has received a significant update in 3.0, the first in what will be called the Vetinari branch. It adds support for HDR, including both 10-bit and 12-bit color and 360-degree video. This release version now also fully supports Chromecast streaming, a feature we first played with back in 2016. While VLC is open source, this part of it isn't; Tom's Hardware reports that VideoLAN explained it "used Google’s official closed-source SDK to build out the feature, which prevents it from releasing the source." [*] Other major added features include 3D audio support, audio passthrough for HD audio codecs, and support for browsing NAS drives. As always, a bunch of new codecs are supported too.' [*] 'Please note that Chromecast support in VLC 3.0 is fully open-source for all platforms! That’s the reason why it took us so long to ship as we completely reverse-engineered the entire thing. The closed-source component by Google can’t be used for legal reasons in VLC, isn’t compatible with Macs, Linux and Windows and supports a very limited set of codecs only. With our code, you can play basically anything VLC can decode on your Chromecast (as we transcode on-the-fly if needed).' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/videolan-vlc-releases-version-3-0-w… 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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'Razer Doesn't Care About Linux'
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'Razer is a vendor that makes high-end gaming hardware, including laptops, keyboards and mice. I opened a ticket with Razor a few days ago asking them if they wanted to support the LVFS project by uploading firmware and sharing the firmware update protocol used. I offered to upstream any example code they could share under a free license, or to write the code from scratch given enough specifications to do so. This is something I've done for other vendors, and doesn't take long as most vendor firmware updaters all do the same kind of thing; there are only so many ways to send a few kb of data to USB devices. The fwupd project provides high-level code for accessing USB devices, so yet-another-update-protocol is no big deal. I explained all about the LVFS, and the benefits it provided to a userbase that is normally happy to vote using their wallet to get hardware that's supported on the OS of their choice. I just received this note on the ticket, which was escalated appropriately: "I have discussed your offer with the dedicated team and we are thankful for your enthusiasm and for your good idea. I am afraid I have also to let you know that at this moment in time our support for software is only focused on Windows and Mac." The post, written by Richard -- who has long been a maintainer of GNOME Software, PackageKit, GNOME Packagekit, points out that Razer executive Min-Liang Tan last year invited Linux enthusiasts to suggest ideas to help the company make the best notebook that supports Linux.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/12/0722235 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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How the First Open Source Software and Hardware Satellite UPSat Was Built
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '18

11 Feb '18

'UPSat is the first open source -- both hardware and software -- satellite to have ever been launched in orbit. Pierros Papadeas, the Director of Operations for Libre Space Foundation, which helped build the UPSat, talked about the project at FOSDEM, a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event focused on free and open-source software development. You can watch the talk here; and read an interview of him with folks at FOSDEM ahead of the talk here. Two excerpts from the interview: Q: What challenges did you encounter while designing, building, testing and eventually launching UPSat in orbit? PP: The challenges where numerous, starting with the financial ones. Lack of appropriate funding led us to invest heavily in the project (through Libre Space Foundation funds) to ensure its successful completion. Countless volunteer participation was also key to the success. On the technical side, with minimal documentation and knowledge sharing around space projects we had to re-invent the wheel and discover many procedures and practices in a really short time-frame (6 months - unheard for a space mission). Lack of tools and equipment made our building process a creative exploration as we had to figure out ways to achieve specific tasks resorting to purpose-built projects in our local lab (hackerspace.gr). Testing and verification facilities where also a challenge mainly as we had to undergo much more extensive tests than other missions, having none of our components already "flight proven". Again creativity and countless hours of negotiations and documentation got us to the final delivery point. Launching UPSat in orbit was secured once the delivery happened, but as any typical space mission it came with long delays and timeline push-backs. Q: What do you hope to accomplish by giving this talk? What do you expect? Through this talk we would like to raise awareness for open source initiatives in space, and inspire open source technologists (engineers, programmers, analysts, makers) to engage in an open source project. We would also love to gather feedback and ideas on next steps and provide contribution opportunities for interested parties.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/02/11/2139203 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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EFF Founder John Perry Barlow Has Died At Age 70
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '18

08 Feb '18

'The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that its founder, John Perry Barlow, has passed away quietly in his sleep this morning. He was 70 years old. From the report: It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow's vision and leadership. He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance. Barlow was sometimes held up as a straw man for a kind of naive techno-utopianism that believed that the Internet could solve all of humanity's problems without causing any more. As someone who spent the past 27 years working with him at EFF, I can say that nothing could be further from the truth. Barlow knew that new technology could create and empower evil as much as it could create and empower good. He made a conscious decision to focus on the latter: "I knew it's also true that a good way to invent the future is to predict it. So I predicted Utopia, hoping to give Liberty a running start before the laws of Moore and Metcalfe delivered up what Ed Snowden now correctly calls 'turn-key totalitarianism.'" Barlow's lasting legacy is that he devoted his life to making the Internet into "a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth... a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity."' -- source: https://politics.slashdot.org/story/18/02/07/234213 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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