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Breaking Your Bubble
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

A class project at Princeton <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2017/09/19/breaking-your-bubble/>: In the first step, students measured their filter bubble. More specifically, for homework, at three different time points each week, they scrolled through their feeds until they found five political posts (ads included). Then, they coded these posts as either liberal, neutral, or conservative. Students also kept track of how many posts they had to scroll through to get to five posts as a measure of how much political content was in their feed. ... In the second step, the students developed and implemented a procedure to break their bubble. Their goal was to achieve a “balanced diet” of liberal, neutral, and conservative political content that matched the baseline distribution of what is being shared on Facebook ... Followup <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2017/09/19/what-our-students-found-when-they-t…>: So, were students able to break their bubble? Initially, we expected that because the News Feed algorithm is complicated, it might be hard for students to break out of their bubbles. But we were wrong. The class was able to move to a more balanced diet pretty quickly.

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Speaking Of DRM ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Sep '17

20 Sep '17

... HP has released <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170914/11491238210/hp-brings-back-obnox…> firmware updates for several of its OfficeJet Pro range that block their ability to work with third-party ink cartridges.

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Pencil Project
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

So far, I've always used Dia for creating diagrams. However, last night, I came across the "Pencil Project", a cross-platform tool for wire frames. And I think, I may have found a new favorite! Copy/paste of some of the features: 'Easy GUI Prototyping Pencil provides various built-in shapes collection for drawing different types of user interface ranging from desktop to mobile platforms. Starting from 2.0.2, Pencil is shipped with Android and iOS UI stencils pre-installed. This makes it even easier to start protyping apps with a simple installation. Popular drawing features are also implemented in Pencil to simplify the drawing operations. Built-in Shape Collections Starting from 2.0.2 Pencil has even more shape collections included by default. The list of built-in collections now includes general-purpose shapes, flowchart elements, desktop/web UI shapes, Android and iOS GUI shapes. There are also many other collections created by the community and are distributed freely on the Internet. You can easily grab a collection and install it into Pencil with a simple drag-and-drop operation. Diagram Drawing Support Pencil now supports connectors which can be used to "wire" shapes together in a diagram. A collection of flowchart shapes are also available for drawing diagrams. Exporting to Different Output Formats Pencil supports outputing the drawing document into different types of formats. You can have your drawing exported as a set of rasterized PNG files or as a web page that can be delivered to the viewers. Pencil also supports exporting documents into popular formats including OpenOffice/LibreOffice text documents, Inkscape SVG and Adobe PDF. Inter-page linking Elements in a drawing can be linked to a specific page in the same document. This helps user define the UI flow when creating application or website mockups. Linkings defined in a document are converted into HTML hyper-links when the document is exported into web format. This process creates an interactive version of the mockup in which viewers can see a simulated flow when clicking on the UI elements.' -- source: http://pencil.evolus.vn/ 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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Quote Of The Week
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

“These days we hear a lot about luring the young away from happy, fulfilling careers and into the world of programming.” Verity Stob, who else? <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/19/programming_in_the_middle_ages/>

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Install Ring, a FOSS VOIP Skype alternative
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

'If you ask just about any Linux user, they'll agree that Skype is pretty terrible. There's not a whole lot to like there, especially since the Linux client is just a poorly maintained wrapper for the web app. There have been several attempts to create a free and open source alternative to Skype, but none have been as polished or complete as Ring. ' -- source: https://linuxconfig.org/install-ring-a-foss-voip-skype-alternative -- screenshots: https://ring.cx/en#screenshots 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 resigns from W3C - An open letter to the W3C Director, CEO, team and membership
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

'In 2013, EFF was disappointed to learn that the W3C had taken on the project of standardizing “Encrypted Media Extensions,” an API whose sole function was to provide a first-class role for DRM within the Web browser ecosystem. By doing so, the organization offered the use of its patent pool, its staff support, and its moral authority to the idea that browsers can and should be designed to cede control over key aspects from users to remote parties. [...] We believe they will regret that choice. Today, the W3C bequeaths an legally unauditable attack-surface to browsers used by billions of people. They give media companies the power to sue or intimidate away those who might re-purpose video for people with disabilities. They side against the archivists who are scrambling to preserve the public record of our era. The W3C process has been abused by companies that made their fortunes by upsetting the established order, and now, thanks to EME, they’ll be able to ensure no one ever subjects them to the same innovative pressures. [...] We will defend those who are put in harm's way for blowing the whistle on defects in EME implementations. It is a tragedy that we will be doing that without our friends at the W3C, and with the world believing that the pioneers and creators of the web no longer care about these matters. Effective today, EFF is resigning from the W3C.' -- source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/09/open-letter-w3c-director-ceo-team-and… 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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A Telemarketer Called My Elevator
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Sep '17

19 Sep '17

Guy steps into lift, gets spiel from emergency intercom inviting him to “press 1” on nonexistent keypad to sign up. <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/09/a-telemarketer-called-my-elevator/> Me, I blame VoIP ...

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Will Linux Innovation Be Driven By Microsoft?
by Peter Reutemann 18 Sep '17

18 Sep '17

'Adobe's VP of Mobile (and a former intellectual property lawyer) sees "a very possible future where Microsoft doesn't merely accept a peaceful coexistence with Linux, but instead enthusiastically embraces it as a key to its future," noting Microsoft's many Linux kernel developers and arguing it's already innovating around Linux -- especially in the cloud. An anonymous reader quotes InfoWorld: Even seemingly pedestrian work -- like making Docker containers work for Windows, not merely Linux -- is a big deal for enterprises that don't want open source politics infesting their IT. Or how about Hyper-V containers, which marry the high density of containers to the isolation of traditional VMs? That's a really big deal... Microsoft has started hiring Linux kernel developers like Matthew Wilcox, Paul Shilovsky, and (in mid-2016) Stephen Hemminger... Microsoft now employs 12 Linux kernel contributors. As for what these engineers are doing, Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman says, "Microsoft now has developers contributing to various core areas of the kernel (memory management, core data structures, networking infrastructure), the CIFS filesystem, and of course many contributions to make Linux work better on its Hyper-V systems." In sum, the Linux Foundation's Jim Zemlin declares, "It is accurate to say they are a core contributor," with the likelihood that Hemminger's and others' contributions will move Microsoft out of the kernel contribution basement into the upper echelons. The article concludes that "Pigs, in other words, do fly. Microsoft, while maintaining its commitment to Windows, has made the necessary steps to not merely run on Linux but to help shape the future of Linux."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/09/16/2335251 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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Ad Industry “Deeply Concerned” About Safari’s New Ad-Tracking Restrictions
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Sep '17

17 Sep '17

Some have called for the total abolition of access to third-party cookies altogether. Apple’s new version of Safari doesn’t go this far, only imposing a 24-hour limit on their usability. But this is already enough to get the ad agencies up in arms. <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/09/ad-industry-deeply-concerned-ab…>

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'Bashware' Attacks Exploit Windows 10's Subsystem for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 17 Sep '17

17 Sep '17

'While many people welcomed the arrival of Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10, it has been found to be a potential security issue. A new technique known as a Bashware has been discovered by security researchers that makes it possible for malware to use the Linux shell to bypass security software. While administrator access is needed to execute a Bashware attack, this is fairly easily obtained, and the technique can be used to disguise malicious operations from antivirus software and other security tools. Researchers from Check Point Research point out that the danger stems from the fact that "existing security solutions are still not adapted to monitor processes of Linux executables running on Windows."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/09/16/041251 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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