- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

That Reminds Me ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

... I finally got around to writing up some notes on the tips I presented for accessing the systemd journal at that talk last year <https://github.com/WLUG/meetings/tree/master/2016/2016-06-27>.

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A look at OpenSUSE based Gecko Linux
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '17

10 Aug '17

'I was sitting at home writing future articles for Ghacks and I decided on a spur of the moment whim that I wanted to try out a distribution I had never touched before. I’ve tried countless systems over the years, from the typical Ubuntu and Debian based systems, to Arch based systems like Manjaro, even Gentoo based systems like Sabayon. However, I was thinking about it and OpenSUSE used to be one of my favourite distributions to use but I’ve never actually sat down and tried a respin of an OpenSUSE based system; so I started digging around into what some popular ones were...And Gecko Linux caught my eye.' -- source: https://www.ghacks.net/2017/08/06/a-look-at-opensuse-based-gecko-linux/ 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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exa a modern replacement for ls written in rust for Linux/Unix
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '17

09 Aug '17

'ls is a command to show files in Linux and Unix-like operating systems. A ls command first appeared in a version of AT&T UNIX as well as in Multics. BSD and GNU Coreutils package provides the ls command with minor syntax changes. There is now third alternative named exa. It is a modern replacement for ls. The exa uses colors for information by default, helping you distinguish between many types of files, such as whether you are the owner, or in the owning group. It also has extra features not present in the original ls, such as viewing the Git status for a directory or recursing into directories with a tree view. The exa command written in Rust, so it’s small, fast, and portable.' -- source: https://www.cyberciti.biz/open-source/command-line-hacks/exa-a-modern-repla… 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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Firefox 55 Arrives With WebVR on Windows, Performance Panel, and Click-to-Play Flash
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '17

08 Aug '17

'Mozilla today made available a new update to Firefox for Windows to introduce support for WebVR, that the company says, will enable desktop VR users to dive into web-based experiences with ease. Firefox 55 also includes performance panel, faster startup when restoring multiple tabs, a quicker way to search across various search engines, and click-to-play Flash by default. From a report: WebVR is an experimental JavaScript API that provides support for virtual reality devices, such as the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard. As its name implies, the technology is meant for browsers. If you find a web game or app that supports VR, just click the VR goggles icon visible on the web page to experience it using your VR headset. WebVR supports navigating and controlling VR experiences with handset controllers or your movements in physical space. [...] Firefox 55 also allows users to adjust the number of processes and how much resources they want to allocate to any of them. This setting is at the bottom of the General section in Options. In fact, if your computer has more than 8GB of RAM, Mozilla recommends "bumping up the number of content processes that Firefox uses" because it will make Firefox faster, though at the expense of using more memory. In its own tests on Windows 10, the company found that Firefox uses less memory than Chrome, even with eight content processes running.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/08/08/143246 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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Mozilla’s new file-transfer service isn’t perfect, but it’s drop-dead easy
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

'Mozilla is testing a new service that makes it dead simple and quick for people to semi-securely share files with anyone on the Internet. Send, as the service is called, allows senders to encrypt any 1-gigabyte or less file and upload it to a Mozilla server. The service then creates a link with a long, complex string of letters in it that's required to download and decrypt the file. Mozilla will automatically delete the encrypted file as soon as it's downloaded or within 24 hours of being uploaded, even if no one has downloaded it.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/mozillas-new-file-tr… 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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OpenSSL Support In Debian Unstable Drops TLS 1.0/1.1 Support
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '17

07 Aug '17

'Debian Linux "sid" is deprecating TLS 1.0 Encryption. A new version of OpenSSL has been uploaded to Debian Linux unstable. This version disables the TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocol. This currently leaves TLS 1.2 as the only supported SSL/TLS protocol version. This will likely break certain things that for whatever reason still don't support TLS 1.2. I strongly suggest that if it's not supported that you add support for it, or get the other side to add support for it. OpenSSL made a release 5 years ago that supported TLS 1.2. The current support of the server side seems to be around 90%. I hope that by the time Buster releases the support for TLS 1.2 will be high enough that I don't need to enable them again. This move caused some concern among Debian users and sysadmins. If you are running Debian Unstable on server tons of stuff is going to broken cryptographically. Not to mention legacy hardware and firmware that still uses TLS 1.0. On the client side (i.e. your users), you need to use the latest version of a browser such as Chrome/Chromium and Firefox. The Older version of Android (e.g. Android v5.x and earlier) do not support TLS 1.2. You need to use minimum iOS 5 for TLS 1.2 support. Same goes with SMTP/mail servers, desktop email clients, FTP clients and more. All of them using old outdated crypto. This move will also affect for Android 4.3 users or stock MS-Windows 7/IE users (which has TLS 1.2 switched off in Internet Options.) Not to mention all the mail servers out there running outdated crypto.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/08/07/1823244 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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GNOME's Text Editor gedit 'No Longer Maintained', Needs New Developers
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

'AmiMoJo brings news about gedit, the default text editor for GNOME: In a post to the gedit mailing list, Sébastien Wilmet states that gedit is no longer maintained and asks "any developer interested to take over the maintenance of gedit?" Just in case you were considering it, he warns "BTW while the gedit core is written in C (with a bit of Objective-C for Mac OS X support), some plugins are written in Vala or Python. If you take over gedit maintenance, you'll need to deal with four programming languages (without counting the build system). The Python code is not compiled, so when doing refactorings in gedit core, good luck to port all the plugins (the Python code is also less "greppable" than C). At least with Vala there is a compiler, even if I would not recommend Vala." Sébastien's comments were surrounded by a <rant-on-languages> tag, but they're still crying out for some serious discussion. Any Slashdot readers want to share their own insights on Python, some fond thoughts on gedit, or suggestions for maintaining a great piece of open source software?' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/08/05/025227 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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Red Hat Acquires Data-Cleaning Company Permabit
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

'Business software company Red Hat said on Monday that it is acquiring the technology assets of Permabit, a small company that specializes in cleaning up corporate data to make storage more efficient and data access faster. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but a Red Hat spokesman said 16 people from Permabit will be joining that company... While the conventional wisdom is that data storage is cheap, it is not free. And with companies turning to more expensive flash storage, it saves money to remove redundant data, said Richard Fichera, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research... Red Hat, which sells a version of the Linux operating system used by many Fortune 500 companies, also offers its own storage software. And, it wants to become a more formidable challenger in data storage, a goal that can be furthered by buying Permabit's technology, Fichera said. Slashdot reader See Attached points out that this week Red Hat also released RHEL 7.4, which introduces support for Network Bound Disk Encryption (NBDE) and system protection against intrusive USB devices.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/08/05/0453223 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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Linux Kernel Hardeners Grsecurity Sue Open Source's Bruce Perens
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

'In late June, noted open-source programmer Bruce Perens [a longtime Slashdot reader] warned that using Grsecurity's Linux kernel security could invite legal trouble. "As a customer, it's my opinion that you would be subject to both contributory infringement and breach of contract by employing this product in conjunction with the Linux kernel under the no-redistribution policy currently employed by Grsecurity," Perens wrote on his blog. The following month, Perens was invited to court. Grsecurity sued the open-source doyen, his web host, and as-yet-unidentified defendants who may have helped him draft that post, for defamation and business interference. Grsecurity offers Linux kernel security patches on a paid-for subscription basis. The software hardens kernel defenses through checks for common errors like memory overflows. Perens, meanwhile, is known for using the Debian Free Software Guidelines to draft the Open Source Definition, with the help of others. Grsecurity used to allow others to redistribute its patches, but the biz ended that practice for stable releases two years ago and for test patches in April this year. It offers its GPLv2 licensed software through a subscription agreement. The agreement says that customers who redistribute the code -- a right under the GPLv2 license -- will no longer be customers and will lose the right to distribute subsequent versions of the software. According to Perens, "GPL version 2 section 6 explicitly prohibits the addition of terms such as this redistribution prohibition." A legal complaint (PDF) filed on behalf of Grsecurity in San Francisco, California, insists the company's software complies with the GPLv2. Grsecurity's agreement, the lawsuit states, only applies to future patches, which have yet to be developed. Perens isn't arguing that the GPLv2 applies to unreleased software. Rather, he asserts the GPLv2, under section 6, specifically forbids the addition of contractual terms.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/08/04/2233239 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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Browser Extensions Are Undermining Privacy
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '17

06 Aug '17

'pizzutz writes: Chrome's popular Web Developer plugin was briefly hijacked on Wednesday when an attacker gained control of the author's Google account and released a new version (0.49) which injected ads into web pages of more than a million users who downloaded the update. The version was quickly replaced with an uncompromised version (0.5) and all users are urged to update immediately. Lauren Weinstein has a broader warning: While the browser firms work extensively to build top-notch security and privacy controls into the browsers themselves, the unfortunate fact is that these can be undermined by add-ons, some of which are downright crooked, many more of which are sloppily written and poorly maintained. Ironically, some of these add-on extensions and apps claim to be providing more security, while actually undermining the intrinsic security of the browsers themselves. Others (and this is an extremely common scenario) claim to be providing additional search or shopping functionalities, while actually only existing to silently collect and sell user browsing activity data of all sorts. Lauren also warns about sites that "push users very hard to install these privacy-invasive, data sucking extensions" -- and believes requests for permissions aren't a sufficient safeguard for most users. "Expecting them to really understand what these permissions mean is ludicrous. We're the software engineers and computer scientists -- most users aren't either of these. They have busy lives -- they expect our stuff to just work, and not to screw them over."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/08/05/2122210 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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The Windows console is getting a new, easier to read color scheme
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '17

03 Aug '17

“Even with this work, the Windows console is still weak compared to its counterparts in macOS and Linux. In Windows, the operating systems-supplied console windows are closely tied to the command-line applications that use them; it's impossible to create a command-line application that isn't attached to a Windows console window. Linux and macOS offer a separation between the software that's displaying the console apps and the console apps themselves. Those operating systems have a built-in default console, but unlike Windows, they don't have to use it; third-party software can fill the same role. “Attractive, modern terminal applications like iTerm on macOS and Unix stalwarts such as screen (which enables multiple command-line shells to share a single console window) take advantage of this extensibility. Neither kind of application can be readily developed for command-line apps on Windows, and while people have tried to work around Windows' limitations (for example, by hiding the Windows built-in console windows off-screen somewhere), the results are imperfect. We're told that there are plans in store to finally address this weakness of Windows, though what the solution will be is at present unknown.” <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/08/the-windows-console-is-getting-a-ne…>

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Systemd wins top gong for 'lamest vendor' in Pwnie security awards
by Bryan Baldwin 30 Jul '17

30 Jul '17

The lamest vendor response award went to Systemd supremo Lennart Poettering for his controversial, and perhaps questionable, handling of the following bugs in everyone's favorite init replacement. Nomination Submission: Awarded to the vendor who mis-handled a security vulnerability most spectacularly. SystemD bugs 5998, 6225, 6214, 5144, 6237 Credit: Lennart Poettering Where you are dereferencing null pointers, or writing out of bounds, or not supporting fully qualified domain names, or giving root privileges to any user whose name begins with a number, there's no chance that the CVE number will referenced in either the change log or the commit message. But CVEs aren't really our currency any more, and only the lamest of vendors gets a Pwnie! https://pwnies.com/nominations/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/28/black_hat_pwnie_awards/

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Trust Me, I’m A Random-Number Generator
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Jul '17

30 Jul '17

SK Telecom has created a “quantum random number generator” chip <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/26/sk_telecom_makes_light_of_random_n…>. Seems like slapping the label “quantum” on anything is enough to make people believe you know what you are talking about. Random-number generators are notorious for being easily subverted. And hearing things like “SK Telecom hasn't specified what kind [of quantum noise source they are using]” is not exactly reassuring. You can never be sure your random numbers are truly random. But you try to stack the deck as much in your favour as you can. The Linux kernel mixes in several sources of entropy to feed /dev/random (and from there, /dev/urandom), in the hope that, as long as one of them remains unsubverted (intentionally or otherwise), the output can be trusted. This is also the principle behind the Fortuna PRNG <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortuna_(PRNG)>, which well-known computer security guru Bruce Schneier had a hand in.

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Anti-systemd Trolls
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Jul '17

27 Jul '17

I keep wondering about these random names who pop up with all the badmouthing every time somebody mentions something about systemd. I don’t recall any faces at WLUG meetings that go with them. Who are you and where do you come from? Do you people have any interest in the Waikato Linux User Group at all, or are you just here to shoot your mouths off?

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Some Low-Cost Android Phones Come at a Price -- Your Privacy
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jul '17

27 Jul '17

'At $60, the BLU R1 HD is the top-selling phone on Amazon. Last November, researchers caught it secretly sending private data to China. Shanghai Adups Technology, the group behind the spying software on the BLU R1 HD, called it a mistake. But analysts at Kryptowire found the software provider is still making the same "mistake" on other phones. At the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, researchers from Kryptowire, a security firm, revealed that Adups' software is still sending a device's data to the company's server in Shanghai without alerting people. But now, it's being more secretive about it. "They replaced them with nicer versions," Ryan Johnson, a research engineer and co-founder at Kryptowire, said. "I have captured the network traffic of them using the Command and Control channel when they did it." An Adups spokeswoman said that it had resolved the issues in 2016 and that the issues "are not existing anymore." Kryptowire said it has observed the company sending data without telling users on at least three different phones.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/07/26/187258 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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Wellcome Trust Wants To Share
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jul '17

26 Jul '17

You’ve probably heard of the Wellcome Trust: they’re a UK-based nonprofit that funds scientific research, primarily into health. They’ve long had an open-access policy, meaning that “all original research articles and scholarly monographs resulting from our funding are made freely available”. Contrast this with what more commonly happens with scientific research, where the journal publishers get exclusive copyright over the papers, and charge an arm and a leg to everyone wanting a copy. Now the Wellcome Trust is going even further, and requiring open access in a timely manner to the raw research data (within reasonable limits, such as privacy concerns etc), material such as cell lines, antibodies and reagents, and also any software developed. No actual mention of “open source” or “Free software” licences as such, though; the news article only uses the word “freeware”, which I’m not sure is the word they should be using. <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/25/wellcome_trust_extends_research_da…> <https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/our-new-policy-sharing-research-data-what-it-me…>

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Intel Abandons Consumer/Hobbyist IoT
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jul '17

26 Jul '17

Intel is giving up on its consumer/hobbyist-oriented Internet of Things products <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/25/intel_arduino_board_curie_canceled/>. However, the “enterprise”-oriented efforts remain for now. Not sure what “enterprise” means in this space: are there companies building IoT-type devices for their own internal use? Or is this referring to companies selling readymade IoT products? In any case, I suspect this is the one area left where “Windows 10 IoT Edition” can be mentioned without raising hails of derisive laughter...

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The systemd House Of Horror
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jul '17

26 Jul '17

Came across this link in one of the comments to The Register’s article on Fedora 26, rife with the usual anti-systemd moaning. “Here are some examples of how people commonly use systemd in an egregiously wrong manner ... Don't ask me why, so far, all of these have involved starting Java programs. Maybe it's Oracle in general.” <https://jdebp.eu/FGA/systemd-house-of-horror/>

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'Devil's Ivy' Is Another Wake-Up Call for IoT Security
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jul '17

26 Jul '17

'The vulnerability -- called Devil's Ivy or CVE-2017-9765 -- was made public last week by Senrio, a company that specializes in IoT security. It initially found the bug in the M3004 model security camera marketed by Axis Communications, but further research found that 249 of Axis's 251 surveillance camera models are affected. Although that's of lot of devices, it's only the tip of the iceberg, as the problem isn't with code that's native to Axis products but is in gSOAP, an open source web services library that's used by many developers. Media outlets are reporting that 34 companies use gSOAP -- a list that includes Microsoft, IBM, Xerox and Adobe.' -- source: http://windowsitpro.com/internet-things-iot/devils-ivy-another-wake-call-io… 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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Using Gnome Disk Utility - "Disks" - to install distro iso to USB stick.
by Ian Stewart 24 Jul '17

24 Jul '17

Hi, I mentioned this at last nights meeting, so here is the link info. You might be used to burning distro iso image files to USB sticks using the dd command line utility, or Ubuntu's Startup Disk Creator gui application. The Fedora 21 Installation Guide<https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/21/html/Installation_Guide/inde…> describes another way<https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/21/html/Installation_Guide/sect…>. You launch the Gnome Disk Utility by clicking on the Disks application icon, or from the command line as gnome-disks, and follow these instructions... Procedure 3.4. Creating USB media with GNOME Disks 1. On a system with GNOME, or with the gnome-disk-utility package installed, open Disks using the system menu. 2. Click your USB device in the left column. 3. Click the menu icon in the upper right corner of the window, and choose the Restore Disk Image option. 4. Navigate to your image file and click Start Restoring. After a few minutes, it will report the process is complete and your installation media will be ready to use. cheers, Ian.

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How a VC-Funded Company Is Undermining the Open-Source Community
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '17

24 Jul '17

'Is a $4 million venture capital-funded startup stealthily taking over popular coding tools and injecting ads and spyware into them? That's what some programmers fear may be happening. It is one of the most troubling scandals to hit the open-source community -- a robust network of programmers who work on shared tools for free -- in recent memory. It started back in April, when a programmer noticed a strange change to an open-source tool called Minimap. Minimap has had more than 3.5 million downloads, but like many open-source tools, it was maintained by a single person who no one knew much about other than their username: @abe33. At some point, @abe33, whose real name is Cedric Nehemie, was hired by Kite. Kite was started by Adam Smith, a successful tech entrepreneur who raised funding from a slew of big names including the CEO of Dropbox and the creator of WordPress. It is unclear what Kite's business model is, but it says it uses machine-learning techniques to make coding tools. Its tools are not open source. After being hired by Kite, @abe33 made an update to Minimap. The update was titled "Implement Kite promotion," and it appeared to look at a user's code and insert links to related pages on Kite's website. Kite called this a useful feature. Programmers said it was not useful and was therefore just an ad for an unrelated service, something many programmers would consider a violation of the open-source spirit. "It's not a feature, it's advertising -- and people don't want it, you want it," wrote user @p-e-w. "The least you can do is own up to that." "I have to wonder if your goal was to upset enough people that you'd generate real attention on various news sites and get Kite a ton of free publicity before your next funding round," @DevOpsJohn wrote. "That's the only sane explanation I can find for suddenly dropping ads into the core of one of the oldest and most useful Atom plugins." [...] Although Kite has no business model yet, it's widely thought in Silicon Valley that having users is the first step toward profitability. Adding users potentially benefits the company in another way, by giving it access to precious data. Kite says it uses machine learning tactics to make the best coding helper tools possible. In order to do that, it needs tons of data to learn from. The more code it can look at, the better its autocomplete suggestions will get, for example.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/17/07/24/0118202 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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DNS Lib Underscore Bug Bites Everyone's Favorite Init Tool, Blanks Netflix
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '17

24 Jul '17

'Systemd doing what it does best. From a report on The Register: A few Penguinistas spent a weekend working out why they can't get through to Netflix from their Linux machines, because when they tried, their DNS lookups failed. The issue emerged over the weekend, when Gentoo user Dennis Schridde submitted a bug report to the Systemd project. Essentially, he described a failure within systemd-resolve, a Systemd component that turns human-readable domain names into IP addresses for software, like web browsers, to connect to. The Systemd resolver couldn't look up Netflix's servers for Schridde's web browser, according to the report. In his detailed post, Schridde said he expected this to happen: ipv6_1-cxl0-c088.1.lhr004.ix.nflxvideo.net gets resolved to 37.77.187.142 or 2a00:86c0:5:5::142. When in reality, that wasn't happening, so Netflix couldn't be reached on his box. His speculation that libidn2, which adds internationalised domain names support to the resolver, was at fault turned out to be accurate. Rebuilding Systemd without that library cleared the problem.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/07/24/1558259 Please, no flame war... 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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Mysterious Mac Malware Has Infected Hundreds of Victims For Years
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jul '17

24 Jul '17

'A mysterious piece of malware has been infecting hundreds of Mac computers for years -- and no one noticed until a few months ago. The malware is called "FruitFly," and one of its variants, "FruitFly 2" has infected at least 400 victims over the years. FruitFly 2 is intriguing and mysterious: its goals, who's behind it, and how it infects victims, are all unknown. Earlier this year, an ex-NSA hacker started looking into a piece of malware he described to me as "unique" and "intriguing." It was a slightly different strain of a malware discovered on four computers earlier this year by security firm Malwarebytes, known as "FruitFly." This first strain had researchers scratching their heads. On the surface, the malware seemed "simplistic." It was programmed mainly to surreptitiously monitor victims through their webcams, capture their screens, and log keystrokes. But, strangely, it went undetected since at least 2015. There was no indication of who could be behind it, and it contained "ancient" functions and "rudimentary" remote control capabilities, Malwarebytes's Thomas Reed wrote at the time.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/07/24/1719255 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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Mozilla's New Open Source Voice-Recognition Project Wants Your Voice
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '17

23 Jul '17

'Mozilla is building a massive repository of voice recordings for the voice apps of the future -- and it wants you to add yours to the collection. The organization behind the Firefox browser is launching Common Voice, a project to crowdsource audio samples from the public. The goal is to collect about 10,000 hours of audio in various accents and make it publicly available for everyone... Mozilla hopes to hand over the public dataset to independent developers so they can harness the crowdsourced audio to build the next generation of voice-powered apps and speech-to-text programs... You can also help train the speech-to-text capabilities by validating the recordings already submitted to the project. Just listen to a short clip, and report back if text on the screen matches what you heard... Mozilla says it aims is to expand the tech beyond just a standard voice recognition experience, including multiple accents, demographics and eventually languages for more accessible programs. Past open source voice-recognition projects have included Sphinx 4 and VoxForge, but unfortunately most of today's systems are still "locked up behind proprietary code at various companies, such as Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/07/22/2026208 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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Debian, Gnome Patched 'Bad Taste' VBScript-Injection Vulnerabilities
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '17

23 Jul '17

'A now-patched vulnerability in the "GNOME Files" file manager was recently discovered which allowed hackers to create dodgy MSI files which would run malicious VBScript code on Linux... Once Nils Dagsson Moskopp discovered the bug, he reported it to the Debian Project which fixed it very rapidly. The GNOME Project also patched the gnome-exe-thumbnailer file which is responsible for parsing MSI and EXE files inside the GNOME Files app... If you run a Linux distribution with the GNOME desktop it's advisable to run the update manager and check for updates as soon as possible before you become affected by this critical vulnerability.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/07/22/1911237 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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Debian 'Stretch' Updated With 9.1 Release
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jul '17

23 Jul '17

'The Debian project is pleased to announce the first update of its stable distribution Debian 9 (codename "stretch"). This point release mainly adds corrections for security issues, along with a few adjustments for serious problems... Please note that the point release does not constitute a new version of Debian 9 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old "stretch" media... Those who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages, and most such updates are included in the point release.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/07/23/1930253 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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meeting next week?
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jul '17

22 Jul '17

Hi everyone We don't have any topics lined up yet for next Monday's meeting. Any ideas? A new Fedora release (https://getfedora.org/) is out - give it a spin? Maybe an introduction on how to use man pages efficiently? For commands and programming? Introduction to useful basic commands: ls, cat/tac/zcat, less, column, grep, find, sort, sed, ... 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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next lug meet -fedora 26
by Ian Young 22 Jul '17

22 Jul '17

I will bring a live version of Fedora 26 if there is time available at the meeting ~ Ian Y

2 1

Sysadmin position
by Stuart Inglis 20 Jul '17

20 Jul '17

We are looking for an experienced Linux Administrator to join our team. Being one of the larger website hosting providers in New Zealand our ideal candidate would come from an ISP or web hosting background. To be successful in this role, you would ideally have: - 3+ Years practical experience in the administration of Linux servers - Great multi-tasking skills - Ability to troubleshoot complex problems, software faults, and operational issues and take appropriate corrective action personally and by interacting with other members of the systems team. - Strong technical knowledge - Experience in setting up high-load, high-availability, multi-data centre environments - Experience in supporting MySQL - Configuring and fine-tuning Apache - Knowledge of web architecture - Disaster recovery management - Experience with KVM or other Virtualisation platforms - Excellent communication skills are essential In return we can offer you the chance to work for a leading organisation, work on some exciting projects and deliver key solutions to a variety of clients. This position is based in our office in Hamilton, no teleworking. Applications must be able to attend interviews in Hamilton, NZ. If this sounds like you please don't hesitate to send in your CV today. kind regards Stuart Inglis, Ph.D. | Chief Technology Officer Director NetValue Limited Level 1, SouthBloc, 19 Knox Street, Hamilton M +64 (0) 21 907 532 E stuart.inglis(a)netvalue.nz | W netvalue.nz

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4 lightweight image viewers for the Linux desktop
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jul '17

18 Jul '17

'Like most people, you probably have more than a few photos and other images on your computer. And, like most people, you probably like to take a peek at those images and photos every so often. Firing up an editor like GIMP or Pinta is overkill for simply viewing images. On the other hand, the basic image viewer included with most Linux desktop environments might not be enough for your needs. If you want something with a few more features, but still want it to be lightweight, then take a closer look at these four image viewers for the Linux desktop, plus a handful of bonus options if they don't meet your needs.' -- source: https://opensource.com/article/17/7/4-lightweight-image-viewers-linux-deskt… I've just switched to Nomacs as my default viewer. Fast and displays the EXIF information in a separate pane, which is rather handy for my work. 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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Bruce Schneier’s Book Review: “Twitter And Tear Gas”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Jul '17

14 Jul '17

There are two opposing models of how the Internet has changed protest movements. The first is that the Internet has made protesters mightier than ever. ... The second is that it has made them more ineffectual. Derided as "slacktivism" or "clicktivism," the ease of action without commitment can result in movements like Occupy petering out in the US without any obvious effects. Of course, the reality is more nuanced ... <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/07/book_review_twi.html>

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PC Sales Still In Decline
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Jul '17

14 Jul '17

Looks like world PC shipments are now down to about 240 million a year <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/13/pc_sales_still_slumping_but_more_s…>. I think the peak, maybe ten years ago, was a million a day.

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Looking for something to celebrate today?
by Ian Stewart 14 Jul '17

14 Jul '17

Hi, If you are looking for something to celebrate today, the 14th July 2017, then there's always the storming of La Bastille<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_of_the_Bastille>. If this doesn't appeal, and you are looking for something a little more global, then there is a minor milestone in Unix epoch time<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time>. For NZ this will occur today at 14:40. It is when Unix time ticks over the 1.5 billion seconds mark. $ date --date="@1500000000" Fri Jul 14 14:40:00 NZST 2017 If you can't think of anything else to do then you can watch it happen here... https://www.epochconverter.com/ ...or repeatedly enter this on your console... $ echo "How many seconds to go:" $((1500000000 - $(date +%s))) If this event is a little low key, and you'd rather wait for it to tick over the 2 billion mark, then you'll have to hold off with the celebrations for another 16 years... $ date --date="@2000000000" Wed May 18 15:33:20 NZST 2033 Cheers to another 1.5 billion seconds and many more. Ian.

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Tim Berners-Lee Approves Web DRM, But W3C Members Have Two Weeks To Appeal
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

'der Atticus Rex writes: A high controversial Web standard has received a seal of approval from Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web and its chief technical decision-maker. Opponents like the Free Software Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation say that the standard, Encrypted Media Extensions, is a step backwards for freedom, privacy, and a host of other rights on the Web. There's still a two-week window in which members of the W3C can appeal the decision, and the Free Software Foundation is asking people to email and encourage them to do so.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/07/08/0147206 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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net neutrality article on BBC
by Ian Young 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

Some may not have seen this. I thought it a useful summary of the current state of play around this issue. http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-40494909

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Fedora 26 Linux Distro Released
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jul '17

12 Jul '17

'Today, Fedora 26 sheds its pre-release status and becomes available for download as a stable release. GNOME fans are in for a big treat, as version 3.24 is default. If you stick to stable Fedora releases, this will be your first time experiencing that version of the desktop environment since it was released in March. Also new is LibreOffice 5.3, which is an indispensable suite for productivity. If you still use mp3 music files I've moved onto streaming), support should be baked in for both encoding and decoding. "The latest version of Fedora's desktop-focused edition provides new tools and features for general users as well as developers. GNOME 3.24 is offered with Fedora 26 Workstation, which includes a host of updated functionality including Night Light, an application that subtly changes screen color based on time of day to reduce effect on sleep patterns, and LibreOffice 5.3, the latest update to the popular open source office productivity suite. For developers, GNOME 3.24 provides matured versions of Builder and Flatpak to make application development for a variety of systems, including Rust and Meson, easier across the board," says the Fedora Project.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/07/11/1722202 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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Ubuntu Is Now Available On the Windows Store
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jul '17

11 Jul '17

'Ubuntu is now available for download on the Windows Store. "Initially spotted by Rafael Rivera and Necrosoft Core on Twitter, Ubuntu on the Windows Store will let you install and run the Ubuntu terminal on Windows next to your other apps," reports Windows Central. From the report: Ubuntu's arrival, and that of SUSE, are part of a recent push by Microsoft to embrace Linux and the open source community more broadly. This began with the arrival of the Windows Subsystem for Linux in 2016, allowing users to use the Bash shell from within Windows. Keep in mind that this is limited to the Fall Creators Update, which isn't set for a public release until later this year. If you're running a PC testing the Fall Creators Update through the Windows Insider Program, however, you should be able to download and try Ubuntu from the Windows Store just fine. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/07/10/202218 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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Multics Lives!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Jul '17

10 Jul '17

I previously mentioned <https://list.waikato.ac.nz/pipermail/wlug/2015-August/013714.html> the old Multics OS, which was so complex and so delayed in its development that a group of folks at AT&T Bell Labs decided not to wait and created their own, less ambitious OS instead, deciding to call it “UNIX” as a sort of pun on “Multics”. Well, at long last <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/10/multics_resurrected_in_new_simulat…>, you can now run Multics for yourself. The original mainframe hardware is long gone, but today’s PCs can easily support a suitable software emulation without breaking too much of a sweat--even a Raspberry π 2, it seems, can run the emulation at something close to the speed of the early mainframe units. All it took was some suitably dedicated people to build such an emulator. And now you can download their work and try it out for yourself.

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Let’s Encrypt: Wildcard Certs Coming Soon
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

Anybody using Let’s Encrypt? Having recently set it up for a client, I’m really impressed with it. It gives you HTTPS certs for your web servers at no cost, and with very little effort, since the entire process is automated (with authentication via the “ACME” protocol). The certs are only valid for 90 days, to try to minimize potential damage from any compromises, but the renewal process is equally easy to automate. The one service they haven’t offered up to now is certs for wildcard domains (e.g. “*.example.com”). Looks like they will soon have a procedure for this, too <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/lets-encrypt-to-star…>.

2 1

OneDrive Has Stopped Working On Non-NTFS Drives
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

'OneDrive users around the world have been upset to discover that with its latest update, Microsoft's cloud file syncing and storage system no longer works with anything other than disks formatted with the NTFS file system. Both older file systems, such as FAT32 and exFAT, and newer ones, such as ReFS, will now provoke an error message when OneDrive starts up. To continue to use the software, files will have to be stored on an NTFS volume. While FAT disks can be converted, ReFS volumes must be reformatted and wiped. This has left various OneDrive users unhappy. While NTFS is the default file system in Windows, people using SD cards to extend the storage on small laptops and tablets will typically use exFAT. Similarly, people using Storage Spaces to manage large, redundant storage volumes will often use ReFS. The new policy doesn't change anything for most Windows users, but those at the margins will feel hard done by. Microsoft said in a statement that it "discovered a warning message that should have existed was missing when a user attempted to store their OneDrive folder on a non-NTFS filesystem -- which was immediately remedied." According to Ars, Microsoft's position, apparently, is that OneDrive should always have warned about these usage scenarios and that it's only a bug or an oversight that allowed non-NTFS volumes to work.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/07/06/2012255 Time to switch to ownCloud! :-) https://owncloud.org/ 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/

2 1

WikiLeaks Unveils CIA Implants That Steal SSH Credentials From Windows, Linux PCs
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

'WikiLeaks has today published the 15th batch of its ongoing Vault 7 leak, this time detailing two alleged CIA implants that allowed the agency to intercept and exfiltrate SSH (Secure Shell) credentials from targeted Windows and Linux operating systems using different attack vectors. Secure Shell or SSH is a cryptographic network protocol used for remote login to machines and servers securely over an unsecured network. Dubbed BothanSpy -- implant for Microsoft Windows Xshell client, and Gyrfalcon -- targets the OpenSSH client on various distributions of Linux OS, including CentOS, Debian, RHEL (Red Hat), openSUSE and Ubuntu. Both implants steal user credentials for all active SSH sessions and then sends them to a CIA-controlled server. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/07/06/224211 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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iPhone Bugs Are Too Valuable To Report To Apple
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '17

07 Jul '17

'Last year, Apple launched a long-awaited bug bounty program to reward friendly hackers who report flaws in the iPhone to the company. Despite inviting some of the best hackers in the world to join, it's a bit of a flop so far. The iPhone's security is so tight that it's hard to find any flaws at all, which leads to sky-high prices for bugs on the grey market. Researchers I spoke to are reluctant to report bugs both because they are so valuable and because reporting some bugs may actually prevent them from doing more research. "People can get more cash if they sell their bugs to others," said Nikias Bassen, a security researcher for the company Zimperium, and who joined Apple's program last year. "If you're just doing it for the money, you're not going to give [bugs] to Apple directly." Patrick Wardle, a former NSA hacker who now specializes in MacOS research and was invited to the Apple bug bounty program, agreed. He said that iOS bugs are "too valuable to report to Apple."' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/17/07/06/1551210 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/

1 0

'Severe' Systemd Bug Allowed Remote Code Execution For Two Years
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jul '17

06 Jul '17

'A flaw in systemd, the init system used on many Linux systems, can be exploited using a malicious DNS query to either crash a system or to run code remotely. The vulnerability resides in the daemon systemd-resolved and can be triggered using a TCP payload, according to Ubuntu developer Chris Coulson. This component can be tricked into allocating less memory than needed for a look-up. When the reply is bigger it overflows the buffer allowing an attacker to overwrite memory. This would result in the process either crashing or it could allow for code execution remotely. "A malicious DNS server can exploit this by responding with a specially crafted TCP payload to trick systemd-resolved in to allocating a buffer that's too small, and subsequently write arbitrary data beyond the end of it," is how Coulson put it. Affected Linux vendors have pushed out patches -- but the bug has apparently been present in systemd code since June of 2015. And long-time Slashdot reader walterbyrd also reports a recently-discovered bug where systemd unit files that contain illegal usernames get defaulted to root.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/07/03/0343258 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/

3 4

Raspberry Pi's Smaller, Cheaper Rival: NanoPi Neo Plus2 Weighs in at $25
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '17

05 Jul '17

'FriendlyARM, the maker of compact NanoPi developer boards, has released the NanoPi Neo Plus2 for $25. From a report: This board is an update to the recently released NanoPi Neo 2, a $15 cookie-sized developer board measuring 40mm x 40mm (1.6in) with a 64-bit Allwinner H5 processor, 512MB RAM, and one USB port. The NanoPi Neo Plus2 is slightly larger at 52mm x 40mm (2in x 1.6in) and has two USB ports. It has the same H5 quad-core A53 ARM Cortex processor, but comes with 1GB RAM and 8GB eMMC storage. The NeoPlus2's storage in addition to Gigabit Ethernet puts it ahead of the Raspberry Pi 3 on paper, and at $25 undercuts the better-known board by $10.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/07/05/0211212 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/

1 0

Parlatype - A Manual Audio Transcription App for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '17

05 Jul '17

'Parlatype is a minimal GNOME audio player for manual speech transcription. It plays audio sources to transcribe them in your favorite text application. It features a simple themeable GUI with a track timeline (with a waveform view) and clearly visible buttons and a playback speed tuner. It doesn't come with that many settings but then again, remember - it is a simple audio transcriber.' -- source: https://www.fossmint.com/parlatype-a-audio-transcription-tool-for-linux/ 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/

1 0

Lollypop – A New Modern Music Player for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '17

05 Jul '17

'Lollypop is a lightweight modern and material design-inspired music player designed to work excellently on the GNOME desktop environment. It has a focus on an intuitive minimal design which makes it easy to pick it up and begin using right away. It features all the functions you would expect from a music player like browsing and searching through your collection of music files, fetching lyrics and artist biography from the internet, as well as automatically fetching cover arts for music files.' -- source: https://www.fossmint.com/lollypop-a-new-modern-music-player-for-linux/ 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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GnuPG crypto library cracked, look for patches
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Jul '17

05 Jul '17

What they found is that the libgcrypt library used what's called “sliding windows”, a method for carrying out the mathematics of cryptography – but one that's known to leak data. ... What they found was an unpleasant surprise: a complete break of the library's RSA-1024... <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/07/04/gnupg_crypto_library_cracked_look_…> Cue the conspiracy theorists lining up to say “Given the controversy surrounding GnuPG and the way they operate, one just has to wonder "bug or backdoor?"”

2 2

Latte Dock – An Elegant and Intuitive Dock for Your Tasks and Plasmoids
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

'Latte Dock is arguably the best dock app for KDE Plasma especially since the release of its stable version 0.6 in April. It is based on plasma frameworks, that working together to provide users with an elegant and intuitive experience while going about their everyday PC tasks. Latte Dock is unlike some dock apps in the market in the sense that it lets you replace your desktop panels completely. You can use it to run multiple docks on one screen, mimic several panel layouts including that of Unity and Plasma, set animation styles especially using its parabolic zoom effects, and organize Plasmoids.' -- source: https://www.fossmint.com/latte-dock-an-elegant-and-intuitive-dock-for-kde-p… 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/

1 0

Linux Kernel 4.12 Officially Released
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

'After seven weeks of announcing release candidate versions, Linus Torvalds today informs the Linux community through a mailing list announcement about the general availability of the Linux 4.12 kernel series. Development on the Linux 4.12 kernel kicked off in mid-May with the first release candidate, and now, seven weeks later we can finally get our hands on the final release... A lot of great improvements, new hardware support, and new security features were added during all this time, which makes it one of the biggest releases, after Linux 4.9... Prominent features of the Linux 4.12 kernel include initial support for AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics cards, intial Nvidia GeForce GTX 1000 "Pascal" accelerated support, implementation of Budget Fair Queueing (BFQ) and storage-I/O schedulers, more MD RAID enhancements, support for Raspberry Pi's Broadcom BCM2835 thermal driver, a lot of F2FS optimizations, as well as ioctl for the GETFSMAP space mapping ioctl for both XFS and EXT4 filesystems. Linus said in announcing the release that "I think only 4.9 ends up having had more commits," also noting that 4.9 was a Long Term Support kernel, whereas "4.12 is just plain big." "There's also nothing particularly odd going on in the tree - it's all just normal development, just more of it than usual."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/07/03/0410253 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/

1 0

HTTPS Certificate Revocation Doesn’t Work: Some Fixes
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

The traditional mechanisms for revoking compromised TLS/SSL certifications--cert revocation lists (CRLs) and Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP)--don’t really work. But something can be done about this, in the form of “OCSP Must Staple”. Also the issue of rogue certifications--certs issued for your domain without your knowledge or permission--can be mitigated with Certificate Transparency (CT), where the issuing Certificate Authorities (CAs) publish all the certs they have given out, to allow crosschecks. There is also Certificate Authority Authorization (CAA), where the DNS entry for your domain specifies which CA(s) are allowed to issue certs for it. <https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/07/https-certificate-revocation-is-br…>

1 0

Debian Linux reveals Intel Skylake and Kaby Lake processors have broken hyper-threading
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

'Do you have an Intel Skylake and Kaby Lake processor under your computer's hood? Have you experienced unexplained application and system hiccups, data corruption, or data loss? It could be because your chipset has hyper-threading enabled and the chips are malfunctioning. Henrique de Moraes Holschuh, a Debian Linux developer, revealed the Intel chip problem on the Debian developer list. Officially, Intel hasn't acknowledged the problem, but engineers at Dell and Intel have told me that the problem, and its fix, exists. This processor/microcode defect has been found on Intel Skylake and Intel Kaby Lake processors with hyper-threading enabled. Besides these 6th and 7th generation Intel Core processors, its also found on its related server processors, such as Xeon v5 and Xeon v6, and some select Intel Pentium processor models. While the Debian community revealed the problem, it's not Linux-specific. Any operating system -- Windows, macOS,FreeBSD, you name it -- can run into the problem. According to Intel chip errata, "Under complex micro-architectural conditions, short loops of less than 64 instructions that use AH, BH, CH or DH registers as well as their corresponding wider register (e.g. RAX, EAX or AX for AH) may cause unpredictable system behavior. This can only happen when both logical processors on the same physical processor are active." This will lead to the computer experiencing "unpredictable system behavior." What programs will cause a computer to act up? That's a good question, and we don't have a good answer. As Holschuh wrote, "We do not have enough information at this time to know how much software out there will trigger this specific defect."' -- source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/debian-linux-reveals-intel-skylake-kaby-lake-p… 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/

1 0

23 Years Of The Open Source 'FreeDOS' Project
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

Not quite Linux, but a good example of an open-source project: 'Jim Hall is celebrating the 23rd birthday of the FreeDOS Project, calling it "a major milestone for any free software or open-source software project," and remembering how it all started. An anonymous reader quotes Linux Journal: If you remember Windows 3.1 at the time, it was a pretty rough environment. I didn't like that you could interact with Windows only via a mouse; there was no command line. I preferred working at the command line. So I was understandably distressed in 1994 when I read via various tech magazines that Microsoft planned to eliminate MS-DOS with the next version of Windows. I decided that if the next evolution of Windows was going to be anything like Windows 3.1, I wanted nothing to do with it... I decided to create my own version of DOS. And on June 29, 1994, I posted an announcement to a discussion group... Our "PD-DOS" project (for "Public Domain DOS") quickly grew into FreeDOS. And 23 years later, FreeDOS is still going strong! Today, many people around the world install FreeDOS to play classic DOS games, run legacy business software or develop embedded systems... FreeDOS has become a modern DOS, due to the large number of developers that continue to work on it. You can download the FreeDOS 1.2 distribution and immediately start coding in C, Assembly, Pascal, BASIC or a number of other software development languages. The standard FreeDOS editor is quite nice, or you can select from more than 15 different editors, all included in the distribution. You can browse websites with the Dillo graphical web browser, or do it "old school" via the Lynx text-mode web browser. And for those who just want to play some great DOS games, you can try adventure games like Nethack or Beyond the Titanic, arcade games like Wing and Paku Paku, flight simulators, card games and a bunch of other genres of DOS games. On his "Open Source Software and Usability" blog, Jim says he's been involved with open source software "since before anyone coined the term 'open source'," and first installed Linux on his home PC in 1993. Over on the project's blog, he's also sharing appreciative stories from FreeDOS users and from people involved with maintaining it (including memories of early 1980s computers like the Sinclair ZX80, the Atari 800XL and the Coleco Adam). Any Slashdot readers have their own fond memories to share?' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/07/02/1710200 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/

1 0

Ubuntu Disputes 'Ads In MOTD' Claims
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

'Thursday Lproven (Slashdot reader #6030) wrote: It appears that Ubuntu is using a feature it has added -- intended to insert headlines of breaking tech news (security alerts and so on) into the Message of the Day displayed at login to the console -- to display advertising and promotional messages. The message in question linked to a Hacker Noon article titled "How HBO's Silicon Valley built 'Not Hotdog' with mobile TensorFlow, Keras & React Native." Later that day Dustin Kirkland, a Ubuntu Product Manager for the feature's design (and the Core Developer for its implementation) suggested the message had been mistaken for an ad, describing it on Hacker News as a "fun fact... an interesting tidbit of potpourri from the world of Ubuntu," and later saying it was intended like Google's doodles. "Last week's message actually announced an Ubuntu conference in Latin America. The week before, we linked to an article asking for feedback on Kubuntu. Before that, we announced the availability of Extended Security Maintenance updates for 12.04. And so on." He later confirmed Canonical received no money for the message, and also pointed out that the messages all come from an open source repository, and "You're welcome to propose your own messages for merging, if you have a well formatted, informative message for Ubuntu users." Click through for a condensed version of the complete response by Dustin Kirkland, Ubuntu Product and Strategy at Canonical.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/07/01/0550251 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/

1 0

15 Devices (Including 6 Laptops) Awarded FSF's 'Respects Your Freedom' Certification
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '17

03 Jul '17

'This week the Free Software Foundation awarded its coveted 'Respects Your Freedom' certification to 15 products -- more than doubling the number of certified products (from 12 to 27) since the program began in 2012. An anonymous reader writes: The non-profit FSF certified six different laptops, two docking stations, three WiFi USB adapters and two internal WiFi devices, a mainboard, and their first-ever certified Bluetooth device, the TET-BT4 USB adapter. The products are all from Technoethical (formerly Tehnoetic), a Romania-based company who previously had just one mini wireless USB adapter on their list of FSF-certified products. "In 2014 we started selling hardware compatible with fully free systems in order to fund the free software activism work that we've been doing with our foundation," said Technoethical founder, Tiberiu C. Turbureanu. "Since then, we worked hard to build a hardware catalog that allows free software users to choose what best fits their computing needs, while also helping with the funding of different free software projects." "We are excited that Technoethical has brought out such an impressive collection of hardware whose associated software respects user freedom," said the FSF's executive director, John Sullivan. "RYF certification continues to gain speed and momentum, thanks to companies like them."' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/07/02/205201 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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Linux Mint 18.2 (Sonya) released
by Peter Reutemann 02 Jul '17

02 Jul '17

Hi everyone Linux Mint 18.2, nicknamed Sonya, has been released. Here are the blog entries for the various flavors: - KDE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3292 - XFCE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3291 - MATE http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3290 - Cinnamon http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3289 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/

1 0

Govhack hamilton
by William Mckee 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

Hi, Govhack is happening end of July. Tickets are free. https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/govhack-nz-hamilton-tickets-35833922226 I'm planning on a project involving Waikato bus data. a static website that displays bus stops and when the next buses leave. Hope to see you there! Cheers, William

2 1

Open-Source Healthcare
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Jul '17

01 Jul '17

Report on a long-standing project called “NHSbuntu” to put together an open-source OS fit for use at the NHS in the UK <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/30/nhsbuntu_nhs_revolution/>. Also mentions Code4health, a “home for the growing number of open source projects in the health service”.

1 0

Tuesday’s massive ransomware outbreak was, in fact, something much worse
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

'Tuesday's massive outbreak of malware that shut down computers around the world has been almost universally blamed on ransomware, which by definition seeks to make money by unlocking data held hostage only if victims pay a hefty fee. Now, some researchers are drawing an even bleaker assessment—that the malware was a wiper with the objective of permanently destroying hard drives.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/06/petya-outbreak-was-a-chaos-sowing-… Welcome to cyber warfare... 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/

2 2

Vulnerability Discovered In Latest Ubuntu Distributions, Users Advised To Update
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

'There is a vulnerability in the latest ubuntu distributions due to the DNS resolver included in systemd. The inclusion of the dns resolver was lamented by many on the mailing list, not without cause. All are advised to update their distribution.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/06/28/1659216 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/

1 0

Testing For Windows Vulnerabilities On Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

What’s notable about this report <https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/06/latest-high-severity-flaw-in-windo…> on a vulnerability in Windows Defender is that the testing that uncovered the problem was done, not on Windows, but on Linux. The researcher, Tavis Ormandy, developed a framework <https://github.com/taviso/loadlibrary> for loading Windows DLLs (Dynamically-Loadable Libraries) under Linux so that he could take advantage of the superior tools available there.

1 0

Intel Quietly Discontinues Galileo, Joule, and Edison Development Boards
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jun '17

20 Jun '17

'Intel is discontinuing its Galileo, Joule, and Edison lineups of development boards. The chip-maker quietly made the announcement last week. From company's announcement: Intel Corporation will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Galileo development board. Shipment of all Intel Galileo product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Joule Compute Modules and Developer Kits (known as Intel 500 Series compute modules in People's Republic of China). Shipment of all Intel Joule products skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Joule products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Edison compute modules and developer kits. Shipment of all Intel Edison product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Edison products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. All orders placed with Intel for Intel Edison products are non-cancelable and non-returnable after September 16, 2017. The company hasn't shared any explanation for why it is discontinuing the aforementioned development boards. Intel launched the Galileo, an Arduino-compatible mini computer in 2013, the Edison in 2014, and the Joule last year. The company touted the Joule as its "most powerful dev kit." You can find the announcement posts here.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/06/19/1720201 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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meeting on the 26th
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jun '17

18 Jun '17

Hi everyone Unfortunately, I haven't had any inspirations as to topics for the upcoming meeting on June 26th. Any ideas or suggestions? Any cool software or distro that you'd like to demo? Personally, I've never seen an installation and day-to-day usage of Arch Linux (adding/removing applications, configuring services, etc)... Thanks. 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/

2 1

Debian 9 "Stretch" released
by William Mckee 18 Jun '17

18 Jun '17

Hi, Debian 9 "Stretch" has been released... After 26 months of development the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 9 (code name Stretch), which will be supported for the next 5 years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and of the Debian Long Term Support team. Debian 9 is dedicated to the project's founder Ian Murdock, who passed away on 28 December 2015. https://www.debian.org/News/2017/20170617 Cheers, William.

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Why do printers add secret tracking dots?
by Ian Stewart 17 Jun '17

17 Jun '17

Hi, This is new news to me, however it looks like its been known about for years. cheers, Ian. According to this<http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170607-why-printers-add-secret-tracking-d…> BBC technology article, colour laser printers add yellow dots to each page printed that identify the date and time it was printed and the printers serial number. "At that point, experts began taking a closer look at the document, now publicly available on the web. They discovered something else of interest: yellow dots in a roughly rectangular pattern repeated throughout the page. They were barely visible to the naked eye, but formed a coded design. After some quick analysis, they seemed to reveal the exact date and time that the pages in question were printed: 06:20 on 9 May, 2017 – at least, this is likely to be the time on the printer’s internal clock at that moment. The dots also encode a serial number for the printer." The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) maintained a List of Printers Which Do or Do Not Display Tracking Dots<https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-display-tracking…> ...but "This list is no longer being updated." "(Added 2015) Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. Although we still don't know if this is correct, or how subsequent generations of forensic tracking technologies might work, it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer's serial number. (If any manufacturer wishes to go on record with a statement to the contrary, we'll be happy to publish that here.) (Added 2017) REMINDER: IT APPEARS LIKELY THAT ALL RECENT COMMERCIAL COLOR LASER PRINTERS PRINT SOME KIND OF FORENSIC TRACKING CODES, NOT NECESSARILY USING YELLOW DOTS. THIS IS TRUE WHETHER OR NOT THOSE CODES ARE VISIBLE TO THE EYE AND WHETHER OR NOT THE PRINTER MODELS ARE LISTED HERE. THIS ALSO INCLUDES THE PRINTERS THAT ARE LISTED HERE AS NOT PRODUCING YELLOW DOTS."

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Wi-Fi Alliance Offers Guidance For Builders
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

The Wi-Fi Alliance has issued its “Home Design Standard”, a set of recommendations that it hopes will see new homes outfitted properly for wireless networking from the beginning <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/15/wifi_certified_home_designs/>. Some of the reader comments suggest that UK builders at least, seem to have no clue. But surely even builders’ families must appreciate the value of wi-fi in their own homes nowadays...

1 0

Programmers Who Indent With Spaces Earn More Than Those Using Tabs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jun '17

16 Jun '17

According to this report <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/according-to-statist…>, the latest Stack Overflow developer survey shows a wide gap between the earnings of those who use spaces to indent their code, versus those who use tabs. Speaking as someone who moved from tabs to spaces about a decade ago, I don’t understand why the author seems so cut up about this. It makes about as much sense as vi/vim users complaining about Emacs users. (The guy also seems to put Perl and PHP on the same intellectual level, which I think tells you all you need to know about the state of his mental health...) And he forgot to link to the actual survey results, which are here <https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2017>. I can’t see where he got the information about the correlation between tabs/spaces and income--all I can see is that among professional developers, spaces are more popular, whereas among all developers, tabs are more popular.

1 1

Green Party Leaders Don't Want Windows In Munich
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

'Munich spent a lot of time (9 years) and a lot of money in shifting some 15,000 staff to a Linux-based OS. The plan now is to move to Windows 10 by 2021. Munich's Green Party is citing the WannaCry virus as a valid reason not to switch to Windows. "As with many of the biggest attacks, the computers that were mainly hit were running the Windows operating system," the Green Party said in a statement.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/15/1530224 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/

1 0

Vivaldi 1.10 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

'Vivaldi, the successor to Opera 12.16 (Presto) in spirit, admittedly has a long way to go but continues to steadily mature with the release of version 1.10: Releasing Vivaldi 1.10, we give you the power for making the Start Page more personal than ever before. You're the one who gets to decide how your Start Page looks, feels and performs. We've also added the much-requested ability to dock the Developer Tools. Other new features and improvements include: -Sorting of Downloads in the Side Panel by name, size, date added and date finished, as well as manually. -Toggle image visibility from the View menu or via configurable keyboard shortcut. -Quick Commands improvements for users that like to control everything in their browser from their keyboard. The Quick Commands menu lets users navigate to tabs, find search terms, filter lists of available commands and much more. -Address Bar dropdown list can now exclude bookmarks and typed history. -Controlling new tabs via third-party extensions with additional functionality, such as productivity tools or reminders. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/15/1511257 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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Re: [wlug] meeting on the 26th
by William Mckee 15 Jun '17

15 Jun '17

On Jun 15, 2017 9:44 PM, "Peter Reutemann" <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: Hi everyone Unfortunately, I haven't had any inspirations as to topics for the upcoming meeting on June 26th. Any ideas or suggestions? Any cool software or distro that you'd like to demo? Personally, I've never seen an installation and day-to-day usage of Arch Linux (adding/removing applications, configuring services, etc)... I installed arch linux once on the pi. didnt get further than the login prompt though. its certainly helpful distro, i will be forever grateful for the wiki. i will be away for this meetup up though, mid semester break gives an excuse to get away. Hope you find a topic. cheers, william.

1 0

Firefox 54 Arrives With Multi-Process Support For All Users
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jun '17

14 Jun '17

'Mozilla today launched Firefox 54 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new version includes the next major phase of multi-process support, which streamlines memory use, improving responsiveness and speed. The Electrolysis project, which is the largest change to Firefox code ever, is live. Firefox now uses up to four processes to run webpage content across all open tabs. This means that complex webpages in one tab have a much lower impact on responsiveness and speed in other tabs, and Firefox finally makes better use of your computer's hardware.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/13/1720250 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/

1 0

Linux Malware Infects Raspberry Pi Devices And Makes Them Mine Cryptocurrency
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '17

12 Jun '17

'If you're a Raspberry Pi user who's never changed the default password of the "pi" user, then heed this warning: change it. A brand new piece of malware has hit the web, called "Linux.MulDrop.14", and it preys on those who haven't secured their devices properly... After scanning for RPis with an open (and default) SSH port, the "pi" user is logged into (if the password is left default), and the password is subsequently changed. After that, the malware installs ZMap and sshpass software, and then it configures itself. The ultimate goal of Linux.MulDrop.14 is to make digital money for someone else, namely the author of the malware, using your Raspberry Pi. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/11/0552231 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/

1 0

Malware Uses Obscure Intel CPU Feature To Steal Data and Avoid Firewalls
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

'Microsoft's security team has come across a malware family that uses Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) Serial-over-LAN (SOL) interface as a file transfer tool. The problem with Intel AMT SOL is that it's part of Intel's ME, a separate chip inside Intel CPUs that runs its own OS and stays on even when the main CPU is off. Inside Intel's ME, AMT SOL opens a virtual network interface which works even when the PC is turned off. Furthermore, because this virtual network interface runs inside ME, firewalls and security products installed on the main OS won't detected malware using AMT SOL to exfiltrate data. The malware was created and used by a nation-state cyber-espionage unit codenamed PLATINUM, active since 2009, and which has targeted countries around the South China Sea. PLATINUM is by far one of the most sophisticated hacking groups ever discovered. Last year [PDF], the OS maker said the group was installing malware by abusing hotpatching — a mechanism that allows Microsoft to issue updates that tap into active processes and upgrade applications or the operating system without having to reboot the computer. Details about PLATINUM's recent targets and attacks are available in a report [PDF] Microsoft released yesterday.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/06/08/1754244 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/

2 2

Is Intel Threatening To Sue Microsoft Over x86-on-ARM?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Jun '17

09 Jun '17

Intel has put out a press release warning anybody working on x86-emulation technology to beware of infringing its patents <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/intel-fires-warning-…>. The article suggests that the timing of this announcement is a warning specifically to Microsoft, and possibly also Qualcomm, over their upcoming release of Windows-10-on-ARM machines. Even if this is so, I’m not sure I agree that “This compatibility makes these ARM-based machines a threat to Intel in a way that Windows RT never was”. The simple fact is that the performance of emulated x86 code on ARM is going to be most politely described as “anaemic”. ARM chips are not the most powerful (they are the most power-efficient), and x86 code is extremely complicated to emulate. Thus, the overheads of the translation layer are going to sap any hope of reasonable speed.

1 0

Internet cameras have hard-coded password that can’t be changed
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jun '17

08 Jun '17

'Security cameras manufactured by China-based Foscam are vulnerable to remote take-over hacks that allow attackers to view video feeds, download stored files, and possibly compromise other devices connected to a local network. That's according to a 12-page report released Wednesday by security firm F-Secure. Researchers at F-Secure documented 18 vulnerabilities that the manufacturer has yet to fix despite being alerted to them several months ago. All of the flaws were confirmed in a camera marketed under the Opticam i5 HD brand. A smaller number of the vulnerabilities were also found in the Foscam C2. The report said the weaknesses are likely to exist in many other camera models Foscam manufactures and sells under other brand names.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/06/internet-cameras-expose-private-vi… Not sure whether these cameras are sold here in NZ... 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/

1 0

Ubuntu Works With GNOME To Improve HiDPI Support On Linux Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jun '17

07 Jun '17

'Canonical is playing host to a 'fractional scaling hackfest' in its Taipei offices this week. Both GNOME developers and Ubuntu developers are in attendance, ready to wrestle with the aim: improve GNOME HiDPI support. Ubuntu's Unity desktop (I'm told, anyhow) plays fairly nice with high DPI monitors because the shell supports fractional scaling (though most apps, I believe, do not). Furthermore, users can tweak some high DPI settings to better suit their display(s). GNOME Shell also supports HiDPI monitors, but has, until now, been a little less flexible about it. "Currently, we only allow to scale windows by integral factors (typically 2). This proves somewhat limiting as there are many systems that are just in between the dpi ranges that are good for scale factor 2, or unscaled," the hackfest page explains.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/06/06/2048243 Other links regarding HiDPI: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/linux-hidpi-support-for-gnome-kde-xfce-cinnamo… https://www.maketecheasier.com/best-linux-desktop-environments-for-hidpi-di… 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/

1 0

SGI Desktop Clone Gets A New Version On Fedora
by Peter Reutemann 06 Jun '17

06 Jun '17

'Silicon Graphics workstations used the IRIX Interactive Desktop (formerly called Indigo Magic Desktop) for its IRIX operating system (based on UNIX System V with BSD extensions). "Anyone who remembers working on a SGI machine probably has fond memories of the Magic Desktop for IRIX," remembered one Slashdot reader in 2002. At the time a project called 5Dwm was working on a clone, and its work is still being continued by MaXX Interactive. Today Slashdot reader Daniel Mark shared the news that after "several years and many long nights," the company is announcing a new release for Fedora 25, adding that "more Linux Distributions support will be added over the coming days/weeks." They're calling it "something new and fresh in the Linux Desktop space." The MaXX Desktop is available in two versions, the free Community Edition (CE) which provides basic SGI Desktop experience and the commercially available Professional Edition (PE) that comes with support, CPU and GPU specific optimizations and a full SGI Desktop experience... So there is no surprise here, the MaXX Desktop is a highly tuned Workstation Environment for the Linux x86_64 and ia64 platforms. Multi-core processing, NVidia GPU specific optimizations are among the things that makes the MaXX Desktop so fast, light-weight and stable. ' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/17/06/04/1535251 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/

2 1

Network Time Protocol Hardened To Protect Users From Spying, Increase Privacy
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '17

05 Jun '17

'The Internet Engineering Task Force has taken another small step in protecting everybody's privacy... As the draft proposal explains, the RFCs that define NTP have what amounts to a convenience feature: packets going from client to server have the same set of fields as packets sent from servers to clients... "Populating these fields with accurate information is harmful to privacy of clients because it allows a passive observer to fingerprint clients and track them as they move across networks". The header fields in question are Stratum, Root Delay, Root Dispersion, Reference ID, Reference Timestamp, Origin Timestamp, and Receive Timestamp. The Origin Timestamp and Receive Timestamp offer a handy example or a "particularly severe information leak". Under NTP's spec (RFC 5905), clients copy the server's most recent timestamp into their next request to a server – and that's a boon to a snoop-level watcher. The proposal "proposes backward-compatible updates to the Network Time Protocol to strip unnecessary identifying information from client requests and to improve resilience against blind spoofing of unauthenticated server responses." Specifically, client developers should set those fields to zero.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/06/03/0422246 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/

1 0

Ubuntu Touch Mobile OS Now Maintained By UBports
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '17

05 Jun '17

'UBports continues to be the leading community project for trying to let Ubuntu Touch live on and evolve under their direction... Among their recent achievements were acquiring more sponsors, all devices that were sold with Ubuntu Touch can now run with UBports' builds, they are working on their own version of Mozilla's AGPS Location Service to replace Canonical's GPS system, the Halium OS platform continues evolving, the Dekko email client is back under development, installation improvements are being worked on, they are still striving for Wayland support, and more. The UBports Patreon page has even raised enough to allow UBports founder Marius Gripsgard to work full-time on what they're calling "a beautiful, free and open-source mobile OS." Their recent community update announced that "we are seeing more activity on Ubuntu Touch than for a very long time, and that is really encouraging."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/06/04/0316204 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/

1 0

US Supreme Court Victory for the Right to Tinker in Printer Cartridge Case
by Ian Stewart 01 Jun '17

01 Jun '17

"The [US] Supreme Court struck a blow today for your right to own the things you buy, reversing a lower court decision that had given patent owners the power to sue customers who paid in full for a patented item but then used it in a way the patent owner didn't care for. Together with Public Knowledge and R Street, EFF filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court. We explained that the ability of patent owners to sell products into the stream of commerce while also writing a wishlist of anti-competitive restrictions, would be a disastrous expansion of patent law, hindering competition, innovation, and your freedom to tinker with and repair your own stuff. The Supreme Court agreed, explaining that when a patent owner "chooses to sell an item, that product is no longer within the limits of the monopoly and instead becomes the private individual property of the purchaser, with the rights and benefits that come along with ownership." The Court emphasized that, by default, people have every right to make, sell, and use things. The limited monopoly that the government bestows upon a patent owner is a deviation from the norm of free market competition and ownership of personal property, and is subject to important limits in order to protect the public interest. The Court explained that people who buy things are allowed to use and resell them without being sued under patent and copyright law, and explained that this freedom is necessary for commerce to function. The next logical step will be for courts to recognize that people who buy digital goods are owners of those goods, not mere licensees, and can resell and tinker with their digital goods to the same extent as purchasers of tangible property." See the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) article for more details... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr… [https://www.eff.org/files/issues/patents-2.png]<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr…> Supreme Court Victory for the Right to Tinker in Printer Cartridge Case<https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/05/supreme-court-victory-right-tinker-pr…> www.eff.org The Supreme Court struck a blow today [PDF] for yo Maybe the 11 remaining TPP countries will ensure that their agreement endorses this ruling ? cheers, Ian

2 1

Car Emissions Cheating: How It’s Done
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 May '17

29 May '17

Researchers have been digging through car firmware from Volkswagen and Audi to get to the bottom of the emissions-testing scandal that broke a couple of years ago. Turns out the code was written by Bosch, and important information in the form of “function sheets” (documentation for what the firmware does) was not (officially) forthcoming from that company. But unofficial sources can be found on online forums frequented by vehicle-modding enthusiasts. <https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/05/volkswagen-bosch-fiat-diesel-emissions…>

1 0

Creative Commons Staff Members Release New Free eBook
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '17

28 May '17

'Creative Commons staff-members Sarah Hinchliff Pearson and Paul Stacey have now published Made With Creative Commons, the awaited book they successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2015. "Made With Creative Commons is a book about sharing," explains the book's description. "It is about sharing textbooks, music, data, art, and more. People, organizations, and businesses all over the world are sharing their work using Creative Commons licenses because they want to encourage the public to reuse their works, to copy them, to modify them... But if they are giving their work away to the public for free, how do they make money? "This is the question this book sets out to answer. There are 24 in-depth examples of different ways to sustain what you do when you share your work. And there are lessons, about how to make money but also about what sharing really looks like -- why we do it and what it can bring to the economy and the world. Full of practical advice and inspiring stories, Made with Creative Commons is a book that will show you what it really means to share." There's free versions in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats for downloading from the Creative Commons site, and there's also an edit-able version on Google Docs. A small Danish non-profit publisher named Ctrl+Alt+Delete Books is also publishing print copies of the book under a Creative Commons license "to ensure easy sharing," and is making the book available on Amazon or through the publisher's own web site.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/28/0130259 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/

1 0

Timers In systemd
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 May '17

27 May '17

Was referred to this page <https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Systemd> about enabling systemd as the init system in Gentoo. The section on “Timer services” I found particularly useful, as applicable to other distros running systemd: instead of a conventional crontab, you create .timer entries, and corresponding .service descriptions for them to invoke, in your ~/.local/share/systemd/user area. One advantage of this I can see is one less set of user files kept in /var. In fact, do this in conjunction with maildir format for user mail, and you no longer need to have any user files in /var. (That I can think of, anyway...)

1 0

Popularity Contests
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 May '17

26 May '17

In the middle of another Phoronix flame war, someone posted links to a couple of interesting pages. What’s your favourite desktop environment? According to this <https://opensource.com/life/15/7/poll-preferred-desktop-environment>, GNOME is number one, with KDE not far behind. One-third of respondents use something else. Arch Linux offers some stats <https://www.archlinux.de/?page=FunStatistics> on popularity of desktop environments and other software among its users. Here GNOME and KDE add up to only about 50%. By the way, it’s clear from the numbers for browsers and text editors in the latter that lots of people use more than one.

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UK Government May Push Anti-Encryption Laws After Election
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 May '17

25 May '17

Not too surprising to discover that some parties in the UK might be using the Manchester attack as a pretext to push through laws to ban secure encryption <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/25/uk_to_push_antiencryption_laws_aft…>. As if such a ban would have helped uncover a perpetrator who, by all accounts, had already been reported to the authorities multiple times...

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A wormable code-execution bug has lurked in Samba for 7 years. Patch now!
by Peter Reutemann 25 May '17

25 May '17

'Maintainers of the Samba networking utility just patched a critical code-execution vulnerability that could pose a severe threat to users until the fix is widely installed. The seven-year-old flaw, indexed as CVE-2017-7494, can be reliably exploited with just one line of code to execute malicious code, as long as a few conditions are met. Those requirements include vulnerable computers that (a) make file- and printer-sharing port 445 reachable on the Internet, (b) configure shared files to have write privileges, and (c) use known or guessable server paths for those files. When those conditions are satisfied, remote attackers can upload any code of their choosing and cause the server to execute it, possibly with unfettered root privileges depending on the vulnerable platform. "All versions of Samba from 3.5.0 onwards are vulnerable to a remote code execution vulnerability, allowing a malicious client to upload a shared library to a writable share, and then cause the server to load and execute it," Samba maintainers wrote in an advisory published Wednesday. They urged anyone using a vulnerable version to install a patch as soon as possible.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2017/05/a-wormable-code-execution-bug-has-… 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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Windows switch to Git almost complete: 8, 500 commits and 1, 760 builds each day
by Peter Reutemann 25 May '17

25 May '17

'Back in February, Microsoft made the surprising announcement that the Windows development team was going to move to using the open source Git version control system for Windows development. A little over three months after that first revelation, and about 90 percent of the Windows engineering team has made the switch.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/05/90-of-windows-devs-n… 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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Malicious Subtitles Threaten VLC, Kodi and Popcorn Time Users, Researchers Warn
by Peter Reutemann 24 May '17

24 May '17

'Millions of people risk having their devices and systems compromised by malicious subtitles, according to a new research published by security firm Check Point. The threat comes from a previously undocumented vulnerability which affects users of popular streaming software, including Kodi, Popcorn-Time, and VLC. Developers of the applications have already applied fixes and in some cases, working on it. From a report: While most subtitle makers do no harm, it appears that those with malicious intent can exploit these popular streaming applications to penetrate the devices and systems of these users. Researchers from Check Point, who uncovered the problem, describe the subtitle 'attack vector' as the most widespread, easily accessed and zero-resistance vulnerability that has been reported in recent years. "By conducting attacks through subtitles, hackers can take complete control over any device running them. From this point on, the attacker can do whatever he wants with the victim's machine, whether it is a PC, a smart TV, or a mobile device," they write.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/17/05/24/1329211 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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Testing Windows Software For Vulns Too Slow? Do It On Linux!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 May '17

24 May '17

“Distributed, scalable fuzzing on Windows can be challenging and inefficient. This is especially true for endpoint security products, which use complex interconnected components that span across kernel and user space. This often requires spinning up an entire virtualized Windows environment to fuzz them or collect coverage data.” Porting stuff like Windows antivirus tools to Linux lets Ormandy “run the code I’m testing in minimal containers with very little overhead, and easily scale up testing”. Oh, and “I also think Linux has better tools”. <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/24/whats_got_a_vast_attack_service_an…>

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WannaCry Makes an Easy Case For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 May '17

23 May '17

'The thing is, WannaCry isn't the first of its kind. In fact, ransomware has been exploiting Windows vulnerabilities for a while. The first known ransomware attack was called "AIDS Trojan" that infected Windows machines back in 1989. This particular ransomware attack switched the autoexec.bat file. This new file counted the amount of times a machine had been booted; when the machine reached a count of 90, all of the filenames on the C drive were encrypted. Windows, of course, isn't the only platform to have been hit by ransomware. In fact, back in 2015, the LinuxEncoder ransomware was discovered. That bit of malicious code, however, only affected servers running the Magento ecommerce solution. The important question here is this: Have their been any ransomware attacks on the Linux desktop? The answer is no. With that in mind, it's pretty easy to draw the conclusion that now would be a great time to start deploying Linux on the desktop. I can already hear the tired arguments. The primary issue: software. I will counter that argument by saying this: Most software has migrated to either Software as a Service (SaaS) or the cloud. The majority of work people do is via a web browser. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari; with few exceptions, SaaS doesn't care. With that in mind, why would you want your employees and staff using a vulnerable system? [...] Imagine, if you will, you have deployed Linux as a desktop OS for your company and those machines work like champs from the day you set them up to the day the hardware finally fails. Doesn't that sound like a win your company could use? If your employees work primarily with SaaS (through web browsers), then there is zero reason keeping you from making the switch to a more reliable, secure platform.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/18/1757205 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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Check-In Delays At Auckland Airport, Australia And Elsewhere
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 May '17

22 May '17

You may have come across this report <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11860878> about problems with check-in processing at Auckland and Wellington “as a result of a global issue”. This item from The Register <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/22/sita_failure_australia/> gives a few more details, mentioning an international hookup called “SITA” which was hit by problems in the UK.

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Disabling Microsoft Telemetry Is Not So Easy
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 May '17

22 May '17

Came across a link to this series of tweets <https://twitter.com/m8urnett/status/866353982217699328> detailing a sysadmin’s attempts to block his Windows 10 Enterprise installation from making gratuitous Internet accesses. Seems like the obvious answer--blocking things at your border router--can cause major Windows malfunctions...

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upcoming meeting
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '17

18 May '17

Hi everyone We don't have anything scheduled yet for the upcoming meeting next week. Any ideas? [and apologies if I should have missed your suggestion - I've got too many things going on at the moment...] 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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Google Takes Another Shot At Making Android Great On Low-Budget Smartphones
by Peter Reutemann 17 May '17

17 May '17

'At its developer conference, Google unveiled Android Go, a project wherein Google will offer a version of Android that runs swiftly on budget, low-specced smartphones. With the new strategy, Google hopes to further improve the low-budget smartphone ecosystem in developing markets. Android Go will be focused around building a version of Android for phones with less memory, with the System UI and kernel able to run with as little as 512MB of memory. Apps will be optimized for low bandwidth and memory, with a version of Play Store designed for those markets that will highlight these apps. From a report: Another feature of Android Go will be data management. Android Go will let you easily see your data usage, and thanks to carrier integration, it'll also let you top-up with more data right on your device.' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/05/17/202209 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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Ubuntu 17.04 review: Don’t call it abandonware, per se
by Peter Reutemann 12 May '17

12 May '17

'Last month, it finally happened. Six years after its tumultuous switch from GNOME 2 to the homegrown Unity desktop, Canonical announced it was abandoning work on Unity. Going forward, the company will switch the default Ubuntu desktop back to GNOME beginning with next year's 18.04 LTS release. This means Canonical is also abandoning the development of the Mir display server and its unified interface of Ubuntu for phones and tablets. The company's vision of "convergence," as Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth termed it, has officially died.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/ubuntu-17-04-review-this-is-unitys-… 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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Ubuntu Arrives in the Windows Store, Suse and Fedora Are Coming To the Windows Subsystem For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '17

11 May '17

'At its Build developer conference today, Microsoft announced that Ubuntu has arrived in the Windows Store. From a report: The company also revealed that it is working with Fedora and Suse to bring their distributions to the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in Windows 10. At the conference last year, Microsoft announced plans to bring the Bash shell to Windows. The fruits of that labor was WSL, a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables (in ELF format) natively on Windows, which arrived with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update released in August 2016. Microsoft also partnered with Canonical to allow Ubuntu tools and utilities to run natively on top of the WSL. By bringing Ubuntu to the Windows Store, the company is now making it even easier for developers to install the tools and run Windows and Linux apps side by side. Working with other Linux firms shows that Microsoft's deal with Canonical was not a one-time affair, but rather part of a long-term investment in the Linux world.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/11/1535214 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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Canonical Founder Says Recent Changes In Ubuntu Were Necessary To Prepare the Company For an IPO
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '17

10 May '17

'Canonical was doing well with Ubuntu and cloud and container-related technologies, such as Juju, LXD, and Metal-as-a-Service (MaaS). In addition, its OpenStack and Kubernetes software stacks, according to Shuttleworth, are growing by leaps and bounds on both the public and private cloud. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said "in the last year, Ubuntu cloud growth had been 70 percent on the private cloud and 90 percent on the public cloud." In particular, "Ubuntu has been gaining more customers on the big five public clouds." What hadn't succeeded was Canonical's attempt to make Unity the universal interface for desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Shuttleworth was personally invested in this project, but at day's end, it wasn't getting enough adoption to make it profitable. So, Shuttleworth said with regret, Unity had to be dropped. This move also means Canonical will devote more of its time to "putting the company on the path to a IPO. We must figure out what steps we need to take moving forward." That means focusing on Canonical's most profitable lines. Specifically, "Ubuntu will never die. Ubuntu is the default platform on cloud computing. Juju, MaaS, and OpenStack are nearly unstoppable. We need to work out more of our IoT path. At the same time, we had to cut out those parts that couldn't meet an investors' needs. The immediate work is get all parts of the company profitable."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/05/09/1553255 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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Re: [wlug] How Psychology Today Sees Richard Stallman
by rowan schischka 09 May '17

09 May '17

>He is a control freak, and a prophet. He has been right more than once >(the dangers of software patents, pitfalls of online services). But >some of his policy decisions (e.g. the reluctance to allow a plugin >architecture into GCC for fear it would lead to evasion of the GPL) >have, I think, been counterproductive. >But isn?t it grand that Free Software is all about having a choice? >That we can use what he and everybody else working for the FSF has been >responsible for, without necessarily having to subscribe to every tenet >of his philosophy? You can't expect anyone to be 100% correct on everything.

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Re: [wlug] The hijacking flaw that lurked in Intel chips is worse than anyone thought
by rowan schischka 09 May '17

09 May '17

I went through Intel's press release and document on how to detect the exploit. https://downloadmirror.intel.com/26754/eng/Intel-SA-00075%20Mitigation%20Gu… Intel says this to detect: netstat -na | findstr "\<16993\> \<16992\> \<16994\> \<16995\> \<623\> \<664\>" Is that all we can do? just scan for port numbers and throw them into our firewalls?

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Google’s “Fuchsia” smartphone OS dumps Linux, has a wild new UI
by Peter Reutemann 09 May '17

09 May '17

'Google, never one to compete in a market with a single product, is apparently hard at work on a third operating system after Android and Chrome OS. This one is an open source, real-time OS called "Fuchsia." The OS first popped up in August last year, but back then it was just a command line. Now the mysterious project has a crazy new UI we can look at, so let's dive in. Unlike Android and Chrome OS, Fuchsia is not based on Linux—it uses a new, Google-developed microkernel called "Magenta." With Fuchsia, Google would not only be dumping the Linux kernel, but also the GPL: the OS is licensed under a mix of BSD 3 clause, MIT, and Apache 2.0. Dumping Linux might come as a bit of a shock, but the Android ecosystem seems to have no desire to keep up with upstream Linux releases. Even the Google Pixel is still stuck on Linux Kernel 3.18, which was first released at the end of 2014.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/googles-fuchsia-smartphone-os-dumps… 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 Psychology Today Sees Richard Stallman
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '17

08 May '17

'After our article about Richard Stallman's new video interview, Slashdot reader silverjacket shared this recent profile from Psychology Today that describes Richard Stallman's quest "to save us from a web of spyware -- and from ourselves." By using proprietary software, Stallman believes, we are forfeiting control of our computers, and thus of our digital lives. In his denunciation of all nonfree software as inherently abusive and unethical, he has alienated many possible allies and followers. But he is not here to make friends. He is here to save us from a software industry he considers predatory in ways we've yet to recognize... for Stallman, moralism is the whole point. If you write or use free software only for practical reasons, you'll stop when it's inconvenient, and freedom will disappear. Stallman collaborator Eben Moglen -- a law professor at Columbia, as well as the FSF's general counsel -- assesses Stallman's legacy by saying "the idea of copyleft and the proposition that social and political freedom can't happen in a society without technological freedom -- those are his long-term meanings. And humanity will be aware of those meanings for centuries, whatever it does about them." The article also includes quotes from Linus Torvalds and Eric S. Raymond -- along with some great artwork. In addition to insisting the reporter refer to Linux as "GNU/Linux," Stallman also required that the article describe free software without using the term open source, a phrase he sees as "a way that people who disagree with me try to cause the ethical issues to be forgotten." And he ultimately got Psychology Today to tell its readers that "Nearly all the software on our phones and computers, as well as on other machines, is nonfree or 'proprietary' software and is riddled with spyware and back doors installed by Apple, Google, Microsoft, and the like."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/17/05/06/0258204 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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