- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Windows Users: It Might Be Time To Stop Using Antivirus
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Jan '17

27 Jan '17

The nail in the coffin, according to O'Callahan, is that software vendors rarely speak out about antivirus issues "because they need cooperation from the AV vendors." He then links to a mailing list thread in 2012, where he suggests keeping a list of the AV software that interferes with Firefox. Later in the thread, Mozilla PR swoops in and tells him to knock it off. <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/antivirus-is-bad/>

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Code-Signing Vs Software Developers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

This item <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/26/windows_code_signing_changes/> is about Microsoft adopting some recommendations from the “Certificate Authority Security Council” that code-signing keys should be embedded in special hardware devices, not simply kept as files on a regular computer. Apparently they are also suggesting some yet-to-be-defined “cloud-based service” as an alternative, which raises some questions. One of the commenters linked this article <http://www.pcworld.com/article/2846653/storage-for-spies-how-the-fips-stand…> which gives a good overview of hardware signing key devices that are certified to the various levels of the FIPS 140-2 standard. The idea is not a new one. But like most security techniques that are worth a darn, it can cause all kinds of irritations in practical use.

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KDE-Branded Laptop
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Announcing ... the KDE Slimbook <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-Slimbook-Laptop>.

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why ifconfig may not work these days
by Ian Young 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

>From time to time I find myself wondering where *ifconfig* has gone. This article may provide the answer. https://lwn.net/Articles/710533/ See also: http://baturin.org/docs/iproute2/

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Mossberg: What?s up with Firefox, the browser that time forgot?
by rowan schischka 26 Jan '17

26 Jan '17

Happy new year everybody. Somehow i missed the first meeting. For the next one could we do a live benchmark of web browsers available on linux? Theres a couple of things to consider such as: how quickly new browser versions are available - security updates accuracy of rendering - i have found Midori feels fast but does not display some web pages the same as others Theres also flash and HTML5 we could look into. A few years ago (around 2010/2011) I made a simple HTML5 canvas with some animations that looked like a space invaders game, from memory, on debian i had the following results: IE, can't remember version, got around 20 fps chrome scored 120 something fps firefox received around 12 fps I dont know what benchmarks are available for us to use but it would be interesting, it would also be interesting to look at comparing browsers on fedora and ubuntu -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Mossberg: What’s up with Firefox, the browser that time forgot?
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jan '17

25 Jan '17

'Until about five years ago, techies and others who wanted a speedier, extensible, more privacy-oriented web browser on their desktops often immediately downloaded Mozilla's Firefox to use instead of Internet Explorer on Windows or Safari on the Mac. But those days seem long ago. Firefox is hardly discussed today, and its usage has cratered from a high of over 30 percent of the desktop browser market in 2010 to about 12 percent today, according to Mozilla, citing stats from NetMarketShare. (Various other analytics firms put the share as low as 10 percent or as high as 15 percent.) And Firefox’s share on mobile devices is even worse, at under 1 percent, according to the same firm. Today, the go-to-browser is Google’s Chrome, which has over a 50 percent share on both desktop and mobile, according to NetMarketShare.' -- source: http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/25/14376710/walt-mossberg-mozilla-firefox-br… 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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AdNauseam, Google, And The Myth Of The “Acceptable Ad”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

[AdNauseam 3.0] contains some new features we’ve been excited to discuss with users and critics, but the discussion was quickly derailed when we learned that Google had banned AdNauseam from its store, where it had been available for the past year. We also learned that Google has disallowed users from manually installing or updating AdNauseam on Chrome, effectively locking them out of their own saved data, all without prior notice or warning. <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2017/01/24/adnauseam-google-and-the-myth-of-th…>

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Zorin distro reviewed on Distrowatch
by Ian Young 24 Jan '17

24 Jan '17

For a more detailed appraisal of Zorin than was possible at the last meeting see issue 695 of Distrowatch Weekly. http://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20170116#zorin See also with reference to Fedora a derivative called Korora bubbling under at 49 on Distrowatch. Tracks Fedora releases without much delay. Korora is a little blue penguin. 'Korora was born out of a desire to make Linux easier for new users, while still being useful for experts. The main goal of Korora is to provide a complete, easy-to-use system for general computing. Originally based on Gentoo Linux in 2005, Korora was re-born in 2010 as a Fedora Remix with tweaks and extras to make the system "just work" out of the box.'

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Asus Tinker Board
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Jan '17

23 Jan '17

Quad-core ARM-based board with more powerful GPU with 4K video capability, also 24-bit audio, and the site linked to quotes a price of about £46+VAT, so not too far off competing with the Raspberry π. Except it’s 32-bit only. <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/asus-tinker-board-price-specs-releas…>

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Already on probation, Symantec issues more illegit HTTPS certificates
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '17

23 Jan '17

'A security researcher has unearthed evidence showing that three browser-trusted certificate authorities (CAs) owned and operated by Symantec improperly issued more than 100 unvalidated transport layer security certificates. In some cases, those certificates made it possible to spoof HTTPS-protected websites.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2017/01/already-on-probation-symantec-issue… 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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Learn-To-Code Site Code.org Loses Student Work Due To Index Bug
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Jan '17

23 Jan '17

For your revision this week: understanding integer overflow. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/22/code_dot_org_index_bug_wiped_studen…>

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New Term To Scare You With: “Line Of Death”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Jan '17

20 Jan '17

... a.k.a. the demarcation between pixels in a web browser window that the user can trust, and those they can’t. And how every new advance in “user experience” seems calculated to weaken this line. Another lovely new term: “picture-in-picture phishing attack”. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/19/browser_line_of_death/>

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SporeStack: Anonymous, Disposable Servers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Jan '17

19 Jan '17

Paid for with Bitcoin: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/19/disposable_servers_available_anonym…>.

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Microsoft-Owned Minecraft No Longer Supported On Microsoft-Owned Windows Phone/Mobile
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Jan '17

19 Jan '17

<http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/01/microsoft-owned-minecraft-no-longer-s…>: In the meantime, however, the game stands as yet another anomaly in the company's approach to software development. It isn't following the rules it suggests that others should obey, and third-party platforms—including the relatively rarely used Fire OS—are seeing stronger software support than the company's own. This tendency to offer better support for non-Windows systems continues to annoy Windows fans, and the failure to capitalize on the universal-ness of UWP leads developers to wonder, "If Microsoft isn't consistently writing universal apps, why should we?"

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Big Astronomy Destroys Big Data
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jan '17

18 Jan '17

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/18/murchison_radiotelescope_opens_the_…>: A curious detail in the CSIRO blog post caught Vulture South's eye: ASKAP is producing 5.2 TB per second of data, which the CSIRO reckons is equivalent to about 15 per cent of the current data rate for the whole of the Internet. That's bigger, by a nice fat margin, than two things: the connection from Murchison to the Pawsey supercomputer centre in Perth; the amount of disk available once the data arrives in Perth. Clearly, there's a serious amount of data reduction happening along the way... In short, 5.2TB/s of raw data in, 22MB/s of high-res image data out. The latter is what’s stored for further processing.

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Project Isambard To Test Feasibility Of An ARM-Based Supercomputer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jan '17

18 Jan '17

Four UK universities will build a 10,000+-core ARM super to determine whether such a beast can beat the usual Xeon-based beasties on price/performance. There’s a suggestion of support for other architectures for comparison purposes as well. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/18/arm_met_office_hpc/>

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Guilty SPARC: Oracle euthanizes Solaris 12, expunging it from roadmap
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jan '17

18 Jan '17

'Rumors have been circulating since late last year that Oracle was planning to kill development of the Solaris operating system, with major layoffs coming to the operating system's development team. Others speculated that future versions of the Unix platform Oracle acquired with Sun Microsystems would be designed for the cloud and built for the Intel platform only and that the SPARC processor line would meet its demise. The good news, based on a recently released Oracle roadmap for the SPARC platform, is that both Solaris and SPARC appear to have a future. The bad news is that the next major version of Solaris—Solaris 12— has apparently been canceled, as it has disappeared from the roadmap. Instead, it's been replaced with "Solaris 11.next"—and that version is apparently the only update planned for the operating system through 2021.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/oracle-sort-of-confir… 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 Monday (incl SGM)
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jan '17

18 Jan '17

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: SGM with the following (preliminary) agenda: - elect Vice president Meeting topics - distro roundup: Fedora, Devuan, Zorin - a bit different: ReactOS, FreeDOS Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/236393751/ 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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Vivaldi is building “Opera as it should’ve been”
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '17

16 Jan '17

'Working in tight niches occupied by the behemoths of the Internet world is hard; doing it as a startup without external funding is even harder. The 35-strong team of Vivaldi, the spiritual successor to Opera, is doing exactly that: two years after the first public beta and eight months after the release of version 1.0, the Web browser has about 1 million users—but it still isn't turning a profit. Vivaldi, which was envisioned by the Opera Software co-founder and former CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, is catering first of all to power users and the tech-savvy lot. The team, however, has high expectations for their product and hopes it will have a broader appeal over time in order to start actually making money.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/vivaldi-opera-one-mil… 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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Raspberry Pi upgrades Compute Module with 10 times the CPU performance
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '17

16 Jan '17

'The Raspberry Pi Compute Module is getting a big upgrade, with the same processor used in the recently released Raspberry Pi 3. The Compute Module, which is intended for industrial applications, was first released in April 2014 with the same CPU as the first-generation Raspberry Pi. The upgrade announced today has 1GB of RAM and a Broadcom BCM2837 processor that can run at up to 1.2GHz. "This means it provides twice the RAM and roughly ten times the CPU performance of the original Compute Module," the Raspberry Pi Foundation announcement said.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/01/raspberry-pi-upgrades… 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 8.7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '17

15 Jan '17

'Debian 8.7 has been released. An anonymous reader quotes Debian.org: This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 8 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old "jessie" CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated. Those who frequently install updates from security.debian.org won't have to update many packages and most updates from security.debian.org are included in this update. 86 packages have been updated -- including some fixes for systemd. ("Rework logic to determine when we decide to add automatic deps for mounts; various ordering fixes for ifupdown; systemctl: Fix argument handling when invoked as shutdown...")' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/17/01/15/0144253 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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Mint 18.1 review: Forget about Wayland and get comfy with the command line
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '17

12 Jan '17

'For better or worse, the Wayland graphics stack is the future of Linux and will undoubtedly be the big story of 2017 (unless the Mir display server actually ships, in which case it might share the spotlight). What's more, once you've used Wayland in my experience, you'll want it everywhere. Sadly, only one of the major distros has Wayland today: Fedora. That doesn't mean Mint 18.1, which happened to arrive the same day that our Fedora review published, isn't a great release. But this new release doesn't have Wayland. Nor will the distro at large have Wayland until Linux Mint's upstream source, Ubuntu, ships Wayland as part of an LTS release. That likely won't happen until at least 2018, when the next Ubuntu LTS release comes out. By that time, theoretically, Ubuntu itself will be using Mir, and Ubuntu GNOME (and possibly other flavors) will move to Wayland. Then and only then will Mint be in a position to move to Wayland. And even then, it may not happen right away. That means there's no Wayland in Mint's near future, and it also means Mint will be a little out of the loop going forward. That's an interesting transition for the project given that it started out with a more aggressive development pace, adopting new features and iterating quickly compared to other Linux distros. All that changed a couple of years ago when Mint opted to stop chasing Ubuntu and built off the LTS cycle. Mint is no longer quite as cutting edge as it once was, which shows up in some important areas like the kernel (which is only at 4.4 even now). Mint is also still plagued by the some of the poorly implemented update and security issues that have dogged it for years. You can keep Mint up-to-date and secure, but Mint actively encourages users (especially inexperienced) users to avoid updates. That more than anything else would prevent me from picking Mint 18.1 over, well, any other distro. Although Mint 18.1 builds on the same set of base packages found in the previous release (Linux Mint 18.0), which are based on Ubuntu 16.04, there's still plenty of new stuff in 18.1 to make Mint fans happy. Most of what's new is not underlying system change; rather, it's higher level stuff (the stuff that makes Mint, well, Mint).' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/mint-18-1-review-forget-about-waylan… 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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Lawyer Rewrites Instagram's Privacy Policy So Kids and Parents Can Have a Meaningful Talk About Privacy
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '17

10 Jan '17

Not exactly Linux related, but nonetheless interesting to read a privacy policy in "plain English" rather than legal mumbo jumbo: 'Kids, of age between 12 and 15, are increasingly joining Facebook's Instagram service, but according to a research, they likely don't even understand what they are signing up for. Jenny Afia, a privacy law expert at Schillings, a UK-based law firm, rewrote Instagram's terms of service in child-friendly language, so that not only the kids but their parents are able to understand what things are at stake. Highlighted are the changes the lawyer has made: Officially you own any original pictures and videos you post, but we are allowed to use them, and we can let others use them as well, anywhere around the world. Other people might pay us to use them and ** *we will not pay you for that*. [...] We may keep, use and share your personal information with companies connected with Instagram. This information includes your name, email address, school, where you live, pictures, phone number, your likes and dislikes, where you go, who your friends are, how often you use Instagram, and ** *any other personal information we find* such as your birthday or who you are chatting with, ** * including in private messages (DMs)*. [...] We might send you adverts connected to your interests which we are monitoring. ** *You cannot stop us doing this and it will not always be obvious that it is an advert*.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/01/09/1413215 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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You Know The Machines Are Taking Over When ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jan '17

07 Jan '17

... a San Diego TV station does a story about a young girl who asks her parents’ Amazon Echo to get her a dollhouse, which automatically causes an order to be placed for one; but the fun really begins when the voice of the TV presenter triggers additional Amazon Echo devices in the homes of those watching the news, causing them to try to place orders for dollhouses as well. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/07/tv_anchor_says_alexa_buy_me_a_dollh…>

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https://kite.com - Your programming copilot
by Chris O'Halloran 05 Jan '17

05 Jan '17

A utility that may be available to Linux users soon. https://kite.com/

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An SQL Injection Attack Is A Legal Company Name In The UK
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

I wonder if any real-world databases will fall over trying to include this name. ;) <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/01/an_sql_injectio.html>

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Rutgers U In Financial Trouble From Cloud Failure
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Jan '17

04 Jan '17

Rutgers University in New Jersey has put its “Cornerstone” admin system on Oracle’s cloud services. Ongoing hiccups in this, going back to September, have caused it serious trouble trying to pay its bills, leading to unpleasant consequences like the electricity supply being cut off to some offices. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/03/rutgers_university_oracle_cloud_fou…>

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Cloudflare Leap-Second Panic
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

Cloudflare’s DNS proxy software misbehaved on New Year’s Day, because of the extra second that was added to December 31st: <http://arstechnica.co.uk/security/2017/01/cloudflare-leap-second-software-p…>. Because they occur so rarely, it seems very difficult to test software to work correctly with leap seconds. This is one reason why some groups propose getting rid of them altogether.

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Photocopier Security
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

<https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2017/01/photocopier_sec.html>: A modern photocopier is basically a computer with a scanner and printer attached. This computer has a hard drive, and scans of images are regularly stored on that drive. This means that when a photocopier is thrown away, that hard drive is filled with pages that the machine copied over its lifetime. As you might expect, some of those pages will contain sensitive information. Some of the reader discussion veers into one or two only-semi-related, but interesting areas. For example, did you know that Xerox invented an image-compression technique (JBIG2) for its photocopiers that would actually introduce typos into documents?

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Is The Desktop CPU Dead?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Jan '17

03 Jan '17

<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/01/intel-core-i7-7700k-kaby-lake-review/>: For yet another year, high-end desktop CPU performance remains at a standstill. With low-power laptops and all-in-ones continuing to outsell desktops—and with high-end workloads like video editing, 3D animation, and machine learning increasingly being offloaded to GPUs—perhaps it was inevitable that Intel would stop caring so much about its high-end consumer CPUs. Or maybe Intel's struggles with the 14nm process forced its hand, and the last few years of disappointing performance improvements are down to physics rather than passivity. Those laptop sales are declining, too...

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Listening To Streaming Radio
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

Currently listening to Sydney’s TripleJ radio station using the ffplay utility (part of FFmpeg). For anybody else who wants to listen without having to go through a web browser, ABC helpfully provide a list of direct-streaming URLs for their stations at <https://radio.abc.net.au/help/streams>. ffplay reports some interesting additional details about the stream: Metadata: icy-notice1 : <BR>This stream requires <a href="http://www.winamp.com">Winamp</a><BR> icy-notice2 : SHOUTcast DNAS/posix(linux x64) v2.4.7.256<BR> icy-name : Triple J NSW icy-genre : Misc icy-br : 64 icy-url : http://www.abc.net.au/radio icy-pub : 0 In other words, they seem to be streaming from a Linux server, but their recommendation is for a client that doesn’t run on Linux...

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Report on U.S. political party having its e-mail servers hacked
by Ian Stewart 30 Dec '16

30 Dec '16

You may have read in the main-stream media about a U.S. political party having its e-mail servers hacked and then copies of the e-mails were published on a web-site. If you'd like to know more, then a 13 page joint report<https://www.us-cert.gov/sites/default/files/publications/JAR_16-20296A_GRIZ…> has been released on 29 December 2016 by the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) of The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In reading this report please recognise that "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not provide any warranties of any kind regarding any information contained within." The report commences... "GRIZZLY STEPPE – Russian Malicious Cyber Activity Summary This Joint Analysis Report (JAR) is the result of analytic efforts between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This document provides technical details regarding the tools and infrastructure used by the Russian civilian and military intelligence Services (RIS) to compromise and exploit networks and endpoints associated with the U.S. election, as well as a range of U.S. Government, political, and private sector entities. The U.S. Government is referring to this malicious cyber activity by RIS as GRIZZLY STEPPE." While the report contains many abbreviations, please note that "GRIZZLY STEPPE" is never written as "Grizzly Steppe" nor is it abbreviated to "GS". On Page 2... "Description. The U.S. Government confirms that two different RIS actors participated in the intrusion into a U.S. political party." The report does not provide the name of the "U.S. political party". For these details you'll need to use a search engine to search the Internet. The Description continues... "The first actor group, known as Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 29, entered into the party’s systems in summer 2015, while the second, known as APT28, entered in spring 2016." Page 4 lists 48 "Alternate Names" of the Russian Military and Civilian Intelligence Services (RIS). They are not all called names like Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) 28, APT29, APT30... etc. For example one of them is called "Powershell backdoor". Page 8 has the, "Detailed Mitigation Strategies" with a section on "Protect Against SQL Injection and Other Attacks on Web Services", which states... "Take steps to harden both Web applications and the servers hosting them to reduce the risk of network intrusion via this vector." The "vector" (or "link") is to this webpage... https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff648653.aspx "Improving Web Application Security: Threats and Countermeasures J.D. Meier, Alex Mackman, Michael Dunner, Srinath Vasireddy, Ray Escamilla and Anandha Murukan Microsoft Corporation Published: June 2003 Last Revised: January 2006 Applies to: Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 Microsoft Windows® 2000 operating system" With a last revision date of January 2006 its interesting to be provided with advice on how to take steps on your Microsoft Windows® 2000 operating system for which mainstream support ended on June 30, 2005 and extended support ended on July 13, 2010. UNIX does get one mention in the section "Credentials" on page 10... "Properly secure password files by making hashed passwords more difficult to acquire. Password hashes can be cracked within seconds using freely available tools. Consider restricting access to sensitive password hashes by using a shadow password file or equivalent on UNIX systems." While the report has IT related abbreviations such as HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SQL, etc., here is a list to aid you with some of the other abbreviations used in the report... JAR - Joint Analysis Report NCCIC - National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center DHS - Department of Homeland Security FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation RIS - Russian civilian and military intelligence Services APT - Advanced Persistent Threat. RATs - Remote Access Tools IOCs - Indicators of Compromise US-CERT - United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team EMET - Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit For additional reading on this report, use a search engine or go here<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/29/fbi-dhs-russian-hacking-…> or here<http://caucus99percent.com/content/all-there>. cheers, Ian.

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CyanogenMod Becomes LineageOS
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 27 Dec '16

27 Dec '16

Cyanogen Inc tried to take its CyanogenMod fork of Android commercial, with limited success. Now it has shut down the open-source project altogether. But a group of contributors has launched their own fork, called LineageOS. <http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/12/cyanogen-inc-shuts-do…>

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siduction and Wayland
by Ian Young 24 Dec '16

24 Dec '16

Merry Xmas all Just saw this. Wayland relevant. Not tested here. https://news.siduction.org/2016/12/release-notes-for-siduction-2016-1-patie… The released images are a snapshot of Debian unstable, that also goes by the name of Sid, from 2016-12-23. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, our own installer and a custom patched version of the linux-kernel 4.9, accompanied by X-Server 1.19.0-3 and systemd 232-8. Changes that affect all flavours In the wake of the upcoming Wayland display server, that will replace the old Xorg-Server, the way input devices are handled, has changed. The new way to handle devices like Mice, Touchpads, Wacom Tablets, and the like was developed by Red Hat developer Peter Hutterer and is called libinput If you look into /etc/X11/xorgconf.d/60-libinput.conf, you will see that we implemented a basic config, that supports some touchpad actions, but not all. If you miss anything, look at the above link, that has ways to set up other actions. Another change over all flavours is the use of SDDM as Display- and Login-Manager, which is the new default for Plasma, but suits the other flavours fine as well.

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Google Researchers Recommend Security Keys
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

Google has been running a two-year internal trial of “Security Keys”, which are cheap, easy-to-use USB-pluggable devices for generating secure authentication tokens, based on the “Universal Second Factor” open standard. Verdict: they work really well, and are resistant to phishing attacks. The Chrome browser has already added support for them. <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/this-low-cost-device-may-be-the-wor…>

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Signal Implements Domain Fronting
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

Signal, the secure communications application created by Moxie Marlinspike, has added another tool to its kit to evade Governments that want to block their subjects from using it: “domain fronting”. The technique requires routing through a content-delivery network, which typically is not available for free. But it does mean the only way to block the use of Signal is to block the user from the entire Internet. At least for now. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/23/signal_deploys_domain_deceit_to_den…>

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January meeting
by Ian Young 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

I have the most recent Zorin Core Edition. Version 12. This is available at no charge, they also have a offering that requires payment. I can try to find something to say if required. ~ Ian Y

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SGM and meeting in January
by Peter Reutemann 23 Dec '16

23 Dec '16

Hi everyone Just a quick email to announce the SGM in January. The agenda (so far): - Elect Vice president Since that is the only item and won't take very long, we will have a regular meeting as well. At this stage, it will be a Linux distro roundup. More details here: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/236393751/ 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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January meeting - ideas?
by Peter Reutemann 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

Hi everyone Apart from a very short SGM, we haven't got anything planned yet for our January meeting. How about roundup of some distros? Some ideas: http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=devuan http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=zorin And something a little different? ;-) http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=reactos 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 Takes the Next Step Towards Rolling Out Multi-Process To Everyone
by Peter Reutemann 22 Dec '16

22 Dec '16

'With Firefox 50, Mozilla has rolled out the first major piece of its new multi-process architecture. Edge, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari all have a multiple process design that separates their rendering engine -- the part of the browser that reads and interprets HTML, CSS, and JavaScript -- from the browser frame. They do this for stability reasons (if the rendering process crashes, it doesn't kill the entire browser) and security reasons (the rendering process can be run in a low-privilege sandbox, so exploitable flaws in the rendering engine are harder to take advantage of). Moreover, these browsers can all create multiple rendering engine processes and use different processes for different tabs. This means that the scope of a crash is narrowed even further, typically to a single tab. Internet Explorer and Chrome both implemented this long ago, in 2009. Firefox, however, has not offered a similar design. Although work on a multi-process browser was started in 2009, under the codename Electrolysis, that work was suspended between 2011 and 2013 as priorities within the organization shifted. In response, Mozilla started switching to a new extension system in 2015 that opened the door to a multi-process design. The first stage of Firefox's move to multi-process involves separating the browser shell from a single rendering process that's used by every tab. In Firefox 48, that feature was enabled for a small number of users who used no extensions. Firefox 49 was rolled out to include users running a limited selection of extensions. Now, in Firefox 50, a separate renderer process is used for most users and most extensions. Developers are now able to mark their extensions as explicitly multi-process compatible. Firefox 51 will extend this even further to cover all extensions, except those that are explicitly marked as incompatible. Mozilla says that, even with the limited changes made in Firefox 50, responsiveness of the browser has improved by 400 percent due to the separation between the renderer and the browser shell. During page loads, responsiveness will increase to 700 percent.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/12/22/0120256 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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MUFFIN, a new tasty user interface concept for LibreOffice
by Peter Reutemann 21 Dec '16

21 Dec '16

'The Document Foundation announces the MUFFIN, a new tasty user interface concept for LibreOffice, based on the joint efforts of the development and the design teams, supported by the marketing team. MUFFIN is an acronym for My User Friendly & Flexible INterface, and focuses on the three areas suggested by LibreOffice users during the development of the concept: My: LibreOffice users want a “personal” UI, with different options capable of adapting to the user’s personal habits, and not a single UI without options. User Friendly: of course, any UI should be as user friendly as possible, but LibreOffice users have clearly asked for a “modular” UI, where they can set their own level of user friendliness, and not a single UI without options. Flexible: the increasing number of LibreOffice users deploying the software on different hardware platforms (for instance, a desktop and a laptop), each one with different characteristics and screen size and resolution, have asked for a UI that can be tweaked to leverage the screen real estate, and not a single UI without options. INterface: The MUFFIN concept is the combination of different UI elements, which are going to be available starting from LibreOffice 5.3 either as a standard or experimental feature: the Default UI (with toolbars), a Single Toolbar UI, the Sidebar with a Single Toolbar, and the new Notebook Bar (experimental). Each UI layout has been thought to serve a different cluster of LibreOffice users.' -- source: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2016/12/21/the-document-foundation… It's about choice, that's why I love open-source! :-) 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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Home routers under attack in ongoing malvertisement blitz
by Peter Reutemann 19 Dec '16

19 Dec '16

'As you read these words, malicious ads on legitimate websites are targeting visitors with malware. But that malware doesn't infect their computers, researchers said. Instead, it causes unsecured routers to connect to fraudulent domains. Using a technique known as steganography, the ads hide malicious code in image data. The hidden code then redirects targets to webpages hosting DNSChanger, an exploit kit that infects routers running unpatched firmware or are secured with weak administrative passwords. Once a router is compromised, DNSChanger configures it to use an attacker-controlled domain name system server. This causes most computers on the network to visit fraudulent servers, rather than the servers corresponding to their official domain.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/home-routers-under-attack-in-ongoin… 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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Old Masters Reinterpreted
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Dec '16

16 Dec '16

“We Rolled Our Own Crypto”, by Peter Bruegel the Elder, c. 1562 <http://classicprogrammerpaintings.com/post/148027314949/we-rolled-our-own-c…>

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Razors Edge database
by Roderick Aldridge 16 Dec '16

16 Dec '16

Does anybody know about running Razors Edge database under Linux or anybody who does? I successfully installed Citrix Receiver and logged into the database and ran a Report to get information, but could not save it or export it. Although I used the Linux Debian Citrix Receiver the options to save were all Windows destinations. when I tried to save to the computer option the message says The operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on the computer. Please contact your system administrator. This could be a permissions problem. Any help welcome. Roderick Aldridge.

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0-days hitting Fedora and Ubuntu open desktops to a world of hurt
by Peter Reutemann 16 Dec '16

16 Dec '16

'If you run a mainstream distribution of Linux on a desktop computer, there's a good chance security researcher Chris Evans can hijack it when you do nothing more than open or even browse a specially crafted music file. And in the event you're running Chrome on the just-released Fedora 25, his code-execution attack works as a classic drive-by.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/fedora-and-ubuntu-0days-show-that-h… 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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Yahoo admits it’s been hacked again, and 1 billion accounts were exposed
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '16

15 Dec '16

'On December 14, Yahoo announced that after an investigation into data provided by law enforcement officials in November, the company and outside forensics experts have determined that there was in fact a previously undetected breach of data from more than 1 billion user accounts. The breach took place in August 2013 and is apparently distinct from the previous mega-breach revealed this fall—one Yahoo claims was conducted by a "state-sponsored actor." The information accessed from potentially exposed accounts "may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords (using MD5) and, in some cases, encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers," Yahoo's chief information security officer, Bob Lord, reported in the statement issued by the company. "The investigation indicates that the stolen information did not include passwords in clear text, payment card data, or bank account information. Payment card data and bank account information are not stored in the system the company believes was affected."' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/12/yahoo-reveals-1-billion-more-accoun… 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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OpenStreetView
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Dec '16

14 Dec '16

You’ve heard of OpenStreetMap, the (very popular) project to compile mapping information for the whole world under a freely shareable, open licence; now there is OpenStreetView, which attempts to do the same for street-level photos <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/14/open_source_insider_openstreetview_…>.

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First Version of Sandboxed Tor Browser Available
by Peter Reutemann 12 Dec '16

12 Dec '16

'To protect Tor users from FBI hacking tools that include all sorts of Firefox zero-days, the Tor Project started working on a sandboxed version of the Tor Browser in September. Over the weekend, the Tor Project released the first alpha version of the sandboxed Tor Browser. "Currently, this version is in an early alpha stage, and only available for Linux," reports BleepingComputer. "There are also no binaries available, and users must compile it themselves from the source code, which they can grab from here." The report notes: "Sandboxing is a security mechanism employed to separate running processes. In computer security, sandboxing an application means separating its process from the OS, so vulnerabilities in that app can't be leveraged to extend access to the underlying operating system. This is because the sandboxed application works with its own separate portion of disk and memory that isn't linked with the OS."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/12/12/2042225 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 18.1 'Serena' BETA Ubuntu-based Operating System Now Available For Download
by Peter Reutemann 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

'Feeling fatigued by Windows 10 and its constant updates and privacy concerns? Can't afford one of those beautiful new MacBook Pro laptops? Don't forget, Linux-based desktop operating systems are just a free download away, folks! If you do decide to jump on the open source bandwagon, a good place to start is Linux Mint. Both the Mate and Cinnamon desktop environments should prove familiar to Windows converts, and since it is based on Ubuntu, there is a ton of compatible packages. Today, the first beta of Linux Mint 18.1 'Serena' becomes available for download.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/236236 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 Sues Cloud Provider Over 'Unofficial' Ubuntu Images
by Peter Reutemann 05 Dec '16

05 Dec '16

'Canonical posted Thursday that they've been in a dispute with "a European cloud provider" over the use of their own homespun version of Ubuntu on their cloud servers. Their implementation disables even the most basic of security features and Canonical is worried something bad could happen and it'd reflect badly back on them... They said they've spent months trying to get the unnamed provider to use the standard Ubuntu as delivered to other commercial operations to no avail. Canonical feels they have no choice but to "take legal steps to remove these images." They're sure Red Hat and Microsoft wouldn't be treated like this. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, wrote in his blog post that Ubuntu is "the leading cloud OS, running most workloads in public clouds today," whereas these homegrown images "are likely to behave unpredictably on update in weirdly creative and mysterious ways... We hear about these issues all the time, because users assume there is a problem with Ubuntu on that cloud; users expect that 'all things that claim to be Ubuntu are genuine', and they have a right to expect that... "To count some of the ways we have seen home-grown images create operational and security nightmares for users: clouds have baked private keys into their public images, so that any user could SSH into any machine; clouds have made changes that then blocked security updates for over a week... When things like this happen, users are left feeling let down. As the company behind Ubuntu, it falls to Canonical to take action."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/2235251 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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Ask Slashdot: What's the Best Linux Laptop?
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '16

04 Dec '16

'Long-Time Slashdot reader sconeu is finally replacing his 10-year-old Toshiba Satellite laptop, and needs suggestions on the best current laptops for running Linux. I'm looking to run some flavor of Linux (probably KDE-based UI, but not mandatory) while using a virtual machine to run Windows 7 (for stuff needed for work). For me personally, battery life and weight are more important than raw power. I'm not going to be running games on this. I've been considering an XPS 13 Developer Edition, or something from System76, ZaReason or Emperor Linux. What laptop do you use? Do you have any suggestions? It's your chance to share useful information, recommendations, and your own experiences with various brands of laptop. So leave your best answers in the comments. What's the best Linux laptop? ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/03/0727258 Personally, I've been very happy with my Dell Latitude 6430u at work in conjunction with Linux Mint 17. 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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Devuan's Systemd-Free Linux Hits Beta 2
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '16

04 Dec '16

'Long-time Slashdot reader Billly Gates writes, "For all the systemd haters who want a modern distro feel free to rejoice. The Debian fork called Devuan is almost done, completing a daunting task of stripping systemd dependencies from Debian." From The Register: Devuan came about after some users felt [Debian] had become too desktop-friendly. The change the greybeards objected to most was the decision to replace sysvinit init with systemd, a move felt to betray core Unix principles of user choice and keeping bloat to a bare minimum. Supporters of init freedom also dispute assertions that systemd is in all ways superior to sysvinit init, arguing that Debian ignored viable alternatives like sinit, openrc, runit, s6 and shepherd. All are therefore included in Devuan. Devuan.org now features an "init freedom" logo with the tagline, "watching your first step. Their home page now links to the download site for Devuan Jessie 1.0 Beta2, promising an OS that "avoids entanglement".' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/12/04/0142242 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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Easing Into That Leap-Second...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 02 Dec '16

02 Dec '16

Google is offering time servers that will help you get over the upcoming leap-second hump. Instead of having a day with 61 seconds in it, their clock will run 0.0014% slower across a twenty-hour interval with the moment of the leap second in the middle. At the end of that interval, your clock will be correctly in sync with UTC again. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/02/google_public_ntp_servers/>

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Firefox: libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported, and should be updated to play video
by Peter Reutemann 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

Hi everyone Being on Linux Mint 17, I've noticed that Chromium stopped playing certain animated gifs a few weeks (probably after an upgrade of the browser). Switching to Firefox, I had the same problem, but I got at least a message: libavcodec may be vulnerable or is not supported, and should be updated to play video Following the instructions here solved my problem: http://superuser.com/a/1137409 However, Chromium still doesn't work. Maybe it's not linking to the libavcodec libraries, but including them in their build, using the outdated Mint 17 libraries. 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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Android’s Market Share Grows Because It Can Fit Any Niche, Big Or Small
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/12/androids-market-share-grows-because-…> How Android began: Android started out as an advanced platform for digital cameras with network connections. When Android, Inc. founders Andy Rubin and Matias Duarte realized that the camera market was too small to carry a whole new business structure, the company ported its software over to the more promising smartphone sector. Not so convinced about this: These days, you can modify and build almost all of Android from freely available code, but the remaining Google-specific bits are almost compulsory in order to provide a high-quality user experience. considering that there are hundreds of millions of Android users in China who have probably never heard of Google. And for those hankering after more, shall we say, venerable form factors: Pining for a physical keyboard? There are still Android models with that feature. ... Looking for a flip-phone with smartphone features? Lesser-known device makers like Freetel can hook you up. Samsung took that idea one step further with the W2016 flip-phone, which comes with separate screens on the inside and the outside of the fold, along with a physical T9 keypad. etc etc.

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Oracle Abandoning Solaris?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

Seems like every OS that gets to call itself “Unix” is either dead or dying... <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Oracle-Solaris-Demise-Rumors>

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feature update (formerly known as upgrade)
by Ian Young 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

The detailed content is a bit beyond my pay grade but I did like the bit about upgrade being displaced by feature update. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/12/01/upgrade_shift_f10_pops_win10_system…

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Firefox Zero-Day Can Be Used To Unmask Tor Browser Users
by Peter Reutemann 01 Dec '16

01 Dec '16

'A Firefox zero-day being used in the wild to target Tor users is using code that is nearly identical to what the FBI used in 2013 to unmask Tor-users. A Tor browser user notified the Tor mailing list of the newly discovered exploit, posting the exploit code to the mailing list via a Sigaint darknet email address. A short time later, Roger Dingledine, co-founder of the Tor Project Team, confirmed that the Firefox team had been notified, had "found the bug" and were "working on a patch." On Monday, Mozilla released a security update to close off a different critical vulnerability in Firefox. Dan Guido, CEO of TrailofBits, noted on Twitter, that "it's a garden variety use-after-free, not a heap overflow" and it's "not an advanced exploit." He added that the vulnerability is also present on the Mac OS, "but the exploit does not include support for targeting any operating system but Windows." Security researcher Joshua Yabut told Ars Technica that the exploit code is "100% effective for remote code execution on Windows systems." "The shellcode used is almost exactly the shellcode of the 2013 one," tweeted a security researcher going by TheWack0lian. He added, "When I first noticed the old shellcode was so similar, I had to double-check the dates to make sure I wasn't looking at a 3-year-old post." He's referring to the 2013 payload used by the FBI to deanonymize Tor-users visiting a child porn site. The attack allowed the FBI to tag Tor browser users who believed they were anonymous while visiting a "hidden" child porn site on Freedom Hosting; the exploit code forced the browser to send information such as MAC address, hostname and IP address to a third-party server with a public IP address; the feds could use that data to obtain users' identities via their ISPs.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/30/2156218 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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More Than 1 Million Android Devices Rooted By Gooligan Malware
by Peter Reutemann 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

'A new version of an existing piece of malware has emerged in some third-party Android app stores and researchers say it has infected more than a million devices around the world, giving the attackers full access to victims' Google accounts in the process. The malware campaign, known as Gooligan, is a variant of older malware called Ghost Push that has been found in many malicious apps. Researchers at Check Point recently discovered several dozen apps, mainly in third-party app stores, that contain the malware, which is designed to download and install other apps and generate income for the attackers through click fraud. The malware uses phantom clicks on ads to generate revenue for the attackers through pay-per-install schemes, but that's not the main concern for victims. The Gooligan malware also employs exploits that take advantage of several known vulnerabilities in older versions of Android, including Kit Kat and Lollipop to install a rootlet that is capable of stealing users' Google credentials.Although the malware has full remote access to infected devices, it doesn't appear to be stealing user data, but rather is content to go the click-fraud route. Most users are being infected through the installation of apps that appear to be legitimate but contain the Gooligan code, a familiar infection routine for mobile devices.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/11/30/1720202 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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expanding Europe's Linux Presentation Day to New Zealand
by Hauke Laging 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Hello, in May 2015 Berlin's Linux user group (BeLUG) has started a new type of event which has spread quickly all over Europe: the Linux Presentation Day (LPD) 2015.1: Berlin only 2015.2: 72 cities in three countries 2016.1: 110 cities in 10 countries 2016.2: 150+ cities in 14 countries (on October, 22nd) I contact you because we intend to expand the LPD beyond Europe next year. The aim of the LPD towards the general public is to provide biannual and comprehensive information events about Linux for private users who would like to get a first impression of Linux. The aim towards the media is to make the event so big (both nationally and internationally) that the nationwide non-IT media cover it regularly. The aim towards the Linux community is that an LPD event can be so small and easy to organize (even without costs) that really everyone can try to organize an event with good chances of success. The local organizers decide on their own what their event shall be like; we just make suggestions and offer support. You can find a longer description of the concept here: http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/idea/ Are you as an organization interested in participating in the LPD? If not: Are any of your members interested in helping us bring the LPD to New Zealand? This event is very useful for finding new LUG members. Best regards, (Mr.) Hauke Laging -- http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/ International phone contact for the Linux Presentation Day: tel:+49-30-55579620 (13:00–23:00, German and English) XMPP (Chat with OTR): linux-presentation-day(a)jabber.ccc.de OTR: 91626899 1C06F2BD 75EC2441 35C696CE 38F75997

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Westpac one and online banking
by Ron Dean 30 Nov '16

30 Nov '16

Apparently I was in error that Westpac would be closing its browser based online banking. Its still available through a browser just not the original Online banking. Thanks for all your comments -- Ron Dean

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Jolla's Sailfish OS Now Certified as Russian Government's First 'Android Alternative'
by Peter Reutemann 29 Nov '16

29 Nov '16

'The future for one of the few remaining alternative mobile OS platforms, Jolla's Sailfish OS, looks to be taking clearer shape. Today the Finnish company which develops and maintains the core code, with the aim of licensing it to others, announced Sailfish has achieved domestic certification in Russia for government and corporate use. TechCrunch adds: In recent years the Russian government has made moves to encourage the development of alternatives to the duopoly of US-dominated smartphone platforms, Android and Apple's iOS -- flagging Sailfish as one possibility, along with Tizen. Although Sailfish looks to have won out as the preferred Android alternative for Russia at this point. The government has said it wants to radically reduce its reliance on foreign mobile OSes -- to 50 per cent by 2025 vs the 95 per cent of the market garnered by Android and iOS in 2015. Sailfish's local certification in Russia also follows an announcement earlier this year that a new Russian company, Open Mobile Platform (OMP), had licensed the OS with the intention of developing a custom version of the platform for use in the domestic market. So, in other words, a Russian, strategic 'Android alternative' is currently being built on Sailfish.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/29/208245 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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Westpac insisting that Banking be done with Android or IOS
by Ron Dean 29 Nov '16

29 Nov '16

I always do my banking with a Linux Desktop and keep the system up to Date and do it through a web browser. It seems less secure with my android devices as they don't provide frequent updates as Ubuntu does. Should I change Banks? -- Ron Dean

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Open Review Toolkit
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

The Open Review Toolkit is software that turns a book manuscript into a website where users can read and annotate your text, and “you can collect valuable data to help launch your book”. <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2016/11/27/announcing-the-open-review-toolkit/>

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Ex-Debian systemd Haters Celebrate Second Birthday
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Two years going, this Linux OS that aims for "Init Freedom" isn't the most vibrant distribution out there. When's the last time you've heard of Devuan or even used it yourself? This year much of the systemd "hate" seems to have calmed down compared to prior years, although new features continue to be tacked onto systemd. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Devuan-Systemd-Debian-Turns-…>

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resistance futile goto WIN 10 now
by Ian Young 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

While messing about with a laptop that has a video defect causing the screen to remain blank initially, I tried a distro called Zorin. Amazingly it lit up the screen early in the process of starting Linux. So impressed was I that I looked up Zorin on the Guggle and found this article. In the comments was this gem. Looks like I won't be needing Linux any more. But the price will be using Windows 10. Nah, maybe I'll just stay in the backwoods. http://hothardware.com/news/zorin-os-12-linux-distro-could-be-a-windows-10-… "I guess I just don't see much point anymore now that Windows 10 can natively run Ubuntu. Bash, SSH, Telnet, full desktop, X11 etc. The Linux subsystem runs fine alongside Win 10. You have both running simultaneously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hCB8_HFzg Have a look all you Linux fans, after all, it no longer has to be one or the other. If you have the anniversary update, you already have ubuntu waiting to be activated. It's a fairly long video but should cover everything you might want to know." PS Caveat. Had to transcribe the YouTube link so may be subject to error, and I haven't watched it.

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Debian Putting Everything On The /usr
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Nov '16

25 Nov '16

In the old days, back when disks were smaller, Unix and Linux systems tended to have the “/” (root) and “/usr” directories on different volumes. In fact, I can remember that the DEC/Compaq Tru64 UNIX installer insisted on arranging things this way, even though the disks were quite big enough by then to put the whole OS on one volume. (I just moved /usr into the root volume afterwards and removed the redundant mount point.) One consequence of this was that you had to be careful where you put core parts of the system: things had to be designed so that you would still have some useable functionality if you only had / mounted and not /usr (for recovery purposes). Thus, binaries in /bin and /sbin could depend on shareable libraries in /lib, but not /usr/lib, while of course binaries in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin could freely depend on both. These days, nobody cares about such a possibility any more. Other distros (notably Red Hat) abandoned the root-usr distinction a long time ago, and merged things so /bin was just a symlink to /usr/bin, and /lib to /usr/lib, anyway. You can still put /usr on a separate volume, but your system will no longer work if it cannot be mounted. Now Debian is following suit. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/24/debian_testing_merged_codeusrcode/>

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System76 Oryx Pro Ubuntu Laptop Review
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Nov '16

24 Nov '16

Comes preinstalled with your choice of Ubuntu LTS 16.04.1 or 16.10 (officially), unofficially it seems they are tolerant of those who prefer other distros. A high-spec machine, solidly-built, which certainly cannot be described as “anorexic”. And with a price tag to match. And unfashionably expandable, too: In total, this laptop offers an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, 2 Mini DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, 2 USB 3.1 Type-C ports, 3 USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and both headphone and mic jacks. The GTX 1070 models even include a headphone amplifier. <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/system76-oryx-pro-review-linux-in-a-…>

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Tor phone is antidote to Google “hostility” over Android, says developer
by Peter Reutemann 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

'The Tor Project recently announced the release of its prototype for a Tor-enabled smartphone—an Android phone beefed up with privacy and security in mind, and intended as equal parts opsec kung fu and a gauntlet to Google. The new phone, designed by Tor developer Mike Perry, is based on Copperhead OS, the hardened Android distribution profiled first by Ars earlier this year.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/tor-phone-prototype-google-hostilit… 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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Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac
by Peter Reutemann 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

'After the release of both alpha and beta versions, Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines. If you aren't familiar with the popular Linux-based operating system, please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. One of the most endearing qualities of Fedora is its focus on only offering truly free open source software. Also, you can always count on a very modern version of the Linux kernel being available. Despite having very up-to-date packages, it is always very stable too. My favorite aspect, however, is the commitment to the GNOME desktop environment; other DEs are available, though. The team says, "Fedora 25 Workstation now makes it easier to for Windows and OS X users to get started, with Fedora Media Writer serving as the default download for those operating systems. This tool helps users find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable media, like a USB stick, allowing potential Fedora users to 'test drive' the operating system from that media environment. Fedora can then be installed to their systems with the same process".' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/11/22/154248 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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Introducing ... The Tor Phone
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

"The iOS App Store is at a significant disadvantage there even compared to Google Play," [Tor developer Mike Perry] told us. "Each iOS app is re-encrypted specifically for the user with Apple's DRM, making it technically impossible to verify that the package you installed matches the official one." ... In order to solve the Android security mess, Google is taking steps that hurt user freedom, and make Android vulnerable to compelled backdoors, Perry argued. ... "Copperhead is also the only Android ROM that supports verified boot, which prevents exploits from modifying the boot, system, recovery, and vendor device partitions," ... "This makes Copperhead an excellent choice for our base system." <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/tor-phone-prototype-google-hostilit…>

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AGM next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Hi everyone The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Waikato Linux Users Group Society is coming up next Monday. The agenda - at this stage - is as follows: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Election of 2017 Committee - General business (eg future of WLUG library, wording in the charter with regard to advertising of jobs using the wlug mailing list, etc) - Consumption of pizza Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/233952391/ 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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Antivirus Firm Kaspersky Launches Its Own Hackproof OS, Based On Microkernel
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

'Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity and antivirus company, has announced their new operating system which was in development for the last 14 years. Dubbed as Kaspersky OS, it has made its debut on a Kraftway Layer 3 Switch. Not many details have been revealed by the CEO Eugene Kaspersky in his blog post. The GUI-less OS -- as it appears in the image -- has been designed from scratch and Eugene said it doesn't have "even the slightest smell of Linux." He actually tagged "Kaspersky OS being non-Linux" as one of the three main distinctive features he mentioned. The other two features he briefly described are rather fascinating. The first feature is that the Kaspersky OS is based on microkernel architecture, which basically means using the minimum amount of ingredients to bake your own operating system. The OS can be custom-designed as per requirements by using different modification blocks. The second distinctive feature is the inbuilt security system which can control application behavior and OS modules. It touts Kaspersky OS as practically unhackable, unless a cyber-baddie has a quantum computer -- which will be required to crack the digital signature of the platform -- at his disposal.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/18/2039245 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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This $5 Device Can Hack Your Locked Computer In One Minute
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

'Next time you go out for lunch and leave your computer unattended at the office, be careful. A new tool makes it almost trivial for criminals to log onto websites as if they were you, and get access to your network router, allowing them to launch other types of attacks. Hackers and security researchers have long found ways to hack into computers left alone. But the new $5 tool called PoisonTap, created by the well-known hacker and developer Samy Kamkar, can even break into password-protected computers, as long as there’s a browser open in the background.' -- source: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/this-5-device-can-hack-your-locked-c… 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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Alternatives To MATLAB
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

In this announcement about the latest release of GNU Octave, which “remains largely compatible with the widely-used MATLAB” <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Octave-4.2>, one commenter bemoaned the lack of a serious alternative to MATLAB’s Simulink Toolbox. To which another suggested looking at OpenModelica <https://openmodelica.org/>.

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Debian Is Moving To MariaDB
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I upgraded my main machine, running Debian Unstable, a few days ago, and my time and billing system stopped working. Further investigation revealed that the mysql-server package had somehow disappeared. I am installing it again now, and it looks like it is putting in MariaDB instead of Oracle MySQL. The executables etc still keep the “mysql” name, so it looks like nothing in my code need change...

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Are Antivirus Tools A Useless Box-Ticking Exercise?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

... many existing tools [are] ineffective "magic" that engineers are forced to install for the sake of compliance but at the expense of real security. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/17/google_hacker_pleads_try_whitelists…>

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Word For The Day: “Serverless”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

When I first came across this term, I assumed it meant something like “distributed peer-to-peer” rather than having dedicated servers. Turns out it means something quite different: instead of paying for the server as a whole, you pay per service request. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/16/forget_razors_and_blades_apis_are_t…>

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The End Of GCJ?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

GCJ, the GNU Compiler for Java, has been languishing for some time, and may be about to be put out of its misery. Unlike the Sun/Oracle compiler, GCJ can compile to native machine code (thanks to the common GCC infrastructure), it is not restricted to some intermediate byte code. It originated before Sun open-sourced Java, and I guess a lot of the need for it went away when OpenJDK appeared. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GCC-Patch-To-Drop-GCJ>

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Disk-Reliability Data From Backblaze
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

Backup service company Backblaze has been migrating en mass from 2TB drives to 8TB ones. The Seagate ones, at least show no difference in failure rate--1.6% per year. They must be getting a special deal on the price, because last time I looked at cost, 4TB was still the sweet spot, same as it was 2 years ago. <http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/8tb-disks-still-looki…>.

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How Toy Story 2 Got Deleted Twice, Once On Accident, Again On Purpose
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

How a wayward “rm -rf *” almost destroyed Pixar’s “Toy Story 2”, and how it was recovered from a copy that a staffer just happened to have on her home machine <http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/05/21/how-pixars-toy-story-2-was-deleted-t…>.

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Ubuntu Budgie Is Now An Official Ubuntu Flavor
by rowan schischka 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Cheers for that Peter, budgie looks like an interesting interface. Im going to have to review it. Why is there so much effort going into remixes when you can install the desktop on stock ubuntu? -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Open Source Pioneer Munich Debates Report That Suggests Abandoning Linux for Windows 10
by Peter Reutemann 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

'As an open-source software pioneer, Munich spent years moving away from Windows, but now politicians are debating a report that suggests the city could eventually abandon Linux. A report on TechRepublic adds: If the authority ruling Germany's third largest city backs proposals to make Windows 10 and Microsoft Office available across the council, it would be a significant step away from open-source software for an organization once seen as its champion. Over a nine-year period starting in 2004, the council moved about 15,000 staff from using Windows and Office to LiMux -- a custom version of the Ubuntu desktop OS -- and other open source software. At the time, Munich was one of the largest organizations to reject Windows, and Microsoft took the city's leaving so seriously that then CEO Steve Ballmer flew to Munich to meet the mayor. Now a report commissioned by current mayor Dieter Reiter to help determine the future of IT at the council has outlined a project to make Windows 10 and Microsoft Office available to all departments, and give staff the choice about whether to use Windows or LiMux.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/11/09/212246 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 Budgie Is Now An Official Ubuntu Flavor
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '16

09 Nov '16

'After two successful major releases, budgie-remix has finally been accepted as an official Ubuntu flavor, earlier today during a meeting where four Canonical technicians voted positive. As such, we're extremely happy to inform our readers that the new Ubuntu flavor is called Ubuntu Budgie. In April this year, when budgie-remix hit the road towards its first major release, versioned 16.04, we reported that David Mohammed was kind enough to inform Softpedia about the fact that he got in touch with Ubuntu MATE leader Martin Wimpress, who urged the developer to target Ubuntu 16.10 for an official status. budgie-remix 16.10 arrived as well this fall shortly after the release of Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), and the dream of becoming an official Ubuntu flavor is now a reality. Re-branding of the official website and the entire distribution is ongoing. "We now move full steam ahead and look forward to working with the Ubuntu Develop Membership Board to examine and work through the technical aspects [...] 17.04 will be our first official release under the new name," said David Mohammed in the announcement.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/08/2211257 Cheers, Petr -- 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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Signal Looks Secure
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

Signal is an application and secure messaging protocol created by a group led by Moxie Marlinspike. It has also been adopted by some other applications, notably Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Now, an independent security audit by a multinational team <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/08/trust_it_results_of_signals_first_f…> has come to the conclusion that there are no obvious flaws in the protocol (accidental or otherwise)--that it really can deliver on the promise of preserving privacy in communication over an insecure network.

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Web of Trust, Downloaded 140M Times, Pulled From Extension Stores After Revelations That It Sells Users' Data
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

'According to multiple reports, Web of Trust, one of the top privacy and security extensions for web browsers with over 140 million downloads, collects and sells some of the data of its users -- and it does without properly anonymizing it. Upon learning about this, Mozilla, Google and Opera quickly pulled the extension off their respective extension stores. From a report on The Register: A browser extension which was found to be harvesting users' browsing histories and selling them to third parties has had its availability pulled from a number of web browsers' add-on repositories. Last week, an investigative report by journalists at the Hamburg-based German television broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), revealed that Web of Trust Services (WoT) had been harvesting netizens' web browsing histories through its browser add-on and then selling them to third parties. While WoT claimed it anonymised the data that it sold, the journalists were able to identify more than 50 users from the sample data it acquired from an intermediary. NDR quoted the data protection commissioner of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, criticising WoT for not adequately establishing whether users consented to the tracking and selling of their browsing data. Those consent issues have resulted in the browser add-on being pulled from the add-on repositories of both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, although those who have already installed the extension in their browsers will need to manually uninstall it to stop their browsing being tracked.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/08/1551236 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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Two Critical MySQL Bugs Discovered
by Peter Reutemann 05 Nov '16

05 Nov '16

'Two critical privilege escalation vulnerabilities in MySQL, MariaDB, and PerconaDB can help take control of the whole server, which is very bad for shared environments... Administrators need to check their database versions, as attackers can chain two critical vulnerabilities and completely take over the server hosting the database... The first vulnerability, a privilege escalation/race condition flaw, gives elevated privileges to a local system user with access to a database and allows them to execute arbitrary code as the database system user. This gives an attacker access to all of the databases on the affected server... The privilege escalation/race condition flaw can be chained with another critical vulnerability, a root privilege escalation vulnerability, to further elevate the system level user to gain root on the server.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/16/11/05/056227 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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US Government Launches Open-Source Repository
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

The US Federal Government has just opened code.gov, a “platform designed to improve access to the federal government’s custom-developed software” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/04/code_gov_goes_live/>. You can browse projects by department/agency.

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Google Says Bye-Bye To Eclipse
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

Google has officially abandoned its Android development plugin for Eclipse, in favour of its Android Studio IDE <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/03/google_knifes_eclipse_android_devel…>. For me, the nice thing about the Android SDK is that it gives you a choice: you can still build things from the command line, which makes it easy to set up custom build procedures. For example, the largest Android project I have dabbled with so far <https://github.com/ldo/ti5x_android> has 11,000 lines of Java code and 3,000 lines of Python, all created with Emacs. I’m not sure any IDE could gracefully build it at all.

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E-Voting Around The World
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Roundup of how various places implement electronic- and online-based voting systems <http://arstechnica.com/features/2016/11/internet-based-and-open-source-how-…>. Brazil: One major flaw [Prof Aranha] found was that the digital votes are randomly shuffled, as a way to provide extra security while in storage. However, the algorithm to provide that randomness is given a non-random seed: the timestamp. Australia, specifically the Australian Capital Territory: Still, despite the success of the open-source e-voting setup, [Electoral Commissioner] Green says its days may be numbered. Even though he has his doubts about the security and openness of Internet-based setups, he believes that it, not open-source e-voting, will "be the way of the future." Estonia: "If you sign something digitally with your Estonian ID card, it universally replaces a paper written signature and this can be applied anywhere—terminating contracts, creating contracts—everywhere. Everywhere you'd need a paper signature you can replace it with an electronic signature" ... And now, that applies to Internet-based voting as well.

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Spark Wants To Abandon Copper?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

“Spark ... [is] not happy with the quality of the copper provided by the wholesale spin-out, Chorus.” Oh, and “The lucky 400 first houses in the trial are in the suburbs of the North Island city of Hamilton.” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/03/cu_later_copper_spark_is_going_to_g…>

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trustworthy computing -- what this?
by Ian Young 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Sorry if this strays off topic, though discussion is fairly eclectic imho ..... I was interested to learn that Microsoft has a senior director of trustworthy computing in this article. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/01/microsoft_google_bug_disclosure_spa… Perhaps comforting news, I usually assume that computing is minimally trustworthy these days. Not so much in terms of the performance of software (eg Linux) but in the extent of spying and covert mass data gathering. Just as well we have these large corporates to take care of us.

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death of copper, 4G coverage fubar
by rowan schischka 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

>As to 4G bwahahaha. When the Skinny mini offshoot offered a 4G deal >earlier this year I had a look. Coverage at that point was confined to >an area round the uni, and for some reason Chartwell. Perhaps it now >covers the entire metropolis of Hamilton? Let me know if I have missed >something there. And the greedies wanted $200 for a 4G modem. Nice one >Spinny. I brought my 4g skinny modem with me from auckland. I had to use it up there because the lease holder of my flat was refusing to upgrade her modem. She reckoned Spark confirmed there was nothing wrong with her modem but after a year I finally got to have a look at it and the arial was broken and there was a large crack through the case; she still refused to accept her modem was damaged and kept dropping connection so I got the 4g. It works very well and now comes in a 100GB plan that is faster than ADSL. Im using the 4g in Rototuna and I haven't been tempted to get fibre because of the lack of ethernet through the house, and my inability to persuade the property manager to allow me to install network ports in the walls. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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death of copper, 4G coverage fubar
by Ian Young 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Apologies to thread lovers. Yes well. of course our telecom overlords want to get shot of copper. So last century. One annoying aspect of that cable network was that it needed some maintenance. Your modern day utility company doesn't like maintenance costs. And once it is shut down maybe the copper can be pulled out of the ground at some stage. On the shopping block with all those annoying exchange buildings. As to 4G bwahahaha. When the Skinny mini offshoot offered a 4G deal earlier this year I had a look. Coverage at that point was confined to an area round the uni, and for some reason Chartwell. Perhaps it now covers the entire metropolis of Hamilton? Let me know if I have missed something there. And the greedies wanted $200 for a 4G modem. Nice one Spinny. By the way, isn't this article wrong or misguiding in just about every respect? Much of the Register is wryly amusing and even informative on occasion, but this is surely a low point?

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Arch Linux Review
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/02/arch_linux_taster/>: Arch gets very little coverage for a several reasons, not the least of which is that it's somewhat difficult to install and requires you feel comfortable with the command line to get it working. Worse, from the point of view of anyone trying to appeal to mainstream users, that difficulty is by design - nothing keeps the noobs out like a daunting install process. I never knew that about Arch. But my real excuse for mentioning this review is the picture. That looks like a Renault 4. Or rather, 3 of them, cut and joined together in a truly unholy Franken-mess. If you pointed it facing north, it would probably summon Cthulhu...

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When Is JSON Not JSON?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

I thought JSON was a nice, simple, straightforward spec. Turns out different implementations interpret some things just that little bit differently enough to lead to headaches. That means security headaches <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/01/json_parsers_tested/> ...

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Fwd: Domain Name Commission introduces provisional address masking option
by Simon Green 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

Not strictly Linux / Open Source related, but thought I'd share this in relation to making your .nz whois address information private if you are an individual. Most interesting is "Any mail sent to the masked address displayed on the WHOIS will be forwarded to the address on the Register, by DNCL.". This means you could give anyone or a company your masked address if you don't want to give out your real postal address. -- Simon -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Domain Name Commission introduces provisional address masking option Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2016 10:36:51 +1300 Media release – 1 November 2016 The Domain Name Commission (DNCL) has today introduced a free provisional address masking option where any individual (natural person) .nz domain name holder can ask that their contact address be masked from public display in the WHOIS (domain search tool). Just what information should be displayed when a WHOIS search is done on a .nz domain name is the subject of a major review. Throughout the review, DNCL has become aware that some individual registrants are concerned for privacy and personal safety reasons about having their contact address publicly displayed. The provisional address masking option has been introduced to help alleviate these concerns while DNCL carries on with its WHOIS review. Those wanting to take advantage of the option will have his or her contact address masked with a unique reference code and DNCL’s P.O. Box address. Domain Name Commissioner Debbie Monahan says DNCL is currently running a public consultation – asking for the community’s feedback on two policy options for withholding some information in the WHOIS, including contact address information. “In the meantime,” she says, “the address masking option announced today is intended to allay any personal safety concerns around public display of address information while we finish up our review and implement any permanent policy changes – expected to be later in 2017.” With the provisional address masking option, any individual registrant can ask that their contact address is masked from display in the .nz WHOIS. This doesn’t change their contact address information recorded on the .nz Register; it just means that information can’t be seen when someone does a WHOIS search on their domain name. Any mail sent to the masked address displayed on the WHOIS will be forwarded to the address on the Register, by DNCL. Importantly, says Monahan, the masking option is open to any individual registrant who is concerned for whatever reason about having their contact address publicly visible. She encourages all individual registrants to make use of it if they feel the need. The address masking is a straightforward process, but can only be effected by DNCL. It works by having individual registrants email DNCL from their email address on record. The DNCL office will then run some basic verification checks before applying the masking. The option is not available to businesses or organisations. Visit dnc.org.nz/pamo <https://www.dnc.org.nz/pamo> to find out more about DNCL’s provisional address masking option. Information about DNCL’s WHOIS review can be found at https://dnc.org.nz/whois-review. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

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UDOO
by rowan schischka 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

"It is based on Quad Core 64-bit new-generation x86 processors made by Intel®, designed for the PC domain. Prodigious processors concentrated in 14 nm, with an amount of energy consumption of 5 or 6 Watt." http://www.udoo.org/udoo-x86/ If you're thinking of getting a raspberry pi this month, have a look at UDOO. x86 with a bunch of impressive specs shipping in december. For those of us conscious of using linux in low energy computing its still not as cheap as the m-ITX Asus N3050I-C. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

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Is Lenovo Blocking Linux Installs?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Oct '16

28 Oct '16

You may have heard that the BIOS on Lenovo’s Yoga 900 laptops has not been allowing the installation of non-Windows OSes (like Linux). After being on the receiving end of much opprobrium, Lenovo has finally released a BIOS update to fix this <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/lenovo_downward_dogs_with_yoga_bios…>. As usual, there are the suggestions that this was a deliberate deal done with Microsoft to shut out competitors to Windows. But then again, Hanlon’s Razor usually applies: “never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”. (See the reader comments on the above article for more examples of such stupidity.) Matthew Garrett has some more analysis <http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/44694.html> on the specific issue that was stopping Linux installs: the hard drive controller is locked in “RAID” mode rather than “AHCI” mode. “AHCI” allows normal Linux drivers to work, while “RAID” mode requires special hardware-specific drivers. These special drivers don’t actually have to offer any RAID functionality; think of the “RAID” setting as just a way to block the generic drivers from taking control of the hardware. Garrett’s article has some discussion of why this might even be necessary: in this case, it may have to do with implementing proper power management.

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Quirky 8.1 from Barry Kauler of Puppy who likes R Pi it seems
by Ian Young 26 Oct '16

26 Oct '16

Go Bazza!!! somewhere on the net Quirky Xerus 8.1 All Quirkies prior to 8.1 have been built for x86 and x86_64 PCs. Version 8.1 is the first to be built for the ARM platform, specifically the Raspberry Pi2 and Pi3. Note that Quirky will not work on a Pi1. It is expected a build for the Odroid XU4 is coming soon. The functionality is much as you have come to expect with a Puppy-derivative -- you get "the kitchen sink" in a very small package. That is, an application for just about everything and utilities to setup and configure just about anything. A difference though, with the Raspberry Pi build, is that it includes LibreOffice and Inkscape, whereas Puppy-derivatives usually have light-weight choices, such as Gnumeric, Abiword and InkscapeLite. This decision was made so as to provide the same functionality out-of-the-box as Raspbian, and in fact a whole lot more. This has resulted in a somewhat larger build than usual, a download file of 360MB. However, compare that with Raspbian at 1.3GB, and Quirky is still relatively small. As this is the very first release of Quirky for the Pi, it may have some issues, though we have been testing at the Puppy Forum and have fixed, hopefully, most of them. Some outstanding issues are:

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