- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Systemd Rolls Out Its Own Mount Tool
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"anonymous reader: 'I'm surprised this hasn't surfaced on Slashdot already, but yesterday Phoronix reported that systemd will soon be handling file system mounts, along with all the other stuff that systemd has encompassed. The report generated the usual systemd arguments over on Reddit.com/r/linux with Lennart Poettering, systemd developer and architect, chiming in with a few clarifications.' Lennart argued it will greatly improve the handling of removable media like USB sticks." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/2259219 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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New Linux Trojan Is A DDoS Tool, a Bitcoin Miner, and Web Ransomware
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"A trojan that targeted Drupal sites on Linux servers last May that was incredibly simplistic and laughable in its attempt to install (and fail) web ransomware on compromised websites, has now received a major update and has become a top threat on the malware scene. That trojan, named Rex, has evolved in only three months into an all-around threat that can: (1) compromise servers and devices running platforms like Drupal, WordPress, Magento, Jetspeed, Exarid, AirOS; (2) install cryptocurrency mining in the background; (3) send spam; (4) use a complex P2P structure to manage its botnet; and (5) install a DDoS agent which crooks use to launch DDoS attacks. Worse is that they use their DDoS capabilities to extort companies. The crooks send emails to server owners announcing them of 15-minute DDoS tests, as a forewarning of future attacks unless they pay a ransom. To scare victims, they pose as a known hacking group named Armada Collective. Other groups have used the same tactic, posing as Armada Collective, and extorting companies, according to CloudFlare." -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/0050204 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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KDE Edition Beta Released For Linux Mint 18 'Sarah'
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' KDE Edition Beta is now available for download and testing. This release is based on the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel and KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment. The final release of this widely popular distro is expected to arrive in September... Just like MATE, Cinnamon, and Xfce releases, the KDE release is a long term release that will remain supported until 2021. Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' KDE Edition ships with Mozilla Firefox as default web browser and LibreOffice as the default office suite. The Linux distro also features a wide range of popular KDE apps like Kontact, Dolphin, Gwenview, KMail, digiKam, KTorrent, Skanlite, Konversation, K3b, Konsole, Amarok, Ark, Kate, Okular, and Dragon Player." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/1622201 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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PowerShell is Microsoft?s latest open source release, coming to Linux, OS X
by rowan schischka 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

>Looking at it, I see something that is trying to be both a shell language and a programming language. Bringing scripting powers to .net based applications and plugging in to azure (devops market?) looks like a relaxation of windows desktop market dominance. whatever powershell is trying to be it looks like part of a strategy to move from relying on 90's desktop dominance to becoming a cloud service provider. the conversion to office 356 in nz is over 55% (unofficial word of mouth stat here); so microsoft appears to have done well to migrate office dependant IT systems to the cloud. it maybe in the near future businesses will be able to completely cut the windows umbilical cord? -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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multiboot usb
by rowan schischka 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

I am trying to make a usb flash drive that can hold multiple iso files for various linux distros that i find useful. In the past legacy bios was sweet and easy; there was syslinux. EUFI is a bit of a new PITA. im trying to make a usb drive that contains, kali, ubuntu desktop & server, fedora, LPS (arch-based) and debian; all live cds. This is complicated by the debian 'cant find installation cdrom' bug. I looked for a script and there are a surprising amount of multiboot usb options available now. not all of them support both EUFI and legacy bios; there use to be only one with a french UI, now theres almost a dozen and i dont know which one to choose. i am looking to create a multi-boot usb that can work on my macbook and my notebook that came with windows 8. older hardware i dont care too much about but it would be nice to have a toolbox for both boot types that i can carry around in my pocket. can anyone recommend a way to do this? - my preference is to do this manually; i have already been through the arch wiki and ubuntu wiki. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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meeting on Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting on Monday next week: "An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc) and user interfaces (MATE, Gnome3, KDE, Unity, etc). Advantages and disadvantages to Windows. Presenters: - William Mckee: History - Peter Reutemann: MATE and XFCE - Rowan Schischka: Gnome3 and Unity - Lawrence D'Oliveiro: KDE - John Thompson: Frustrations and delights as a disgruntled Windows 9x user." Details here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/ 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 global jam
by rowan schischka 18 Aug '16

18 Aug '16

This should be an interesting event; fixing bugs in ubuntu at the Ubuntu global jam. Fri, 26 Aug. 2016 01:00 - Sun, 28 Aug. 2016 13:45 UTC I have zero experience in fixing bugs in ubuntu but it would be a great learning experience. Do wlug members want to form a team? http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/global/3418/ -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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next meeting
by rowan schischka 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

>Feel free to bring your devices along and see if there is still time. >Though we could also just schedule a demo of them for the next >meeting? the meeting after the next one would be better so i can get better prepared. What kind of questions should I be prepared to answer? Im a regular gnome3 user and im confident I can show off its features, but im not a regular unity user. Iv just been using unity recently on my new tablet. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

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LibreOffice Merchandise
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

The Document Foundation (who manage the development of LibreOffice) have put out their annual report for 2015 <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=TDF-2015-Annual-Report>. Just glancing through it, I found that you can buy LibreOffice-themed coffee mugs, T-shirts etc here <https://shop.spreadshirt.de/documentfoundation?version=1471300568494>.

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New FreeBSD 11.0 Release Candidate Tested By Phoronix
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

'"The first release candidate for the upcoming FreeBSD 11.0 is ready for testing," reports Distrowatch, noting various changes. ("A NULL pointer dereference in IPSEC has been fixed; support for SSH protocol 1 has been removed; OpenSSH DSA keys have been disabled by default...") Now an anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Sunday Phoronix performed some early benchmark testing, comparing FreeBSD 10.3 to FreeBSD 11.0 as well as DragonFlyBSD, Ubuntu, Intel Clear Linux and CentOS Linux 7. They reported mixed results -- some wins and some losses for FreeBSD -- using a clean install with the default package/settings on the x86_64/amd64 version for each operating system. FreeBSD 11.0 showed the fastest compile times, and "With the SQLite benchmark, the BSDs came out ahead of Linux [and] trailed slightly behind DragonFlyBSD 4.6 with HAMMER. The 11.0-BETA4 performance does appear to regress slightly for SQLite compared to FreeBSD 10.3... With the BLAKE2 crypto test, all four Linux distributions were faster than DragonFlyBSD and FreeBSD... with the Apache web server benchmark, FreeBSD was able to outperform the Linux distributions..." ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/14/238226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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next meeting
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

Hi everyone Just to get the meeting sorted: "An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat etc). Advantages and disadvantages to Windows." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/ William will cover the history, but we need people demoing the various flavors and user interfaces (just a few minutes each). Flavors: Debian - ? Ubuntu - ? Red Hat - ? SuSE - ? User interfaces: MATE - ? KDE - ? Unity - ? Gnome3 - ? XFCE - ? LXDE - ? I'm happy to cover MATE. Ian S., Unity? Lawrence or Chris, KDE? Who wants to cover another one? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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next meeting
by rowan schischka 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

Ive been playing around with the ubuntu m10 tablet, i can bring that; its actually a pretty good tablet. i havnt played with the wireless screen casting as I dont have a miracast device but i do have a mini hdmi cable. Iv also just received last years intel compute stick if you want to see that running, theyre dirt cheap now and i can bring it if anyone wants to try before they buy. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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next meeting
by rowan schischka 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

I can also demonstrate gnome3 & unity -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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thef..k command correction
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '16

13 Aug '16

Hi everyone Excuse my Klatchian, but I just came across this interesting application that corrects your misspelled terminal commands: https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck The GIF on the github page is quite interesting to watch. 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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rise and rise of open source in New Zealand?
by rowan schischka 12 Aug '16

12 Aug '16

Looks like more push towards Silverstripe in government. I believe this relates to the common web platform which is an Internal Affairs project? Im not a big fan of php, and I dont really understand the CWP, but i guess nows a good time to get invested in silverstripe experience? https://www.cwp.govt.nz/ -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

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Can Facebook Really Make Ads Unblockable?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Facebook recently announced <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/09/facebook_ad_blockers/> it was going to disable adblockers and, in return, (supposedly) give users more control over their ad preferences. Here <https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/randomwalker/can-facebook-really-make-ad…> is an analysis of why such an adblocker bypass isn’t really possible. In its favour, Facebook does serve up its own ads, not relying on outside ad networks, which are notorious for being malware-infested <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/29/its_time_for_a_discussion_about_mal…>.

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rise and rise of open source in New Zealand?
by Ian Young 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1608/S00039/a-policy-win-for-open-source-s…

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Open Source // Open Society Conference August 20-23rd
by Chris McClimans 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

I'm heading down for the hackathon and conf, probably fly in Friday return Wednesday. (I still haven't bought conf or flight tickets) Anyone else want to go or know folks I should connect with or places to stay? http://www.opensourceopensociety.com/programme.html Cheers, Chris

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Security: Leading Edge, Bleeding Edge ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Linux has been the first to offer a complete implementation of RFC5961 in its TCP/IP stack, designed to prevent certain kinds of hacking attacks. Now it turns out there’s a flaw in the spec itself, which creates its own vulnerability <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/linux-bug-leaves-usa-today-other-to…>: The problematic RFC 5961 has not yet been fully implemented in Windows or Mac OS X, so those operating systems aren't believed to be vulnerable. By contrast, the Linux operating system kernel, starting with version 3.6 introduced in 2012, has added a largely complete set of functions implementing the standard. Linux kernel maintainers released a fix with version 4.7 almost three weeks ago, but the patch has not yet been applied to most mainstream distributions.

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Finding, viewing, downloading, and saving videos from the web
by rowan schischka 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Use a firefox extension to change the browser user agent string to iphone; right click and save :). I am forced to do this for sites that use flash or other proprietary video players. i find it does not work when a site has its own iphone app and forces you to use those apps such as tvnz and youtube. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Finding, viewing, downloading, and saving videos from the web
by Roderick Aldridge 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Anybody got good tips for this, particularly good sources (as well as Youtube) of free videos on all subjects, not just news, movies and technical subjects. OS independent options for downloading and saving sought - the best downloaders and browser extensions. I have used Firefox extension Video DownloadHelper and William put me on to youtube-dl, but there are lots of others, some possibly better and/or with special uses. This is the topic for the Hamilton Computer Club meeting tomorrow, so any Windows-friendly options welcome, or you could join us to 60A Sare Crescent and show us yourself. Roderick Aldridge

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Microsoft Leaks Its Golden Backdoor Keys
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Aug '16

10 Aug '16

Seems Microsoft has inadvertently published “golden” master keys that will allow installation of third-party OSes on supposedly locked-down devices <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/10/microsoft_secure_boot_ms16_100/>.

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Major Qualcomm chip security flaws expose 900M Android users
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

"Four major security holes in the Qualcomm chips which power modern Android devices have left as many as 900 million users vulnerable to a range of attacks. According to Israel-based security firm Checkpoint, the flaws—dubbed "Quadrooter"—found in the firmware which governs the chips, could allow potential attackers to "trigger privilege escalations for the purpose of gaining root access to a device" using malware which wouldn't require special permissions, allowing it to pass under suspicious users' radars." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/qualcomm-chip-flaws-expose-900-mill… 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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Howdy, Ubuntu on Windows! How Fast Is It?
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

"My primary laptop is a Lenovo x250, with an Intel i7-5600U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB Transcend SSD, and a 2TB Samsung SSD. Let’s run some benchmarks on the CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network. We’ll first run each test in Ubuntu running natively on the hardware, and then reboot, and run the same benchmarks on the same machine running Ubuntu on Windows. We’ll use the utilities sysbench, dd and iperf, as well as compile the Linux kernel to do our benchmarking." -- source: https://www.linux.com/learn/howdy-ubuntu-windows-how-fast-it 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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SQLite 3.14 Does CSV
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

The latest release of SQLite now lets you load a CSV file as a “virtual” database table, and do the usual sorts of queries on it <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SQLite-3.14-Released>. More details about the new extension here <http://www.sqlite.org/csv.html>.

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Linux Abandoning DocBook For Its Documentation?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Aug '16

08 Aug '16

Just came across this <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/08/linux_48_rc1_lands_with_surface_3_s…>: Torvalds has also pointed out that while progress on v 4.8 is “fairly normal … the patch itself looks somewhat unusual: over 20% of the patch is documentation updates, due to conversion of the drm and media documentation from docbook to the Sphinx doc format. There are other doc updates, but that's the big bulk of it.” DocBook is an open-source implementation of SGML, which is a pretty heavyweight, official-international-standard, 1980s, big-company way of writing documentation. Sphinx, on the other hand, is commonly used for Python documentation, including on python.org itself <https://docs.python.org/3/index.html>. If you were putting together the documentation set for a passenger liner or a chemical factory, you’ll probably use SGML (in fact, there is very likely a legal requirement to do so). But for the rest of us, more lightweight markup systems like Sphinx/ReST and Markdown are much more convenient.

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The Murky (Under)World Of Pay-Per-Install
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Aug '16

07 Aug '16

A research group has released a paper <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/05/payperinstall_study/> studying those “free” software installs that bring along a host of uninvited guests with them. While not actually illegal (yet), they resort to sneaky tactics, like lying low for a few weeks before taking over your browser search bar or injecting ads, to try to obscure their origin. They even actively defeat blocking attempts, by jumping between domain names as often as in a matter of hours.

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Old server hardware
by Daniel Lawson 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

Hi all Endace is getting rid of a lot of old server hardware. Some of it is still in reasonable condition, and I can make it available to WLUG members if they are interested. It's all offered as-is, on a first-come-first-serve basis, and if you say you want it you have to take it away ( we are sending it to an e-waste recycler very soon) There's two types of system, multiple units of each: 1U, non-redundant PSU (SMC 6015X-TB system), Supermicro X7DBX-i motherboard, dual Xeon X5440 (quad-core, 2.5GHz), 16 or 32 GB (depending on unit) DDR2 667MHz FB DIMMs, IPMI controller, dual gige LAN, 3x SATA disk in hotswap drive bays 3U, 2+1 redundant PSU (Chenbro Chassis), Supermicro X7DBE Motherboard, dual Xeon X5540 (quad-core, 2.5GHz), 16 or 32 GB (dependint on unit) DDR2 667MHz FB DIMMs, IPMI controller, dual gige LAN, 2x 3Ware 9650SE-8LPML RAID controllers, 16 x SATA disk in hotswap drive bays In both cases, any disks inside them will need to be scrubbed. If anyone is interested, based on a firm commitment to pick up, please let me know by Friday 5pm. Email to daniel.lawson(a)endace.com or daniel(a)meta.net.nz please Thanks

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FTC Stops Requiring Regular Password Changes
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

Lorrie Cranor, new chief technologist at the US Federal Trade Commission, has managed to persuade them to drop their policy of requiring regular password changes <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/frequent-password-changes-are-the-e…>: Frequent password changes do little to improve security and very possibly make security worse by encouraging the use of passwords that are more susceptible to cracking.

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Beware Of User-Interface Experts
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

The nice thing about GUIs is that there are so many to choose from. And everybody has an opinion about them. Particularly UI experts, who are always ready to point to things that any particular GUI does wrong. Even the platform developers themselves are prone to keep redesigning things from time to time. And then not even following their own rules. There was a famous map of the New York subway, released in 1972 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/arts/design/the-subway-map-that-rattled-n…>, that represented the network in such a stylized fashion that the city’s residents got mightily confused. Was it the people’s fault? Was the designer’s brilliance simply misunderstood? Sometimes I think UI designers themselves lose track of how users actually do things outside their labs...

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Project Hosting Service Fosshub Compromised, Embedding Malware Inside Hosted Files
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'At least some applications on Fosshub, a free project hosting service appear to have been compromised, according to several reports. (Update: Fosshub has acknowledged the hack.) The software portal, furthermore, is serving malware payloads, reports add. Catalin Cimpanu of Softpedia says that a hacking group which goes by the name of PeggleCrew is responsible for the hack. "In short, a network service with no authentication was exposed to the internet," the hacker told Softpedia in an email. "We were able to grab data from this network service to obtain source code and passwords that led us further into the infrastructure of FOSSHub and eventually gain control of their production machines, backup and mirror locations, and FTP credentials for the caching service they use, as well as the Google Apps-hosted email." The hacker group told the publication that they have compromised the entire website, "including the administrator's email. He also revealed he didn't dump the site's database but claimed that "passwords weren't salted." A user on Reddit, who has since received lots of upvotes, adds: Some popular apps that have links to FossHub that may be infected include: Audacity, WinDirStat, qBittorrent, MKVToolNix, Spybot Search&Destroy, Calibre, SMPlayer, HWiNFO, MyPhoneExplorer, and IrfanView. Another application which has reportedly been compromised is Classic Shell. It is ostensibly overwriting the MBR on users' computers. Many users are upset with the timing of hack, noting that plenty of people were looking for Classic Shell amid the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Update: 08/03 17:30 GMT by M :In a blog post, Audacity said that Fosshub was serving a hacked copy of its audio editing software for three hours. It adds that "no Audacity Team infrastructure was compromised." Fosshub team writes: Last night we had a security incident caused by a group of hackers that allowed them to log-in to FossHub developer *through* an user that was compromised. Shortly after, we noticed two users that were compromised. They simply logged-in using their passwords and this allowed them to escalate. [...] Several hours later, we noticed the attackers were able to gain access through an FTP account and we decided to shut down the main server immediately to prevent any further infection/damage. FossHub.com is down on purpose until we are able to identify the way hackers were able to escalate. Fosshub insists that the hacked copy of Classic Shell was only downloaded 300 times. In the meantime, if you know someone who may have downloaded the compromised copy of Classic Shell, here's what they need to do next.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/1635240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Windows 10 Anniversary Update Borks Dual-Boot Partitions
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'Windows 10 Anniversary Update may affect and even delete other partitions on the same disk, OMGUbuntu is reporting, citing several complaints by users. "Broken boot loaders on an update are one thing but losing data, even entire partitions?" asks the author. Microsoft-centric news blog WindowsReport is corroborating on the report, adding that in some cases, the new OS was not able to detect some partitions. It says (edited): Many users are reporting that some of their partitions disappeared after installing the Anniversary Update. Usually, it's the smallest partition that disappears, although we couldn't say for sure whether the partition is deleted or if Windows simply doesn't detect it. Some users are saying that the partition is not allocated, while others can detect it once they install third-party partition management applications. We have reached out to Microsoft for clarification, and will update the post when we hear back from them.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/1614223 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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LibreOffice 5.2 Officially Released
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'LibreOffice 5.2 is finally here, after it has been in development for the past four months, during which the development team behind one of the best free office suites have managed to implement dozens of new features and improvements to most of the application's components. Key features include more UI refinements to make it flexible for anyone, standards-based document classification, forecasting functions in Calc, the spreadsheet editor, as well as lots of Writer and Impress enhancements. A series of videos are provided to see what landed in the LibreOffice 5.2 office suite, which is now available for download for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/2022226 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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Security Vulnerabilities In Wireless Keyboards
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

You’d think they’d be encrypted, but apparently most of them are not <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/08/security_vulner_7.html>.

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FCC Demands TP-Link Support Open Source Third-Party Firmware On Its Routers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

You may have heard that the US Federal Communications Commission has been updating its regulations concerning wi-fi routers. Some interpreted the new rules as meaning that companies should lock down their routers to prevent them running third-party open-source firmware. The FCC tried to make it clear that was not its intent, but nevertheless some companies did start to interpret things that way. Now, here is a case where, as part of a settlement against TP-Link for violating the regulations, the FCC has made it an explicit requirement that the company allow the running of third-party firmware <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160802/06073235135/fcc-demands-tp-link-…>.

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Linux Grabs More Than 2% of Desktop Market Share
by rowan schischka 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

>is another example of the kind of dubious stats I was referring to. >You?ll notice it has Android well behind IOS, at 17% versus 23%. This >simply does not make sense. i often get access to a customers web analytics or i get employed to set up on behalf. the way this information is presented makes it useless. web analytics is really fun and interesting because you get to see the country of origin, time of day, page click through etc. for example im still seeing large numbers of visits from ie6 on windows xp from china. there are so many variables all i can really add is that The Register is reporting on the number of perceived unique visitors to their web site, not the rise or fall of desktop software brands as they claim. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Chrome 52 for Android Arrives With Smoother Video Playback, Faster Load Times, and Better Battery Life
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

'Following the release of Chrome 52 for desktop two weeks ago, Google last week also launched Chrome 52 for Android. For whatever reason, the company didn't share what's new until today. You can download the new version from Google Play. Chrome 52 for Android makes video playback feel smoother, load faster, and consume less battery. More specifically, video playback has been improved for speed and power efficiency, meaning you should expect smoother playback and faster load times (so videos will start playing sooner, instead of pausing briefly before starting). Your Android device's battery should also last longer if you consume a lot of videos online. Last but not least, video in Chrome for Android also now works with Data Saver Mode. This means a lightweight version of the video will be downloaded and played if you have Data Saver Mode on, saving you as much as 50 percent in data downloads, by Google's estimation.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/08/02/1713202 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 48 Released With Multi-Process Support, Mandatory Add-On Signing
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

'Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox v48, touted as one of the most important updates the browser has ever received. With the new version, Firefox starts migrating users to using mullti-process threads (e10s, Electrolysis), and it is also the first version to ship with Rust component. In addition, Firefox is now also making add-on signing mandatory. >From a Softpedia article: Announced last year, Electrolysis, e10s, or multi-process support is Firefox's ability to process core browser operations separately from the content viewed on a Web page. Multi-process support allows a page to crash without bringing the entire browser down with it and improves the browser's overall performance. e10s rollout will take place in two phases, first in Firefox 48, and it will finish in Firefox 49, set for release on September 13, 2016. Mandatory add-on signing refers to Firefox preventing users from installing any add-ons that have not been approved by Mozilla's testers. This is something similar to what Chrome employs, but Firefox users have been spoiled all these years, always having the capability of installing any add-on they've desired. Rust is a programming language that's a revamped and improved version of C++ but that protects developers from accidentally including dangerous memory bugs in their code. It achieves this by how the language was constructed and by how developers write the code.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/08/02/1646255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Linux Grabs More Than 2% of Desktop Market Share
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

'W3Counter's stats for June 2016 are in, and Linux desktop accounts for 2.48% of all web visits from tracked websites... (Android is counted separately from "Linux desktop.") Meanwhile, NetMarketShare shows Linux with a 2.02% share of the desktop market. And StatCounter shows a more detailed breakdown of the top 7 operating systems, with Windows 7 at 42.02%, Windows 10 at 21.88%, OSX at 9.94%, Windows 8.1 at 8.66%, Windows XP at 6.5%, and another 4.06% for "Unknown" (which is roughly tied with "Other") -- beating Windows 8.0 at 3.52%. In May they also reported another thought-provoking statistic: that Firefox's browser usage had surpassed that of IE and Edge combined for the first time.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/02/184229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

3 3

There Is A Saying In Computer Science ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

... that any problem can be solved by adding yet another level of indirection. (Might have been Butler Lampson who said that.) What brought that to mind was this report <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Netplan-YAML-Network> of a new Ubuntu project to add a common front end for generating network confgurations for all the different network-control backends. What, you mean there are setups that don’t use NetworkManager? Or even networkd?

1 0

Seymour Papert Has Died
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

I remember I first heard of Seymour Papert when I picked up a copy of his book “Mindstorms” at the University library. This was based around the radical idea that young children could not only learn advanced concepts about mathematics and programming, but they could have fun doing so. For example, to draw a circle, you repeat the following some x number of times: * turn a little bit to one side * move a little bit forward (The larger the “x”, and the correspondingly smaller the “little bit” becomes, the better the approximation to a circle.) This comes straight out of a child’s intuitive idea of how they would walk in a circle (i.e. turtle graphics). But it is also a differential-geometric formulation of a circle! And today I discovered that Papert had suffered a serious traffic injury in Hanoi a decade ago. No word on whether he ever recovered, and now he has passed away, with no mention of the cause. <http://arstechnica.com/business/2016/08/seymour-papert-theorist-behind-one-…>

1 0

Microsoft Brings ChakraCore to Linux and OS X
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

'A few days ago I wrote about Microsoft's revival of Skype for Linux. I called it "a big deal" -- less because of Skype itself and more because it signified Microsoft's recognition that Linux is a platform worth supporting... Now the company has done it again. At Node Summit this week, Microsoft announced the availability of ChakraCore for Linux. ChakraCore is the core part of the Chakra JavaScript engine that powers Microsoft Edge and Universal Windows Platform. With this move, Microsoft is putting one of its core technologies on a competing platform. This, more than any other Linux-friendly move the company has made, is a clear departure from the Microsoft of Gates and Ballmer that used its technologies to lock users into Windows... While Ubuntu is the primary Linux distribution that Microsoft is using to showcase its ChakraCore technologies, the company said that the support should easily translate to other modern Linux distributions. ' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/151240 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

New Site Checks Your Browser's Fingerprint
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

'"Does your web browser have a unique fingerprint? If so your web browser could be tracked across websites without techniques such as tracking cookies..." warns a new site created by the University of Adelaide and ACEMS, adding "the anonymization aspects of services such as Tor or VPNs could be negated if sites you visit track you using your browser fingerprint."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/1357234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Onion Debian Services Are Now Available
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

'"I just set up a lot of Onion Services for many of Debian's static websites," announced Debian sys-admin Peter "weasel" Palfrader on Friday. "You can find the entire list of services on onion.debian.org. More might come in the future.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/0017225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Earth-friendly EOMA68 Computing Devices
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '16

01 Aug '16

Interesting concept: 'A new crowdfunding campaign by Rhombus Tech "introduces the world's first devices built around the EOMA68 standard," which separates a "modular" CPU board from the rest of the system so that it can be easily used in multiple devices and upgraded more simply. Rhombus Tech is now offering a 15.6-inch laptop, a laser-cut wooden Micro-Desktop housing, and two types of computer cards, both using A20 dual-core ARM Cortex A7 processors. The cards are available with four flavors of the GNU/Linux operating system, and they're hoping to receive RYF certification from the Free Software Foundation. "No proprietary software," explains their campaign's video. "No backdoors. No spyware. No NDAs." They envision a world where users upgrade their computers by simply popping in a new card -- reducing electronic waste -- or print new laptop casings to repair defects or swap in different colors. (And they also hope to eventually see the cards also working with cameras, phones, tablets, and gaming consoles.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/07/31/0323255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

meeting suggestion
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jul '16

30 Jul '16

Hi everyone William suggested a topic for our next meeting in August: "An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat etc). Advantages and disadvantages to Windows." Meetup link: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/ He volunteered to cover a bit of the history (if I remember correctly), but we need others as well to fill in the rest! What do you think? 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/

4 10

meeting suggestion
by rowan schischka 29 Jul '16

29 Jul '16

When are these meetings and how can i help? -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

2 1

Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed To Confuse
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Jul '16

28 Jul '16

Ever come across websites that seem designed to trick you into paying for things you might not want? <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/dark-patterns-are-designed-to-trick…>

1 0

NIST Says Two-Factor Auth Via SMS Is Not A Good Idea
by rowan schischka 26 Jul '16

26 Jul '16

Regarding two factor sms authentication; I wonder if new Zealands mobile providers are able to be tricked into sending out replacement Sim cards

1 0

NIST Says Two-Factor Auth Via SMS Is Not A Good Idea
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Jul '16

25 Jul '16

The US National Institute for Standards and Technology is updating its Digital Authentication Guideline <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/24/nist_says_sms_no_good_for_authentic…>. Responding to recent cases where SMS-based two-factor authentication systems were hijacked to rack up charges on premium-rate phone numbers, it is now saying that sending a text message is no longer good enough. At least the service sending the messages needs to be sure they are going to a real mobile phone. Interestingly, it is posting review documents on GitHub, as an addition to the usual publication channels.

1 0

WLUG Library
by Chris O'Halloran 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hello all, I'm the holder of the WLUG library but as you're aware I haven't brought it along the meeting much. Would anyone care to be the caretaker of it for a while? I can bring it along to next Monday's meeting. Cheers, Chris

1 1

Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting schedule for next Monday: "X11, the most common display server on Linux, is showing its age. Newcomers, like Wayland and Mir are trying to address shortcomings and provide a basis for the future. Let's have a look at what each of the display servers' strengths and weaknesses are." We still need volunteers for presenting the Wayland and Mir? Any takers? More details here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232209899/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Fontconfig How-To
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Quite a handy collection of font configuration tips and tricks at the Arch Linux Wiki <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration>. I regularly come across ArchWiki links in online forums these days...

1 0

Report On Open-Source Sustainability
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Fernando Perez, one of the key developers behind Project Jupyter, has posted a link to a long, detailed report on the workings of Open Source <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/jupyter/SnfWgQ1Hx0E/F5936L-CAgAJ>. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, there is also an “executive summary” in the form of a series of Twitter postings. Summary summary: getting companies to fund Open-Source projects, even ones that they might depend crucially on, is often a matter of luck.

1 0

Ubuntu Linux Forums Hacked -- IP Address, Username, Email of 2M Accounts Compromised
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

'Canonical announced on Friday that Ubuntu forums have been hacked. The company adds that data such as IP address, username, and email address of over two million users have been compromised. BetaNews reports: Keep in mind, this does not mean that the operating system has experienced a vulnerability or weakness. The only thing affected are the online forums that people use to discuss the OS. Still, such a hack is embarrassing as it happened due to Canonical's failure to install a patch. In a blog post, Jane Silber, Chief Executive Officer, Canonical said, "after some initial investigation, we were able to confirm there had been an exposure of data and shut down the Forums as a precautionary measure. Deeper investigation revealed that there was a known SQL injection vulnerability in the Forumrunner add-on in the Forums which had not yet been patched."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/07/15/1533236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Quote Of The Week?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

“People with older PCs upgraded to Windows 10 and held onto them. Microsoft didn’t expect that number to be so high.” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/one_in_five_consumers_used_free_win…>

1 0

GNU Nano Fork
by rowan schischka 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

from the very end of the article posted: "It seems the argument came down to licensing rules, because an idea of moving Nano to Github was incompatible with the GNU license." Can someone please explain this statement to me? I am completely out of the loop in understanding this. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

2 1

Court Says Microsoft Does Not Need To Respond To US Warrant For Overseas Data
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

You may have heard of the ongoing case where the US FBI is demanding Microsoft turn over data held on servers in Ireland. The US Government is claiming that, because the Irish operation is under the control of Microsoft’s headquarters in the US, that it falls under US jurisdiction and so the company can be compelled to turn over the data with nothing more than a warrant issued by a US court. The appeals court has disagreed <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160714/10134734971/huge-win-court-says-…>. The peculiar thing is, there are already international arrangements under which the US can ask the Irish Government to request one of their courts to order the surrender of the data. But they don’t seem to want to do that.

3 3

Microsoft Still “Supporting” Windows RT
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

Microsoft blocks a “security hole” on Windows RT tablets that might have allowed users to run alternative operating systems <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/windows_fix_closes_rt_unlock_loopho…>.

2 1

New Skype for Linux client released, built on Web technology
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

'A new Skype for Linux client is now available as an alpha. The Skype client for Linux had been long abandoned—it's stuck on version 4.3, compared to version 7 on Windows—but Microsoft has now belatedly recognized that Skype is at its most desirable when it's available on every platform. To that end, it has created an all-new Skype client. In fact, the new client has two versions. There's a Linux app for users of traditional Linux systems. There's also the Skype Web Client, which is supported in Chrome on Linux and Chromebooks running Chrome OS. Whether using the Web or the standalone app, the core code and capabilities are the same: it's using Chrome's WebRTC support to provide a plugin-free, Web-based Skype client.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/skype-for-linux-is-re… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Re: [wlug] puppy or qubes
by Michelle 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

After my last post, either that night or early next morning I realized I should have said a thank you to some folk. So to all those that shared information in an effort to help me.....Thank you. People at this LUG may indeed be right about puppy, I don't know. Here is an article about that policeman and puppy and banking: www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-police-don't-use-windows-for-internet-banking-157767 So going off that article it would seem that any live distro that fits on RAM is safe for banking. Now as for Ian. It is intetesting to at least me. Many/most people don't move away from where they were born/bought up in. wwwpewsocialtrends.org/2008/12/17/who-moves-who-stays-put-wheres-home/ So a person could be getting sh*t from someine online that they babysitted. I find that ironic. No I'm not going off that article but rather family happenings bought me to that article. Anyway .....Ian. After Ian had a go at me last month for no reason: list.Waikato ac.nz/pipermail/wlug/2016-June/014171.html (I hope those two last addresses are correct after the effort it takes to type them on this finicky phone) If a person is bought to court, they never wear a shirt saying 'I am guilty'. Usually the jurry/judge has to go off circumstancial evidence. The most important point with Ian is that he had just had a YELLING RANT. Now when someone finishes a yellining rant, are they most likely to go: 1. Now who can I help or 2. Who will I have a go at next?. So anyway I'm having to type this out on my finicky little phone, because I Haven't had the privilege yet of buying a new computer yet that I know will work. So this isn't his entire post:wlug/2016-June/014171. But you can just go to last month if you're interested. So the next point of interest is that the very next thing that he "says to me' after his attack on me last month was this latest.....um stuff. "NOW WHAT ABOUT TRIMMING THOSE POSTS!!! OTHERWISE I MAY BE FORCED TO DIG OUT SOME ARCHAIC INTERNET ETIQUETTE FAQ AND POST IT IN FULL ALL IN CAPS. Just joshing people. But puhleeze???! A word for Michelle and the quest for perfection. Sometimes in this life there is a dichotomy between what we wish for and what we can actually accomplish. Maybe near enough is good enough. Is there actually such a thing as complete security on the internet? Possibly, but probably not for the average citizen. "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott McNealy, formerly of Sun Microsystems. Sad but probably true" So about me and my quest for perfection: UN my post this month I said: "Well I give up. I have tried for months and invested dozens of hours to get a machine that runs qubes and it hasn't happened..... If nobody is prepared to do that it is more than fine . I will just buy a computer that runs a windows legacy os." Now I'm sorry, perhaps I missed the part there about "my quest for perfection ." Saying to to someone there "quest for perfection" well, whether that is taken taken as condescending or resemble depends on who said it, how they said it and when they said it.Vin this cade is was by a guy who had just insulted me and had just come of an angry rant! U think there were other things I wanted to mention about Ian but I can't remember. If I am amazingly wrong about Ian's intentions this time then so be it be he completely bought it upon his own head. On 2016-07-06 20:21, Peter Reutemann wrote: >> On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 4:46 PM, Michelle <michelle400(a)orcon.net.nz> >> wrote: >>> Puppy was recommended by a police officer. I think he was doing >>> banking for >>> the police maybe? >> >> Don't trust the filth. Surprised they even realize what Linux is. > > Please keep it civil! > > [...] > >>> So unless someone is willing to help in a hands on way, I don't want >>> anymore >>> help. Thanks anyway. >> >> Suggested it before, will suggest one last time. Show up to Te Ata on >> a Monday or Friday morning and someone from there will help. >> >> I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help but I really tried. Now to trim. > > If you read Michelle's emails again, you will see that she is not well > enough to travel. Therefore your offer is not an option. > > Cheers, Peter

3 4

Still life in Puppy take two
by Ian Young 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

Oh dear, what an aberrant keystroke will do. Moving on .... While it is probably mandatory to scorn Puppy, and indeed Puppy is but a pale shadow of its former self post the retirement of Barry Kauler, a few steadfast souls continue to produce useful variants Including one called Slacko. http://slacko.eezy.xyz/notes.php http://blog.puppylinux.com/ I am excited to announce the release of Puppy Linux Slacko 6.3.2. It is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. This might be called a bugfix release to Slacko 6.3.0 but it is so much more than that! This is the first ever official puppy to support UEFI booting for both for 32 and 64 bit versions and the same ISO image will boot legacy BIOS PCs as well. And there is so much more that is improved, such as the theming, sound detection, firewall, default application management plus our home grown apps such as pMusic. It is still based on upstream 14.1 but has all the latest security and bugfix updates. There is much more going on here than a point release can convey that is why we have given it 2 points! The official release announcement is available for 32 bit and 64 bit. For more information you can visit the release notes page and the download page. I Hope you enjoy using Slacko! Posted on 22 Jun 2016, 21:22 by 01micko

1 0

Still life in Puppy
by Ian Young 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

1 0

Firefox Bringing Rust Code Into Production
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

<http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-48-First-Rust-Code> Rust is a programming language that is designed to make it harder to commit the kinds of stuffups that lead to crashes and security bugs. So the proof of the pudding will be whether future versions of Firefox will turn out to be more reliable and secure.

1 0

When man-db goes thug ... help?
by Eric Light 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

Hi guys Never seen this before, need a hand. Fairly fresh Debian 8 install, fully updated, running as root. root(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man opensslroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man -kroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# which man/usr/bin/manroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man --helproot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# ... When I execute man, it doesn't give me anything, and just returns me to the command prompt. Not even man --help will return a response. I've purged and reinstalled man-db, ensured that ncurses-base is installed, even checked the size of man (106912 bytes), and checked dmesg for any segfaults... there's just nothing I can find anywhere. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. E-- Securely sent with Tutanota. It's good, you should try it: https://tutanota.com

2 3

Bye-Bye 32 Bits
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

Seems like nobody wants to offer 32-bit Linux builds any more... <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/05/linux_letting_go_32bit_builds_on_th…>

4 4

MIT Says Their Anonymity Network Is More Secure Than Tor
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

'Following the recent vulnerabilities in Tor, researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have been working on a new anonymity network that they say is more secure than Tor. While the researchers are planning to present their new system, dubbed Riffle, at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium later this month, they did say the system uses existing cryptographic techniques, but in new ways. A series of servers are what make up Riffle, each of which "permutes the order in which it receives messages before passing them on to the next," according to a news release. "For instance, messages from senders Alice, Bob, and Carol reach the first server in the order A, B, C, that server would send them to the second server in a different order -- say C, B, A. The second server would permute them before sending them to the third, and so on." Nobody would know which was which by the time they exited the last server. Both Tor and MIT's anonymity network use onion encryption. Riffle uses a technique called verifiable shuffle in addition to onion encryption to thwart tampering and prevent adversaries from infiltrating servers with their own code. Last but not least, it uses authentication encryption to verify the authenticity of an encrypted message. The researchers say their system provides strong security while using bandwidth much more efficiently than similar solutions.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/07/11/2041203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

ODF Versus OOXML
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jul '16

11 Jul '16

A summary of links comparing ODF (the file format native to LibreOffice and OpenOffice) with OOXML (as used in Microsoft’s Office suite): <http://courseweb.ischool.illinois.edu/~stanley8/LIS590DPL/standards/docform…>. Another reason why saving LibreOffice documents in MS Office format may cause formatting trouble (besides the usual inconsistencies that happen with MS Office formatting anyway) is that OOXML cannot actually represent all ODF information correctly.

1 0

GNU Nano Fork
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jul '16

11 Jul '16

Some ructions over GNU Nano have led to the creation of yet another tiny text editor <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/11/in_mourning_for_nano_chap_crafts_1k…>. With regard to this: “Benno also did not want to assign copyright to the FSF for his contributions.” it’s not clear why outfits like the FSF and Ubuntu want you to assign your copyrights to them. The Linux kernel project, for example, doesn’t require it <https://lwn.net/Articles/592503/>.

1 0

HTTPS crypto’s days are numbered. Here’s how Google wants to save it
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '16

09 Jul '16

'Like many forms of encryption in use today, HTTPS protections are on the brink of a collapse that could bring down the world as we know it. Hanging in the balance are most encrypted communications sent over the last several decades. On Thursday, Google unveiled an experiment designed to head off, or at least lessen, the catastrophe. In the coming months, Google servers will add a new, experimental cryptographic algorithm to the more established elliptic curve algorithm it has been using for the past few years to help encrypt HTTPS communications. The algorithm—which goes by the wonky name "Ring Learning With Errors"—is a method of exchanging cryptographic keys that's currently considered one of the great new hopes in the age of quantum computing. Like other forms of public key encryption, it allows two parties who have never met to encrypt their communications, making it ideal for Internet usage.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/https-crypto-is-on-the-brink-of-col… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Mesa 12.0 Released With OpenGL 4.3 Support, Intel Vulkan and More
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '16

09 Jul '16

'Mesa3D developers have announced the release of Mesa 12.0. Mesa 12 notably adds open-source OpenGL 4.3 drivers for Intel, Radeon, and NVIDIA on Linux, and it also integrates the previously open-sourced Intel Vulkan graphics API driver. From the Phoronix analysis, "Mesa 12.0 is easily one of the biggest updates to this important open-source user-space OpenGL driver stack in quite some time and will offer much better support and features especially for Intel, Radeon, and NVIDIA open-source Linux desktop users/gamers."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/2135213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Researchers Discover Over 100 Tor Nodes Designed To Spy On Hidden Services
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'Two researchers have discovered over 100 Tor nodes that are spying on hidden services. Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing reports: "These nodes -- ordinary nodes, not exit nodes -- sorted through all the traffic that passed through them, looking for anything bound for a hidden service, which allowed them to discover hidden services that had not been advertised. These nodes then attacked the hidden services by making connections to them and trying common exploits against the server-software running on them, seeking to compromise and take them over. The researchers used 'honeypot' .onion servers to find the spying computers: these honeypots were .onion sites that the researchers set up in their own lab and then connected to repeatedly over the Tor network, thus seeding many Tor nodes with the information of the honions' existence. They didn't advertise the honions' existence in any other way and there was nothing of interest at these sites, and so when the sites logged new connections, the researchers could infer that they were being contacted by a system that had spied on one of their Tor network circuits. No one knows who is running the spying nodes: they could be run by criminals, governments, private suppliers of 'infowar' weapons to governments, independent researchers, or other scholars (though scholarly research would not normally include attempts to hack the servers once they were discovered)." The Tor project is aware of the attack and is working to redesign its system to try and block it.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/2034209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Antivirus Software Is 'Increasingly Useless' and May Make Your Computer Less Safe
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'Is your antivirus protecting your computer or making it more hackable? Internet security experts are warning that anti-malware technology is becoming less and less effective at protecting your data and devices, and there's evidence that security software can sometimes even make your computer more vulnerable to security breaches. This week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) issued a warning about popular antivirus software made by Symantec, some of it under the Norton brand, after security researchers with Google's Project Zero found critical vulnerabilities. "These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets. They don't require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible," wrote Google researcher Tavis Ormandy in a blog post. Symantec said it had verified and addressed the issues in updates that users are advised to install. It's not the only instance of security software potentially making your computer less safe. Concordia University professor Mohammad Mannan and his PhD student Xavier de Carne de Carnavalet recently presented research on antivirus and parental control software packages, including popular brands like AVG, Kaspersky and BitDefender, that bypass some security features built into internet browsers to verify whether sites are safe or not in order to be able to scan encrypted connections for potential threats. In theory, they should make up for it with their own content verification systems. But Mannan's research, presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in California earlier this year, found they didn't do a very good job. "We were surprised at how bad they were," he said in an interview. "Some of them, they did not even make it secure in any sense."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/145245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Android KeyStore Encryption Scheme Broken
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'The default implementation for KeyStore, the system in Android designed to store user credentials and cryptographic keys, is broken, researchers say.>In an academic paper published this week, researchers argue that the particular encryption scheme that KeyStore uses fails to protect the integrity of keys and could be exploited to allow an attacker to modify stored keys through a forgery attack. KeyStore, which performs key-specific actions through the OpenSSL library, allows Android apps to store and generate their own cryptographic keys. By storing keys in a container, KeyStore makes it more difficult to remove them from the device. Mohamed Sabt and Jacques Traore, two researchers with the French telecom Orange Labs, claim the scheme associated with the system is "non-provably secure," and could have "severe consequences." The two point out in their paper "Breaking Into the KeyStore: A Practical Forgery Attack Against Android KeyStore," that it's the hash-then-encrypt (HtE) authenticated encryption (AE) scheme in cipher block chaining mode (CBC) in KeyStore that fails to guarantee the integrity of keys.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/07/07/1819233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

10 million Android phones infected by all-powerful auto-rooting apps
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '16

07 Jul '16

"Security experts have documented a disturbing spike in a particularly virulent family of Android malware, with more than 10 million handsets infected and more than 286,000 of them in the US. Researchers from security firm Check Point Software said the malware installs more than 50,000 fraudulent apps each day, displays 20 million malicious advertisements, and generates more than $300,000 per month in revenue. The success is largely the result of the malware's ability to silently root a large percentage of the phones it infects by exploiting vulnerabilities that remain unfixed in older versions of Android. The Check Point researchers have dubbed the malware family "HummingBad," but researchers from mobile security company Lookout say HummingBad is in fact Shedun, a family of auto-rooting malware that came to light last November and had already infected a large number of devices." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/virulent-auto-rooting-malware-takes… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

The State Of systemd In Debian
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jul '16

07 Jul '16

Presentation from DebConf, slides and video <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-systemd-Status-2016>.

1 1

Yet Another Next-Generation Filesystem
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

As if btrfs and ZFS aren’t enough, here’s another next-generation filesystem being developed for Linux: <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Bcachefs-Still-Rolling>. It apparently originated from “Bcache”, which was a filesystem developed for use on SSDs.

1 0

32 bit
by Ian Young 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

See also Linux Mint 18 in 32-bit version, and Bodhi complete with Enlightenment. NOW WHAT ABOUT TRIMMING THOSE POSTS!!! OTHERWISE I MAY BE FORCED TO DIG OUT SOME ARCHAIC INTERNET ETIQUETTE FAQ AND POST IT IN FULL ALL IN CAPS. Just joshing people. But puhleeze???! A word for Michelle and the quest for perfection. Sometimes in this life there is a dichotomy between what we wish for and what we can actually accomplish. Maybe near enough is good enough. Is there actually such a thing as complete security on the internet? Possibly, but probably not for the average citizen. "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott McNealy, formerly of Sun Microsystems. Sad but probably true.

8 14

puppy or qubes
by Michelle 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Well, I give up. I have tried for months and invested dozens of hours to get a machine that runs qubes and it hasn't happened. So would somebody be willing to go into say pb tech with different live puppy's on stick (or DVD) and finding what computers run it. Puppy was the distro I was wanting to run on my brand new computer I bought last year. I have been told that it is hard to find a new computer that won't rtun puppy. My new computer didn't. Hopefully it is just a freak. So if you are prepared to do that, could you then let me know at least two of those computers that should be able to run qubes according to the hardware specifications at the qubes website. If nobody is prepared to do that it is more than fine. I will just buy a computer that runs a windows legacy os.

5 11

post trimming
by Ian Young 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Oh dear, it's a storm of my making, albeit in a teacup. Much of the time posts on wlug are brief and often evoke no responses. As it happens of late there have been some of greater length which have had replies including the full body of all the foregoing, This has lead to my occasional ire as I scroll on ever downwards through the screeds of text previously seen looking for some gem of wisdom only to finally find the dreaded "Me too" or something equally unmemorable. Call me a grinchy grouch but is this sort of thing effective communication? Lies back on the couch .... Let me tell you about my days on dialup when every word cost 10 cents ... have i mentioned my Scottish ancestry? OMG, apologies to all Scots. If you can't say anything nice then say nothing as my old dad (from Glasgow) was wont to say. ~ ttfn Ian Y

1 0

Why Dotfiles Need To Die
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

“Hidden” files and directories are outnumbering non-hidden ones 6:1 in my home directory: ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | grep -c '^\.' 215 ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | grep -vc '^\.' 35 ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | wc -l 250 Quite a few applications are starting to adopt the XDG Base Directory Spec <https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/>, but it just can’t happen fast enough...

1 0

Any Old Machines Going Spare?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Te Whare O Te Ata (the Fairfield community centre) has a group of four public-access machines that are not getting any younger. Does anybody have any machines they don’t need any more, that they could donate as (slightly) newer replacements? I think all of us who volunteer there are on this list, so I think you might as well respond to the list, at least to begin with. Then we can take it from there. Thanks for any help.

3 3

Linux Mint 18 “Sarah” released!
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '16

05 Jul '16

Already happened on June 30th, but here it is anyway... Announcement for MATE: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3052 And for Cinnamon: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3051 Just installed MATE version, replacing my Ubuntu MATE edition. Gone is my disappearing mouse cursor when suspending, feels much snappier, better touchpad support too. At least 2 thumbs up! ;-) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

32 bits
by Ian Young 05 Jul '16

05 Jul '16

Arch and Manjaro have 32 bit options. Slackware 14.2 just released is available for 32 bit. Porteus has a fresh release pending for 32. The recent Fedora 24 has 32 bit iso. So it's not over yet. One snag however is hardware limitations on 32 bit machines. It may be possible to run a current browser on less than 2 gigs of RAM but I find it is not enjoyable. So it partly depends on what one wants to do iwth that golden oldie.

1 0

Fwd: [NZOSS OpenChat] GovHack
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '16

04 Jul '16

Apologies for cross-posting, but some people on this mailing list might be interested in this. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: DL Neil <NZOSS(a)etelligence.info> Date: Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 7:03 AM Subject: [NZOSS OpenChat] GovHack To: NZOSS Open Discussion List <openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz> Noticed this public invitation of likely interest to mash-up artists and OpenData enthusiasts: GovHack is all about bringing together coders, artists, storytellers, observers, communicators and more, from the private, public, NGO and academic sectors. While the group of people is diverse, we’re united in a single purpose – working with government data to innovate and create. What is GovHack, anyway? It’s not about “cracking” government – it’s about bringing together the power of open data and all of us to build a better democracy and a more open government and society. Watch this short video to find out more :) This year, New Zealand’s second (ever) GovHack event will be taking place across the country over the weekend of 29 – 31 July, in: Whangarei Auckland Hamilton Hawke’s Bay Whanganui Wellington Christchurch Queenstown Dunedin. ... http://govhack.org.nz/ -- Regards, =dn ―― View topic http://groups.nzoss.org.nz/r/topic/1mbHiTI4H5e8TQrmYTPFL4 Leave group mailto:openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz?subject=Unsubscribe Start groups https://OnlineGroups.net -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' Released, Supports Generic GTK X-Apps
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '16

03 Jul '16

'The Linux Mint team announced the immediate availability of their latest release, Mint 18 "Sarah," in Cinnamon and MATE flavors. These follow on the heels of their respective beta versions, which have been out for nearly a month. "Linux Mint 18 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2021," the team announces on MATE's "new features" page, adding they've improved their update manager, included support for the Debian syntax of "apt", and are working on the "X-Apps" project to "produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments...to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/02/2045249 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Council CIO - suit required
by Ian Young 29 Jun '16

29 Jun '16

I fear no ordinary mortal could hope for a job such as this -- only for people from suitland who can spout the appropriate babble and appear to have a suitable track record in positions of such awesomeness. This is the world of the 'solutions provider' and they always provide a Windows solution. After all, why not go with what you know? And then there is the investment by many IT people in gaining industry qualifications around aspects of Microsoft technology. It would be sad to see that go to waste. It's a mindset thing. And let's not forget that for most people (aside from a minority of Appleheads) Windows is computers, or Windows is always on such computers as they use. Then there are the computer makers who still provide the industry standard, ie Windows. (Behind the scenes MS is still twisting arms there as far as I know). Perhaps this being broken down somewhat in recent times by the advent of tablets & smartphones but I think in large part real work is still done on a Windows box. Hard to see how this can ever change without some as yet unforeseen paradigm shift. So much for the business world and governmental organisations; things are perhaps a bit different in academia especially in fields such as computer science. However the desktop for most users is still always Windows so far as I have seen. Those crazy academics have to be given some choice but IT staff generally prefer to provide a standardised Windows image. Yes, it's a Windows world. Luckily Linux is still around for those who can't get with the programme. Personally I find the latest versions of desktop Windows unusable. If Windows 8 and 10 are the answer it must have been a most peculiar question imho. But I digress. Should HCC ever adopt Linux I will eat my hat - or be astounded at any rate.

2 1

A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

"Adam Leventhal: Apple announced a new file system that will make its way into all of its OS variants (macOS, tvOS, iOS, watchOS) in the coming years. Media coverage to this point has been mostly breathless elongations of Apple's developer documentation. With a dearth of detail I decided to attend the presentation and Q&A with the APFS team at WWDC. Dominic Giampaolo and Eric Tamura, two members of the APFS team, gave an overview to a packed room; along with other members of the team, they patiently answered questions later in the day. With those data points and some first-hand usage I wanted to provide an overview and analysis both as a user of Apple-ecosystem products and as a long-time operating system and file system developer." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-… 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/

5 4

Re: [wlug] Hamilton City Council - CIO position
by rowan schischka 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

>You can apply for the position via the council web-site<http://%20 https://hamilton.careercentre.net.nz/job/chief-information-officer-cio-/ham…>. It is also advertised on seek< http://www.seek.co.nz/job/31234386?pos=12&type=standard&engineConfig=&userq… >. Im applying but doubt ill get it. whoever gets that contract i'd like to put my hand forward to help. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

Re: [wlug] wlug Digest, Vol 300, Issue 19
by Wayne Luxton 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

On 25/06/16 12:00, wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz wrote: > Send wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of wlug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone (Ian Young) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 03:12:45 +0000 > From: Ian Young <gnomician(a)gmail.com> > To: wlug <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: [wlug] a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone > Message-ID: > <CA+e9D2Ev-OSuWxA98heFdjbERzTJYgZbiFRAuiepOVS9FURZNw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Came upon this today - mentioned on Barry Kauler's blog (the Puppy Linux guy). > > ' have previously posted about MaruOS:" > http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00363 > > > http://maruos.com/#/ > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > End of wlug Digest, Vol 300, Issue 19 > ************************************* > Find this is brilliant news as have nexus 5 and was getting frustrated and scratchy about android and what they keep wanting or advertising. Something to do to keep my Parkinson's brain in action. Would like to compare notes with any other local enthusiast -looking to create an intergrated work system with production of posters. Wayne - thanks you guys I am not very active now days but keeping up with threads helps me check out what I need and widen potential

1 0

Ubuntu-Based Peppermint 7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

'Softpedia reports on the newest version of Peppermint OS, "a lightweight, stable, elegant, and fast computer operating system based on GNU/Linux and Open Source technologies." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes their report: It's a bit earlier than expected, but the Peppermint OS 7 GNU/Linux distribution has been officially unveiled...based on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system [with] a lot of packages from the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS distro, which means that it will also be a long-term support release.... "Along with the shift to the 16.04 (Xenial) code base, Peppermint 7 continues our policy of choosing the best components from other desktop environments, wherever that may be, and integrating them into a cohesive whole with our own software," reads today's announcement. "Team Peppermint" says they're switching to Firefox as their default browser for site-specific browser functionality (similar to Chrome's -app mode) after Google dropped their 32-bit version of Chrome and moved to PPAPI plugins "which effectively ends Flash support in 32-bit Chromium"... But you can also still choose Chrome or Chromium for site-specific browsing (and the OS comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions).' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/06/25/216216 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone
by Ian Young 24 Jun '16

24 Jun '16

Came upon this today - mentioned on Barry Kauler's blog (the Puppy Linux guy). ' have previously posted about MaruOS:" http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00363 http://maruos.com/#/

1 0

KDE Developers Have Been Working On Improved Windows Support
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

<http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-Windows-Improvements>: “... they've abandoned the concept of having a single KDE installer for Windows, but work on individual programs (and installers) for Windows has continued. Single application installers are their path forward for shipping KDE programs on Windows...” Also in the reader comments, Krita lead Boudewijn Rempt writes about whether more Windows users leads to more Windows developers contributing <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/software/desktop-linux/879128-kde-dev…>: “... I've certainly had half a dozen Windows developers come to the #krita irc channel asking how to build Krita on Windows so they could help out hacking. The problem is that setting up a build environment on WIndows is really hard, and in fact, we build the Windows binaries on Linux... So they need extraordinary perseverance to start contributing or use a Linux VM. That's really something we should improve on next, but I have no idea how to make it any eas[i]er anymore.”

1 0

WLUG meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

Hi there We have a meeting next Monday: 'systemd', which has replaced SYSTEMV 'init' in nearly ALL current Linux distributions, seems to go against the fundamental philosophy of Linux/Unix - Doug Mcllroy, the inventor of Unix pipes, summarized the Unix/Linux philosophy as follows: "This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well..." systemd has a 'finger-in-all-pies' approach & seems quite complex. Let's discuss pros and cons of systemd. http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/231330392/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

3 3

Linux’s RPM/deb split could be replaced by Flatpak vs. snap
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

'Linux developers are going to have more than one choice for building secure, cross-distribution applications. Ubuntu's "snap" applications recently went cross-platform, having been ported to other Linux distros including Debian, Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo. The goal is to simplify packaging of applications. Instead of building a deb package for Ubuntu and an RPM for Fedora, a developer could package the application as a snap and have it installed on just about any Linux distribution. But Linux is always about choice, and snap isn't the only contender to replace traditional packaging systems. Today, the developers of Flatpak (previously called xdg-app) announced general availability for several major Linux distributions, with a pointer to instructions for installing on Arch, Debian, Fedora, Mageia, and Ubuntu.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/here-comes-flatpak-a-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Microsoft: Nearly One In Three Azure Virtual Machines Now Are Running Linux
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

"Microsoft's self-professed Linux love is helping the company in the cloud. During his keynote at DockerCon 2016 in Seattle today, Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich showed off some of the new and upcoming ways Microsoft is adding more container support to its cloud and server products. He also revealed a couple of new interesting datapoints. In the past year, Russinovich said, Microsoft has gone from one in four of its Azure virtual machines running Linux to nearly one in three. The other two-thirds of Azure customers are running Windows Server in their virtual machines. Russinovich showed off the promised Windows Server support that officials said would be coming at some point to the company's Azure Container Service (ACS). Microsoft made Azure Container Service generally available in April 2016, but for Linux containers only. Last year, company execs said Microsoft also would bring Windows Server support to ACS." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/06/21/1754243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

New World’s Fastest: 10-Million Core Supercomputer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/10-million-core-super…> Not Intel-compatible, uses a home-grown 64-bit RISC chip architecture. According to this <http://www.nextplatform.com/2016/06/20/look-inside-chinas-chart-topping-new…>, it achieves 3 times the power efficiency of the x86 machines near the current top of the supercomputing league. According to the Ars article, the previous supercomputer king of the hill, “Tianhe-2 had been the world's fastest in six consecutive rankings, which are released twice a year”. So I think the record for staying the longest at the top still remains with the old NEC Earth Simulator, which was number one for maybe two years.

1 1

Unprotected NFC Tags in MacDonald’s NZ & Australia Restaurants
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Jun '16

20 Jun '16

Anybody could store any URL into these tags. Would customers who see these pop up on their phones think it was a legitimate MacDonald’s promotion and go to those sites? <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/20/filetophish_insecure_nfc_tag_relics…>

1 0

New 'Hardened' Tor Browser Protects Users From FBI Hacking
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jun '16

20 Jun '16

'According to a new paper, security researchers are now working closely with the Tor Project to create a "hardened" version of the Tor Browser, implementing new anti-hacking techniques which could dramatically improve the anonymity of users and further frustrate the efforts of law enforcement... "Our solution significantly improves security over standard address space layout randomization (ASLR) techniques currently used by Firefox and other mainstream browsers," the researchers write in their paper, whose findings will be presented in July at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium in Darmstadt, Germany. The researchers say Tor is currently field-testing their solution for an upcoming "hardened" release, making it harder for agencies like the FBI to crack the browser's security, according to Motherboard. "[W]hile that defensive advantage may not last for too long, it shows that some in the academic research community are still intent on patching the holes that their peers are helping government hackers exploit."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/19/2249239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Under new management, SourceForge moves to put badness in past
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jun '16

19 Jun '16

"It has been six months since the company formerly known as Dice (DHI Group) sold off Slashdot Media—the business unit that runs Slashdot and SourceForge—to BIZX, LLC, a San Diego-based digital media company. Since then, the new management has been moving to erase some of the mistakes made under the previous regime—mistakes that led to the site becoming a bit of a pariah among open source and free software developers." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under-new-management-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0