- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 21 Mar '13

21 Mar '13

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !Special General Meeting A draft of the revised charter will be tabled, this will reduce the quorum to the smaller of 5 members or 50% of the general membership, and reduce the size of the committee to 4. Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards

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OX Text offers open source collaborative DOCX/ODT editing
by Peter Reutemann 20 Mar '13

20 Mar '13

"OX App Suite is to expand with OX Text, a collaborative document editor which works with DOCX and ODT documents natively on the web and intelligently avoids damaging complex document content it isn't able to edit" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1826451 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu to halve support length for non-LTS releases
by Peter Reutemann 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

"The Ubuntu Technical Board has decided to half the support time for non-LTS releases to nine months and enable users to more easier track the development of the distribution without switching to a rolling release model" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1825716 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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KDE sets its sights on Wayland
by Peter Reutemann 19 Mar '13

19 Mar '13

"After the GNOME project's decision, the KDE developers seem to also have decided to renew efforts to get their desktop environment ported to the Wayland display manager. This leaves Canonical as the only backer of Mir as an X replacement." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1825273 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Major Bug In The Bitcoin Software Tests The Community And The Exchange Rate
by mailinglist 18 Mar '13

18 Mar '13

Bitcoin went into crisis mode early this morning. This time, the threat wasn't from hackers tampering with poorly secured virtual wallets. It was Bitcoin's own code that was causing the trouble.... http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/networks/bitcoin-/#.UUdqqVxLcf…

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OpenSUSE 12.3 Is Out
by Peter Reutemann 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

"OpenSUSE 12.3 is out. There are several methods of downloading, as well as different media. It is also possible to boot the live CD from a USB stick. When using the DVD or Net install ISO, the standard is to select between KDE or GNOME, but XFCE and LXDE are also options. ARM images are available as well. More information about the release can be found in this feature guide" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/03/13/1951235/opensuse-123-is-out Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME plans to promote Wayland port
by Peter Reutemann 13 Mar '13

13 Mar '13

"GNOME developer Matthias Clasen has proposed that efforts to port the GNOME desktop to Wayland should be given more weight and be completed within the next year." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1821991 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How to run an Arduino (clone) on a 9V battery for weeks or even months
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

"It is quite possible to run an ATMEGA with Arduino code for weeks if not months on a normal 9V battery, but it requires a different/special Arduino (clone)." -- source: http://hwstartup.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/how-to-run-an-arduino-on-a-9v-bat… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Atheros open sources firmware for two wireless chips
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

"Qualcomm Atheros has open sourced the firmware for its 802.11n wireless chips AR9271 and AR7010. The source code, build tools and instructions are available on GitHub." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1820950 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Intel's graphics driver installation program for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '13

12 Mar '13

"Intel has released an installation program that provides Fedora and Ubuntu with newer versions of its graphics drivers by replacing parts of the distribution packages." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1820608 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Samsung plans to turn smartphones into data safes
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '13

05 Mar '13

"Like the home of the US government's gold reserves, Samsung's KNOX project is all about keeping intruders out. Samsung's version, however, will not protect precious metals, but business data in mobile device storage. KNOX, which was unveiled today, is based on SE Android, the Android version of SELinux that was originally developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA)." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1816663 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Canonical reveals plans to launch Mir display server
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '13

04 Mar '13

'On the evening before the first online Ubuntu Developer Summit, Canonical has revealed its plans for "Mir", a next-generation display server which will run as a system-level component to replace the X Window system. Canonical has rejected Wayland, seen by many as the successor to X Windows, because they feel it recreates X semantics in its input event handling and parts of the protocol include privileged shell integration which the Mir specifiers would rather not have. The decisions along this path of development appear to have been taken in the summer of 2012.' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1815982 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Dell Sputnik now being sold in Europe
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '13

03 Mar '13

"Dell is now selling its Sputnik developer laptop, pre-installed with Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, in its UK and German online stores. In the UK, customers save £120 (ex VAT) compared to the regular Windows model" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1814767 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu Touch Beats Firefox OS For 'Best of MWC' From CNET
by Peter Reutemann 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

"This week at Mobile World Congress both Firefox OS and Ubuntu have been wooing the audience with their mobile offerings. CNET reviewed both and felt that Ubuntu was 'the clear winner.' From the article, 'The team thought that Ubuntu Touch, the tablet version of which we got our hands-on for the first time at MWC, feels more like the complete package at this point. We liked its slick, elegant interface that makes use of every side of the screen and puts your content and contacts front and center, minimizing the time spent hopping back to a home screen.'" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/02/28/2120252/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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ipv6 webcam
by Bruce Kingsbury 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

I've got a machine running apache2/php5/mysql and motion at pi.fairfield.org.nz (ipv6 only outside our lan) In theory it should work, but it seems motion is ipv6 only. is there some way eg php script that I can have apache connect to localhost:8081 and just forward the raw data through to the browser? I set up two scripts webcam.php and webcam2.php that are supposed to do this, but neither seem to work (as far as I can test them; I won't have ipv6 at home until tomorrow). webcam.php is this; <?php $socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP); socket_connect($socket, '127.0.0.1', 8081); $reply = ""; do { $recv = ""; $recv = socket_read($socket, '1400'); if($recv != "") { $reply .= $recv; } } while($recv != ""); echo($reply); ?> webcam2.php is this; <?php system(nc 127.0.0.1 8081); ?>

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Booting desktop Linux on the Chromebook Pixel
by Peter Reutemann 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

"Google engineer Bill Richardson has detailed how to boot Linux Mint on the new Chromebook Pixel. The Pixel is the first Chromebook to include the option of booting other operating systems with a third-party bootloader." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1809912 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Special General Meeting 25th March 2013 - Change of Charter
by Rene Bartosh 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Notice is hereby given of a special general meeting to take place at 7:30pm on Monday 25th March 2013 at MS4.G.02. A draft of the revised charter will be tabled, this will reduce the quorum to the smaller of 5 members or 50% of the general membership, and reduce the size of the committee to 4. Regards, Rene Bartosh WLUG Secretary -- >From Rene Bartosh (Gmail account) <kirjava(a)gmail.com> Personal: http://kirjava.net.nz/

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SPAM filtering.
by Colin Palmer 24 Feb '13

24 Feb '13

On 22 February 2013 16:21, mailinglist <mailinglist(a)blahdeblah.co.nz> wrote: > he he, finally got the link through that I wanted to share. Any one at > the Uni realise how agressive the present spam filters are? > Yes, we do. The list server uses Postini to do spam detection, but leaves it up to Mailman to make discard and moderate decisions, so you can make it a bit less aggressive by tweaking the header rules in each list's spam filters section. -- Colin Palmer <colinp(a)waikato.ac.nz> Linux Architect, Systems and Development Team

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(no subject)
by Ronnie Collinson 24 Feb '13

24 Feb '13

Sounds good. Just some small typos corrected and I booked the room for 25/2: Regrettably, I must inform you all, that we failed to attain quorum at the AGM last night, with only 7 members arriving. As by the charter, we will hold a second AGM on February 25th (after Christmas and summer festivities). If we fail to obtain quorum or a new committee, we may have no choice but to file for dissolution with the registrar (could be re-registered for a fee of $204.45). If this is needed we will endeavour to leave as much of the online presence running as possible. The club does however remain in good financial standing. If any member is unable to attend the AGM, we will be happy for you to attend via IRC, we will attempt to stream the meeting too (perhaps audio-only via mumble). On behalf of committee

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second attempt at http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards

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Ubuntu For Tablets Announced
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

"Keeping its promise from yesterday Ubuntu has announced an operating system for tablets dubbed 'Ubuntu for Tablets' that it says will work on tablets of any size. Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/02/19/1655233/ubuntu-for-tablets-announc… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 17 Feb '13

17 Feb '13

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second attempt at http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards

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Samsung Laptop Bug Is Not Linux Specific
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '13

10 Feb '13

"Matthew Garrett, a Linux kernel developer who was investigating the recent Linux-on-Samsung-in-UEFI-mode problem, has bricked a Samsung laptopusing a test userspace program in Windows. The most fascinating part of the story is on what is actually causing the firmware boot failure: 'Unfortunately, it turns out that some Samsung laptops will fail to boot if too much of the [UEFI] variable storage space is used. We don't know what "too much" is yet, but writing a bunch of variables from Windows is enough to trigger it. I put some sample code here — it writes out 36 variables each containing a kilobyte of random data. I ran this as an administrator under Windows and then rebooted the system. It never came back.'" -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/02/09/2146207/samsung-laptop-bug-is-n… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME developers plan "Linux apps"
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '13

08 Feb '13

"Some GNOME developers are planning to implement an app format that allows developers to provide their Linux programs in distribution-independent files that can be installed as easily as smartphone apps. A sandbox model is supposed to isolate the apps from each other, and from the rest of the system, in a way that goes further than the isolation in current Linux distributions. Various developers worked to conceptualise such "Linux apps" at the GNOME Developer Experience Hackfest, which was held in the run-up to FOSDEM 2013 in Brussels. At the hackfest, the GNOME developers also declared JavaScript as the de-facto standard for GNOME programming." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1798691 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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(no subject)
by Bruce Kingsbury 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

This is STILL causing me grief. Firefox under Debian defaults to US_Letter after every single upgrade. I have to go into about:config and change each occurence of "Letter" back to "A4" otherwise if anyone tries to print from Firefox it stops the printer and I have to manually flush out all the US_Letter jobs. Locale settings in debian are all set to New Zealand. Every other program defaults to A4. Is there any way of universally making Firefox always default to A4? It's realld driving me MAD!!!!

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Ubuntu Smartphone Shipping In October
by Peter Reutemann 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

"Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told CIO Journal. Ubuntu will be available on a full range of devices, including desktop and tablet computers, potentially providing corporate IT executives a way to reduce the number of devices they purchase and manage, and would allow users to access all manner of corporate data through a single, pocket-sized device. 'You can share Windows apps to the phone desktop,' said Mr. Shuttleworth during a meeting in New York Tuesday." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/02/06/217237/ubuntu-smartphone-shipping-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Windows Software Coming To Android Via Wine
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Software that allows Windows apps to run on Android devices was demoed at the Fosdem 2013 open source conference this weekend. The demo by Alexandre Julliard, one of the original developers of Wine, showed Wine running on an emulated Android environment. Phoronix reports the performance of Wine on Android to be 'horrendously slow' but says these problems were attributed to it running on an emulated environment rather than a native Android OS. ... The makers claim it bypasses many performance and memory penalties of other methods for simulating computing environments, such as running virtual machines, by translating Windows API calls into POSIX calls on the fly. The Android OS predominantly runs on ARM-based devices today, and a separate demo at the Fosdem conference showed Wine running on ARM-based hardware. There was no news on when support for ARM-based devices or Android will be added to a publicly available Wine release." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/02/04/2228218/windows-software-coming-to-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Booting Via UEFI Can Brick Samsung Notebooks
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Heise News reports today some Samsung notebooks can be turned into a brick if booted just one time via UEFI into Linux. Even the firmware does not boot anymore. Some reports in the Ubuntu bug tracker system report that such notebooks can not be recovered without replacing the main board. Other Linux distributions may be affected as well. Kernel developers are discussing a change in the samsung-laptop driver." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/01/30/1426255/linux-booting-via-uefi-can… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Gnome Goes JavaScript
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Much to most programmers' shock and dismay Gnome has made JavaScript its main language for apps. It will still support other languages and it still supports C for libraries, but for apps it is JavaScript that rules. JavaScript seems to be a good choice for Gnome 3, as the shell UI is written in the language. It is also consistent with the use of JavaScript in WinRT, Chrome Apps, and FirefoxOS apps, and generally the rise of web apps. As you might expect, the initial reactions are of horror at the idea that JavaScript has been selected rather than the favorite language of the commenter. There is a great deal of ignorance about (and prejudice against) JavaScript, which is often regarded as an incomplete toy language rather than the elegant and sparse language that it actually is." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/02/04/1819231/gnome-goes-javascript Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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MS Won't Release Study Disputing Munich's Linux-Switch Savings
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"As previously reported on Slashdot, in November of last year, the city of Munich reported savings of over €10 million from its switch to Linux. Microsoft subsequently commissioned a study (conducted by HP) that found that, in fact, 'Munich would have saved €43.7 million if it had stuck with Microsoft.' Now, Microsoft has said it won't release the study, saying that '[it] was commissioned by Microsoft to HP Consulting for internal purposes only.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/01/22/1716244/ms-wont-release-study-disp… Sounds like good old FUD to me... Like "Linux is infringes on heaps of our patents", without ever stating which patents exactly, if I recall that correctly: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Gnome login screen accessability features
by Bruce Kingsbury 01 Feb '13

01 Feb '13

I'm having a bit of a problem with people fiddling at the logon screen, turning on features like sticky keys and screen reader and large text. These stay on even after the computers are shut down and I have to go around all the machines and turn them off again. Is there any way to dissable the accessability menu in GDM? Or at least some way that I can easily reset everything back to off?

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Bit coin links and Greg's presentation notes.
by Chris O'Halloran 27 Jan '13

27 Jan '13

Hello All, Here is some more information from Greg's note at last Friday's presentation. I'd also like to thank Greg for volunteering to talk and for such a well presented and technical topic. Seeing the data miner in action was also a bonus. Attached is the email that Greg sent to Bruce and myself earlier this week. It seems as though there is plenty more reading on the topic. I've also loaded Greg's presentation to google docs so that those that weren't at the meeting can appreciate the presentation. <quote> Hi Chris, Bruce, as discussed here's the slideshow and talk-notes from last night I promised I'd send to you to forward on to relevant people, (group-wide bounced me on the email size limit). Also here's a list of relevant links as requested; Project home page http://www.bitcoin.org/ Wiki Main_Page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page Network status live feed http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ Forum https://forum.bitcoin.org/ Layman promo video site http://www.weusecoins.com/ Instawallet (web wallet) https://www.instawallet.org API -reference pages https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/API_reference_(JSON-RPC) https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list Monetary theory - Austrian economics http://www.libertariannews.org/2011/06/18/the-economics-of-bitcoin-how-bitc… http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2009/05/the-best-of-modern-aus… http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae9_4_5.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School http://mises.org/ Szabo bitgold post http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html Namecoin, distributed DNS Dot-bit project homepage http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page Feel free to email me for further links or information. Cheers, Greg B. Link to Greg's Bit Coin presentation<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1ggO7B5SX…> Link to Gregs' presentation notes<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1SqdoXYL8…> </quote>

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Ubuntu considers “huge” change that would end traditional release cycle
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

"In the nine-year history of Ubuntu Linux, a new version of the operating system has come out every six months. But Canonical, Ubuntu's developer, is considering ditching that model in favor of one that produces an entirely new version only once every two years—while speeding up the overall pace of development by adopting a "rolling release" cycle in between." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/ubuntu-considers-huge… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Pear Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

Hi there Last week, I came across the Pear Linux distribution, an Ubuntu remix, which is visually quite appealing: http://pearlinux.fr/ The last couple of days, I've unsuccessfully tried to run the live CD on: - virtualbox - old Dell Vostro dual-core laptop - Lenovo x100e The SysLinux prompt ("boot:") shows up and when continuing, the CPU seems to go nuts and nothing happens anymore. Just wondering whether anybody else had any luck installing it... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Test
by mailinglist 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

Hi guys, Sorry again. It's definitely what I'm trying to talk about. The spam filters are just blocking it though the messages happily get through to my work email. At least I know why I cannot contribute to the list. Cheers, Chris

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test message
by mailinglist 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

Hi guys, Sorry about the messages. I've been trying to send a message so many times but it seems as though some filter is blocking it. Cheers, Chris

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test message
by mailinglist 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

sorry for the test message

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AGM second attempt
by Bruce Kingsbury 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

Following the failure to reach quorum at the 2012 AGM, we will have a second attempt at an AGM on Monday 25th February. This meeting will be at MS4.G.02, from 7:30pm onwards

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Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

"Steam is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS, and Valve has got to the point where they are happy to start urging Windows users to make the switch. Proof of that comes from a 'Join the Beta' promotion on the homepage of Steam suggesting you try Steam for Linux. There's even a download link to get Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which removes yet another barrier to entry. With Gabe Newell's clear hatred of Windows 8, this shouldn't be a surprising move. We aren't going to see another version of Windows appear for a few years, so in Valve's eyes pushing Linux to gamers makes a lot of sense." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/01/21/2021206/valve-starts-promoting-ste… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GPLv3 driver for exFAT reaches version 1.0
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '13

21 Jan '13

"ExFAT project member Andrew Nayenko has released version 1.0.0 of fuse-exfat, a filesystem driver that can read and write to Microsoft's exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) filesystem. Like the Ntfs-3G NTFS driver that is used in Linux distributions, the exFAT driver is based on FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) and works under Linux as well as OS X." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1788226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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64-bit Window version of Scribus open source DTP program available
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Those who use the open source Scribus layout program under Windows can, like those who use it under Linux, finally install the new version 1.4.2 as a native 64-bit application on the 64-bit versions of Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This means that the program is no longer subject to the memory limit of 2 GB per process that exists with 32-bit applications. Those who use an older version of Windows can still download and install a 32-bit version of Scribus." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1785023 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Kolab 3 debuts new user interface
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Kolab Systems has released Kolab 3, the latest incarnation of their open source groupware server. Kolab 3 has been in development for quite some time and was originally expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2012. Kolab 2.4, released in May 2012, included a preview of some of the new features, including a new web interface based on the Roundcube email client, that supports mobile use on smartphones and tablets. Development of Roundcube is being funded by Kolab Systems." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1784192 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora 18 - released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '13

15 Jan '13

Fedora 18 has been released. You can review the flavours of desktop iso's available for download here... https://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options The default desktop iso uses Gnome. Others available include KDE, LXDE and Xfce The nearest download site for Gnome and KDE seems to be in Aussie at... http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/i386/ Fedora-18-i686-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:48 889M Fedora-18-i686-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:38 805M http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/x86_64/ Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:49 916M Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:51 831M -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Report: ZTE to bring Firefox OS to Europe
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '13

11 Jan '13

"The Chinese phone maker ZTE says that it is working with an unnamed European wireless carrier to bring smartphones based on Mozilla's Firefox OS to the market this year. According to the Bloomberg report, Cheng Lixin, the CEO of ZTE's US business revealed the plan during an interview at CES, the consumer electronics show taking place in Las Vegas." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1780805 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Plasma Active, Sailfish, and Ubuntu Phone Developers Discussing Common APIs
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

"Jolla's Sailfish, Canonical's recently announced Ubuntu Phone, and KDE's Plasma Active environments are all using Qt5's QML for interface design. Unfortunately, the set of UI components provided by each, although similar, are incompatible with the others. After a chat on IRC between developers of all three platforms, they've decided to discuss the reasons behind each implementation, in the hopes that they can work toward a common architecture." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/01/10/1513251/plasma-active-sailfish-an… Now that would be quite a feat! Fingers crossed... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint 14 Is a Breath of Fresh Air
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jan '13

09 Jan '13

"Linux Mint 14 contains some well-needed facelifts. For example, the Mint Display Manager used for the login screen is refreshingly improved. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes with some 30 installed by default and about 2,000 more available for download. Even better, the format is so easy to apply for making themes that you can quickly add your own personalization to make your login screen look your way." -- source: http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/76989.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mindstorms EV3: Lego announces new robotics kit
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '13

08 Jan '13

'Announced for the second half of 2013, Lego's Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit includes a completely new central operating component, which Lego calls the "Intelligent Brick". The controller uses an ARMv9 (the company's previous NXT 2.0 products work with ARMv7) and includes 16MB of flash memory that can be further expanded with an SD card. A quite generous 64MB of RAM is probably required by the new operating system. According to the specifications, it is Linux-based and should, therefore, be "hackable".' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1778671 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Snowlinux 4 "Glacier" released
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

'Snowlinux 4 "Glacier" is based upon Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 "Wheezy" and uses Linux 3.5. MATE 1.4 is the default desktop environment and LightDM as new default login manager to replace GDM 3. It was built an own greeter for LightDM. There were introduced much new features like snowMenu, the Snowlinux menu and snowMount, the Snowlinux mount tool for drives. The Snowlinux-Metal-Theme was colored blue and the icon set was updated with the latest Faience icons. Snowlinux uses Pidgin now as default IM client. This release comes along Firefox 17 and Thunderbird 17, LibreOffice, Rhythmbox and Shotwell.' -- source: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07652 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mobile Raspberry Pi Computer: Build your own portable Pi-to-Go
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jan '13

05 Jan '13

"When I started this project four weeks ago, I just wanted to see if it was possible to make an ultra portable, mobile Raspberry Pi<http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-build-…>that you can take to-go. As I was building my Pi-to-Go I kept saying to myself, it would be cool if it had this, and then I would find a way to make it happen." -- source: http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-build-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Raspberry Pi Gets an Open Source Educational Manual
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '13

03 Jan '13

Last year a group of UK teachers started working on a Creative Commons licensed teaching manual for the Raspberry Pi. That work has produced the Raspberry Pi Education Manual which is available at the Pi Store or here as a PDF. From Raspberry Pi: "The manual is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 unported licence, which is a complicated way of saying that it’s free for you to download, copy, adapt and use – you just can’t sell it. You’ll find chapters here on Scratch, Python, interfacing, and the command line. There’s a group at Oracle which is currently working with us on a faster Java virtual machine (JVM) for the Pi, and once that work’s done, chapters on Greenfoot and Geogebra will also be made available – we hope that’ll be very soon." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/01/02/2316251/raspberry-pi-gets-an-open-s… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Steam for Linux beta now open to the public
by Peter Reutemann 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

"Good news for those who didn't score an invite to the first round of Valve's closed beta of Steam for Linux. The service is now available to anyone running Linux." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/12/steam-for-ubuntu-beta-now-open-to-the… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Raspberry Pi Team Launches Pi Store
by Peter Reutemann 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

"Raspberry Pi developer team has introduced the Pi store, a place to get software for Raspberry Pi, in collaboration with IndieCity and Velocix. The team hopes that the store will become a one-stop-shop for Raspbian Pi users. The store already has 23 major applications available for users including LibreOffice and Asterisk. There are classic games like Freeciv and OpenTTD and Raspberry Pi exclusive Iridium Rising. The team also managed to get 'one piece of commercial content: the excellent Storm in a Teacup from Cobra Mobile.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/17/1353255/raspberry-pi-team-launches… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Nukes 386 Support
by Peter Reutemann 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

sfcrazy writes with news that Linus pulled a patch by Ingo Molnar to remove support for the 386 from the kernel. >From Ingo's commit log: "Unfortunately there's a nostalgic cost: your old original 386 DX33 system from early 1991 won't be able to boot modern Linux kernels anymore. Sniff." Linus adds: "I'm not sentimental. Good riddance." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1414238/linux-nukes-386-support Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How to install Ubuntu on Acer's $199 C7 Chromebook
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"Maybe you think the price of Acer's new $199 C7 Chromebook is appealing and that the hardware doesn't look bad, but you're a little worried about using Chrome OS to get your work done. Or maybe you're looking for a small, cheap laptop to run Ubuntu, and you're not really interested in buying a computer running a Windows license you'll never use. If either of those sentences describe you and you aren't afraid of the command line, it's actually pretty easy to convert the cheapest Chromebook yet into a nice little Linux laptop." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-acers-199-c… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Samba 4.0 Released: the First Free Software Active Directory Compatible Server
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"We released Samba 4.0 today, containing the first compatible Free Software implementation of Microsoft's Active Directory protocols. 'Samba 4.0 comprises an LDAP directory server, Heimdal Kerberos authentication server, a secure Dynamic DNS server, and implementations of all necessary remote procedure calls for Active Directory. Samba 4.0 provides everything needed to serve as an Active Directory Compatible Domain Controller for all versions of Microsoft Windows clients currently supported by Microsoft, including the recently released Windows 8. The Samba 4.0 Active Directory Compatible Server provides support for features such as Group Policy, Roaming Profiles, Windows Administration tools and integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Free Software compatible services such as OpenChange.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/11/1922220/samba-40-released-the-firs… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux 3.7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"Linux kernel 3.7 has been released. This release adds support for the new ARM 64-bit architecture, ARM multiplatform — the ability to boot into different ARM systems using a single kernel; support for cryptographically signed kernel modules; Btrfs support for disabling copy-on-write on a per-file basis using chattr; faster Btrfs fsync(); a new experimental 'perf trace' tool modeled after strace; support for the TCP Fast Open feature in the server side; experimental SMBv2 protocol support; stable NFS 4.1 and parallel NFS; a vxlan tunneling protocol that allows to transfer Layer 2 ethernet packets over UDP; and support for the Intel SMAP security feature. Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available. Here's the full list of changes." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/11/160259/linux-37-released Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Old-ish Fiber-Optic Gear For Disposal
by Elroy 08 Dec '12

08 Dec '12

Need to clear garage. Have various older hubs (~16-24 ports 10Mbps ethernet plus optical ports), various older fiber-optic cables (mainly patch (less than 1m)), and other bits and pieces. Most gear is untested, was bought as-is. Also have a couple 100Mbps UTP <==> 100Mbps fiber converters. Would prefer they go to non-profit/educational homes; if for-profit, then I'd appreciate a few dollars to a good cause I know of (wikipedia being one). Will try to get a more detailed list shortly. Elroy.

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Python Creator Guido van Rossum Leaves Google For Dropbox
by Peter Reutemann 08 Dec '12

08 Dec '12

"Guido van Rossum, the proclaimed Python Benevolent Dictator For Life, has left Google to work for Dropbox. In their announcement, Dropbox says they relied heavily on Python from the beginning, citing a mix of simplicity, flexibility, and elegance, and are excited to have GvR on the team. While this is, without a doubt, good news for Dropbox, the big question is what this will mean for Python (and for Google)." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/2242237/python-creator-guido-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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$100 Android/Linux tablet hits funding goal, ships in January
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

'A $100 tablet that can run both Android and Linux is on the verge of becoming a reality. We wrote about the "PengPod" last month when its creators were seeking $49,000 on a Kickstarter-like site called Indiegogo. The project's deadline expired last night, with the PengPod getting a healthy $72,707 from more than 500 contributors.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/100-androidlinux-tablet-hits-funding… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Comment: OpenOffice's Tale of Two Cities
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Failure in Freiburg, success in Munich. Experiences with open source software in the public sector couldn't be more different. If there's a lesson to be drawn from this, it's "go the whole hog or not at all". -- source: http://h-online.com/-1760502 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Secure Boot bootloader for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

"Linux developer Matthew Garrett has released a version of his Shim Secure Boot bootloader that allows any Linux distribution to be launched on Secure Boot systems without the need to disable UEFI Secure Boot. As Garrett's Shim binary has been signed by Microsoft, the Secure Boot bootloader will be executed by almost any type of UEFI firmware." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1761089 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Plan 9 ported to the Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

'Plan 9 developer Richard Miller has ported the open source Unix-like operating system to the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. Plan 9, which was originally developed primarily for research into distributed operating systems by Bell Labs, is still being developed at Bell Labs (now a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent) and a number of independent developers. The operating system extends the classic "everything is a file" philosophy of Unix to network objects without differentiating between local and remote resources.' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1761509 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Dell launches Ubuntu-powered Sputnik for developers
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

"Dell has launched its Ubuntu laptop for developers in the US. The project, which was first announced in May, uses an XPS 13 Ultrabook as the base for a customised Ubuntu 12.04 installation that is aimed at application developers and systems administrators. Dell has worked with Ubuntu sponsor Canonical and various hardware manufacturers to provide support for the hardware, and the system ships with additional features such as the sputnik command that allows developers to easily replicate their development environment on other machines." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1759350 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mozilla Combines Social API and WebRTC
by Peter Reutemann 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

"Mozilla has put together a demo which combines WebRTC with Firefox's Social API. Over on Mozilla's Future Releases blog, Maire Reavy writes, 'WebRTC is a powerful new tool that enables web app developers to include real-time video calling and data sharing capabilities in their products. While many of us are excited about WebRTC because it will enable several cool gaming applications and improve the performance and availability of video conferencing apps, WebRTC is proving to be a great tool for social apps. Sometimes when you're chatting with a friend, you just want to click on their name and see and talk with them in real-time. Imagine being able to do that without any glitches or hassles, and then while talking with them, easily share almost anything on your computer or device: vacation photos, memorable videos — or even just a link to a news story you thought they might be interested in – simply by dragging the item into your video chat window.'" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/12/02/214216/mozilla-combines-social-api-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Why KDE Plasma Makes Sense For Linux Gaming
by Peter Reutemann 02 Dec '12

02 Dec '12

"Martin Gräßlin, a lead KDE developer, addresses some queries around a topic bugging Gnome and Unity users — the fallback mode. In this post he says that 'having the non-composited mode around allows us to do things like turning compositing off when running games or heavy OpenGL based applications such as Blender. So if you want to get some of the now finally available games for Linux, KDE Plasma should be your primary choice to enjoy the game. I have also heard of users switching to KDE Plasma because we still provide non OpenGL based setups.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/01/2351222/why-kde-plasma-makes-sense… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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AGM Tonight (7.30)
by Ronnie Collinson 26 Nov '12

26 Nov '12

The AGM is tongiht at MS4.G.02 Waikato University, 7.30pm, come along chat, have some pizza, hear how the year has been for the club, and prehaps run for the committee yourself.

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Cinnarch: Arch Linux with Mint's Cinnamon desktop
by Peter Reutemann 25 Nov '12

25 Nov '12

"Cinnarch project lead developer Alex Filgueira has released an update to his Linux distribution that includes a new default file manager and LibreOffice installer and improves the live system's overall stability. Cinnarch is a rolling release operating system based on Arch Linux that features Linux Mint's Cinnamon as its default desktop environment. The OS uses the LightDM login manager and Chromium, the open source browser project run by Google, as its default web browser." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1755860 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint 14 Is Out
by Peter Reutemann 25 Nov '12

25 Nov '12

"New submitter medge_42 sends words that Linux Mint 14 has been released. Check out their list of features and release notes to see what's new. One version uses MATE 1.4, which includes some long-needed bug fixes as well as functional bluetooth and mate-keyring, its own character map, fast alt-tabbing, and improvements to Caja. The other version uses Cinnamon 1.6, which contains a huge number of fixes and new features including its own file browser, persistent workspaces and a window quicklist to go with them, a notifications applet, an improved sound applet, and alt-tab graphical improvements. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes and userlists, and has improved user switching. Gedit 2.30 has replaced Gedit 3, and MintStick replaces USB-ImageWriter." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/11/21/0455245/linux-mint-14-is-out What a shame that I don't have time at the moment to play around with it... :-( Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Minecraft Ported To the Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 25 Nov '12

25 Nov '12

"The amusing 'but does it run Crysis?' question has a cousin: 'but does it run Minecraft?' The makers of Raspberry Pi can now officially say that yes, yes it does. Called Minecraft: Pi Edition, the latest flavor of the popular game carries 'a revised feature set' and 'support for several programming languages,' so you can code directly into Minecraft before or after you start playing. That means you can build structures in the traditional Minecraft way, but you can also break open the code and use a programming language to manipulate things in the game world." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/11/24/2334209/minecraft-ported-to-the-ra… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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On Demo, a $25 1080p Camera Module For Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 23 Nov '12

23 Nov '12

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced a new add-on – a camera module that will enable the credit card sized computer to snap pictures as well as record 1080p videos. Showcased by RS Components at the Elecontrica 2012 in Germany [watch video here] the £16 (apprx) module will be equipped with a 5MP sensor and will plug into the otherwise unused CSI pins of the Pi. The camera module's board is still in prototype stage and is expected to reach production sometime soon. Liz Upton, Executive Director of the Foundation said in a blog post, 'We've a (very) little way to go before we're able to send it out to manufacture.' According to Upton, testing slots have been booked in December to check on electromagnetic radiations from the ribbon cable." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/23/195219/on-demo-a-25-1080p-camer… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 22 Nov '12

22 Nov '12

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Topics * Presidents Report * Treasurer Report * Election of 2013 Committee * Discussion of life-long/honorary members * Consumption of pizza

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Hardware Hacking Entries Open For First Ever 24-Hour Raspberry Pi Hackathon
by Peter Reutemann 22 Nov '12

22 Nov '12

"Called the Raspberry Pi 'hack day', the competition will pit 100 entrants against one another in a number of categories using only the board, Internet access, soldering irons and as much coding as they think appropriate. Participants will have 24-hours to complete projects, at the end of which winners will be awarded from a variety of prizes including camcorders, Android tablets and the geek must-have, the Hubsan H107 Quadcopter." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/22/0342241/entries-open-for-first-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Foundation struggles with Microsoft's Secure Boot signing service
by Peter Reutemann 21 Nov '12

21 Nov '12

"Despite several attempts, the Linux Foundation's James Bottomley has not managed to get Microsoft to sign the mini bootloader for starting Linux on systems with UEFI Secure Boot. In a blog post, the Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board (TAB) member says that he successfully managed to use a Linux system for various preparatory bootloader signing tasks, although Microsoft stipulates that a specific Windows platform must be used. However, Bottomley said that to upload the CAB file containing the bootloader, he had to use a virtual machine with Windows 7 because this step requires Silverlight, and the open source Moonlight implementation of Silverlight didn't work." -- souce: http://h-online.com/-1754209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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$250 Chromebook With Ubuntu Linux Is Very Fast
by Peter Reutemann 20 Nov '12

20 Nov '12

"The Google Samsung Chromebook was already interesting for its competitive $250 price-tag and that it can be loaded with Linux distributions beyond Chrome OS, but it turns out that its performance is particularly good, too. When loaded with Ubuntu Linux, the Samsung Exynos 5 Dual ARM SoC on the Chrome notebook had outperformed a 1.8GHz Intel Atom, a quad-core Calxeda ARM server, and a TI OMAP4 PandaBoard." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/12/11/20/1617210/250-chromebook-with-ubu… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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New Linux Rootkit Emerges
by Peter Reutemann 20 Nov '12

20 Nov '12

"A new Linux rootkit has emerged and researchers who have analyzed its code and operation say that the malware appears to be a custom-written tool designed to inject iframes into Web sites and drive traffic to malicious sites for drive-by download attacks. The rootkit is designed specifically for 64-bit Linux systems, and while it has some interesting features, it does not appear to be the work of a high-level programmer or be meant for use in targeted attacks. The Linux rootkit does not appear to be a modified version of any known piece of malware and it first came to light last week when someone posted a quick description and analysis of it on the Full Disclosure mailing list. That poster said his site had been targeted by the malware and some of his customers had been redirected to malicious sites." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/11/20/1733237/new-linux-rootkit-emerges Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Two FreeBSD Project Servers Hacked
by Peter Reutemann 19 Nov '12

19 Nov '12

"The FreeBSD project has suffered a security breach. Hackers have successfully compromised servers that were part of the infrastructure used to build third-party software packages. The Security team over at the FreeBSD project is of the opinion that hackers were able to gain access to the servers using legitimate SSH keys and not by exploiting any operating system vulnerabilities. Instances of intrusion were first detected on November 11. FreeBSD project, through a message on public announcements mailing list said that the security breach hasn't affected the project's core components like kernel or system libraries but, has affected third-party software packages being distributed by the project." --source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/11/19/1649254/two-freebsd-project-servers-h… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 18 Nov '12

18 Nov '12

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Topics * Presidents Report * Treasurer Report * Election of 2013 Committee * Discussion of life-long/honorary members * Consumption of pizza

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The Release Candidate For Linux Mint 14 "Nadia" Is Out
by Peter Reutemann 11 Nov '12

11 Nov '12

"Well, the latest edition of Mint is finally here (the release candidate, anyway); according to The Linux Mint Blog, 'For the first time since Linux Mint 11, the development team was able to capitalize on upstream technology which works and fits its goals. After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience. We're very proud of MATE, Cinnamon, MDM and all the components used in this release, and we're very excited to show you how they all fit together in Linux Mint 14.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/11/11/2039229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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AGM Announcement
by Ronnie Collinson 09 Nov '12

09 Nov '12

The WLUG AGM, is coming up, on the 26th November starting at 7.30pm at MS4.G.02 (Waikato University). Pizza and drink will be provided Agenda Presidents Report. Treasurer Report. Election of 2013 Committee. Discussion of life-long/honorary members. Consumption of pizza. Hope to see you there.

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ZFS File
by mailinglist 08 Nov '12

08 Nov '12

Hello all, I was reading an article in Linux User magazine about Sabayon Linux and their use of the ZFS file system. Supposedly the file system support deduplication which I thought could be useful if manually tidying up a photograph archive. Has anyone on the list used the ZFS system or Sabayon Linux? Any recommendations or experience? Cheers, [1] http://www.linuxuser.co.uk/ [2] http://www.sabayon.org/ [3] http://zfsonlinux.org/

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Fwd: [Announcements] CrossOver for free on Wednesday, October 31
by Matthias Dallmeier 31 Oct '12

31 Oct '12

This might be of interest to some of you... -- Matthias -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Announcements] CrossOver for free on Wednesday, October 31 Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:04:04 -0500 From: CodeWeavers Forums <noreply(a)crossover.codeweavers.com> To: Matthias Dallmeier <matthias(a)dallmeier.net> CodeWeavers Announcements Post http://www.codeweavers.com/support/forums/announce/?t=24;mhl=132802#msg1328… ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FROM: Jeremy White <jwhite(a)codeweavers.com> TOPIC: CrossOver Announcements SUBJECT: CrossOver for free on Wednesday, October 31 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Folks, I am happy to announce that we will be providing a copy of CrossOver for free to all comers this Halloween, Wednesday, October 31, from 00:00 until 23:59 pm, Central Daylight Time. That's the treat - we hope you enjoy it, and we hope you spread the word to all your friends so they, too, can enjoy CrossOver goodness. The expected 'trick' is that if you're a US citizen, you should go vote next Tuesday. You can read more about it in our press release here: http://www.codeweavers.com/about/general/press/20121029/ and you can see our internal staff reaction to the news here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKiMJFvXbc Existing customers will get a free 12 month extension added to their entitlement, so they can enjoy CrossOver for 12 further months. To sign up for your free copy or free 12 month extension, simply visit this web page: http://flock.codeweavers.com any time on October 31, 2012, from 00:00 until 23:59 CDT. If you have questions about the details of this promotion, we have a FAQ page here: http://www.codeweavers.com/flockthevoteqa/ Now I've got to run, they've tracked my IP address to this coffee shop I'm hiding in... <grin> Cheers, Jeremy "Mallard" White ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This e-mail was sent to your e-mail address because you subscribed to the Announcements forum. If you do not wish to receive such e-mails in the future, click the link below to unsubscribe (login required): http://www.codeweavers.com/account/?inp=lists DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE

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EFF calls Ubuntu Shopping Lens a "major privacy problem"
by Peter Reutemann 30 Oct '12

30 Oct '12

Something new in 12.10 after all... "The EFF has criticised Canonical for its recent inclusion of the shopping lens feature in Ubuntu 12.10 and the way the company is handling data collected by the software." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1739019 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Firefox: disable zoom via Ctrl+scrollwheel
by Peter Reutemann 29 Oct '12

29 Oct '12

Hi there I know, it's not strictly Linux related, but nonetheless it has been annoying the hell outta me for years. Being a keyboard person, I quite often linger a wee bit too long on the ctrl key after closing a window with ctrl+w and already used the scrollwheel/touchpad to scroll down the other window. Unfortunately, Firefox uses ctrl and scrolling to zoom the current page, leaving you with a page with massive or tiny font. The steps to turn off this feature: - type the following in the URL edit field (and accept the warning in case that should pop up): about:config - and set the the value of the following property to 0: mousewheel.withcontrolkey.action Source: http://duntuk.com/disable-scroll-wheel-zoom-firefox Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 29 Oct '12

29 Oct '12

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * MichaelMcDonald talks about Scribus * LindsayDruett talks about XEN ---- AGM Announcement The Annual General Meeting (AGM]) will take place on http://www.wlug.org.nz/Monday 26th November ([MeetingTopics.2012-11-26)

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upcoming meeting - topics?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Oct '12

26 Oct '12

Hi everyone For the upcoming meeting on the 29th, we still need some topics. How about reviving the topics from last meeting, which didn't happen in the end: Scribus and Android? Other suggestions welcome! Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 25 Oct '12

25 Oct '12

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * MichaelMcDonald talks about Scribus * LindsayDruett talks about XEN ---- AGM Announcement The Annual General Meeting (AGM]) will take place on http://www.wlug.org.nz/Monday 26th November ([MeetingTopics.2012-11-26)

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All code on Raspberry Pi’s ARM chip now open source
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '12

25 Oct '12

"The makers of the Raspberry Pi credit card-sized computer today announced every last piece of code running on the computer’s ARM chip has been open sourced. While the computer could already run several Linux-based operating systems, not all the drivers were open source. Going fully open source prevents users from having to use drivers that are proprietary or reverse-engineered, and it should make it easier to create new Raspberry Pi-targeted OS ports." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/10/all-code-on-raspberry… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Stable Linux kernel hit by ext4 data corruption bug
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '12

25 Oct '12

"A bug introduced with version 3.6.2 of the Linux kernel can cause an ext4 filesystem to lose data if the system is rebooted twice in a short period of time. After the bug was reported, kernel developer Ted Ts'o quickly published a patch." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1736110 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu less Unity: A first look at Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '12

23 Oct '12

"For users who want GNOME 3 rather than Unity, a group of developers has now made the first GNOME 3 desktop remix of the Ubuntu Linux distribution available. Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 is based on the recent release of Ubuntu 12.10 and even uses a GNOME package management tool." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1733616 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 22 Oct '12

22 Oct '12

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * MichaelMcDonald talks about Scribus ---- AGM Announcement The Annual General Meeting (AGM]) will take place on http://www.wlug.org.nz/Monday 26th November ([MeetingTopics.2012-11-26)

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Free Ubuntu manual updated
by Peter Reutemann 22 Oct '12

22 Oct '12

'The Ubuntu Manual Team has announced that the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal version of the Ubuntu Manual, "Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10" has been published. The 143 page manual provides an introduction to Ubuntu covering topics such as how to try out a LiveCD, how to install the distribution, using the Ubuntu desktop, working with Ubuntu, managing hardware and peripherals, managing software and updates, and offering pointers for further research and reading.' http://ubuntu-manual.org/download/12.10/en_US/screen -- source: http://h-online.com/-1733212 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Avoid the pain of Windows 8.
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '12

21 Oct '12

Ubuntu 12.10 is out... http://www.ubuntu.com/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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photos from sfd?
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '12

19 Oct '12

Hi there Did anybody actually take pictures at software freedom day? With the tidypics elgg plugin in place, we could add a little photo gallery. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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new elgg site online
by Peter Reutemann 18 Oct '12

18 Oct '12

Hi everyone We've upgraded the version of elgg, powering the social networking part of wlug's website, from 1.7 to 1.8 over the last few weeks. Since the old version was hammered by spammers, we decided to take a clean slate approach and migrate only "actual" content manually. The new version has a number of anti-spam measurements in place. So hopefully we don't seem the same problem again. The upgrade means that you'll have to create a new user account, unfortunately. Have fun using it! :-) http://elgg.wlug.org.nz/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Calligra 2.6 alpha previews professional writing program
by Peter Reutemann 17 Oct '12

17 Oct '12

"The preview release of Calligra 2.6, the next major version of the open source productivity application suite, now includes "Author", a writing tool aimed at professional authors. New features have also been added to the suite's existing programs." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1730523 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OS Upgrades Powered By Git
by Peter Reutemann 09 Oct '12

09 Oct '12

"The latest Webconverger 15 release is the first Linux distribution to be automagically updatable from a Github repository. The chroot of the OS is kept natively in git's format and fuse mounted with git-fs. Webconverger fulfills the Web kiosk use case, using Firefox and competes indirectly with Google Chrome OS. Chrome OS also has an autoupdate feature, however not as powerful, unified & transparent as when simply using git." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/09/163210/os-upgrades-powered-by-git Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is tomorrow!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

There is a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting tomorrow: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university, usual meeting room for Monday meetings: MS4.G.02 Time: 10am to 4pm Agenda: If you have a Linux problem or question bring along your machine and hopefully we will be able to help you. We'll have internet access (48Mbit/s). Entry is free for visitors and club members. However, if you, as a visitor, wish to connect your computer to the internet for more than a few minutes, a fee of $4 dollars to cover internet costs would be appreciated. We will accept membership applications on the day ($20). There are no kitchen facilities within the room. Toilets will be available around the campus, a couple of bakeries not far from campus.

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MeeGo to return next month with Jolla phone launch
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

"Jolla says it will launch its "Sailfish" smartphone design, which uses the MeeGo operating system abandoned by Nokia, next month, with its own patented user interface" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1722465 Unfortunately, the GUI is patent-encumbered and won't be released as open-source. Partially thanks to the litigation war happening in the mobile space. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Workshop this Saturday
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

Hi there The bot didn't send out a reminder for this weekend's workshop, but it's happening nonetheless. There is not a fixed theme this time round, but we might start revamping the WLUG homepage. Also, if you have a Linux problem/question, you're more than welcome to stop! Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Debian 6.0.6 is available
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '12

03 Oct '12

"The latest release presents a collection of updates and security fixes that have already been rolled out to current users of the distribution. The new images are most useful for new installs of the popular Linux distribution" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1722216 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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