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Microsoft Offers Ubuntu Image with Docker Engine in Azure Marketplace
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

"Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella (seen here) made big headlines late last year when he sang the praises of open source and Linux. Reversing what was long perceived to be a hostile stance for open source, Nadella said that he "loves Linux" and also claimed that 20 percent of Microsoft's Azure cloud is already Linux-based. Furthermore, Microsoft seems to remain committed to providing support for popular Linux distributions in its public cloud offerings. Now, the company has announced Azure Marketplace's first Docker image: Docker on Ubuntu Server by Canonical and Microsoft Open Tech." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/microsoft-offers-ubuntu-image-with-docker-engine-in… 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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Fun With Fontconfig
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

Fontconfig <http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/fontconfig/> is a set of command-line utilities, as well as an API for programs to use. It allows matching of fonts by names and other characteristics, rather than having to hard-code paths to font file names, or having to embed fonts into every document. For example, you format some text in a LibreOffice document. In the GUI, you will see a popup menu of all the fonts available on your system. Having chosen a font to use and saved your document, you send a copy to a friend. But they don’t have the same font installed, so LibreOffice uses Fontconfig to find the next best available font. As another example, Web pages commonly specify fonts by names like “serif” or even “Arial” (actually the name of a Microsoft-created clone of the original “Helvetica” font). While those who really care about typography and layout will use CSS font specifications to get the exact font they want from some server, the rest of us will muddle through with the common names, and expect the Web browser to find a suitable match on the user’s local machine. The command-line utilities allow you to observe this process in action. Given a reasonably vague font name, the fc-match command will show you the exact font file that will be chosen; thus, on my system: ldo(a)theon:~> fc-match -f "%{file}\n" arial /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationSans-Regular.ttf (You will likely get a different result, depending on what fonts you have installed.) Sometimes the file names are not so explanatory: ldo(a)theon:~> fc-match -f "%{file}\n" palatino /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/p052003l.pfb in which case, the fc-query command will give you more info about what exactly is in that font file: ldo(a)theon:~> fc-query -f "%{family}\n" /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/p052003l.pfb URW Palladio L Or, you could have combined both steps into one: ldo(a)theon:~> fc-match -f "%{family} %{file}\n" palatino URW Palladio L /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/p052003l.pfb The list of what information item names you can put in those “%{...}” format specifiers is not mentioned in any of the man pages, but you can look in /usr/include/fontconfig/fontconfig.h, which is part of the libfontconfig1-dev package. Be warned, though: not all the items listed there will work with all fonts.

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SystemD Gains New Networking Features
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

"A lot of development work is happening on systemd with just the recent couple of weeks seeing over 200 commits. With the most recent work that has landed, the networkd component has been improved with new features. Among the additions are IP forwarding and masquerading support (patch). This is the minimal support needed and these settings get turned on by default for container network interfaces. Also added was minimal firewall manipulation helpers for systemd's networkd. The firewall manipulation helpers (patch) are used for establishing NAT rules. This support in systemd is provided by libiptc, the library used for communicating with the Linux kernel's Netfilter and changing iptables firewall rulesets. Those wishing to follow systemd development on a daily basis and see what is actually happening under the hood, can keep tabs via the systemd Git viewer." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/14/2030259 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 Launches Tizen Phone In India
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

"After plenty of speculation and an abort launch in Russia last year, Samsung has finally managed to release its first phone powered by the Tizen operating system. The Samsung Z1 is coming to India initially, where it is available to buy for 5,700 INR — that’s around $92 — from today. The Z1 is an affordable device, both in price and specs. It packs a four-inch WVGA PLS screen, and is powered by a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor and 768 MB RAM. There’s a 3.1-megapixel camera on the rear, and a limited VGA camera on the front. The phone runs version 2.3 of the Tizen operating system, and comes with 4GB of on-device storage which can be expanded by up to 64GB via a micro SD card. It supports dual SIMs, as is commonplace with devices in India." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/15/01/14/2023220 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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Make a Handheld Linux Terminal with a Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 14 Jan '15

14 Jan '15

"Robinson's build uses a Raspberry Pi A+, a USB hub, battery, touchscreen, charger, backlit keyboard, and a few other random parts. The whole thing is housed inside of two, 2.5-inch plastic hard drive enclosures that are connected with a piano hinge. You'll need some extra tools like a drill, a soldering iron, and some wire cutters, but otherwise Robinson's guide is pretty straight-forward. " -- source: http://lifehacker.com/make-a-handheld-linux-terminal-with-a-raspberry-pi-16… 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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What Does Using A Supercomputer Look Like?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Jan '15

14 Jan '15

This article <http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/1649635/sgi-advances-linux-hpc> is from a few years ago now, but it stuck in my mind about how running Linux on a proper supercomputer is little different from how it works on your own PC. Standard commands like “lspci” and “more /proc/cpuinfo” work exactly the same, except their output does go on a bit longer when your machine has 4096 cores, and peripheral attachments to match. And all done with a stock-standard Linux kernel: Goh was keen to mention that whatever SGI does to the Linux kernel, it does after making sure that any changes it makes will be accepted by the Linux kernel maintainers. Apparently getting the number of cores limit increased to 4,096 was something that he and his colleagues had to personally convince Linux founder Linus Torvalds to accept. According to Goh, convincing Torvalds was "tougher than designing the hardware".

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Wireless Keylogger Masquerades as USB Phone Charger
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

"Hardware hacker and security researcher Samy Kamkar has released a slick new device that masquerades as a typical USB wall charger but in fact houses a keylogger capable of recording keystrokes from nearby wireless keyboards. The device is known as KeySweeper, and Kamkar has released the source code and instructions for building one of your own. The components are inexpensive and easily available, and include an Arduino microcontroller, the charger itself, and a handful of other bits. When it's plugged into a wall socket, the KeySweeper will connect to a nearby Microsoft wireless keyboard and passively sniff, decrypt and record all of the keystrokes and send them back to the operator over the Web." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/01/13/183226 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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Ask Slashdot: Linux Database GUI Application Development?
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jan '15

13 Jan '15

"I have been developing some applications to use in small businesses using Windows and SQL Server. I would like to move on and start doing the same thing in Linux. I have looked at several Frameworks/Databases/Development environments and I really don't know what is the best/simplest/fastest to learn approach. I use VS and C# mostly, although I could easily go back to C++. I found Qt and GTK+ are the most common frameworks, but they seem to lack controls that deal with datasets and stuff (sorry, spoiled by the .net form controls), but I also know that I could use Mono in order to make the jump. I would have no problem on moving to MySQL, as I have done quite a lot of work on that side, and I would like to stick with the traditional client server application, as I find it easier to maintain, and a whole lot more robust when it comes to user interaction (web apps for POS applications don't seem to be the right way to go in my view). Any suggestions/comments/recommendations?" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/01/13/1525235 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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The 4 Best New Linux Distributions to Watch in 2015
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

"There was a time when new Linux distributions popped up on what seemed like a daily basis. They came and went so fast, you might have completely missed their short lives. That’s not so much the case these days. Linux distributions arrive a bit less frequently and, when they do finally arrive, tend to have a bit more staying power. Why is that? My guess would be that the stable of standard distributions has become so strong, it’s hard for competition to stand up to the likes of Ubuntu, Arch, Mint, Fedora, SUSE, and Debian. That doesn’t mean, however, that new distributions don’t try to take down the mighty standard bearers. In fact, there are a few distributions that could give those kings and queens of Linux a run for their money this year. Which ones, you ask? Let’s take a look at what I believe will be the distributions to watch in 2015." 1. Evolve OS 2. SparkyLinux GameOver Edition 3. Korora 4. Ozon OS -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/801303 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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Eight Security Vulnerabilities Patched by OpenSSL Project
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

"The risks they pose range from denial-of-service attacks, changing the fingerprint certificate, client authorization without verification message for a DH (Diffie-Hellman) certificate, client accepting the use of a temporary RSA or a handshake that leads to removing the forward secrecy from the ciphersuite." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Eight-Security-Vulnerabilities-Patched-By-Op… 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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