- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

SSH To Multiple Machines Simultaneously with DSH
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jul '15

01 Jul '15

"Once you grow beyond managing one or two servers, you???ll find yourself wasting a ton of time if you don't have a way to run commands on multiple Linux computers simultaneously. In this post, I'll explain how to quickly run commands on large numbers of Linux machines at once." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/upload/ssh-to-multiple-machines-simultaneously-wi… 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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Win XP lives OK!??
by Ian Young 26 Jun '15

26 Jun '15

Sorry this is utterly off-topic but couldn't resist. Stranger than fiction. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2414849/windows-xp-us-navy-throws-…

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MAC Address Privacy Standard Coming
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jun '15

26 Jun '15

Every network interface (wired or wireless) on every networked device in the world is assigned a unique 48-bit identifier—the MAC address—burned into its ROM at manufacturing time. While it’s often (usually?) possible to change this via the software driver, nobody thought of it as a big deal. Until recently, when certain, ahem, spying revelations have woken people to the privacy implications of being able to track a machine, particularly on wi-fi networks, based on its unique MAC address. And so some folks at the Internet Engineering Task Force have been doing experiments to determine whether randomly changing these addresses would cause hiccups for any network protocols. The good news is that the answer so far seems to be “no”. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/26/mac_address_privacy_inches_towards_…>

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How Long Should Microsoft Be Forced To Provide Windows XP Support?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Jun '15

26 Jun '15

Reading about how the US Navy <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/06/25/us_navy_windows_xp_support/> has signed a contract to get continuing support from Microsoft for Windows XP, led me to wonder how long is a “reasonable” interval for Microsoft to continue to provide patches and updates for this ancient OS. My reasoning is thus: Windows XP is still under copyright. Microsoft still considers it to be its “intellectual property”. The term “property” is deliberately used, to convey the idea of something owned by Microsoft, not by you, the customer. All you get when you buy it is a “licence”, not ownership. But with property rights come property responsibilities. If your property is causing harm or nuisance to others, the onus is on you to fix it. Therefore, Microsoft’s responsibilities over its “intellctual property” should continue just as long as it claims those property rights. If unmaintained Windows XP machines are being exploited as parts of botnets or spam relays or virus vectors or whatever, the onus for fixing those problems should be on the property owner, right? Under current US copyright law, that duration would be 90 years from when Windows XP was first published, or, by my reckoning, the year 2091.

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F2FS Brings Per-File Encryption With Linux 4.2
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '15

25 Jun '15

"Based on the native encryption support added to EXT4 with the Linux 4.1 kernel, Linux 4.2 is bringing encryption support to the F2FS file-system. F2FS has been working on native encryption support in tandem with the EXT4 work and now it's been called for merging today into Linux 4.2. Jaegeuk Kim sent in the F2FS feature update for Linux 4.2 and it features per-file encryption support along with new capabilities for FALLOC_FL_ZERO_RANGE (converting a range of file to zeroes), FALLOC_FL_COLLAPSE_RANGE (removes a byte range from a file), and RENAME_WHITEOUT. The Flash-Friendly File-System for Linux 4.2 also has recovery for broken super-blocks, TRIM improvements, and various fixes. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=F2FS-Encryption-Linux-4.2 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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Got Chrome? Google Just Silently Downloaded This Onto Your Computer
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jun '15

24 Jun '15

'On June 17th, Google did not announce (the news broke) that the DARPA affiliated corporation has been silently downloading audio listeners onto every computer that has Chrome. This effectively means that Google sees your privacy as piddly-squat, which does not necessarily come off as a surprise, when one considers Google’s censorship of We Are Change – this very organization as nothing. The website Private Internet Access‘s Rick Falkvinge reported how he came to understand this new policy: “It looked like just another bug report. “When I start Chromium, it downloads something.” Followed by strange status information that notably included the lines “Microphone: Yes” and “Audio Capture Allowed: Yes”. Without consent, Google’s code had downloaded a black box of code that – according to itself – had turned on the microphone and was actively listening to your room.”' -- source: http://wearechange.org/got-chrome-google-just-silently-downloaded-this-onto… Confirmed that on my box as well, when using the following URL: chrome://voicesearch/ Nice... 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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"Invite-Only" Ubuntu Mobile-Powered Meizu UX4 Goes On Sale
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jun '15

24 Jun '15

"Chinese manufacturer Meizu and Ubuntu developer Canonical have released the MX4 smartphone, but prospective owners will have to 'earn' an opportunity to buy the phone by playing an interactive origami game. Players are limited to three chances per day and this is the only way to buy the smartphone as it will no go on wider sale at a later date. The MX4 is the third Ubuntu Mobile smartphone to be released, following the BQ Aquaris E4.5 and E5 devices." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/06/24/1642213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 4.1 Kernel Released With EXT4 Encryption, Performance Improvements
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

"The Linux 4.1 kernel has been announced and its release brings expanded features for the Linux kernel including EXT4 file-system encryption, open-source GeForce GTX 750 support, performance improvements for Intel Atom / Bay Trail hardware, RAID 5/6 improvements, and other additions." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/06/22/1431243 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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Pi and BeagleBone for Dummies in library
by Ian Young 22 Jun '15

22 Jun '15

City libraries have titles in the Dummies series about the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone. Much of the material is directed at providing information on Linux for beginners, covering much the same ground in both titles. There is also a primer on Python programming. Perhaps the most interesting information deals with hardware aspects of interfacing with the boards including several small projects. In related news the latest Distrowatch Weekly has an article on using a Raspberry Pi as a server for backups in a home network.

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Resurrecting The SuperH Architecture
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jun '15

18 Jun '15

I guess this is more of an embedded thing, but ... <http://lwn.net/Articles/647636/> “He then asked what constitutes the minimal system that can run Linux. All that is really needed, he said, is a flat, 32-bit memory address space, a CPU with registers to hold instructions, some I/O and storage (from which the kernel and initramfs can be loaded), and a timer for interrupts. That plus GCC is sufficient to get Linux running—although it may not be fast, depending on the specifics. One does not even need a cache, floating-point unit, SMP, or a memory-management unit (MMU).” “The other main advantage of the J2 project is that the work for implementing SuperH support is already done in the kernel, GCC, GDB, strace, and most other system components.” “The project has thus "inherited" an excellent ISA, and has even been in contact with many of the former Hitachi employees that worked on SuperH.” “...there are many ASIC vendors who are happy to produce low-cost chips on their older equipment because the cost of retooling a plant is exorbitant. A 180nm implementation of the J2 design, he said, costs around three cents per chip, with no royalties required. "That's disposable computing at the 'free toy inside' level."” “At the end of the talk, an audience member voiced concern that SuperH was old enough that support for it is unmaintained in a lot of projects. He suggested that the J2 team might need to act quickly to stop its removal. Landley noted that, indeed, the latest buildroot release did remove SuperH support, "but we're trying to get them to put it back now."”

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The South Pole Is On NZ Time!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Jun '15

17 Jun '15

ldo(a)theon:~> ls -l /usr/share/zoneinfo/Antarctica/ ... lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 5 Apr 27 10:36 South_Pole -> ../NZ ...

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Re: [wlug] The Fate Of The Fairfield Lab
by David Nicholls 17 Jun '15

17 Jun '15

So... What exactly is the Fairfield Lab? Where is it set up? a few details to elaborate on it's background might be helpful. I know someone with teaching (primary) and tech quals who might be useful. On 15 June 2015 at 11:56, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote: > To bring up a (not entirely) unrelated subject, I was at Te Whare O Te > Ata last week, and I asked Mike Rarere what was going to happen to the > computer lab. > > It’s clear Bruce Kingsbury was instrumental in getting this lab set up > and running, and it was providing a useful service to the community. > All of which was shot completely to hell as a result of his criminality > and stupidity. > > I understood from Mike that, without somebody willing to provide > full-time support for free, as Bruce was, the lab cannot continue. This > seems a shame, but is there anything else we can do? Fundraise to pay > someone to provide support, even if only part-time? > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > -- *Cheers...David Nicholls* *Computer Support* *Faculty of Science and Engineering* *x5006, *fsen_csg(a)waikato.ac.nz

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Fwd: [NZLUG] Major Ubuntu Linux Vulnerability - all current versions
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

Apologies, if you've already received this. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mark Foster Date: Wed, Jun 17, 2015 at 11:28 AM Subject: [NZLUG] Major Ubuntu Linux Vulnerability - all current versions To: NZ Linux Users Group <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz>, aucklug(a)googlegroups.com, Wellington Linux Users Group <wellylug(a)lists.wellylug.org.nz> http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2015/q2/717 ... "allows a local root privilege escalation in the default configuration on all currently supported versions of Ubuntu. The overlayfs filesystem does not correctly check file permissions when creating new files in the upper filesystem directory. This can be exploited by an unprivileged process in kernels with CONFIG_USER_NS=y and where overlayfs has the FS_USERNS_MOUNT flag, which allows the mounting of overlayfs inside unprivileged mount namespaces. This is the default configuration of Ubuntu 12.04, 14.04, 14.10, and 15.04 [1]." This could be something requiring a bit of attention. Heads-up. There is a simple work-round if you're not using overlayfs, detailed at the above url. Mark. PS: Apol's for the cross-post. _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- 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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Linus Torvalds Says Linux Can Move On Without Him
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

'In a typically blunt interview, Linus Torvalds has said for the first time that if he were to die, Linux could safely continue on its own. Bloomberg has the report, which includes a video with Torvalds at his home office. Torvalds insists that people like Greg Kroah-Hartman have taken over huge parts of the day-to-day work maintaining Linux and that they've built up enough trust to be respected. This all comes as Torvalds has been irking more and more people with his aggressive attitude.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/06/16/1630252 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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TRIM and Linux: Tread Cautiously, and Keep Backups Handy
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

'Algolia is a buzzword-compliant ("Hosted Search API that delivers instant and relevant results") start-up that uses a lot of open-source software (including various strains of Linux) and a lot of solid-state disk, and as such sometimes runs into problems with each of these. Their blog this week features a fascinating look at troubles that they faced with ext4 filesystems mysteriously flipping to read-only mode: not such a good thing for machines processing a search index, not just dishing it out. "The NGINX daemon serving all the HTTP(S) communication of our API was up and ready to serve the search queries but the indexing process crashed. Since the indexing process is guarded by supervise, crashing in a loop would have been understandable but a complete crash was not. As it turned out the filesystem was in a read-only mode. All right, let's assume it was a cosmic ray :) The filesystem got fixed, files were restored from another healthy server and everything looked fine again. The next day another server ended with filesystem in read-only, two hours after another one and then next hour another one. Something was going on. After restoring the filesystem and the files, it was time for serious analysis since this was not a one time thing. The rest of the story explains how they isolated the problem and worked around it; it turns out that the culprit was TRIM, or rather TRIM's interaction with certain SSDs: "The system was issuing a TRIM to erase empty blocks, the command got misinterpreted by the drive and the controller erased blocks it was not supposed to. Therefore our files ended-up with 512 bytes of zeroes, files smaller than 512 bytes were completely zeroed. When we were lucky enough, the misbehaving TRIM hit the super-block of the filesystem and caused a corruption." Since SSDs are becoming the norm outside the data center as well as within, some of the problems that their analysis exposed for one company probably would be good to test for elsewhere. One upshot: "As a result, we informed our server provider about the affected SSDs and they informed the manufacturer. Our new deployments were switched to different SSD drives and we don't recommend anyone to use any SSD that is anyhow mentioned in a bad way by the Linux kernel."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/06/16/201217 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

Hi everyone We have a WLUG meeting coming up next Monday. Please note, that this is a social event taken place at The Cook and *not* at university as usual (the room wasn't available due to exams)! Details can be found here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/222855181/ 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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computer lab Te Whare O Te Ata
by Bill Rosoman 16 Jun '15

16 Jun '15

fyi I have been working many voluntary hours at Te Whare with mike for several months restoring, improving, documenting, training and assisting Mike to get things back to normal with the computers and the websites. So a lot of documentation has been happening. I do not think it is a good idea to see Mike and try and reopen the lab at this time after such an horrific experience they have been thru. They need time to see what the future holds for them. Bill Rosoman

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Re: [wlug] The Fate Of The Fairfield Lab
by William Mckee 15 Jun '15

15 Jun '15

I have the time and knowledge to open the lab. I've emailed Mike regarding this but recieved no reply. Rod has expressed interest in help running also. I'm willing to open the lab twice a week from 9-12. With more people I would love to open it from 2:30 till 5pm for primary and intermediate. It's a great resource and it makes me sad to see it closed. Cheers, William Cheers, On 15/06/2015 11:56 AM, "Lawrence D'Oliveiro" <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote: > To bring up a (not entirely) unrelated subject, I was at Te Whare O Te > Ata last week, and I asked Mike Rarere what was going to happen to the > computer lab. > > It’s clear Bruce Kingsbury was instrumental in getting this lab set up > and running, and it was providing a useful service to the community. > All of which was shot completely to hell as a result of his criminality > and stupidity. > > I understood from Mike that, without somebody willing to provide > full-time support for free, as Bruce was, the lab cannot continue. This > seems a shame, but is there anything else we can do? Fundraise to pay > someone to provide support, even if only part-time? > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >

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Ubuntu-Based REMnux 6.0 Linux Distro for Malware Analysis Officially Released
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jun '15

09 Jun '15

"The hard working developers behind the REMnux Linux distribution, an Ubuntu derivative that promises a lightweight solution for assisting malware analysis with reverse-engineering malicious software, announced the release of REMnux 6.0." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-Based-REMnux-6-0-Linux-Distro-for-Mal… 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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Microsoft To Support SSH In Windows and Contribute To OpenSSH
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jun '15

03 Jun '15

'Microsoft has announced plans for native support for SSH in Windows. "A popular request the PowerShell team has received is to use Secure Shell protocol and Shell session (aka SSH) to interoperate between Windows and Linux – both Linux connecting to and managing Windows via SSH and, vice versa, Windows connecting to and managing Linux via SSH. Thus, the combination of PowerShell and SSH will deliver a robust and secure solution to automate and to remotely manage Linux and Windows systems." Based on the work from this new direction, they also plan to contribute back to the OpenSSH project as well.' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/06/02/1950234 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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Broadcom worth 37 billion
by Ian Young 02 Jun '15

02 Jun '15

A company called Avago has paid 37 billion for Broadcom, makers of the system on a chip in the Raspberry Pi. http://www.cnet.com/news/chipmakers-avago-broadcom-join-forces-in-37b-megam… http://www.theplatform.net/2015/05/28/avago-broadcom-to-take-on-intel-in-th… Some interesting analysis http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/05/31/why-is-avago-technologies-…

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Indonesia Uses Linux, openSUSE for Pilot Project
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '15

27 May '15

"An estimated 45,000 students from a province in Indonesia have enhanced their education and computer-usage knowledge through a pilot program using Linux and openSUSEthat is expected to become a nationwide educational program. >From 2009 to 2014, the project called “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Utilization for Educational Quality Enhancement in Yogyakarta Province” used openSUSE and created material with Linux to enhance educational quality and equality inYogyakarta Province schools." -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/832417 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Should I get an Arduino or Raspberry Pi?
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '15

27 May '15

'I spend a lot of time at conferences and events like Maker Faires, and having co-authored a book on the Raspberry Pi, I spend a lot of time talking to people about things like small electronics and open hardware. Probably the most frequent question I hear is, "Should I get a Raspberry Pi or an Arduino?"' -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/should-i-get-an-arduino-or-raspberry-pi… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux/Moose Worm Targets Routers, Modems, and Embedded Systems
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '15

27 May '15

'Security firm ESET has published a report on new malware that targets Linux-based communication devices (modems, routers, and other internet-connected systems) to create a giant proxy network for manipulating social media. It's also capable of hijacking DNS settings. The people controlling the system use it for selling "follows," "likes," and so forth on social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Facebook, and Google+. Affected router manufacturers include: Actiontec, Hik Vision, Netgear, Synology, TP-Link, ZyXEL, and Zhone. The researchers found that even some medical devices were vulnerable to the worm, though it wasn't designed specifically to work with them.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/05/26/1854207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Mandriva Goes Out of Business
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '15

27 May '15

"After struggling for the past several years, Mandriva has finally gone out of business, and is in the process of being liquidated. The company was responsible for Mandriva Linux, itself a combination of Mandrake Linux and Conectiva Linux. When Mandriva fell upon hard times, many of the distro's developers migrated to Mageia Linux, which is still going strong and just putting the final touches on its next major version (5).' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/05/26/2157243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How to Develop Own Custom Linux Distribution From Scratch
by Peter Reutemann 26 May '15

26 May '15

"Have you ever thought of making your own Linux Distribution? Every Linux user in their journey to Linux thought of making their own Linux distribution, at-least once. Even I was not an exception as a newbie to Linux land and have given my considerable time developing my own Linux Distribution. Developing a Linux Distribution from scratch is called Linux From Scratch (LFS)." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/how-to-develop-own-custom-linux-distrib… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How to Install Zimbra 8.6 on Ubuntu 14.04 Server
by Peter Reutemann 26 May '15

26 May '15

"The Zimbra Collaboration Server is a mail server, collaborative web application and a web based mail server admin console in a single application. It provides LDAP, antivirus, antispam, collaboration features and a ajax webmail client. Zimbra is easy to use for administrators as well as end users due to its fast Ajax based web interface." -- source: https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/ubuntu-14-04-zimbra-server/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Debian8 Gnome3 desktop - Debian Installer problem
by Ian Stewart 26 May '15

26 May '15

Hi, At last nights wlug meeting I did a show and tell of my recent adventures with downloading and installing Debian 8 Live + non-free. I had encountered a problem with the Gnome3 desktop in that the Debian Installer application, which displays itself in full-screen mode, was not positioned correctly. As a result the Debian Installer applications "continue" and "go back" buttons are off the bottom of the display. Today I bumped into Ian Young, who provided a solution to this Gnome3 / Debian Installer problem. The workaround is to type Alt+Spacebar to open up a menu. Then select "Move to Workspace Down". The debian installer is placed into the second display workspace and in full-screen mode it is now positioned correctly so all pushbuttons may be accessed. I've tested out the Debian8 Installer on the KDE, xfce, LXDE, and Mate desktop environments and they position the Debian Installer window correctly. Also at last nights meeting I suggested the following command to copy the .iso file to a USB stick as device sdc... $ sudo dd if="debian-live-8.0.0-amd64-gnome-desktop nonfree.iso" of=/dev/sdc bs=4M; sync An alternative to this, which I tested out OK today is... $ sudo cp "debian-live-8.0.0-amd64-gnome-desktop nonfree.iso" /dev/sdc ...wishing you all the best with Debian8. cheers, Ian.

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“*ERROR* pipe is still busy with an old pageflip”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 May '15

24 May '15

I’ve been hitting an occasional display freeze that matches this description <http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-7675146.html>. Looks like a known problem with the 3.16 kernel. I thought things had got better with a system update I did 11 days ago, but this afternoon the freeze recurred. Unlike the previous times, killing all my user processes succeeded in unfreezing the display, so I was able to log in again without rebooting.

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WLUG meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 24 May '15

24 May '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting tomorrow: "git - from novice to master. Lawrence D'Oliveiro will introduce you to the distributed revision control system git, demonstrating the basic commands and also more advanced actions." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/222463816 Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I won't be able to make 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 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Glitch Art
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 May '15

22 May '15

(From the Cairo mailing list.) A version of GIMP that produces glitch art (entertaining display bugs): <https://www.flickr.com/photos/hellocatfood/17336134091> How to build glitch-GIMP: <http://www.hellocatfood.com/glitch-gimp/>.

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Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '15

22 May '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "git - from novice to master. Lawrence D'Oliveiro will introduce you to the distributed revision control system git, demonstrating the basic commands and also more advanced actions." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/222463816 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph.+64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz

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'Logjam' Vulnerability Threatens Encrypted Connections
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '15

22 May '15

'A team of security researchers has revealed a new encryption vulnerability called 'Logjam,' which is the result of a flaw in the TLS protocol used to create encrypted connections. It affects servers supporting the Diffie-Hellman key exchange, and it's caused by export restrictions mandated by the U.S. government during the Clinton administration. "Attackers with the ability to monitor the connection between an end user and a Diffie-Hellman-enabled server that supports the export cipher can inject a special payload into the traffic that downgrades encrypted connections to use extremely weak 512-bit key material. Using precomputed data prepared ahead of time, the attackers can then deduce the encryption key negotiated between the two parties." Internet Explorer is the only browser yet updated to block such an attack — patches for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari are expected soon. The researchers add, "Breaking the single, most common 1024-bit prime used by web servers would allow passive eavesdropping on connections to 18% of the Top 1 Million HTTPS domains. A second prime would allow passive decryption of connections to 66% of VPN servers and 26% of SSH servers. A close reading of published NSA leaks shows that the agency's attacks on VPNs are consistent with having achieved such a break." Here is their full technical report (PDF).' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/05/20/1258251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linux 4.0 Has a File-System Corruption Problem, RAID Users Warned
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '15

21 May '15

'For the past few days kernel developers and Linux users have been investigating an EXT4 file-system corruption issue affecting the latest stable kernel series (Linux 4.0) and the current development code (Linux 4.1). It turns out that Linux users running the EXT4 file-system on a RAID0 configuration can easily destroy their file-system with this newest "stable" kernel. The cause and fix have materialized but it hasn't yet worked its way out into the mainline kernel, thus users should be warned before quickly upgrading to the new kernel on systems with EXT4 and RAID0.' -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/05/21/1324229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

theregister.co.uk - Inkscape 0.91 review
by William Mckee 21 May '15

21 May '15

A very positive review of Inkscape 0.91 release. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/19/inkscape_review/?page=1 Most notable they talk about the speed and performance in the new release. I'm a heavy GIMP user but have been using Inkscape recently for website logos. Like the reviewer - I have been impressed with the improvements. Cheers, William.

1 0

FirefoxOS TV sets
by Ian Young 20 May '15

20 May '15

Currently available at retail outlets in Hamilton starting at $700 or so. Panasonic brand.

1 0

First Smart TVs Powered By Firefox OS On Sale In Europe, Worldwide Soon
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '15

18 May '15

'The first smart TVs powered by Firefox OS have gone on sale in Europe. Panasonic's line of Viera smart TVs includes six that are powered by Firefox OS — CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680 — including their first curved LED LCD TV. The full global launch of the TVs is expected “in the coming months.” From the Mozilla blog: "We’re happy to partner with Panasonic to bring the first Smart TVs powered by Firefox OS to the world,” said Andreas Gal, Mozilla CTO. “With Firefox and Firefox OS powered devices, users can enjoy a custom and connected Web experience and take their favorite content (apps, videos, photos, websites) across devices without being locked into one proprietary ecosystem or brand.”' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/05/18/0213238 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Venom VM bug called “perfect” for NSA, or for stealing bitcoins and passwords
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '15

13 May '15

"The just-patched critical vulnerability in widely used virtualization software is an ideal exploitation target for state-sponsored spies and criminals alike fishing for passwords, cryptography keys, or bitcoins, a researcher who has dissected one of the fixes said. The bug, which is known to affect the Xen, KVM, and native QEMU virtual machine platforms and appliances, makes it possible for attackers to break out of protected guest environments and take full control of the operating system hosting them, security researchers warned Wednesday. In the hours following Wednesday morning's disclosure of the vulnerability, many security professionals have publicly said its severity is being exaggerated. The critics have rightly pointed out that it can't be remotely exploited and can't be exploited on large numbers of machines in a single stroke, as is the case with most serious security bugs." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/05/venom-vm-bug-called-perfect-for-nsa… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Tails 1.4 released
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '15

13 May '15

'Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 1.4, has been released. The new version of the Debian-based live disc offers users a number of new features, including an updated copy of the Tor Browser and the Tor anonymity software has been upgraded to version 0.2.6.7. Tails 1.4 also ships with Paperkey, a program which allows users to print physical copies of their security keys. "Tor Browser 4.5 now has a security slider that you can use to disable browser features, such as JavaScript, as a trade-off between security and usability. The security slider is set to low by default to provide the same level of security as previous versions and the most usable experience. We disabled in Tails the new circuit view of Tor Browser 4.5 for security reasons. You can still use the network map of Vidalia to inspect your circuits. Tails OpenPGP Applet now has a shortcut to the gedit text editor, thanks to Ivan Bliminse. Paperkey lets you print a backup of your OpenPGP secret keys on paper."' -- source: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=08941 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Ubuntu Core Drone Is the First Drone That Has Apps
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '15

11 May '15

"The Erle-Copter was presented a couple of weeks ago, but now its makers have returned with more details about this amazing piece of technology. This is not the average drone you can get at your mall and that can do basically three things, fly, crash into walls, and break. It's what you might call a smart drone, and it's powered by Ubuntu core." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-Core-Drone-Is-the-First-Drone-That-Ha… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Meet Lakka, a Linux OS that Turns any PC Into a Retro Game Console
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '15

11 May '15

"Lakka is a lightweight distribution of GNU/Linux that has been designed to transform any computer into a full-blown retro game console. It is derived from the well-known OpenELEC project and built on top of the well-known RetroArch retro game emulator tool. The Lakka Linux distribution is capable of emulating a wide variety of hardware. Additionally, it includes attractive features like video streaming, joypad hotplug, and Braid-like rewinding." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/infrastructure/meet-lakka-a-linux-os-that-turns-a… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Ubuntu jumps into Internet of Things with Acer, GE, and Microsoft
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '15

11 May '15

"Old enemies are becoming new allies as technology shifts from the PC/desktop model to first mobile computing and now the Internet of Things (IoT). Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, is partnering with Acer, DataArt, and Microsoft." -- source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/ubuntu-jumps-into-internet-of-things-with-acer… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

The $9 Computer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 May '15

10 May '15

1GHz ARM processor, half-gig RAM, 4-gig flash, full-sized USB port and composite video out, for $9. Meet the CHIP, from Next Thing Co, intended as the core for a range of sub-$99 products. <http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/move-over-raspberry-p…>

1 0

Ubuntu 15.04 review: Beauty or “boring” is in the eye of the beholder
by Peter Reutemann 06 May '15

06 May '15

'Snow melts and trees blossom, but nothing really says spring around the Ars Orbital HQ like the arrival of a new version of Ubuntu Linux. Right on schedule, Canonical has recently released Ubuntu 15.04, also known as Vivid Vervet. Ubuntu 15.04 arrived in late April and has, judging by other reviews, largely underwhelmed. According to the popular storyline, there's not much new in 15.04. Of course, a slew of changes and unforeseen features in 15.04 could have just as easily earned a negative reaction, probably from the same people calling the actual release boring. The top of the Linux mountain is a lonely, criticism-strewn place. The truth is, this line of thought is partially correct. There isn't much new in 15.04, at least not in terms of visible changes to the Unity desktop. But for most users this is a good thing—change doesn't mean better. Frankly, Ubuntu 15.04's Unity desktop is mature, stable, and not really in need of many improvements. There are still some design inconsistencies (mostly GTK3 issues) and small problems here and there, but for the most part 15.04 delivers a great desktop experience. Those clamoring for big changes will have to wait. But more than likely, when those seismic shifts coming in Unity 8 arrive around this time next year, these same people will be reminiscing fondly about 15.04. Everyone will forget they once found this release "boring."' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/05/ubuntu-15-04-revie… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Google’s Dart language on Android aims for Java-free, 120 FPS apps
by Peter Reutemann 03 May '15

03 May '15

"Non-game Android apps are normally written in Java, but a group inside Google is experimenting with a whole new way of writing Android apps using Dart, Google's in-house Web development language. It's Android apps with no Java, a focus on speed, and deep integration with the Web." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/05/01/googles-dart-language-on-android-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

New Multi-Core Raspberry Pi 2 Launches
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '15

01 May '15

'Coming in at the same $35 price-point that has come to be expected from the Raspberry Pi, it looks like the new Model 2 will be packing a quad-core ARM processor with a GB of RAM. From the article: "The Raspberry Pi Foundation is likely to provoke a global geekgasm today with the surprise release of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B: a turbocharged version of the B+ boasting a new Broadcom BCM2836 900MHz quad-core system-on-chip with 1GB of RAM – all of which will drive performance "at least 6x" that of the B+."' -- source: http://build.slashdot.org/story/15/02/02/0134211 And also in the news: "Microsoft Announces Windows For Raspberry Pi 2 Microsoft is expanding their Windows Developer Program for Internet of Things by delivering a version of Windows 10 that runs on the Raspberry Pi 2. This release of Windows 10 will be free for the maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT. With an official partnership with the Raspberry Pi Foundation, Microsoft is bringing development tools, services and ecosystem to the Raspberry Pi community. More details will be shared in the coming months. You can already join the program and be amongst the first to receive product information and beta software releases." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/02/02/1326225 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 5

Spam-blasting malware infects thousands of Linux and FreeBSD servers
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

"Several thousand computers running the Linux and FreeBSD operating systems have been infected over the past seven months with sophisticated malware that surreptitiously makes them part of a renegade network blasting the Internet with spam, researchers said Wednesday. The malware likely infected many more machines during the five years it's known to have existed." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/04/30/spam-blasting-malware-infects-th… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

The Top 11 Best Linux Distros for 2015
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

"Linux is omnipresent, even if you don't realize it. I have been using Linux as my only OS since 2005 and with every passing year I come to realize that it has much more to offer than I initially, back in 2005, understood. There is something for everyone. In this article, I have picked some of the best Linux distros to help you get the job done." -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/810295 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Old Ubuntu Bug Lets Malicious Users Gain Sudo Access
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '15

30 Apr '15

"Users can change the system clock without authenticating It appears that there's a bug in Ubuntu distributions which lets malicious users locally exploit sudo and gain access to the user's account without knowing their password. The bug was submitted to Canonical's Launchpad back in September 2013 by user Mark Smith." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/An-Old-Ubuntu-Bug-Lets-Malicious-Users-Gain-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Hard Drive Failure Rates
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Apr '15

28 Apr '15

BackBlaze have been frequently posting notes on their experience with running large numbers of hard drives in their storage service. Some salient points: * “Enterprise” drives, while more expensive than “consumer” ones, are not significantly more reliable. (This has been borne out by other studies.) * Keep your drives running all the time, or switch them off when not in use? “Our vote is to keep them running.” * They do use SMART to keep an eye on their drives. Other studies I read reported that these only picked up a minority (around 30%) of failures, from which I concluded that SMART was not worth using. I suppose it’s different for these guys if it saves on costs to replace a drive *before* it actually starts reporting uncorrectable errors... <https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-stats-faq/>

3 7

meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 27 Apr '15

27 Apr '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting tomorrow: "Due to the positive feedback on Baden Delamore's demonstration of Kali back in February, there will be a follow up to, delving deeper into the world of (in-)security." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/221426689/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

Debian 8 Jessie Released
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '15

26 Apr '15

"After almost 24 months of constant development, the Debian project is proud to present its new stable version 8 (code name Jessie), which will be supported for the next five years thanks to the combined work of the Debian Security team and the Debian Long Term Support team. (Release notes.) Jessie ships with a new default init system, systemd. The systemd suite provides features such as faster boot times, cgroups for services, and the possibility of isolating part of the services. The sysvinit init system is still available in Jessie. Screenshots and ascreencast are available." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/04/26/0322241 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

The March Of (In)Security
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Apr '15

25 Apr '15

Bruce Schneier has said “Today's top-secret programs become tomorrow's PhD theses and the next day's hacker tools”. And not long after that, a graduate homework assignment. The NSA was desperate to prevent any exposure of its top-secret “QUANTUM” packet-injection technology. But all this effort was futile, because others had already invented the same thing, including China’s “Great Cannon”, which was used to attack GitHub recently. The only protection is end-to-end encryption. <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/04/the_further_dem.html>

1 0

X2Go: An Open Source Remote Desktop Solution For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

"X2Go is an Open Source remote desktop application for GNU/Linux that uses NX technology protocol. The main difference between X2Go and other remote desktop applications is it provides secure standalone remote desktop sessions via SSH. So, each session connected using X2Go is strongly encrypted and safe. X2Go allows you mainly to connect to Linux systems from Linux, Windows, or Mac OS systems. Also, many clients can simultaneously connect and use single X2Go server. It comes with two components, namely X2Go server and X2Go client. X2Go server is a system that is being accessed from a client system. And, the X2Go is a system which can be used to access the X2Go server. This Client will be able to connect to X2Go server(s) and start, stop, resume and terminate (running) desktop sessions. X2Go Client stores different server connections and may automatically request authentication data from LDAP directories. Furthermore it can be used as fullscreen loginscreen (replacement for loginmanager like xdm)." -- source: http://www.unixmen.com/x2go-an-open-source-remote-desktop-solution-for-linu… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Lubuntu 15.04 released
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

'The developers of the Lubuntu distribution have announced the availability of Lubuntu15.04. Lubuntu is built using packages from the Ubuntu repositories and features the LXDE desktop. This release of Lubuntu offers nine months of support and focuses on minor bug fixes as the development team prepares the distribution for a switch to the newer LXQt desktop environment. "New Features in Lubuntu 15.04: General bug fix release as we prepare for LXQt; Many LXDE components have been updated with bug fix releases; An update of the artwork (more icons, theme update, more compatibilities." Lubuntu is available in two editions, one edition for most desktop computers and an "Alternative" edition for computers featuring less than 400MB of RAM.' -- source: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=08906 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

8 Linux file managers to try
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

"One of the most common administrative tasks that end users and administrators alike need to perform is file management. Managing files can consume a major portion of your time. Locating files, determining which files and folders (directories) are taking the most disk space, deleting files, moving files, and simply opening files for use in an application are some of the most basic—yet frequent—tasks we do as computer users. File management programs are tools that are intended to streamline and simplify those necessary chores." -- source: http://opensource.com/business/15/4/eight-linux-file-managers My gripes with Caja (MATE's equivalent of Nautilus) is that it cannot handle lots of files in a directory. A directory containing 10s of thousands of files will bring the file browser to a stand still for several minutes. Midnight commander takes less than a second for the same directory. Krusader is pretty good as well, with 1-2 seconds. Nice thing about Krusader: both panels can have multiple tabs, making it quite versatile. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

3 3

Fedora 23 to Use Wayland and Python 3 by Default, Will Be Released in Fall 2015
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

"The Beta version of the forthcoming Fedora 22 Linux computer operating system was released on April 21, as reported by Softpedia, but it is time now to look at some of the features to be implemented in the next major release of the Red Hat-sponsored distribution, Fedora 23. Therefore, among the highlights announced for Fedora 23, we can mention that the next-generation Wayland display server will be used by default for the Workstation edition, which will most probably be built around the GNOME 3.18 desktop environment. Python 3 will also be used by default in the Workstation edition, and a Vagrant image will be provided for Fedora 23 Atomic Host and Cloud spins. The Vagrant boxes have been designed to be compatible with the Oracle VirtualBox and KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) virtualization software." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Fedora-23-to-Use-Wayland-and-Python-3-by-Def… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

2 1

Debian 8.0 “Jessie” To Be Released This Weekend
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Apr '15

23 Apr '15

Looks like the new version of Debian Stable is in imminent release... <http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-Jessie-CD-Ready>

1 0

Wi-Fi software security bug could leave Android, Windows, Linux open to attack
by Peter Reutemann 22 Apr '15

22 Apr '15

"In an e-mail today to the Open Source Software Security (oss-security) mailing list, the maintainer of wireless network client code used by Android, the Linux and BSD Unix operating systems, and Windows Wi-Fi device drivers sent an urgent fix to a flaw that could allow attackers to crash devices or even potentially inject malicious software into their memory. The flaw could allow these sorts of attacks via a malicious wireless peer-to-peer network name." -- source: http://bit.ly/1bjWGtn Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

1 0

Development Activity In LibreOffice Versus OpenOffice
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Apr '15

22 Apr '15

LWN has a comparison <http://lwn.net/Articles/637735/> of the relative health of the two main OpenOffice forks. Summary: in the last 4½ years, one project has done precisely two releases, while the other has managed over a dozen. In the last year, one has received contributions from just 16 developers, while the other has benefited from the work of around 16 times that number.

2 1

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 21 Apr '15

21 Apr '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "Due to the positive feedback on Baden Delamore's demonstration of Kali back in February, there will be a follow up to, delving deeper into the world of (in-)security." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/221426689/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

NCR Unveils Android For ATMs
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Apr '15

16 Apr '15

NCR is offering an Android-based platform for operating cash machines, called “Kalpana”. Unlike the multiple gigabytes of RAM needed to run Windows, this one only needs a fraction of a gigabyte. The company is also claiming significantly lower maintenance costs. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/15/ncr_android_atm/> However, open-source or not, I’m still not convinced the question has been fully answered: what happens to devices running older versions once the vendor drops support?

1 0

NVIDIA’s New Hardware Becoming “Open-Source-Unfriendly”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Apr '15

16 Apr '15

NVIDIA, in its desire to stop third parties making hacks to its firmware to enable higher-end features on lower-end hardware, is moving to requiring signed firmware on its newer cards. Some promises made to the Nouveau project (which is developing open-source drivers for NVIDIA cards) have yet to eventuate, leaving them unable to take advantage of features of these cards. <http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-Unfriendly-OSS-Ha…>

2 1

Controversy Over KDBUS
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Apr '15

16 Apr '15

KDBUS is the in-kernel implementation of D-BUS, which is a core interprocess communication architecture used to build the GUI in every desktop Linux system today. Putting this code in the kernel provides performance improvements, as well as fixing many limitations that cannot be overcome by userspace-only code. After quite a few years of development, it looked like KDBUS was finally ready for merging into the Linux 4.1 kernel. However, controversy has now erupted. It seems from a look at few of the comments that they are objecting, not to the implementation, but to the protocol, which cannot be changed, otherwise it is no longer a drop-in replacement for D-BUS. <http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDBUS-Taking-Heat>

1 0

Elementary OS Freya: A Complete List of Changes and New Features
by Peter Reutemann 15 Apr '15

15 Apr '15

"Based on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and uses pantheon as the main desktop environment, Elementary OS freya delivers great new features, dozen of improvements, bugfixes, better documentation, updated applications from upstream, and many other goodies that will make your desktop a delight to use every day. Here’s everything you’ll find in the stable version of Elementary OS Freya." -- source: http://ubuntuportal.com/2015/04/elementary-os-freya.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

1 0

reading files from old applications
by Ian Young 15 Apr '15

15 Apr '15

When all else fails try strings :-) Man strings. The resulting output if any could need a bit of tidying up.I have tried this on the odd older MS Word file when there was no alternative, at least gives an idea of text content. Hmmm. Having said that, I see the fine manual says ' strings is mainly useful for determining the contents of non-text files.'

1 0

The Document Liberation, one year after
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Apr '15

14 Apr '15

The Document Liberation is an offshoot of The Document Foundation (responsible for LibreOffice) to manage all the handling of proprietary/legacy document formats in a form that can be reused by other projects, not just LibreOffice. I like the name of the framework library they created: “librevenge”--the aim, of course, being to strike a blow against all the companies locking up users’ data in undocumented, proprietary formats which they then abandoned. For example, look at the support for Microsoft Works--anybody else even remember what that was? (Puts hand up.) It’s probably true to say that Open Source software now has better handling of many of these ancient formats than any current product from the companies that originally created those formats. <http://lwn.net/Articles/640198/>

2 2

Linux 4.0 released
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '15

13 Apr '15

"So I decided to release 4.0 as per the normal schedule, because there really weren't any known issues, and while I'll be traveling during the end of the upcoming week due to a college visit, I'm hoping that won't affect the merge window very much. We'll see. Linux 4.0 was a pretty small release both in linux-next and in final size, although obviously "small" is all relative. It's still over 10k non-merge commits. But we've definitely had bigger releases (and judging by linux-next v4.1 is going to be one of the bigger ones)." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/developer/linux-4.0-released.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

3 2

First Alpha of Public Sector Linux Deployment System
by Peter Reutemann 12 Apr '15

12 Apr '15

"SverigeLinux (SwedenLinux in Swedish) is a project financed by the Swedish Internet Fund that is developing a Linux deployment system for the public sector. It is based on DebianLAN and has just released its first public early alpha version. This 7 minute video shows how you can deploy up to 100 workstations with minimal Linux knowledge in under an hour, complete with DHCP, DNS and user data in LDAP, logins using Kerberos and centralized storage. The project has a home on GitHub and is looking for testers and developers. Don't worry, no Björgen Kjörgen; it's all in English." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/04/12/0354205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Firefox disables “opportunistic encryption” to fix HTTPS-crippling bug
by Peter Reutemann 08 Apr '15

08 Apr '15

'The "opportunistic encryption" feature added to Firefox last week has been disabled to fix a critical security bug that allowed malicious websites to bypass HTTPS protections, Mozilla officials said.' -- source: http://goo.gl/qP5EJj Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Git This: World's Favorite Software Development Tool Turns 10
by Peter Reutemann 07 Apr '15

07 Apr '15

'Linux today is built faster than ever before. The latest data proves it. This is due to the distributed, global community of developers, IT managers and companies contributing to it every minute of every day. This massive collaboration is made possible with similarly distributed tools, tools like Git. Linus Torvalds 10 years ago today released Git after it was clear BitKeeper was no longer an option for the Linux community. He assessed other existing revision control systems and decided none would do. Ultimately, he decided he would just write a new one, so he went away for a weekend and came back with another hole in one. Most people know Linus created Linux, but many don’t know he is the mastermind behind what has become the most popular revision control system in software development today. If you ask him which is his crowning achievement, he’ll say “do I have to have just one?”' -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/158-jim-zemlin/821847 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

New Firefox version says “might as well” to encrypting all Web traffic
by Peter Reutemann 01 Apr '15

01 Apr '15

"Developers of the Firefox browser have moved one step closer to an Internet that encrypts all the world's traffic with a new feature that can cryptographically protect connections even when servers don't support the HTTPS protocol." -- source: http://goo.gl/w7hwbR Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

VMware Being Sued For Infringing GPL
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Mar '15

28 Mar '15

As I understand it, an important part of VMware’s closed-source hypervisor depends on Linux device drivers to communicate with hardware. VMware implemented their own interface, compatible with the Linux one, in order to allow these drivers to work. However, in doing so, they appear to have copied a lot of GPL-licensed code from the actual Linux kernel. There are probably more subtleties to the lawsuit than that, but more details here: <http://lwn.net/Articles/635290/>.

1 0

RaspEX - another Linux version for Raspberry Pi
by Ian Young 25 Mar '15

25 Mar '15

That man from Sweden has now put together a Linux version for the Pi. He wants money for it however. $7 US. http://raspex.exton.se/ News 150318 I have made a perfect (as I think) Linux ARM system for Raspberry Pi 2. I call it RaspEX. It is based on Debian Jessie (upcoming Debian 8), Ubuntu Vivid Vervet (upcoming Ubuntu 15.04) and Linaro (Open Source software for ARM SoCs). Why shall I use RaspEX? Eight Operating Systems are recommended by Raspberry.org. Among them Noobs, Raspbian (Debian Wheezy) and Snappy Ubuntu Core. RaspEX is faster, more useful and more fun to use. (In my opinion). How do I install RaspEX? Just like any other Raspberry system. I.e.: Unpack the downloaded ZIP file (raspex-ubuntu-15.04-armhf-923mb-150318.zip) and transfer the IMAGE file (raspex-ubuntu-15.04-armhf-3050mb-150318.img) to your Micro SD card of at least 8GB. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Linux-Distributions/RaspEX-103737.shtml

2 1

MIPS Wants To Join In The Fun
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Mar '15

24 Mar '15

With all the huge popularity of ARM chips in mobile and embedded devices, Imagination Technologies (owner of the MIPS architecture) would like to remind us that the MIPS ecosystem shipped 800 million chips last year, making them the world’s number 2 CPU architecture. This article <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/imagination-technologies-wants-to-ta…> reviews a reference tablet design running Firefox OS. Not impressive in itself, but hopefully a forerunner of things to come? And earlier they announced their CI20 development/hobbyist board <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/mips-creator-ci20-released-interesti…>, clearly trying to take on the BeagleBoard and Raspberry π market.

1 0

Tails 1.3.1 Is an Emergency Release to Patch Critical Security Issues in Tor Browser
by Peter Reutemann 23 Mar '15

23 Mar '15

"According to the release notes, Tails 1.3.1 is an emergency release that includes Tor Browser 4.0.5, based on the patched Mozilla Firefox 31.5.3 ESR web browser, fixing critical security issues disclosed at the Pwn2Own hacking contest. Tails 1.3.1 has now transitioned to an all-new OpenPGP signing key, which is currently used to sign the official ISO images of the distribution, as well as to certify other OpenPGP keys that are used by the project. More details can be found here." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Tails-1-3-1-Is-an-Emergency-Release-to-Patch… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 22 Mar '15

22 Mar '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting tomorrow: Andrew Crosby: Raspberry Pi 2 demo, what's new, what's hot. Michael Cree: BeagleBone demo, consisting of general introduction of the BeagleBone and on using it for interfacing with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/220635633/ Cheers, Peter

1 0

Fwd: [NZLUG] Document Freedom Day
by Peter Reutemann 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

Apologies, if you've received this already. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Nicola Feltrin" <nicola.feltrin(a)fsfe.org> Date: Mar 20, 2015 9:33 PM Subject: [NZLUG] Document Freedom Day To: <nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> Cc: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dear Sirs/Madams, I'm writing to this address hoping to reach the largest possible number of New Zealand LUGs. If you feel I should contact your groups in any other way, please let me know. I'd like to bring to your attention the impending Document Freedom Day [1]. As you may know, the last Wednesday of March (this year it is the 25th), people around the world organize events to raise awareness over Open Standards, expressing how much these matter to them. If you think we should push more and more people towards the adoption of Open Standards, you could propose to organize something within your community. We support events of any size, from a chat with your friends at the local coffee house (or pub) to proper conferences. You can look at the "get involved" page [2] to get some inspiration and more detailed information. If you decide to do something, keep in mind that we offer some free [3] promotional material (posters, leaflets, flyers, stickers...) [4]. In addition we'd like to support local groups on the financial level by offering a refund for your expenses [5]. Finally, don't forget to register your event [6], so that anyone can see that Open Standards matter all around the globe. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly or the FSFE through the conventional channels [7]. Thank you for your time and best wishes for all your activities, Nicola Feltrin [1] http://documentfreedom.org/ [2] http://documentfreedom.org/getinvolved.html [3] both as in freedom and as in free beer [4] http://documentfreedom.org/promotion.html - Keep in mind that the pack has to travel from Germany to you by postal service, so be sure to order in time... [5] http://documentfreedom.org/funding-expenses.html - There was a deadline fixed at 11/3, but we can still offer refunds if needed [6] http://documentfreedom.org/registerevent.html [7] http://documentfreedom.org/contact.html - -- Nicola Feltrin Free Software Foundation Europe Schönhauser Allee 6/7, 10119 Berlin tel. +49-30-27595290, mob. +49-152-04682063 Your donation enables our work (fsfe.org/donate) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJVBuuCAAoJEDh/5ZfdTAopHWwP/iPERUsgeZYat0CBEevp76Q6 za9XM5zTpthG3mgRxC7tybcsxkINA+iNF0e/JHS4Ricmj7fqOGxOGLt8wSIW0Vsv +QznECV91L+5YTHQuHnmtTu/3b7lyUOHB3KJRfcPzwuiasZrlMibfMJD5u9wi9sq NfpfQNd0br3QbHvhuaLjtQlxwTjeJSDlJslCxgHi5MLHjQqkxL7tKBZ74f4xgLTA Qg4ryQvI3u09mA2gqhMpybxT2qpGXsVwO+e8q5YgILhYmrrNb7fRW2Y3uG5OVwP8 3BcJwOkGZWZ2Pg0DWpAvPGR5WRSfa9HpM+c8+fIzklroSqehJ5R6yzVFRipYl4+g QoYsIrXMHxSUxs/mucaYPaD5LfdmBVj6nHZ0sIfSFFCA8Vv7pZ7aM6DcybWOb+go pKImh3yfn67X5EsQEQAlEFPq0M7wlF3cwz72QKHe3Epju38KsCjdjDrQbYjigQ9B o8KYnZBLqFEbeEi4f6s+zS1/MIyaoQ0SB4dWtUoWR9pzFJ4Nrb7daNlASo6+tg7W k4Eyk6cej5AjP+nkbV2qGSv7+W/oLavvTzln7Pe9yVn9KEFjoNvRULMwrwgjFs9M C0O4IjQOawHG43md868QZGxKx4WgY8Ys6GJ2tchCNsp8c2oozdfY+gY3o8KULzdC 8GtOlviTzgym8SXEKIJp =GOiP -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug

1 0

Discarding data to /dev/random instead of /dev/null
by Eric Light 20 Mar '15

20 Mar '15

I just happened across this article, recommending that discardable output be redirected to /dev/random instead of just thrown into /dev/null https://pthree.org/2014/12/07/use-dev-random-instead-of-dev-null/ Looks interesting - keen to hear other thoughts. Eric -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es

4 6

Dell Linux Laptop With 4K Screen
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Mar '15

18 Mar '15

For US$100 less than the Windows version, you can get the Dell M3800 Developer Edition “workstation” laptop with Ubuntu 14.04. The desktop works nicely on the 3840×2160 15.6” screen, but app support is a bit mixed <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/03/review-dell-m3800-developer-edition-…>.

1 0

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 16 Mar '15

16 Mar '15

Hi everyone We have a meeting next Monday: Andrew Crosby: Raspberry Pi 2 demo, what's new, what's hot. Michael Cree: BeagleBone demo, consisting of general introduction of the BeagleBone and on using it for interfacing with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/220635633/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Silicon Graphics workstation
by David Nicholls 15 Mar '15

15 Mar '15

I happen to have a silicone graphics irix indego workstation still in working order as far as I know if anyone wants it. I've had it for some time but never had a chance to play as I intended. I have the O/S disk and other bits let me know if you are interested.

3 2

Android for tweakers, USB-C
by Ian Young 14 Mar '15

14 Mar '15

Someone on the internet said, "The advantage of Android is that you are free to tweak everything to your liking. The disadvantage is that you have to." There was some sort of comparison with the Apple enclosed garden going on. Experiments with the v5 Android live CD from exton continue. Seems picky about hardware, more so than the Kitkat from android-x86 project. Meanwhile the release of a new Apple lightweight laptop reveals the existence of USB-C. Say what? http://www.wired.com/2015/03/usb-type-c-faq/ Coming to a device near you soon now apparently. Oh dear, so hard to keep up.

2 1

Google to close Google Code open source project hosting
by Peter Reutemann 13 Mar '15

13 Mar '15

"Google Code is to join the long list of Google projects that have been consigned to the dustbin of history. The open source project hosting service will no longer be accepting new project submissionsas of today, will no longer be accepting updates to existing projects from August 24, and will be closed entirely on January 25, 2016." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/03/google-to-close-googl… Well, there goes another free service... Now I have to move my remaining projects over to github. Grr... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

4 10

OpenSSL To Undergo Massive Security Audit
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '15

12 Mar '15

"Now that its codebase is finally viewed as stable, OpenSSL is getting a good top-to-bottom once-over in the form of a sweeping audit. As part of the Linux Foundation's Core Infrastructure Initiative, the foundation and the Open Crypto Audit Project are sponsoring and organizing what may arguably be the highest-profile audit of a piece of open-source software in history. The audit itself will be conducted by the information assurance organization NCC Group, and its security research arm, Cryptography Services, will carry out the code review of OpenSSL's 447,247 line codebase over the next several months." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/03/12/1928259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Linux Kernel Adopts 'Code of Conflict'
by Peter Reutemann 11 Mar '15

11 Mar '15

'Motor was one of several readers to note that a small patch recently added to the Linux kernel contains guidelines for discourse and dispute resolution within the community. It's called the "Code of Conflict."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/10/237257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Cutting-edge hack gives super user status by exploiting DRAM weakness
by Peter Reutemann 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

"In one of more impressive hacks in recent memory, researchers have devised an attack that exploits physical weaknesses in certain types of DDR memory chips to elevate the system rights of untrusted users of Intel-compatible PCs running Linux." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/03/cutting-edge-hack-gives-super-user-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

How to create a full backup of your Android device without root
by Peter Reutemann 10 Mar '15

10 Mar '15

"Sometimes, a backup of a smartphone or tablet just isn't enough, especially if you have a number of (the same) devices that have to be quickly deployed (or redeployed). For that, you need a bit more power than Titanium Backup or Google Drive. If you want to do full-blown backup of devices, you must turn to the Android Software Developer Kit (SDK). With this powerhouse tool, you can easily create a complete backup of a device with a single command." -- source: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-create-a-full-backup-of-your-and… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Android v5 live CD version from Sweden
by Ian Young 08 Mar '15

08 Mar '15

A live CD of Android 5.0.2 by a gentleman named Arne Exton who seems to have a passion for running up pimped out versions of sundry distros. Looks like he also plays golf. Not yet run by me. Arne's work sometimes has quirks, he is a one man band afaik and comes up with something new at least fortnightly. AndEX (Android) x86 5.0.2 Lollipop Live CD with kernel 3.10.58-exton-android-x86 :: Free Download https://extonlinux.wordpress.com/ -- currently at top of this page. http://andex.exton.net/?page_id=13

1 0

You Thought PC Security Was Bad...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Mar '15

06 Mar '15

To those still reeling from Baden’s presentation on cracking PC security, there’s worse to come. At least PC OSes do get some patching. But think of all the other devices around your home which have the core of a computer running something resembling an operating system on them which might be many years out of date (even on a newer device!). But the vendor can’t be bothered to provide fixes for any security holes which may be discovered. And even if they did, most of the buyers of these devices wouldn’t even know patches were available. Case in point: wireless routers, which are so full of unpatched holes that it’s actually unusual to find a reasonably secure one <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/03/05/broadband_routers_sohopeless_and_ve…>.

1 0

Red Hat Strips Down For Docker
by Peter Reutemann 06 Mar '15

06 Mar '15

"Reacting to the surging popularity of the Docker virtualization technology, Red Hat has customized a version of its Linux distribution to run Docker containers. The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host strips away all the utilities residing in the stock distribution of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that aren't needed to run Docker containers. Removing unneeded components saves on storage space, and reduces the time needed for updating and booting up. It also provides fewer potential entry points for attackers." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/03/05/2240245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Software Freedom Conservancy Funds GPL Suit Against VMWare
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '15

05 Mar '15

"Jeremy Allison - Sam writes with this excerpt from a news release from the Software Freedom Conservancy: Software Freedom Conservancy announces today Christoph Hellwig's lawsuit against VMware in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany. This is the regretful but necessary next step in both Hellwig and Conservancy's ongoing effort to convince VMware to comply properly with the terms of the GPLv2, the license of Linux and many other Open Source and Free Software included in VMware's ESXi products. Serge Wroclawski points out the SFC's technical FAQ about the suit. One nugget: This case is specifically regarding a combined work that VMware allegedly created by combining their own code (“vmkernel”) with portions of Linux's code, which was licensed only under GPLv2. As such, this, to our knowledge, marks the first time an enforcement case is exclusively focused on this type of legal question relating to GPL" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/05/1721231 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

3 3

Pulling Remote Word Documents from RAM using Kali Linux
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '15

05 Mar '15

With the Kali demo at last month's meeting in mind, I just came across this post here and I thought people might be interested in this: "In this tutorial we will see how to pull a Word document from a remote machine’s memory, parse it for text and view it in Kali Linux." -- sources: http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/pulling-remote-word-documents-from-ram-u… https://cyberarms.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/pulling-remote-word-documents-fr… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

FREAK Attack Threatens SSL Clients
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '15

04 Mar '15

"For the nth time in the last couple of years, security experts are warning about a new Internet-scale vulnerability, this time in some popular SSL clients. The flaw allows an attacker to force clients to downgrade to weakened ciphers and break their supposedly encrypted communications through a man-in-the-middle attack. Researchers recently discovered that some SSL clients, including OpenSSL, will accept weak RSA keys–known as export-grade keys–without asking for those keys. Export-grade refers to 512-bit RSA keys, the key strength that was approved by the United States government for export overseas. This was an artifact from decades ago and it was thought that most servers and clients had long ago abandoned such weak ciphers. The vulnerability affects a variety of clients, most notably Apple's Safari browser." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/03/03/2036241 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

Linux and Multiple Internet Uplinks: a New Tool
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '15

04 Mar '15

"Linux has been able do multipath routing for a long time: it means being able to have routes with multiple gateways and to use them in a (weighted) round-robin fashion. But Linux is missing a tool to actively monitor the state of internet uplinks and change the routing accordingly. Without it, from a LAN perspective, it's like having a RAID-0: just one uplink goes down and all of your LAN-to-WAN traffic goes down too. Documentation and examples on the subject are lacking; existing solutions are few and deeply integrated in firewall/routing specific distributions. To address these issues, a new standalone tool was just released: Fault Tolerant Router. It also includes a complete (iptables + ip policy routing) configuration generator." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/03/1910206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

A Tale Of Two Standards
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Mar '15

03 Mar '15

Came across this article from a decade ago <https://www.samba.org/samba/news/articles/low_point/tale_two_stds_os2.html> about the evolution of the POSIX and Win32 standards from the viewpoint of a veteran who earned his scars in the trenches. While POSIX got one or two things spectacularly wrong (e.g. the disaster that is file locking), it got a lot of things right (e.g. abstracting data types for file offsets/sizes, timestamps etc). Wonder why WINE has taken so long to get to where it is? It’s because nobody can be quite sure they have flushed out every last wrinkle of the behaviour of every Win32 API call.

1 0

Xfce 4.12 Released
by Peter Reutemann 01 Mar '15

01 Mar '15

"After two years of hard work (and much to the dismay of naysayers who worried the project has been abandoned), the Xfce team has announced the release of Xfce 4.12. Highlights include improvements to the window switcher dialog, intelligent hiding of the panel, new wallpaper settings, better multi-monitor support, improved power settings, additions to the file manager, and a revamped task manager. Here is a quick tour, the full changelog, and the download page. I have been running it since Xubuntu 15.04 beta 1 was released two days ago. It is much improved over 4.10, and the new additions are great." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/03/01/0558259 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Android-x86 -- the story continues
by Ian Young 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

Who knew? Android doesn't play nicely with a 2nd display. However investigation continues. Some say the internal display should be turned off, before the outside screen will go. Watch this space. Meanwhile some may like to read an interview with English as not the primary language featuring Chih-Wei Huang, main man of Android-x86. Snip > Why Android-x86? Runs on PC(x86). Original Android runs on ARM. Android - Teoreticaly could run on every present and future device, PS4 and Xbox one included (in pure theory). Is everytime better develop for only one OS (even with some platform differences), that for bunch of them. Mac OS or iOS are too closed and fixed on Apple device and its unlikely to change it. Linux market is realy fragmented and its development is relatively slow. Android - is without doubt OS with faster development speed and it counts. Android is open and free. Today, when i can buy good living room pc for 200$ i realy dont wan to pay next 100 bucks to Microsoft for crippled OEM licence, or 200$ for retail (HW independed licence) .... > How many of users know you think that tried Android-x86, at least through live distro and how many installed it into physical computer? Do you have some stats about usage? I don't have the stats and I don't really care about that. Just checked. The 4.4-RC1 release has 584,441 downloads and the 4.3-test release has 1,365,182 downloads. > Are you in contact with Google? Do you know why Google isn't developing Android-x86 for desktops itself? Is affair of Microsoft or something else? ChromeOS looks like duplicity. I have no official contact window of Google. But I have many friends in Google including the android team. I'll also contact Google android engineers directly for issues clarification or patches submission. I don't know Google's plan. But as you said, ChromeOS is probably the right one for its desktop roadmap. This is a common guess. < stop snipping http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RuthanielVandenNaar/20140612/219170/Current_…

1 0

Debian’s Reproducible Binary Project Reaches 83% Mark
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

For a while now, Debian has been running a project to try to allow anyone to independently confirm that a particular Debian package was indeed built from a particular set of sources, by being able to reproduce the exact build steps themselves. (The security rationale for wanting to do so should be obvious.) As you can imagine, this is seriously non-trivial to achieve, since the least little difference in the version of your compilers or libraries can cause the binaries to differ, maybe not in any important way, but the idea is to end up with no differences at all. The Register has a report on the status of the project here <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/23/debian_project/>. More background here <https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/02/msg00007.html>.

1 0

Linus Torvalds Debuts First Linux 4 Release Candidate
by Paul Wilson 24 Feb '15

24 Feb '15

"The Linux 3.x kernel family is no more. Long Live Linux 4! The Linux 3.x kernel family first officially debuted <http://www.datamation.com/open-source/linux-3.0-debuts-with-xen-integration…>on July 22, 2011. Linux 3.0 was the first major version change for Linux since the 2.6 kernel debuted in December of 2003. While Linux 2.6 was a major milestone that signified a break with the past, Linux 3.0 really was just the renumbered Linux 2.6.40 kernel. In the same manner the Linux 4.0 kernel is the continuation of Linux 3.x and is the renamed Linux 3.20."

1 0

How I upgraded my garden’s ugly drip system with a sexy OpenSprinkler
by Peter Reutemann 23 Feb '15

23 Feb '15

"After a few hours of work alongside an electrical engineering buddy this week, my home garden drip system became powered by a Raspberry Pi. I can control the entire thing locally from my iPhone and, to be frank, it’s pretty flippin’ cool." -- source: http://goo.gl/sDPGsr Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

“SSL hijacker” behind Superfish debacle imperils large number of users
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '15

21 Feb '15

I know, this is not strictly Linux related, but scary nonetheless and worthy of sharing, IMHO: "Thursday's revelations that Lenovo PCs ship with adware that intercepts sensitive HTTPS-protected traffic have focused intense scrutiny on Superfish, the company that markets the intrusive software. But lost in the furor is the central role a company called Komodia plays in needlessly exposing the passwords and other sensitive data of not just Lenovo customers but also a much larger base of PC users." -- source: http://goo.gl/KhA4KT Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Empire of the Gates
by Ian Young 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

Better snap back to reality. On Arstechnica I see the following data as of 11/2014. OS share worldwide -- Windows allsorts 91.28%, OS X 7.27, all others [weeps] 1.45. Windows breakdown XP 13.57%, Vista 2.65, Win 7 56.41, Win 8 6.55, Win 8.1 12.1. http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/you-can-offer-people-windows-10-for-… All hail his Billness. Though the figures for systems other than desktops must show a different story, and in phone and tablet world Windows is pretty well a joke apart from some misguided corporate purchases. (I stand to be corrected on that). Meanwhile back in the day, I had GEOS installed and it was passable. Even ran it within OS/2, freaky or what? Speaking of OS/2 last time I looked there were still some zealots keeping it working after a fashion. -quote- Unfortunately, OS/2 had a crucial flaw in its design: a Synchronous Input Queue (SIQ). What this meant was that all messages to the GUI window server went through a single tollbooth. If any OS/2 native GUI app ever stopped servicing its window messages, the entire GUI would get stuck and the system froze. OK, technically the operating system was still running. Background tasks continued to execute just fine. You just couldn’t see them or interact with them or do anything, because the entire GUI was hung. Some enterprising OS/2 fan wrote an application that polled the joystick port and was supposed to unstick things when the user pressed a button. It rarely worked. Ironically, if you never ran native OS/2 applications and just ran DOS and Windows apps in a VM, the operating system was much more stable. -quote- http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/half-an-operating-system-the-triump… And now we return to our normal programme and wonder whether Linux v4 is soon to arrive. 19 million lines in the kernel and counting. http://linuxgizmos.com/is-linux-heading-toward-the-big-4-0/

2 1

Raspberry π 2 Ships Half Million In First Two Weeks
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '15

20 Feb '15

The next-generation Raspberry π seems to be doing rather well right out of the starting gate <http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2395948/raspberry-pi-2-sales-top-5…>. Meantime, while total sales of both old- and new-generation π models have wildly exceeded expectations, there is some dispute over the Foundation’s claim that it has become the best-selling British PC maker ever <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/18/raspberry_pi_5_million_sold/>.

5 14

A History Of Photoshop
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Quite a few articles around to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Photoshop 1.0, but this one at The Register <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/19/feature_25_years_of_adobe_photoshop/> seems to offer the most background detail. And some nice (or not-so-nice) examples of its use...

2 1

Microsoft's First Azure Hosted Service Is Powered By Linux
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

"Canonical, through John Zannos, VP Cloud Alliances, has proudly announced that the first ever Microsoft Azure hosted service will be powered by Ubuntu Linux. This piece of news comes from the Strata + Hadoop World Conference, which takes place this week in California. The fact of the matter is that the news came from Microsoft who announced the preview of Azure HDInsight (an Apache Hadoop-based hosted service) on Ubuntu clusters yesterday at the said event. This is definitely great news for Canonical, as their operating system is getting recognized for being extremely reliable when handling Big Data. Ubuntu is now the leading cloud and scale-out Linux-based operating system." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/02/19/1830232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Arduino Ructions
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Seems like the Arduino founders have split to go their separate ways <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150217/10345530055/is-arduino-heading-t…>. The unfortunate thing is that there are now lawsuits to try to decide who has exclusive rights to the “Arduino” name. Whatever happens, it seems likely there will continue to be more than one company making products that are “Arduino” in every way, if not in name. This is nothing new in open-source software, though it may be a first for open-source hardware.

1 0

Seymour Cray’s Only Surviving Talk
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Seymour Cray, who was practically “Mister Supercomputer” through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, gives a talk at Los Alamos discussing the pending introduction of the legendary Cray-1 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtOA1vuoDgQ>. The date given in the title is 1976, but he repeatedly makes remarks in the talk that point to the year actually being 1974. He says the new machine will be installed at LANL the following year (actually it went in in 1976).

1 0

How to rool the world by Bill G
by Ian Young 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

Become the main supplier of an OS for PCs while IBM snoozes, replete with profits from existing business. Adopt the 386 processor while IBM messes about with the 286 perhaps because of sunk investment in that CPU. Make deals with the hardware makers they can't refuse and shut out any competition. Introduce the first GUI to become widely used on the machines soon to become predominant in desktop computing. Leave the superior OS/2 in the dust, and get IBM to sell Windows. Excel. Actually first came to fame on the Mac iirc, and rapidly drove out just about all other spreadsheets in its Windows guise. On its coattails came all the other applications we know today as MS Office, effectively wiping out all competitors. Get networking in the box with Windows and crush Netware and eventually Novell with it. And so it went until perhaps MS became like IBM in the 1980s and failed to see the next big thing on several occasions, or at least failed to achieve the same level of dominance as in the past in new fields. 2 cents is the suggested donation, I'll pass the hat around.

2 1

Re: [wlug] PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Chris O'Halloran 19 Feb '15

19 Feb '15

On Tue, 17 Feb 2015 21:40:02 +1300, Peter Reutemann wrote: > 'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a > serious > -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 > > NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a > flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS > (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? > > Cheers, Peter Perhaps people have to consider why they use Linux on the desktop at all (and why others than don't at present would). I think its people with a technical interest that use Linux on the desktop, either because they are familiar with it on servers, are passionate about the 'freeness' of it or the ease (including cost) with which they can set up a development environment. I think the big players like Apple and Microsoft would have to make some serious stuff-ups for the rest of population to go through the hassle of switching OSes on their current desktops. While many of the FOSS applications (GIMP/LibreOffice/Firefox) run just fine on Windows (and possible Mac too I don't know), they also reduce the imperative to shift entirely to Linux or BSD. And the only thing I see that really could shift the corporate environment is a server based Office(Document/Spreadsheet/Mail) solution that was so compelling, that eventually system administrators started to wonder if there was any point in sticking exclusively to an MS Desktop. Cloud computing, Smart TVs and the advent of Android and iPhone have certainly helped computer *users* become more comfortable with alternative OS and user interfaces. -- Chris

2 1

FreeBSD-Current Random Number Generator Broken
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

'The FreeBSD random number has been discovered to be generating possibly predictable SSH keys and SSL certificates for months. Time to regenerate your keys and certs if using FreeBSD-Current. A message to the freebsd-current mailing list reads in part: "If you are running a current kernel r273872 or later, please upgrade your kernel to r278907 or later immediately and regenerate keys. I discovered an issue where the new framework code was not calling randomdev_init_reader, which means that read_random(9) was not returning good random data. read_random(9) is used by arc4random(9) which is the primary method that arc4random(3) is seeded from."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/18/2026258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

Google Chrome Will Adopt HTTP/2 In the Coming Weeks, Drop SPDY Support
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

''Google today announced it will add HTTP/2, the second major version of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), to Google Chrome. The company plans to gradually roll out support to the latest version of its browser, Chrome 40, "in the upcoming weeks." At the same time, Google says it will remove support for SPDY in early 2016. SPDY, which is not an acronym but just a short version for the word "speedy," is a protocol developed primarily at Google to improve browsing by forcing SSL encryption for all sites and speeding up page loads. Chrome will also lose support for the TLS extension NPN in favor of ALPN. -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/2320244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

PC-BSD - ubiquitous in world of future - or not
by Ian Young 18 Feb '15

18 Feb '15

Some years ago I had a brief dabble with PC-BSD. It was brief because every time I attempted to boot a live DVD the system would fail to boot or run only for a few minutes before crashing. The same equipment had no trouble with various Linux distros. That was then of course and the project continues to exist so presumably some people have managed to run it. However I will stick my neck out and say that imho PC-BSD is a most unlikely candidate for world domination .... Any one seen it in action? I think when I tried it there were issues like limited support for USB, and driver support still lags behind Linux.

2 1

next meeting of lug topics
by Ian Young 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

Saw some mention of Kali distro as a topic at next meeting. Not sure where this has gone, but no problem for me sharing the time as required. Will stick with the Android x-86 idea, and maybe dispense with Puppy developments if need be. In latest news the live CD of Android I downloaded boots on a Compaq laptop and appears somewhat usable on that machine.

3 2

PC-BSD: Set For Serious Growth?
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

'Luke Wolf, a KDE developer, argues that PC-BSD might become a serious desktop OS contender by year 2020, since Linux so far has failed to grasp any serious market share. He writes, "Consider this: In the past 10 years has the distribution you run changed significantly in what it offers over other distributions? I think you'll find the answer is largely no. I do have to give a shout out to openSUSE for the OBS, but otherwise I've used my desktop in the same exact way that I have always used it within the continuity of distribution X,Y, or Z since I started using them. Distributions simply aren't focused on desktop features, they're leaving it up to the DEs to do so." He continues, "PC-BSD on the other hand in fitting with the BSD mindset of holistic solutions is focused on developing desktop features and is moving rapidly to implement them." What do you think?' -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/15/02/16/2355236 NB: Mentioning "Linux + Year of the Desktop" is always bait for a flamewar. But... Did anyone ever use PC-BSD as their primary OS (work/home)? Willing to share some insight? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

End of the m0n0wall project
by Peter Reutemann 17 Feb '15

17 Feb '15

"m0n0wall has served as the seed for several other well known open source projects, like pfSense, FreeNAS and AskoziaPBX. The newest offspring, OPNsense (https://opnsense.org) aims to continue the open source spirit of m0n0wall while updating the technology to be ready for the future. In my view, it is the perfect way to bring the m0n0wall idea into 2015, and I encourage all current m0n0wall users to check out OPNsense and contribute if they can." -- source: http://www.linuxtoday.com/security/end-of-the-m0n0wall-project.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

1 0

Will The Next Linux Kernel Be Called 4.0?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

Apparently Linus Torvalds is running a poll <http://lwn.net/Articles/633231/> to decide whether to continue with the 3.xx version numbering or start from 4.0.

1 0

Fwd: Re: Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
by Chris O'Halloran 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:16:44 +1300, Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> wrote: >> I just downloaded and built it from source. To those accustomed to I'm using it on Windows8 machine at work. I like the pdf export to latex option. It periodically crashes but still very useable - just not as stable as the previous 'stable' version. Cheers all

1 0

Fwd: Re: Removing Libsystemd0 From a Live-running Debian System
by Chris O'Halloran 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

On Mon, 16 Feb 2015 13:52:45 +1300, Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote: > > To those who may not understand the background to this, systemd is a > project, headed by Lennart “PulseAudio” Poettering, to modernize the Thanks for that Lawrence.

1 0

Inkscape Version 0.91 Released
by Peter Reutemann 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

"Four years since the last major Inkscape release, now news is out about version 0.91 of this powerful vector drawing and painting tool. The main reason for the multi-year delay is that they've switched from their old custom rendering engine to using Cairo now, improving their support for open source standards. This release also adds symbol libraries and support for Visio stencils, cross platform WMF and EMF import and export, a native Windows 64-bit build, scads of bug fixes, and much more. Check out the full release notes for more information about what has changed, or just jump right todownloading your package for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/31/1914255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 3

Removing Libsystemd0 From a Live-running Debian System
by Peter Reutemann 16 Feb '15

16 Feb '15

"The introduction of systemd has unilaterally created a polarization of the GNU/Linux community that is remarkably similar to the monopolistic power position wielded by Microsoft in the late 1990s. Choices were stark: use Windows (with SMB/CIFS Services), or use UNIX (with NFS and NIS). Only the introduction of fully-compatible reverse-engineered NT Domains services corrected the situation. Instructions on how to remove systemd include dire warnings that "all dependent packages will be removed", rendering a normal Debian Desktop system flat-out impossible to achieve. It was therefore necessary to demonstrate that it is actually possible to run a Debian Desktop GUI system (albeit an unusual one: fvwm) with libsystemd0 removed. The reason for doing so: it doesn't matter how good systemd is believed to be or in fact actually is: the reason for removing it is, apart from the alarm at how extensive systemd is becoming (including interfering with firewall rules), it's the way that it's been introduced in a blatantly cavalier fashion as a polarized all-or-nothing option, forcing people to consider abandoning the GNU/Linux of their choice and to seriously consider using FreeBSD or any other distro that properly respects the Software Freedom principle of the right to choose what software to run. We aren't all "good at coding", or paid to work on Software Libre: that means that those people who are need to be much more responsible, and to start — finally — to listen to what people are saying. Developing a thick skin is a good way to abdicate responsibility and, as a result, place people into untenable positions." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/15/1959209 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 2

Live Patching Now Available For Linux
by Peter Reutemann 13 Feb '15

13 Feb '15

'It provides a basic infrastructure for function "live patching" (i.e. code redirection), including API for kernel modules containing the actual patches, and API/ABI for userspace to be able to operate on the patches (look up what patches are applied, enable/disable them, etc). It's relatively simple and minimalistic, as it's making use of existing kernel infrastructure (namely ftrace) as much as possible. It's also self-contained, in a sense that it doesn't hook itself in any other kernel subsystem (it doesn't even touch any other code). It's now implemented for x86 only as a reference architecture, but support for powerpc, s390 and arm is already in the works (adding arch-specific support basically boils down to teaching ftrace about regs-saving).' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/02/12/1853215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Upcoming features of Fedora 22
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

New features to be included in Fedora 22 release currently scheduled for around May 2015 http://news.softpedia.com/news/Upcoming-Features-of-Fedora-22-472955.shtml Regards Paul Wilson

1 0

Re: [wlug] Kali Linux 1.1.0 Released
by Eric Light 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

That sounds awesome, I'd personally LOVE to hear more on that. Peter, Ian, does that suit you guys? Ryan - The next wlug meeting is Monday, February 23, 7:30 PM, in MS4.G.02. Can Baden make it? *excite* Thanks Eric. Yup we do use some of the tools from time to time. If you are interested, we can arrange for my grad student Baden to talk about (and demo) some of the tools. Only catch is that he is busy with his thesis writing now - due next week. Ryan On 12 Feb 2015 15:44, "Eric Light" <eric(a)ericlight.com> wrote: > I'm definitely not suitable - I have *no idea* what I'm doing. > > Let me check with Ryan and see if there's anyone doing the Masters of > Cybersecurity who would be interested though... > > Ryan? We're just a small group of geeks, but if any of your guys use > Kali, it would be awesome to have a quick demo :) > > Eric > > -------------------------------------------- > Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? > A: http://five.sentenc.es > > > On Thu, Feb 12, 2015 at 10:56 AM, Peter Reutemann <fracpete(a)waikato.ac.nz> > wrote: > >> > ... No, really, it looks like there's a lot of new stuff in the 1.1 >> version. >> > I'm experimenting with it here in my "free time". >> >> Ian Young volunteered to present some distros at the next meeting (Feb >> 23). Do you or Paul feel like demoing Kali? >> >> Cheers, Peter >> -- >> Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ >> http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174 >> _______________________________________________ >> wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz >> Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug >> > >

2 1

Owncloud 8 Released
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

"ownCloud <https://owncloud.org/>, a free software alternative to proprietary web services such as Dropbox, Google Drive and others that you can install on your own server, has reached version 8.0.0." "http://www.webupd8.org/2015/02/owncloud-8-server-released-with.html" I Have been running v7 on Fedora 21 Server for about 8 weeks works great, this is a really nice solution if you are looking at running your own cloud and don't want to dive into openstack. Regards Paul Wilson

1 0

Kali Linux 1.1.0 Released
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

"After almost two years of public development (and another year behind the scenes), we are proud to announce our first point release of Kali Linux - version 1.1.0. This release brings with it a mix of unprecedented hardware support as well as rock-solid stability. For us, this is a real milestone as this release epitomizes the benefits of our move from BackTrack to Kali Linux over two years ago." http://www.linuxscreenshots.org/?release=Kali%20Linux%201.1.0 For all those "Security Testers" out there this could be interesting.... Regards Paul Wilson

4 4

Firefox To Mandate Extension Signing
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

'In a recent blog post, Mozilla announced its intention to require extensions to be signed in Firefox, without any possible user override. From the post: "For developers hosting their add-ons on AMO, this means that they will have to either test on Developer Edition, Nightly, or one of the unbranded builds. The rest of the submission and review process will remain unchanged, except that extensions will be automatically signed once they pass review. For other developers, this is a larger change. For testing development versions, they’ll have the same options available as AMO add-on developers. For release versions, however, we’re introducing the required step of uploading the extension file to AMO for signing. For most cases, this step will be automatic, but in cases where the extension doesn’t pass these tests, there will be the option to request a manual code review."' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/11/210247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Show your love for Free Software
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

'Every year on 14th February, the Free Software Foundation Europe asks all Free Software users to think about the hard-working people in the Free Software community and to show them their appreciation individually on this "I love Free Software"-Day. Like last year the campaign is dedicated to the people behind Free Software because they enable us to use, study, share and improve the software which enables us to work in freedom. This time the focus especially lies on the small contributions to the big picture of the Free Software community.' -- source: http://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150209-01.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

1 0

VLC Acquiring Lots of New Features
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

"Two weekends ago an update for VLC media player was shared during a presentation in Brussels at FOSDEM. Lead developer Jean-Baptiste Kempf covered VLC's continued vibrant development, as well as features that are coming for VLC 2.2 and VLC 3.0. VLC 2.2.0 will feature automatic, GPU-accelerated video rotation support, extension improvements, resume handling, support for new codecs/formats and rewrites to some of the existing formats, VDPAU GPU zero-copy support, x265 encoder support, etc. Further out is VLC 3.0.0, which is planned to have Wayland support, GPU zero-copy support for OpenMAX IL, ARIB subtitle support, HEVC / VP9 hardware decoding on Android, a rework of the MP4 and TS demuxers, and browsing improvements. The VLC FOSDEM 2015 presentation is available in PDF form. The VLC Git shortlog can be used to follow the development of the project." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/11/0515244 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Is Modern Linux Becoming Too Complex?
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

'Debian developer John Goerzen asks whether Linux has become so complex that it has lost some of its defining characteristics. "I used to be able to say Linux was clean, logical, well put-together, and organized. I can’t really say this anymore. Users and groups are not really determinitive for permissions, now that we have things like polkit running around. (Yes, by the way, I am a member of plugdev.) Error messages are unhelpful (WHY was I not authorized?) and logs are nowhere to be found. Traditionally, one could twiddle who could mount devices via /etc/fstab lines and perhaps some sudo rules. Granted, you had to know where to look, but when you did, it was simple; only two pieces to fit together. I've even spent time figuring out where to look and STILL have no idea what to do."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/02/11/0444232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Elementary OS: Why We Make You Type "$0"
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

'Open source software can always be acquired without charge, but can still incur significant development costs. Elementary OS wants to make people aware of this, and have changed their website to suggest donating when downloading, and make users explicitly enter "$0" if they want a free download. This is the same strategy Canonical has used when offering Ubuntu. The Elementary OS blog explains: "Developing software has a huge cost. Some companies offset that cost by charging hundreds of dollars for their software, making manufacturers pay them to license the software, or selling expensive hardware with the OS included. Others offset it by mining user data and charging companies to target ads to their users. [...] If we want to see the world of open source software grow, we should encourage users to pay for its development; otherwise it'll be underfunded or developers will have to resort to backdoor deals and advertising. And nobody wants that future." Currently the only people who have received money for working on Elementary OS have been community members through their bounty program.' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/11/1753219 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

libregraphicsworld.org
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

For those who don’t know about this site, but who make frequent use of open-source graphics software (GIMP, Inkscape, Blender etc), you will find all kinds of informative news articles here. There seems to be a new item about once a week. Some recent items: * Inkscape 0.91 released <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/inkscape-0-91-released> * Blender 2.73 as a 2D animation powerhouse (to add to all the other arrows in its quiver) <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/blender-2-73-grease-pencil> * A follow-up to the item Peter posted a few weeks back about Paris-8 University moving from Photoshop to Krita and other Free Software <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/the-complete-story-of-paris-8-univ…>

2 2

Stuff seems to run Ubuntu/nginx
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '15

10 Feb '15

What http errors can tell you about a website ;-) Stuff seems to use Ubuntu/nginx as you can see in the attachment. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

New Multi-Purpose Backdoor Targets Linux Servers
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

'A new multi-purpose Linux Trojan that opens a backdoor on the target machine and can make it participate in DDoS attacks has been discovered and analyzed by Dr. Web researchers, who believe that the Chinese hacker group ChinaZ might be behind it. "First, Linux.BackDoor.Xnote.1 sends information about the infected system to the server. It then goes into standby mode and awaits further instructions. If the command involves carrying out some task, the backdoor creates a separate process that establishes its own connection to the server through which it gets all the necessary configuration data and sends the results of the executed task," the researchers explained.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/1829255 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Linux Versus Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

Another long-heralded Android competitor, Tizen, gets a head-to-head comparison gallery here <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/tizen-versus-android-in-pictures/>.

1 0

Xfce Getting a New Version Soon
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

'It looks like the release of Xfce 4.12 is finally about to materialize. It has been about two and half years since the last stable release. There is now a concerted effort underway to ship a new release of this lightweight GTK+2 desktop environment out around the end of February or early March. "As we have discussed the status and progress of core components with many of you individually, we feel confident that the state of Xfce is good enough to polish some final edges and push more translations until then," wrote Simon Steinbeiß on the xfce4-dev mailing list. The official list of showstopper bugs does not look too bad either. However, looking at the long time between releases certainly makes one think if the project could have use for some extra resources.' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/1431250 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Xenon Flashes Can Make New Raspberry Pi 2 Freeze and Reboot
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

"Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi 2 owners who are trying to photograph their devices, ... the Raspberry Pi 2 has been found to be Xenon flash sensitive. Any camera with a Xenon flash aimed at the device is causing the device to freeze for a few seconds before rebooting." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0643254 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 First Ubuntu Phone Is Here, With Underwhelming Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

'A few days ago, Fast Company reviewer Jay Cassano was enthusiastic about Ubuntu's approach to apps for its new phone OS: namely, not relying on them, and instead interfacing seamlessly with existing websites and protocols. Now, new submitter ablutions (4006541) writes with a less than glowing review at The Daily Dot of the actual hardware that the OS is launching on. A sample that conveys the gist: "Let's start with the good stuff: It sports a 4.5-inch multi-touch screen and a respectable 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel lens on the front. That's pretty much it. The list of negatives is a bit longer."' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0034236 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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IEEE Computer Society YouTube Channel
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

A large collection of videos here <https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeComputerSociety/videos>. Some interesting-looking ones (none of which I’ve watched yet): Eben Upton on the (original) Raspberry π <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVU5QBg5l6g> Linus Torvalds, 2014 Computer Pioneer Award <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMmo0Nyleg4> Computing Conversations: Andrew Tanenbaum on MINIX <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_LFeZA7p8>. And no doubt lots more I’ve missed. :)

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Ubuntu smartphone as seen on BBC
by Ian Young 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31148661 --snip-- An Ubuntu-powered smartphone is coming to the market a year and a half after a previous attempt to launch a model via crowdfunding failed. .... The Ubuntu handset can run apps written in either the HTML5 web programming language or its own native QML code. However, its operating system effectively hides them away. Instead of the traditional smartphone user interface - featuring grids of apps - it uses themed cards that group together different facilities. --unsnip-- Chocolate fish for first person to bring one to a meeting?

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Samba issues
by David Nicholls 04 Feb '15

04 Feb '15

Hi guys. I am having an issue with my fresh samba setup. I built a 14.04.1 LTS Ubuntu server and set up a single mount point (/media/data) and pointed 3 separate internal hard drives to it (eg it contains directories "music_drive", "tv_drive" & "movie_drive"). I turned "/media/data" into a samba share. Annoyingly permissions look fine but I cannot seem to be able to either see the share on my network from other machines or connect to it. Even using the servers IP address. Any advice? Or am I just missing something obvious. My config is below. samba.conf # # Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux. # # # This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the # smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed # here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options most of which # are not shown in this example # # Some options that are often worth tuning have been included as # commented-out examples in this file. # - When such options are commented with ";", the proposed setting # differs from the default Samba behaviour # - When commented with "#", the proposed setting is the default # behaviour of Samba but the option is considered important # enough to be mentioned here # # NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command # "testparm" to check that you have not made any basic syntactic # errors. #======================= Global Settings ======================= [global] passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u max log size = 1000 browseable = yes workgroup = RIMFALL passdb backend = tdbsam obey pam restrictions = yes map to guest = bad user unix password sync = yes os level = 20 server role = standalone server printing = cups load printers = no netbios aliases = ook preferred master = yes available = yes default = lspace panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d wins support = true netbios name = ook security = user server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu) passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* . pam password change = yes syslog = 0 dns proxy = no log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m usershare allow guests = yes ## Browsing/Identification ### # Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of # server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field # Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section: # WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server # wins support = no # WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client # Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both ; wins server = w.x.y.z # This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS. #### Networking #### # The specific set of interfaces / networks to bind to # This can be either the interface name or an IP address/netmask; # interface names are normally preferred ; interfaces = 127.0.0.0/8 eth0 # Only bind to the named interfaces and/or networks; you must use the # 'interfaces' option above to use this. # It is recommended that you enable this feature if your Samba machine is # not protected by a firewall or is a firewall itself. However, this # option cannot handle dynamic or non-broadcast interfaces correctly. ; bind interfaces only = yes #### Debugging/Accounting #### # This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine # that connects # Cap the size of the individual log files (in KiB). # If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following # parameter to 'yes'. # syslog only = no # We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything # should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log # through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher. # Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace ####### Authentication ####### # Server role. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible # values are "standalone server", "member server", "classic primary # domain controller", "classic backup domain controller", "active # directory domain controller". # # Most people will want "standalone sever" or "member server". # Running as "active directory domain controller" will require first # running "samba-tool domain provision" to wipe databases and create a # new domain. # If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what # password database type you are using. # This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix # password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the # passdb is changed. # For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following # parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan << kahan(a)informatik.tu-muenchen.de> for # sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge). # This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes # when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in # 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'. # This option controls how unsuccessful authentication attempts are mapped # to anonymous connections ########## Domains ########### # # The following settings only takes effect if 'server role = primary # classic domain controller', 'server role = backup domain controller' # or 'domain logons' is set # # It specifies the location of the user's # profile directory from the client point of view) The following # required a [profiles] share to be setup on the samba server (see # below) ; logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U # Another common choice is storing the profile in the user's home directory # (this is Samba's default) # logon path = \\%N\%U\profile # The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set # It specifies the location of a user's home directory (from the client # point of view) ; logon drive = H: # logon home = \\%N\%U # The following setting only takes effect if 'domain logons' is set # It specifies the script to run during logon. The script must be stored # in the [netlogon] share # NOTE: Must be store in 'DOS' file format convention ; logon script = logon.cmd # This allows Unix users to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR # RPC pipe. The example command creates a user account with a disabled Unix # password; please adapt to your needs ; add user script = /usr/sbin/adduser --quiet --disabled-password --gecos "" %u # This allows machine accounts to be created on the domain controller via the # SAMR RPC pipe. # The following assumes a "machines" group exists on the system ; add machine script = /usr/sbin/useradd -g machines -c "%u machine account" -d /var/lib/samba -s /bin/false %u # This allows Unix groups to be created on the domain controller via the SAMR # RPC pipe. ; add group script = /usr/sbin/addgroup --force-badname %g ############ Misc ############ # Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration # on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name # of the machine that is connecting ; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m # Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges # for something else.) ; idmap uid = 10000-20000 ; idmap gid = 10000-20000 ; template shell = /bin/bash # Setup usershare options to enable non-root users to share folders # with the net usershare command. # Maximum number of usershare. 0 (default) means that usershare is disabled. ; usershare max shares = 100 # Allow users who've been granted usershare privileges to create # public shares, not just authenticated ones #======================= Share Definitions ======================= # Un-comment the following (and tweak the other settings below to suit) # to enable the default home directory shares. This will share each # user's home directory as \\server\username ;[homes] ; comment = Home Directories ; browseable = no # By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change the # next parameter to 'no' if you want to be able to write to them. ; read only = yes # File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to # create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775. ; create mask = 0700 # Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to # create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775. ; directory mask = 0700 # By default, \\server\username shares can be connected to by anyone # with access to the samba server. # Un-comment the following parameter to make sure that only "username" # can connect to \\server\username # This might need tweaking when using external authentication schemes ; valid users = %S # Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons # (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.) ;[netlogon] ; comment = Network Logon Service ; path = /home/samba/netlogon ; guest ok = yes ; read only = yes # Un-comment the following and create the profiles directory to store # users profiles (see the "logon path" option above) # (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.) # The path below should be writable by all users so that their # profile directory may be created the first time they log on ;[profiles] ; comment = Users profiles ; path = /home/samba/profiles ; guest ok = no ; browseable = no ; create mask = 0600 ; directory mask = 0700 [printers] comment = All Printers available = no writable = no printable = yes path = /var/spool/samba guest ok = no create mask = 0700 browseable = no # Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable # printer drivers [print$] guest ok = no writable = no path = /var/lib/samba/printers comment = Printer Drivers # Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers. # You may need to replace 'lpadmin' with the name of the group your # admin users are members of. # Please note that you also need to set appropriate Unix permissions # to the drivers directory for these users to have write rights in it ; write list = root, @lpadmin [lspace] valid users = david, steff, tracey, smbguest, @sambashare guest account = comment = Lspace media share writeable = yes force group = sambashare path = /media/data read list = smbguest write list = david, steff, tracey

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Android tethering: fix IP address of client using Mac ID?
by Peter Reutemann 03 Feb '15

03 Feb '15

Hi there Just playing around with Android tethering / wifi hotspot on my phone. One question that I have is, how do I fix the IP address that my phone assigns to a client when acting as an access point? Is there an App that I can use to tie a client's Mac ID to certain IP address, like you can usually do with "regular" wireless access points? Thanks. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 2

The Linux Foundation Offers a Self-Paced SysAdmin Course
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

"The Linux Foundation has announced the launch of its new self-paced Essentials of System Administration course (LFS201), which comes bundled with a Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator exam. The full schedule of all 2015 Linux Foundation training courses is also now available." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/the-linux-foundation-offers-a-self-paced-sysadmin-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

2 1

Major Release LibreOffice 4.4 Announced
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

'The Document Foundation today announced the latest and "most beautiful" LibreOffice ever. LibreOffice 4.4 is the ninth major release for the project and brings with it lots of design and functionality improvements. Redesigned toolbars, menus, status bars, rulers and new theme selector are among the goodies for users. Michael Meeks said today that this release not only improves the visible features but also the foundations underneath.' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/major-release-libreoffice-4-4-announced Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

OpenSSH Will Feature Key Discovery and Rotation For Easier Switching To Ed25519
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

"OpenSSH developer Damien Miller has posted about a new feature he implemented and committed for the next upcoming 6.8 release of OpenSSH — hostkeys(a)openssh.com — an OpenSSH extension to the SSH protocol for sshd to automatically send all of its public keys to the client, and for the client to automatically replace all keys of such server within ~/.ssh/known_hosts with the fresh copies as supplied (provided the server is trusted in the first place, of course). The protocol extension is simple enough, and is aimed to make it easier to switch over from DSA to the OpenSSL-free Ed25519 public keys. It is also designed in such a way as to support the concept of spare host keys being stored offline, which could then seamlessly replace main active keys should they ever become compromised." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/01/0533208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Dell Continues Shipping Fresh Linux Laptops
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

"In its latest move, Dell will be bringing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to its top-of-the-line Precision M3800 workstation laptop and the latest model of the Dell XPS 13. Both systems will be running Ubuntu 14.04.1. According to Barton George, Dell's Director of Developer Programs, programmers had been asking for a better, officially-supported Ubuntu developer laptop. This came about from a combination of the efforts of Dell software engineer Jared Dominguez and enthusiastic feedback. Specs of M3800: 15.6" LCD @ 3840x2160, Intel i7 quad core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro GPU, up to 16 GB RAM. The bad news is, as Dominguez explained on his blog, this version of the M3800 doesn't support its built-in Thunderbolt 2 port out of the box. However, thanks to the hardware-enablement stack in Ubuntu, starting with upcoming Ubuntu 14.04.2, you will be able to upgrade your kernel to add some Thunderbolt support." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/31/180203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Everybody’s Gone Flat
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Jan '15

31 Jan '15

A tour through the new standard theme for KDE Plasma 5.2 <https://dot.kde.org/2015/01/27/plasma-52-beautiful-and-featureful>. And you thought it was just Apple and Microsoft and Google doing it: looks like anything resembling depth or gradients or shadows is completely out of fashion nowadays...

2 1

Microsoft Puts Money Into Android
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Jan '15

30 Jan '15

Microsoft is reportedly going to invest in Cyanogen Inc <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/microsoft-to-invest-in-cyanogen-hope…>. If you remember, the people behind the well-regarded CyanogenMod custom build of Android decided to become a commercial operation recently. There are even phone makers putting CyanogenMod straight onto their phones at the factory, in preference to official Google Android.

1 0

GParted Live Now Supports Microsoft's New Filesystem, ReFS
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution that has a lot of features and that can be used in operations like creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions on a variety of filesystems. A new stable update has been made available and the operating system is now at version 0.21.0." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/GParted-Live-Now-Supports-MIcrosoft-s-New-Fi… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

FSF-Endorsed Libreboot X200 Laptop Comes With Intel's AMT Removed
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

'"The Free Software Foundation has announced its endorsement of the Libreboot X200, a refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad X200 sold by Gluglug. The laptop ships with 100% free software and firmware, including the FSF's endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux and Libreboot. One of the biggest challenges overcome in achieving FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification was the complete removal of Intel's ME and AMT firmware. The AMT is a controversial proprietary backdoor technology that allows remote access to a machine even when it is powered off. Quoting from the press release: "The ME and its extension, AMT, are serious security issues on modern Intel hardware and one of the main obstacles preventing most Intel based systems from being liberated by users. On most systems, it is extremely difficult to remove, and nearly impossible to replace. Libreboot X200 is the first system where it has actually been removed, permanently," said Gluglug Founder and CEO, Francis Rowe."' -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/2241214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers Bridge the Airgap
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"Hacked has a piece about Georgia Institute of Technology researchers keylogging from a distance using the electromagnetic radiation of CPUs. They can reportedly do this from up to 6 meters away. In this video, using two Ubuntu laptops, they demonstrate that keystrokes are easily interpreted with the software they have developed. In their white paper they talk about the need for more research in this area so that hardware and software manufacturers will be able to develop more secure devices. For now, Farraday cages don't seem as crazy as they used to, or do they?" -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/141243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Mozilla Dusts Off Old Servers, Lights Up Tor Relays
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"According to The Register, "Mozilla has given the Tor network a capacity kick with the launch of 14 relays that will help distribute user traffic. Engineers working under the Foundation's Polaris Project inked in November pulled Mozilla's spare and decommissioned hardware out of the cupboard for dedicated use in the Tor network. It included a pair of Juniper EX4200 switches and three HP SL170zG6 (48GB ram, 2*Xeon L5640, 2*1Gbps NIC) servers, along with a dedicated existing IP transit provider (2 X 10Gbps). French Mozilla engineer Arzhel Younsi (@xionoxfr) said its network was designed to fall no lower than half of its network capacity in the event of maintenance or failure. The Polaris initiative was a effort of Mozilla, the Tor Project and the Centre for Democracy and Technology to help build more privacy controls into technology." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/192215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Ubuntu 15.04 Is The Easy Path To Better Performance For Ubuntu Users On Intel Broadwell
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"Unless you manually upgrade your kernel and other system packages from your Ubuntu 14.10 installation, Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet is an important release for users of new Intel Broadwellsystems for ensuring your hardware reaches its maximum performance potential." -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ubuntu-1504-5600u&num=1 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Serious Network Function Vulnerability Found In Glibc
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jan '15

28 Jan '15

"A very serious security problem has been found and patched in the GNU C Library (Glibc). A heap-based buffer overflow was found in __nss_hostname_digits_dots() function, which is used by the gethostbyname() and gethostbyname2() function calls. A remote attacker able to make an application call to either of these functions could use this flaw to execute arbitrary code with the permissions of the user running the program. The vulnerability is easy to trigger as gethostbyname() can be called remotely for applications that do any kind of DNS resolving within the code. Qualys, who discovered the vulnerability (nicknamed "Ghost") during a code audit, wrote a mailing list entry with more details, including in-depth analysis and exploit vectors." -- sources: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/27/1925208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

3 4

Opera Founder Is Back, WIth a Feature-Heavy, Chromium-Based Browser
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jan '15

27 Jan '15

"Almost two years ago, the Norwegian browser firm Opera ripped out the guts of its product and adopted the more standard WebKit and Chromium technologies, essentially making it more like rivals Chrome and Safari. But it wasn't just Opera's innards that changed; the browser also became more streamlined and perhaps less geeky. Many Opera fans were deeply displeased at the loss of what they saw as key differentiating functionality. So now Jon von Tetzchner, the man who founded Opera and who would probably never have allowed those drastic feature changes, is back to serve this hard core with a new browser called Vivaldi." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/01/27/1733259 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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EFF Unveils Plan For Ending Mass Surveillance
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jan '15

27 Jan '15

'The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published a detailed, global strategy for ridding ourselves of mass surveillance. They stress that this must be an international effort — while citizens of many countries can vote against politicians who support surveillance, there are also many countries where the citizens have to resort to other methods. The central part of the EFF's plan is: encryption, encryption, encryption. They say we need to build new secure communications tools, pressure existing tech companies to make their products secure against everyone, and get ordinary internet-goers to recognize that encryption is a fundamental part of communication in the surveillance age. They also advocate fighting for transparency and against overreach on a national level. "[T]he more people worldwide understand the threat and the more they understand how to protect themselves—and just as importantly, what they should expect in the way of support from companies and governments—the more we can agitate for the changes we need online to fend off the dragnet collection of data." The EFF references a document created to apply the principles of human rights to communications surveillance, which they say are "our way of making sure that the global norm for human rights in the context of communication surveillance isn't the warped viewpoint of NSA and its four closest allies, but that of 50 years of human rights standards showing mass surveillance to be unnecessary and disproportionate."' -- source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/01/27/042212 Cheers, Pete -- 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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Linus Fixes Kernel Regression Breaking Witcher 2
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '15

24 Jan '15

'There has been quite a debate around the Linux version of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the fact that it wasn't really a port. A special kind of wrapper was used to make the Windows version of the game run on Linux systems, similar to Wine. The performance on Linux systems took a hit and users felt betrayed because they thought that they would get a native port. However, after the gamestopped launching properly at some point, the reason was actually found to be a Linux regression.Linus quickly took care of the issue on an unofficial Witcher 2 issue tracker on GitHub: "It looks like LDT_empty is buggy on 64-bit kernels. I suspect that the behavior was inconsistent before the tightening change and that it's now broken as a result. I'll write a patch. Serves me right for not digging all the way down the mess of macros." This one goes to the bin "don't break userspace". Linus also reminds of QA: "And maybe this is an excuse for somebody in the x86 maintainer team to try a few games on steam. They *are* likely good tests of odd behavior.."' -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/15/01/24/1528232 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Accidentally Deleting Directories
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jan '15

21 Jan '15

I suppose every seasoned Linux user has been there (I know I have): done “rm -rf” (or equivalent) to wipe out a directory, only to realize--too late--that it was the wrong one. There’s a discussion currently raging <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/17/scary_code_of_the_week_steam_cleans…> over a bug just like this in the Steam client for Linux. There is a script that contains the line rm -rf "$STEAMROOT/"* However, as a result of certain (unusual) user actions, the value of the STEAMROOT variable could end up empty, in which case the script proceeds to wipe out every file on the system that your userid has privilege over. What’s the best way to handle this? On the one hand, when setting up a new installation/preferences directory, you want to ensure there is no leftover rubbish in it. But on the other, you want to ensure that any existing directory you delete/replace is in fact an old installation/preferences directory. I’m leaning towards the solution--discussed in the GitHub issue entry--of checking for some distinctive file in the existing directory. If that doesn’t exist, then the directory is not what the script thinks it is. For example, my wipetree script <https://github.com/ldo/git-useful/blob/master/wipetree> checks that there is a .git subdirectory in the directory you want to wipe. It also helps to use “set -e”, so bash aborts the script on an error, instead of barrelling on.

2 1

Canonical Launches Internet-of-Things Version of Ubuntu Core
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '15

21 Jan '15

'Ubuntu Linux isn't just for desktops, servers and the cloud anymore. Mark Shuttleworth wants Ubuntu to be the operating system of choice for the Internet of Things too. The new Snappy Ubuntu Core is targeted at device developers and it's the basis for an entire new division of Canonical Inc. The promise of Snappy Ubuntu Core is also one of security, protecting the devices of the world, by keeping them updated. "With Snappy there is also a division of responsibilities for updating that can also help protect IoT devices and users. So we could deliver an update for a Heartbleed or Shellshock vulnerability, completely independently of the lawnmower control app that would come from the lawnmower company," Shuttleworth said.' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/20/2347214 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 current state of video editing for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '15

21 Jan '15

"I often ask myself what the current state of video editing is for free and open source software (FOSS). Here are my thoughts. I've spent many years in the visual effects (VFX) industry from the perspective of being either an artist, compositor, video editor, or systems engineer. (I've even got film creds on IMDB!) In the past, I had the pleasure of cutting on, training people on, setting up, and supporting Avid Media Composer, the cream of the crop of professional real-time video editing tools for film and TV alike—at least before things like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere became useful enough to professionals." Tested: Pitivi, OpenShot, Lightworks, Avidemux, Cinelerra, KDEnlive, Blender The winner (spoiler): Blender -- source: http://opensource.com/life/15/1/current-state-linux-video-editing Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

3 3

dates for meetings
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '15

21 Jan '15

Hi everyone I've talked to the Bernhard Pfahringer, head of the computer science department, and he's willing to sponsor our meetings (WLUG and Python) again this year. Therefore, I booked the following dates for WLUG: Feb 23 Mar 23 Apr 27 May 25 Jul 27 Aug 24 Sep 28 Nov 23 NB: Some months are unavailable due to exam periods (these periods start already during study week, when the rooms get prepared and cannot be disturbed anymore). This brings me also to the next question: who's up for presenting at the first meeting in February? Any new, funky distros that anyone has taken for a spin? Any Linux-related projects tackled during the summer break? Feel free to contact me off-list and I'll add you to the meeting on meetup.com. As a reminder, our meetings get scheduled here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/ Thanks and see you in February. Hope you all had a good summer break (at the least the folks in the southern hemisphere)! Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Adobe's Photoshop Ditched for Krita at French University Due to Lack of Support
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jan '15

19 Jan '15

"The ATI (Art and Technology of Image) department at University Paris 8 is switching to Krita this year. This department has the double aim to train students both to use graphic software (2D,3D,VFX and Compositing) and to code their own (Python, C#, C++). Until recently the classes used only Adobe Photoshop, but because of inadequate support from the company the department decided to replace that." -- source: https://krita.org/item/goodbye-photoshop-and-hello-krita-at-university-pari… 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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Fwd: [NZOSS-Openchat] LCA'15
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jan '15

19 Jan '15

Apologies if you've received this already. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jaco Date: Mon, Jan 19, 2015 at 9:05 AM Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] LCA'15 To: NZOSS Open Discussion List Thanks to everyone who attended, participated or helped in the Linux Conference last week. Video's should be available online now: * http://www.youtube.com/user/linuxconfau2015 * http://mirror.linux.org.au/linux.conf.au/2015/ * Local ‪NZ‬ mirror at http://mirror.slingshot.co.nz/pub/linux.conf.au/2015/ thanks to SlingshotNZ! Was good to see many familiar faces, but I was also hoping to see others. OTOH I was running around so much & attention focused on the above, I doubt I would've noticed anyway. Looking forward to working at the next one (this counts as doing my bit for the community, right?) cheers - Jaco _______________________________________________ Openchat mailing list Openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/openchat -- 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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Tails 1.2.3 is out
by Peter Reutemann 18 Jan '15

18 Jan '15

"Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 1.2.3, is out. This release fixes numerous security issues and all users must upgrade as soon as possible. On January 3rd, the SSL certificate of our website hosting provider, boum.org, expired. This means that if you still are running Tails 1.2.1 or older, you will not get any update notification. Please help spreading the word!" -- source: https://tails.boum.org/news/version_1.2.3/index.en.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

1 0

Security Products Are Wasting Our Time
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jan '15

18 Jan '15

Apparently 4 out of 5 alerts reported by malware-detection products are false alarms <http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/survey-says-security-products-waste…>. And of course the result is predictable: In 2013, for example, when cybercriminals broke into Target’s systems and loaded malware, the company’s FireEye security system issued an alert for the activity, but the company ignored the alerts. As a result, a District Court judge in Minnesota has given the go-ahead for banks to sue the retailer.

1 0

How Many Weeks Has “The Spectator” Been Publishing?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jan '15

16 Jan '15

Any other readers of “New Scientist” on this list? In the issue of 3rd Jan, the “Feedback” column tried to work out how many weeks various magazines that are still in existence had been publishing. The oldest they could find was “The Spectator”, which first came out on 6th July 1828. Unfortunately they were using Microsoft Excel to do their calculations, with predictably nonsensical results. :) Here’s what I came up with, using the good old “date” command, together with the arithmetic facilities built into bash. Taking it step by step: date +%s prints out the number of seconds since midnight 1st January 1970 to the present time. date -d "6-Jul-1828" +%s does the same for 6th July 1828. Of course this is a very small negative number. It computes and displays fine on my 64-bit system, but might overflow on 32-bit ones. echo $(($(date +%s) - $(date -d "6-Jul-1828" +%s))) prints out the subtraction of the above two numbers, giving the number of seconds from the founding of “The Spectator” to the present time. And finally, echo $(($(($(date +%s) - $(date -d "6-Jul-1828" +%s))) / $((86400 * 7)))) divides that number of seconds by the number of seconds in a week, giving the number of weeks from the founding of “The Spectator” to the present time. Which, by my reckoning, is 9732.

1 0

Run Your Choice Of Linux/Android On A Chromebook
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

Google has posted details <http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2390180/google-will-now-allow-andr…> of how to boot up your choice of Linux distro (including Android) on a Chromebook, as an alternative to its built-in ChromeOS. This is still extremely fiddly, risk-prone and not for the faint-of-heart.

1 0

Australia Bans Crypto Research
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jan '15

15 Jan '15

A law currently being phased in in Australia <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/01/14/australia_tries_to_ban_crypto_resea…> would seem to mean serious jail time for those trying to discuss certain advanced crypto technologies with those outside the country: “Was the government warned that it was making a mistake? Apparently so...” Other countries have exemptions for academic researchers. But why should they be treated differently from ordinary people, anyway?

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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".

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

Ubuntu GNOME 15.04 Finally Gets GNOME 3.14
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

"Ubuntu GNOME 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) is just one of the many official Ubuntu flavors and its developers have been working to implement the latest version of GNOME 3.14. One of the problems faced by the Ubuntu GNOME developers is the fact that their project is not in sync with GNOME, which puts a little bit of pressure on them. For example, they have been criticized for not having the latest GNOME desktop in Ubuntu 14.10, even if that particular piece of software was released after the feature freeze." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-GNOME-15-04-Finally-Gets-GNOME-3-14-4… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Would You Rent Out Your Unused Drive Space?
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jan '15

12 Jan '15

"There is a new idea out there, proposed by Shawn Wilkinson, Tome Boshevski & Josh Brandof, that if you have unused disk space on your HD that you should rent it out. It is a great idea and the concept may have a whole range of implementations. The 3 guys describe their endeavor as: "Storj is a peer-to-peer cloud storage network implementing end-to-end encryption would allow users to transfer and share data without reliance on a third party data provider. The removal of central controls would eliminate most traditional data failures and outages, as well as significantly increasing security, privacy, and data control. A peer-to-peer network and basic encryption serve as a solution for most problems, but we must offer proper incentivisation for users to properly participate in this network." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/11/181208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

Crowdfunded Linux Voice Magazine Releases Second Issue CC-BY-SA
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '15

11 Jan '15

"As covered previously on Slashdot, Linux Voice crowdfunded its way to success in late 2013, showing how a small team can make things happen with a different business model (giving profits and content back to the community). Now, a few months after the magazine made issue 1 freely available, they've released issue 2 under the Creative Commons for everyone to share and modify. If you've ever fancied making your own Raspberry Pi-powered arcade machine, there's a full guide in the second issue." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/11/0311258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Sloppy File Permissions Make Red Star OS Vulnerable
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '15

11 Jan '15

"Red Star OS Desktop 3.0, the official Linux distro of North Korea, which recently found its way onto torrents and various download sites in form of an ISO image, is interesting for a number of reasons, including its attempt to look like commercial operating systems (currently OS X, earlier versions mimicked the Windows GUI). Hackers are also poking Red Star for security vulnerabilities. An pseudonymous researcher noted in a post to the Open Source Software Security (oss-sec) mailing list, that the OS has one significant security hole: Red Star 3.0 ships with a world-writeable udev rule file /etc/udev/rules.d/85-hplj10xx.rules (originally designed for HP LaserJet 1000 series printers) which can be modified to include RUN+= arguments executing arbitrary commands as root by Udev. In the post he also mentions how the older Red Star 2.0 shipped with another schoolboy mistake: /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit was world-writeable." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/11/032207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

Rust Programming Language Reaches 1.0 Alpha
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '15

11 Jan '15

"Rust, a new a systems programming language with a focus on safety, performance and concurrency, has released the 1.0 alpha version of the language. This means that the language and core libraries are feature-complete for the 1.0 release. In practical terms, this means that the rate of change experienced by early adopters will slow down dramatically and major breaking changes should be very rare (during the alpha cycle some major changes may still occur if considered necessary). The language will stabilize further when the beta stage is reached (planned for six weeks from now)." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/15/01/11/0254252 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

USB 3.1 & Type C Connectors
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jan '15

11 Jan '15

At the recent CES exhibition in Las Vegas, there was being shown a lot of new hardware taking advantage of the new USB specs <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/usb-3-1-and-type-c-the-only-stuff-at…>. There are 4 quite separate parts to these specs: * the USB 3.1 spec, supporting theoretical data rates up to 10Gb/s * the USB Power Delivery spec, which can supply up to 100W to connected devices * the new “Type C” connector, which has 4 separate physical data channels on it, including one for backward compatibility with USB 2.0 * USB Alternate Mode, which can use some or all of the Type C channels to communicate non-USB data (e.g. DisplayPort). In principle, it is neat to be able to replace all the different kinds of ports on a machine with ports all of a single kind. However, the article suggests that Alternate Mode could be a problem: it seems inevitable that different ports on a machine will be restricted to different uses for the Alternate Mode function. Which means, instead of the current situation where a monitor connector is different from a USB connector so you cannot plug a cable for one into the other, you will have the situation where all the connectors and cables _are_ the same, but if you plug the wrong device into the wrong port, it just won’t work. I remember in an e-mail exchange with Stuart Cheshire a few years ago (he was the mastermind behind the Zeroconf initiative, which Apple implemented as “Rendezvous”—later renamed “Bonjour”—and Linux users know as the “Avahi” packages), he said that there should indeed be just a single type of port on a computer, all speaking the same protocol. And that protocol should be TCP/IP. After all, why shouldn’t you run full TCP/IP between your keyboard, mouse and PC? The silicon it takes to implement the network stack shouldn’t amount to much of a cost these days. Of course, it should be IPv6, not IPv4...

2 2

NZ Postcodes Database
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Jan '15

10 Jan '15

If you didn’t know about it, this guy Nick Le Mouton has put together a pretty extensive list of postcode information for New Zealand, available here <https://www.noodles.net.nz/2007/09/14/new-zealand-postcode-database-v2/>. There are details on 43457 streets in 1260 suburbs with latitude/longitude positions, and separate tables of rural delivery addresses and P O boxes/private bag locations.

1 0

Got an Asus router? Someone on your network can probably hack it
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jan '15

09 Jan '15

'If you're running an Asus wireless router, chances are good that someone inside your network can take full administrative control of it thanks to a currently unpatched vulnerability in virtually all versions of the firmware, a security researcher said. While the vulnerability isn't as serious as those that allowhackers on the Internet at large to compromise the devices, it's nonetheless concerning. People with administrative control can reroute everyone connected to malicious websites and possibly install alternate or even malicious firmware updates. "I trust people that join my network to some degree, but I don't want them to be able to reconfigure the router," Joshua Drake, research director at Accuvant and the person whobrought the vulnerability to light Thursday, told Ars. "I can't prevent them without this getting fixed (short of the workaround)."' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2015/01/got-an-asus-router-someone-on-your-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

1 0

meetings
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '15

08 Jan '15

Hi everyone We're currently in the process of sorting out the dates for the monthly meetings this year. Ian S. suggested to not bother moving the meeting forward by a week if it falls on a Monday that is a public holiday, as we've done in the past. Why this change? The advantage would be that there is no confusion over *when* the meeting happens, it's always the 4th Monday. However, the downside could be that people are away or have no public transport to get to the meeting. What are your thoughts? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

4 13

Intel’s “Compute Stick” Computer In An HDMI Dongle
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Jan '15

08 Jan '15

<http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/intels-compute-stick-is-a-full-windo…> Available with either Windows 8.1, 2GiB RAM and 32GiB of flash storage, or Linux, 1GiB RAM and 8GiB flash. Is there some kind of deal with Microsoft to never offer identical hardware configurations with your choice of Windows or Linux?

1 0

Extra Leap Second To Be Added To Clocks On June 30
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '15

08 Jan '15

"On June 30 this year, the day will last a tad longer — one second longer, to be precise — as a leap second is to be added to clocks worldwide. The time UTC will go from 23:59:59 to 23:59:60 in order to cope with Earth's rotation slowing down a bit. So, what do you intend to do during that extra second added to that day? Well, you may want to fix your systems. The last time a leap second was added, in 2012, a number of websites, Java and even Linux experienced some troubles. Leap seconds can be disruptive to precision systems used for navigation and communication. Is there a better way of dealing with the need for leap seconds?" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/01/06/1821234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

4 8

ODFPY Now Supports Python 3
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jan '15

07 Jan '15

ODFPY is a very handy set of tools for manipulating Open Document Format files. Besides its own command-line tools, it also offers a Python class library that you can call from your own programs. I have been using this in my own billing system for many years to generate invoices for clients. This used to kept in a SVN repo on a somewhat slow server at <https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/software/odfpy/home>. But now they have moved to GitHub at <https://github.com/eea/odfpy>, and I see the current library works with Python 3 as well. This pleases me no end, as I have been moving many of my older projects across from Python 2.

2 3

Tips For Securing Your Secure Shell
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '15

07 Jan '15

"As you may have heard, the NSA has had some success in cracking Secure Shell (SSH) connections. To respond to these risks, a guide written by Stribika tries to help you make your shell as robust as possible. The two main concepts are to make the crypto harder and make stealing keys impossible. So prepare a cup of coffee and read the tutorial carefully to see what could be improved in your configuration. Stribika gives also some extra security tips: don't install what you don't need (as any code line can introduce a bug), use the kind of open source code that has actually been reviewed, keep your software up to date, and use exploit mitigation technologies." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/01/07/161227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 1

Browsing in privacy mode? Super Cookies can track you anyway
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '15

07 Jan '15

"For years, Chrome, Firefox, and virtually all other browsers have offered a setting that doesn't save or refer to website cookies, browsing history, or temporary files. Privacy-conscious people rely on it to help cloak their identities and prevent websites from tracking their previous steps. Now, a software consultant has devised a simple way websites can in many cases bypass these privacy modes unless users take special care." -- source: http://goo.gl/jnkuaA 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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I Just Want The Root Filesystem!
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jan '15

06 Jan '15

Sometimes you want to perform some operation on the volume mounted at /, but not in any volume mounted under it. Some commands (e.g. “find” and “rsync”) provide options to avoid recursing into lower filesystems, but others (e.g. “du”) don’t make it so easy. A simple technique for getting around this is to use a bind mount. For example, after mount --bind / /mnt the /mnt directory shows you a view of the same filesystem as /, except you will notice that directories like /mnt/proc and (assuming your user files are on a separate volume) /mnt/home are empty. Or, to be more precise, those directories are now showing their original contents, unobscured by any other filesystem mounted on top of them. An example use of this is, the root partition on a machine might be filling up, and I want to know why. To narrow down which directories are using the space, I try to do du -ks /*/ but this wants to scan /home/ as well, which on this machine is a separate volume and therefore just adds greatly to the time taken without telling me anything relevant. But with the bind mount, I can do du -ks /mnt/*/ and it will only check the root volume. Another use of this is, as I mentioned above, you can see what is originally in the directories being used for mounting other filesystems. For example, one machine might normally have a network volume from another server mounted on a directory into which it regularly saves files. For some reason the network link might go down, and during that interval it blithely continues saving files into the local directory where the network volume was mounted, rather than the network volume itself. After the network mount is restored, you will probably want to check what files were accidentally saved locally, and move them onto the network volume where they belong. A bind mount lets you do this without disrupting access to the network volume. Then when you are finished with the bind mount, you can get rid of it in the usual way: umount /mnt

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Life With Debian Unstable
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jan '15

06 Jan '15

Doing an “apt-get dist-upgrade -s” on a Debian Unstable system is currently telling me it wants to remove most of KDE. This even though I tried an apt-get update on two different repo mirrors. I think I’ll leave it, and check again in a few days...

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Browsing The Linux Kernel Sources Online
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jan '15

06 Jan '15

You may remember at one of my presentations I was trying to bring up a website that allowed browsing and linking to the Linux kernel sources online, complete with cross references and search. However, that original site seems to have long gone. The good news is, another site <http://lxr.free-electrons.com/> is offering exactly the same thing, and I think they’re using the same software (developed by people at Oslo University in Norway) as well.

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AMD Catalyst Linux Driver Catching Up To and Beating Windows
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '15

03 Jan '15

'Along with the open-source AMD Linux driver having a great 2014, the AMD Catalyst proprietary driver for Linux has also improved a lot. Beyond the open-source Radeon Gallium3D driver closing in on Catalyst, the latest Phoronix end-of-year tests show the AMD Catalyst Linux driver is beating Catalyst on Windows for some OpenGL benchmarks. The proprietary driver tests were done with the new Catalyst "OMEGA" driver. Is AMD beginning to lead real Linux driver innovations or is OpenGL on Windows just struggling?' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/03/1426208 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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Red Hat Engineer Improves Math Performance of Glibc
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '15

03 Jan '15

"Siddhesh Poyarekar from Red Hat has taken a professional look into mathematical functions found in Glibc (the GNU C library). He has been able to provide an 8-times performance improvement to slowest path of pow() function. Other transcendentals got similar improvements since the fixes were mostly in the generic multiple precision code. These improvements already went into glibc-2.18 upstream. Siddhesh believes that a lot of the low hanging fruit has now been picked, but that this is definitely not the end of the road for improvements in the multiple precision performance. There are other more complicated improvements, like the limitation of worst case precision for exp() andlog() functions, based on the results of the paper Worst Cases for Correct Rounding of the Elementary Functions in Double Precision (PDF). One needs to prove that those results apply to the Glibc multiple precision bits." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/02/2025232 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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Bots Scanning GitHub To Steal Amazon EC2 Keys
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '15

03 Jan '15

'As one developer found out, posting your Amazon keys to GitHub on accident can be a costly mistake if they are not revoked immediately. "When I woke up the next morning, I had four emails from Amazon AWS and a missed phone call from Amazon AWS. Something about 140 servers running on my AWS account. What? How? I only had S3 keys on my GitHub and they where gone within 5 minutes! Turns out through the S3 API you can actually spin up EC2 instances, and my key had been spotted by a bot that continually searches GitHub for API keys. Amazon AWS customer support informed me this happens a lot recently; hackers have created an algorithm that searches GitHub 24 hours per day for API keys. Once it finds one it spins up max instances of EC2 servers to farm itself bitcoins."' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/01/02/2342228 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 Case Against "Non-Commercial" Restrictions
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Dec '14

21 Dec '14

The Creative Commons <http://creativecommons.org/> family of copyright licences has become very popular for artworks, documentation and all kinds of creative works generally. But there are different kinds of Creative Commons (CC) licences, with additional qualifications, namely “BY” (attribution required, i.e. give credit to the creators), “SA” (sharealike or “copyleft”, i.e. if you redistribute, do it on the same terms it was given to you), “NC” (non-commercial use only) and “ND” (no derivatives--i.e. modified versions--allowed), and certain combinations thereof. These qualifications divide the CC licences into two categories: Free and non-Free. The non-Free CC licences are those including NC or ND or both, while the Free ones are the rest: * CC0 -- effectively public domain * CC-BY -- distribution with attribution required * CC-BY-SA -- sharealike distribution with attribution If you want to promote sharing and contribute to Free Culture, stick to these three licences. In particular, here <http://freedomdefined.org/Licenses/NC> is a detailed discussion of the NC restriction, and why it is such a bad idea. Most people who stick an NC licence on their work think in terms of preventing big commercial outfits from “ripping them off”. However, this licensing restriction may not achieve what you think it does, particularly since it is often unclear what constitutes “commercial” use anyway.

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Does Anybody Like GNU Info?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Dec '14

21 Dec '14

Anybody who has looked at Linux documentation on the command line would know about man pages, and quite likely about GNU info as well. The GNU project invented the “info” system as a (supposedly) superior replacement for man pages, but for some reason it never became that popular. I personally find it quite annoying to use, and it’s clear I’m not the only one. The GNU info system requires documentation to be written in Texinfo format, from which it can be generated in other formats displayable with the info command as well as other means. Now at least one GNU project, namely Emacs <http://lwn.net/Articles/625072/>, is contemplating moving away from maintaining its documentation in Texinfo format. The suggestion is to use AsciiDoc instead. This is one of a raft of newer, simpler markup formats that are designed so that even the source can be read and understood by ordinary humans, since the appearance of many of the markup sequences already gives some indication of their function in the layout. You may also have heard of Markdown (GitHub uses a flavour of this) and reStructedText (understood by Docutils/Sphinx, the standard toolset for Python documentation)--these are variations on the same idea. The LWN article has an error in it, though: the AsciiDoc package itself is not constrained to only generating HTML, it can output (shudder) DocBook SGML as well. And then there is another piece of software called Pandoc, which can convert between a whole range of different formats, including AsciiDoc.

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