- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Tizen Samsung WW9000 washing machine
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jun '14

16 Jun '14

"Tizen is being heralded as the “OS of Everything”, and you can really see it in action on the Samsung Gear 2, Smart camera’s, and Smart TV’s . We have previously mentioned the Tizen based Samsung WW9000 washing machine, but here are some more details regarding some of its features." -- source: http://www.tizenexperts.com/2014/06/samsungs-ww9000-5-inch-full-touch-scree… Not so sure about the "control your washing machine from anywhere" feature. Still a bit sceptical of the internet of things and how security will pan out... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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WLUG meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jun '14

15 Jun '14

Hi there We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "William McKee is demoing the Godot Game Engine, released under the MIT license. Similar to Unity3D in features, it provides tools to quickly create games under Linux, Mac OSX and Windows. Ian Young will give a quick run-down of the Manjaro distribution." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/165977142/ 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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manjaro
by Ian Young 15 Jun '14

15 Jun '14

This mesage coming to you from the Manjaro 0.8.10 Openbox desktop in live mode, actually the first time I've run it. I have followed Manjaro pretty well since it began, and could run through my experiences if people are interested. I believe Rod has really really used it, ie had it installed and installed updates as they became available, whereas I have mainly dabbled on the live side. Arch users expect their systems to be broken at some time or other if I understand things correctly, the price of the leading edge. There is at least one other prepackaged Arch version, ie Archbang. Remind me when is the next meeting? ~ Ian Y

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Manjaro 0.8.10 released
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '14

12 Jun '14

"Manjaro is a user-friendly Linux distribution based on the independently developed Arch operating system. Within the Linux community, Arch itself is renowned for being an exceptionally fast, powerful, and lightweight distribution that provides access to the very latest cutting edge – and bleeding edge – software. However, Arch is also aimed at more experienced or technically-minded users. As such, it is generally considered to be beyond the reach of those who lack the technical expertise (or persistence) required to use it. For newcomers, a user-friendly installer is provided, and the system itself is designed to work fully ‘straight out of the box’ with features including: * Pre-installed desktop environments * Pre-installed graphical applications to easily install software and update your system, and * Pre-installed codecs to play multimedia files" -- source: http://manjaro.org/2014/06/09/manjaro-0-8-10-is-online/ Anybody feel like giving it a spin and report at the next meeting? 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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Ars tests Internet surveillance—by spying on an NPR reporter
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jun '14

12 Jun '14

"On a bright April morning in Menlo Park, California, I became an Internet spy. This was easier than it sounds because I had a willing target. I had partnered with National Public Radio (NPR) tech correspondent Steve Henn for an experiment in Internet surveillance. For one week, while Henn researched a story, he allowed himself to be watched—acting as a stand-in, in effect, for everyone who uses Internet-connected devices. How much of our lives do we really reveal simply by going online? Henn let me into his Silicon Valley home and ushered me into his office with a cup of coffee. Waiting for me there was the key tool of my new trade: a metal-and-plastic box that resembled nothing more threatening than an unlabeled Wi-Fi router. This was the PwnPlug R2, a piece of professional penetration testing gear designed by Pwnie Express CTO Dave Porcello and his team and on loan to us for this project." -- source: http://bit.ly/1qtDETw The "PwnPlug R2" device runs a custom Debian distro based on Kali Linux: https://www.pwnieexpress.com/penetration-testing-vulnerability-assessment-p… 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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Open source equivalent of Mail Marshall
by chris 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

Hi all, Is there an equivalent of 'Mail Marshall' for Linux/FOSS? I am aware of clamav and spamassasin but have never configured them. Anyone care to recommend a preconfigured server for a corporate network. Cheers, Chris

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Fwd: Last chance to register: Public lecture: Gaps and Opportunities in Cyber Security R&D
by Eric Light 11 Jun '14

11 Jun '14

Hi everyone, For those interested in the security space: The Institute of IT Professionals, in collaboration with The University of Waikato's Computer Science department and Fulbright, are hosting two international security experts for a pair of talks this month. Below is the summary of the first talk, happening next week - if you're keen for this please register ASAP! You can see the second talk, happening on the 24th, here: http://www.iitp.org.nz/events/waikato/943-Public_lecture_Tackling_cyber-sec… Eric -------------------------------------------- Q: Why is this email five sentences or less? A: http://five.sentenc.es ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: IITP Events <hello(a)iitp.org.nz> Date: Tue, Jun 10, 2014 at 1:49 PM Subject: Last chance to register: Public lecture: Gaps and Opportunities in Cyber Security R&D To: Eric Light <eric(a)ericlight.com> [image: IITP Header] <http://www.iitp.org.nz> Hi Eric, you're invited to the following IITP event: Public lecture: Gaps and Opportunities in Cyber Security R&D *Date:*June 17, 2014 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm*Venue:*The University of Waikato, Room S.1.02 (S Block, Room 1.02), Hamilton (Map to Venue <http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map/>)[ *More Info and Registration* <http://www.iitp.org.nz/events/waikato/942-Public_lecture_Gaps_and_Opportuni…> ] *Swords against Atomic Bombs - Fundamental Gaps and Opportunities in Cyber Security Research and Development* It is becoming clear that the cyber security industry is losing the battle against the deluge and sophistication of attacks. In the face of these challenges, few have considered the fundamental reasons why the cyber security industry is losing this battle. Even fewer have proposed game-changing solutions that address the key security gaps. In this talk, we take stock of what's the problem with the current cyber security landscape, and what we must urgently do to address them. The talk also introduces the Cyber Security Researchers of Waikato (CROW) and 'blue ocean' opportunities for both researchers and practitioners. About The Speaker *Dr Ryan Ko* is Head of the Cyber Security Researchers of Waikato (CROW) and Senior Lecturer with the Faculty of Computing and Mathematical Sciences at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He established New Zealand's first Master of Cyber Security programme and dedicated academic cyber security research lab. He is also Advisory Board and Affiliate Faculty Member Informatics Research Institute (IRI)/ National Information Assurance Training and Education Center (NIATEC) Idaho State University, USA. Prior to joining the faculty he was a lead computer scientist with Hewlett-Packard Labs; his data security and data tracking inventions are implemented globally in HP security products and HP customers including the US Treasury, Singapore's G-Cloud and data centres in China and France. He also serves as Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)'s Asia Pacific Research Advisor and has been active with CSA since its beginning years and founded the CSA Cloud Vulnerabilities Working Group and the CSA Data Governance Working group - the first research working group led by an Asia Pacific chapter. IITP Public Lecture series in association with the University of Waikato This presentation is part of a free public lecture series from IITP and the University of Waikato. [image: Waik_Word_RGB_H.jpeg][image: CROW_header_logo.png] [image: 50th%20logo%20full%20colour%20white%20background.jpeg] Registration Details: IITP members and non-members may register for this event online below. Please register for catering purposes and to secure your place. ------------------------------ *Attendance Cost:* EveryoneFREE [ *More Info and Registration* <http://www.iitp.org.nz/events/waikato/942-Public_lecture_Gaps_and_Opportuni…> ] *To Unsubscribe: *You've been invited to this event because you're subscribed to one or more of IITP's Events Mailing Lists. If you'd prefer not to receive these notices please click here <http://www.iitp.org.nz/members/unsubscribe?7bdfbddbd9936b84559578b8ed9d0911…> to unsubscribe. © Copyright 2013, Institute of IT Professionals NZ Inc

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jun '14

10 Jun '14

"Today, Red Hat unveiled Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, with new features designed to meet both modern datacenter and next-generation IT requirements for cloud, Linux Containers, and big data. The new version includes Linux containers (LXC), which let Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers, improved MS Active Directory / Identity Management (IdM) integration, XFS as the default file system, scaling to 500 TB (additional file system choices such as btrfs, ext{3,4} and others are available), a new and improved installation experience, managing Linux servers with OpenLMI, enhancements to both NFS and GFS2, optimized network management, bandwidth, the use of KVM Virtualization technology and more. See the complete list of features here (PDF). CentOS 7 shouldn't be lagging too far behind due to recent cooperation between Red Hat and CentOS project." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/06/10/1815208 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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Mesa 10.2 Improves Linux's Open-Source Graphics Drivers
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jun '14

08 Jun '14

"Mesa 10.2 was introduced this week as the new shining example of what open source graphics (and open source projects in general) are capable of achieving. The latest release of this often underrepresented open source graphics driver project has many new OpenGL and driver features including a number of new OpenGL 4 extensions. The reverse-engineered Freedreno driver now poses serious competition to Qualcomm's Adreno driver, an OpenMAX implementation was added for Radeon video encoding support, Intel Broadwell support now works better, the software rasterizer supports OpenGL 3.3, and many other changes are present." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/06/07/2219247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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New OpenSSL Man-in-the-Middle Flaw Affects All Clients
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jun '14

05 Jun '14

'There is a new, remotely exploitable vulnerability in OpenSSL that could enable an attacker to intercept and decrypt traffic between vulnerable clients and servers. The flaw affects all versions of the OpenSSL client and versions 1.0.1 and 1.0.2-beta1 of the server software. The new vulnerability could only be exploited to decrypt traffic between a vulnerable client and a vulnerable server, and the attacker would need to have a man-in-the-middle position on a network in order to do so. That's not an insignificant set of conditions that must be present for a successful attack, but in the current environment, where open wireless networks are everywhere and many users connect to them without a second thought, gaining a MITM position is not an insurmountable hurdle. Researchers who have looked at the vulnerable piece of code say that it appears to have existed, nearly unchanged, in the OpenSSL source since 1998.' -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/06/05/1359208 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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Testing 65 Different GPUs On Linux With Open Source Drivers
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jun '14

04 Jun '14

"How good are open source graphics drivers in 2014 given all the Linux gaming and desktop attention? Phoronix has tested 65 different GPUs using the latest open source drivers covering Intel HD Graphics, NVIDIA GeForce, AMD Radeon, and AMD FirePro hardware. Of the 65 GPUs tested, only 50 of them had good enough open source driver support for running OpenGL games and benchmarks. Across the NVIDIA and AMD hardware were several pages of caveats with different driver issues encountered on Linux 3.15 and Mesa 10.3 loaded on Ubuntu 14.04. Intel graphics on Linux were reliable but slow while AMD's open-source Linux support was recommended over the NVIDIA support that doesn't currently allow for suitable graphics card re-clocking. Similar tests are now being done with the proprietary Linux drivers." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/06/04/1822203 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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GnuTLS Flaw Leaves Many Linux Users Open To Attacks
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jun '14

03 Jun '14

'A new flaw has been discovered in the GnuTLS cryptographic library that ships with several popular Linux distributions and hundreds of software implementations. According to the bug report, "A malicious server could use this flaw to send an excessively long session id value and trigger a buffer overflow in a connecting TLS/SSL client using GnuTLS, causing it to crash or, possibly, execute arbitrary code." A patch is currently available, but it will take time for all of the software maintainers to implement it. A lengthy technical analysis is available. "There don't appear to be any obvious signs that an attack is under way, making it possible to exploit the vulnerability in surreptitious "drive-by" attacks. There are no reports that the vulnerability is actively being exploited in the wild."' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/1829251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint 17 “Qiana”
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jun '14

01 Jun '14

"The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 17 “Qiana” MATE/Cinnamon. Linux Mint 17 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2019." http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2627 http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2626 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How To Install Linux On A MacBook Pro Retina
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '14

29 May '14

"MacBook Pros come with some very nice hardware, but some people want more. Some people want Linux. Whether you’d like a more open and customizable operating system or simply need to dual-boot in order to access certain software, you might want Linux on your MacBook. The thing is, MacBook Pros are also pretty closed-down pieces of hardware that make installing other operating systems difficult – Linux more so than Windows. Boot Camp won’t help you with Linux, even though it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Here’s how to do it." -- source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/install-linux-macbook-pro/ 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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Leadwerks Game Engine on Ubuntu Software Center
by Peter Reutemann 29 May '14

29 May '14

http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/home?showbanner=0 However, it comes only with a royalty free license, not an open-source license. 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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China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '14

28 May '14

"Once again, after the Red Flag Linux effort that petered out this year, China is considering Linux to sort out its pressing Windows XP issue. The Windows 8 ban by China's government procurement agency and promises of official support may help." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/27/1916202 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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Bunnie Huang Shows Off His Open Source Laptop (Video)
by Peter Reutemann 28 May '14

28 May '14

"Bunnie Huang is both a hardware and software hacker, but that's greatly understating the case: renaissance man is more like it. Bunnie doesn't just tinker with one-off system modifications or console mods (though he's done that, too) -- he creates and repurposes at scale. (He's also an author, respected researcher with interesting thoughts on a wide range of topics, like how to think of the H1N1 flu from the point of view of a security researcher.) Bunnie's latest long-term project has been mentioned a few times on Slashdot: It's an open-source laptop computer that goes much farther than some other open-source hardware projects, and as a bonus includes an FPGA as well as a conventional -- but unusual -- processor. (Bunnie grants that there are still bits that aren't quite open source, but points out that we also don't have the software that runs the fabs; there's a point of diminishing returns.) A crowd funding campaign (via CrowdSupply) was successful enough to also fund several stretch goals, including a general purpose breakout board. I talked with Bunnie at the recent Bay Area Maker Faire. (Expect more from that show in coming weeks.) He walked us through the state of the hardware, and talked about some of the design decisions that go into making a computer that is of, by, and for hackers. (Alternate video link)" -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/05/28/209231 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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Re: [wlug] China Looks To Linux As Windows Alternative
by stephen pearce 28 May '14

28 May '14

Another alternative is Reactos. In fact I am surprised that more commercial money has not been put into developing this as an alternative to xp. The amount of waste that has been generated in just my own work place is scary .. with disposal of quite functional hardware purely because it wont run xp successors .. Most of it will run linux distros quite happily with most of the appearant functionality of windows 7 or 8 -- Stephen

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Become a Linux Kernel Hacker and Write Your Own Module
by Peter Reutemann 27 May '14

27 May '14

"It might sound daunting, but kernel hacking isn't a mysterious black art reserved for the geekiest of programmers. With a bit of background knowledge, anyone with a grounding in C can implement a new kernel module and understand how the kernel works internally. Linux Voice explains how to write a module that creates a new device node, /dev/reverse, that reverses a string when it's written to it. Sure, it's not the most practical example in the world, but it's a good starting point for your own projects, and gives you an insight into how it all fits together." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/27/206217 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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WLUG meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 25 May '14

25 May '14

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting tomorrow: "William McKee is demoing the Godot Game Engine, released under the MIT license. Similar to Unity3D in features, it provides tools to quickly create games under Linux, Mac OSX and Windows." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/165977142/ 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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Jono Bacon Leaves Canonical For XPRIZE
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '14

21 May '14

"Jono Bacon, who has been Ubuntu Community Manager for Canonical for nearly eight years is moving on to join the XPRIZE Foundation (known for incentivizing solving major issues, such as the Google Lunar and Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZES) to be Senior Director of Community." -- source: http://news-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/05/21/133243 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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Wayland 1.5 Released
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '14

21 May '14

"Wayland 1.5 has been released, along with Weston Compositor 1.5. Wayland/Weston 1.5 carry many new user features, with a new libinput back-end, XWayland support, a full-screen shell, and many other changes. This release is particularly important as Fedora 21 will run on GNOME Wayland and X.Org Server 1.16 will be released this summer with integrated XWayland support." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/05/21/0136212 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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Robyn Bergeron Stepping Down As Fedora Project Leader
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '14

21 May '14

"Red Hat's Fedora Linux Project Leader, Robyn Bergeron, has announced that she is leaving her role. Bergeron became Fedora Project Leader in February of 2012 and has presided over one of the busiest periods for Fedora ever. Fedora is now moving to a new model for Fedora 21, with separate desktop, cloud and server products. 'The community has now gotten to the point where it's not a one-size-fits-all product anymore,' Bergeron said." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/20/2318245 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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file managers
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '14

19 May '14

Hi there Just came across this post on Linux.com regarding file browsers: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/773120-4-excellent-alternative-graphic… Personally, I didn't find any of the mentioned browsers very exciting, however, I stumbled across "sunflower" in the comments section: http://code.google.com/p/sunflower-fm/ Dual panel browser with multiple tabs per panel, you can run commands in a panel, pop up a terminal. Quite funky. :-) Here's an overview of file managers (alternatives for "sunflower"): http://alternativeto.net/software/sunflower/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Sucks (Video)
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '14

19 May '14

"How do we know Linux sucks? Because Bryan Lunduke says so. How did he become a Linux authority? By using Linux, of course. He has also written a kids Linux book, Linux for Hank, and a grown-up Linux book, Linux is Badass. But wait! That's not all! Bryan is also one of the people behind the infamous Bad Voltage podcast. And now, for something slightly different: In moments of weakness, Bryan admits that maybe Linux suckage isn't total, and Linux may have a good point or two and maybe some of the suckage could be removed. Zounds! Is that possible? Watch our video chat with Bryan (and/or read the transcript) and see. Or watch the entire 44 minute speech he gave at the 2014 LinuxFest Northwest, which was the 5th (or maybe 6th) "Linux Sucks" speech he's given at LFNW. That makes this a tradition, not just a speech. So if you find yourself in or near Bellingham, Washington, in 2039 you might want to pop in and see if Bryan is still updating his "Linux Sucks" speech. He'll be the geezer hobbling to the front of the room with help from his AutoCane, a device sure to be developed between now and then -- which will no doubt run Linux." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/19/1926213 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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WLUG meeting coming up next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '14

19 May '14

Hi there We have a WLUG meeting coming up next Monday: "William McKee is demoing the Godot Game Engine, released under the MIT license. Similar to Unity3D in features, it provides tools to quickly create games under Linux, Mac OSX and Windows." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/165977142/ 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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30-Day Status Update On LibreSSL
by Peter Reutemann 18 May '14

18 May '14

"Bob Beck — OpenBSD, OpenSSH and LibreSSL developer and the director of Alberta-based non-profit OpenBSD Foundation — gave a talk earlier today at BSDCan 2014 in Ottawa, discussing and illustrating the OpenSSL problems that have led to the creation of a big fork of OpenSSL that is still API-compatible with the original, providing for a drop-in replacement, without the #ifdef spaghetti and without its own "OpenSSL C" dialect. Bob is claiming that the Maryland-incorporated OpenSSL Foundation is nothing but a for-profit front for FIPS consulting gigs, and that nobody at OpenSSL is actually interested in maintaining OpenSSL, but merely adding more and more features, with the existing bugs rotting in bug-tracking for a staggering 4 years (CVE-2010-5298 has been independently re-discovered by the OpenBSD team after having been quietly reported in OpenSSL's RT some 4 years prior). Bob reports that the bug-tracking system abandoned by OpenSSL has actually been very useful to the OpenBSD developers at finding and fixing even more of OpenSSL bugs in downstream LibreSSL, which still remain unfixed in upstream OpenSSL. It is revealed that a lot of crude cleaning has already been completed, and the process is still ongoing, but some new ciphers already saw their addition to LibreSSL — RFC 5639 EC Brainpool, ChaCha20,Poly1305, FRP256v1, and some derivatives based on the above, like ChaCha20-Poly1305 AEAD EVP from Adam Langley's Chromium OpenSSL patchset. To conclude, Bob warns against portable LibreSSL knockoffs, and asks the community for Funding Commitment — Linux Foundation is turning a blind eye to LibreSSL, and instead is only committed to funding OpenSSL directly, despite the apparent lack of security-oriented direction within the OpenSSL project upstream. Funding can be directed to the OpenBSD Foundation." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/05/17/2250242 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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Position Vacant - multi-disciplined hacker
by David McNab 17 May '14

17 May '14

Vadacom Ltd is a leading provider of OSS-based telephony integration solutions. Their flagship product, VadaXchange, is used by many large organisations throughout New Zealand, including Xero, the rock-star accounting firm. We are seeking an experienced and adaptable software developer to join our R&D team. A solid background in OSS-based operating systems such as Linux is a must, as well as experience in several different programming languages, plus the ability and willingness to pick up more languages and frameworks quickly as required. Our main product is comprised of a mainly python-based server-side software, built around the Asterisk PBX system, plus a sophisticated javascript-based client-side web application, as well as Android and iOS apps. Our team is unique in that we actually encourage working from diverse physical locations. This is important to us, because we are all about empowering business communications, so it's walking our talk to use our own technologies internally. If you are good at organising your time, and can create a space where you won't be disturbed, you will be welcome to work from home most of the time. This said, however, some trips to the Auckland head office will be needed from time to time, especially as you are first starting work with us. We have just recently opened an office on Garden Place in Hamilton, and can offer you the option to work from here. Hamilton's IT scene is heavily skewed towards the Redmond stack, so opportunities to work with leading-edge OSS tools and great people, while staying in Hamilton or the greater Waikato, are scarce. If this position interests you, please send me your CV and cover letter. Cheers David

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Betty Is Like Siri Or Google Now For The Command Line (Translates Plain English Into Commands)
by Peter Reutemann 16 May '14

16 May '14

'Betty is like Siri or Google Now for the command line. Well, sort of. The tool translates plain English into commands: it displays the command it runs and obviously, the command output, in the terminal. Betty isn't voice controlled so you still have to type your (plain English) commands but if you want, it can speak the command output. Betty's mission is, according to its GitHub page, to "provide a way to use computers through natural language input"' -- source: http://www.webupd8.org/2014/05/betty-is-like-siri-or-google-now-for.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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5-Year-Old Linux Kernel Bug Fixed
by Peter Reutemann 14 May '14

14 May '14

"'The memory-corruption vulnerability, which was introduced in version 2.6.31-rc3, released no later than 2009, allows unprivileged users to crash or execute malicious code on vulnerable systems, according to the notes accompanying proof-of-concept code available here. The flaw resides in the n_tty_write function controlling the Linux pseudo tty device. 'This is the first serious privilege escalation vulnerability since the perf_events issue (CVE-2013-2049) in April 2013 that is potentially reliably exploitable, is not architecture or configuration dependent, and affects a wide range of Linux kernels (since 2.6.31),' Dan Rosenberg, a senior security researcher at Azimuth Security, told Ars in an e-mail. 'A bug this serious only comes out once every couple years.' ... While the vulnerability can be exploited only by someone with an existing account, the requirement may not be hard to satisfy in hosting facilities that provide shared servers, Rosenberg said." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/13/2039233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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How To Approve the Use of Open Source On the Job
by Peter Reutemann 12 May '14

12 May '14

"If you work in an organization that isn't focused on development, where computer systems are used to support other core business functions, getting management buy-in for the use of open source can be tricky. Here's how an academic librarian negotiated with his management to get them to give open source software a try, and the four phrases he recommends you avoid using." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/05/12/2159234 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Video of the Week: Limit Theory Game Developer Switches to Linux
by Peter Reutemann 12 May '14

12 May '14

'Game developer Josh Parnell has released the latest development update on his open-world space simulation and strategy game, Limit Theory. While the graphics are beautiful, this release is particularly notable because Parnell has switched to developing on the native Linux client version from Windows (which he called “just annoying.”)' -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/772484 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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Valve Sponsors Work To Greatly Speed-Up Linux OpenGL Game Load Times
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '14

05 May '14

"Valve Software has sponsored some interesting improvements developed by LunarG for the Mesa OpenGL library on Linux for deferred and threaded GLSL shader compilation. What these changes mean for users of the open-source Linux graphics drivers when running their favorite games is that OpenGL games now load a lot faster. As an example, the time from starting Dota 2 until the time actually being within the game is reduced by about 20 seconds on an Intel system. While Direct3D has offered similar functionality for a while, OpenGL has not, which has given it a bad reputation with regard to game load times until all shaders are compiled and cached — fortunately it's now addressed for OpenGL if using the Mesa Linux graphics drivers on a supported game." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/05/05/0443238 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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OpenBSD 5.5 Released
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '14

05 May '14

"Just as per the schedule, OpenBSD 5.5 was released today, May 1, 2014. The theme of the 5.5 release is Wrap in Time, which represents a significant achievement of changing time_t to int64_t on all platforms, as well as ensuring that all of the 8k+ OpenBSD ports still continue to build and work properly, thus doing all the heavy lifting and paving the way for all other operating systems to make the transition to 64-bit time an easier task down the line. Signed releases and packages and the new signify utility are another big selling point of 5.5, as well as OpenSSH 6.6, which includes lots of DJB crypto like chacha20-poly1305, plus lots of other goodies." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/05/01/1656209 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

Nasty Security Flaw In OAuth, OpenID
by Peter Reutemann 03 May '14

03 May '14

"A notable security vulnerability has been discovered which impacts both OAuth and OpenID, which are software packages that provide a secure delegated access to websites. Wang Jing, a Ph.D student at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, discovered that the 'Covert Redirect' flaw can masquerade as a login popup based on an affected site's domain. Covert Redirect is based on a well-known exploit parameter. For example, someone clicking on a malicious phishing link will get a popup window in Facebook, asking them to authorize the app. Instead of using a fake domain name that's similar to trick users, the Covert Redirect flaw uses the real site address for authentication. If a user chooses to authorize the login, personal data will be released to the attacker instead of to the legitimate website. Wang did already warn a handful of tech giants about the vulnerability, but they mostly dodged the issue. In all honesty, it is not trivial to fix, and any effective remedies would negatively impact the user experience. Users who wish to avoid any potential loss of data should be careful about clicking links that immediately ask you to log in to Facebook or Google, and be aware of this redirection attack." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/05/02/2015227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Canonical (Nearly) Halts Development of Ubuntu For Android
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '14

01 May '14

"In a since-removed bug report on Launchpad, Ubuntu's issue tracker, Canonical's Matthew Paul Thomas stated that Ubuntu for Android is no longer in active development. In a statement, Canonical stated that while the project is not completely dead, Canonical is currently focusing on pushing Ubuntu for Phones. The company is open to working with partners on Ubuntu for Android, but will not proceed with further U4A development unless they can form a partnership with an OEM partner to launch it. The Ubuntu for Android project was first announced in early 2012." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/05/01/1822254 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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OpenSSH No Longer Has To Depend On OpenSSL
by Peter Reutemann 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

"What has been planned for a long time now, prior to the infamous heartbleed fiasco of OpenSSL (which does not affect SSH at all), is now officially a reality — with the help of some recently adopted crypto from DJ Bernstein, OpenSSH now finally has a compile-time option to no longer depend on OpenSSL. `make OPENSSL=no` has now been introduced for a reduced configuration OpenSSH to be built without OpenSSL, which would leave you with no legacy SSH-1 baggage at all, and on the SSH-2 front with only AES-CTR and chacha20+poly1305 ciphers, ECDH/curve25519 key exchange and Ed25519 public keys." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/04/30/1822209 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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LED and current limiting resistors
by chris 30 Apr '14

30 Apr '14

Following on from Monday nights discussion about LEDs and resistors. https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/219 BTW, I acquired a pad heater and a brewing container for my set up from a colleague and its now all wired in - regulating 15 litres of water nicely at the moment.

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Linux Mint 16
by Peter Reutemann 29 Apr '14

29 Apr '14

Hi there Just came across the following blog post of how to install Linux Mint 16 and what to do afterwards to fine-tune it. It also discusses in length all kinds of applications (and their Windows equivalent): http://debianhelp.wordpress.com/2013/11/30/to-do-list-after-installing-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

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Talk Monday
by William Mckee 28 Apr '14

28 Apr '14

Hello wlug For her holidays im taking my sister down to wellington and going to miss the wlug meetup, where I am spose to be doing a talk on godotengine. I feel bad about pulling out so late, but im sure someone else will be able to step in and do a talk. If people are interested I could do my talk another month. Cheers, William

3 3

Man Builds DIY Cellphone Using Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 26 Apr '14

26 Apr '14

"Photographer and software engineer Dave Hunt has posted an article about his most recent project: a DIY cellphone based on a Raspberry Pi (he calls it a PiPhone). It has a touchscreen dialing interface for making calls, and it's built with off-the-shelf components. The total bill of materials clocks in at about $158: $40 for the rPi, $35 for the 320x240 touchscreen, $15 for the LiPo battery, $48 for the GSM module, and about $20 for miscellaneous other minor parts. Hunt says, '[The GSM/GPRS module] allow us to send standard AT commands to it to make calls, hang up, send texts, data etc. Overall a very clever module. Towards the bottom of the white PCB, you can see the SIM Card, which allows the module to associate with my local GSM network, and it’s using a regular prepaid SIM card, bought in my local phone store for €10. Below the GSM module, you can see the on.off switch and a DC-DC converter, which converts the 3.7volts from the LiPoly battery to 5volts needed by everything else.' He points out that the phone is not terribly practical, but it's a neat project. Hunt has done several others, including turning the Raspberry Pi into a controller for time-lapse photography. He'll be publishing the code he wrote for the PiPhone next week." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/04/25/2220250 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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Lumina: PC-BSD's Own Desktop Environment
by Peter Reutemann 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

"The PC-BSD project is developing a new open source (BSD license) desktop environment from scratch. The name of the project is Lumina and it will be based around the Qt toolkit. The ultimate goal is to replace KDE as the default desktop of PC-BSD. Lumina aims to be lightweight, stable, fast-running, and FreeDesktop.org/XDG compliant. Most of the Lumina work is being done by PC-BSD's Ken Moore. Even though Lumina is still in its early stages, it can be built and run successfully, and an alpha version can already be obtained from PC-BSD's ports/package repositories." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/24/1544216 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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OpenSSL Forked By OpenBSD Into LibreSSL
by Peter Reutemann 24 Apr '14

24 Apr '14

"LibreSSL is a FREE version of the SSL/TLS protocol forked from OpenSSL" -- source: http://www.libressl.org/ 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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Private Keys Stolen Within Hours From Heartbleed OpenSSL Site
by Peter Reutemann 20 Apr '14

20 Apr '14

"It was reported when heartbleed was discovered that only passwords would be at risk and private keys were still safe. Not anymore. Cloudfare launched the heartbleed challenge on a new server with the openSSL vulnerability and offered a prize to whoever could gain the private keys. Within hours several researchers and a hacker got in and got the private signing keys. Expect many forged certificates and other login attempts to banks and other popular websites in the coming weeks unless the browser makers and CA's revoke all the old keys and certificates." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/04/13/1553258 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

How To Reset A Forgotten Root Password With Knoppix
by Peter Reutemann 18 Apr '14

18 Apr '14

Today, I had the problem that I could no longer remember the user/password for one of my Xubuntu installations in Virtualbox. So I downloaded Knoppix 7.0 and had a look what the names of the installed users were. After that, I had to figure how to reset them. Here is the HOWTO that I used to reset my user's password (doesn't have to be "root"). It's scarily easy, to be honest... "This guide explains how you can reset a forgotten root password with the help of the Knoppix Linux Live-CD. Afterwards you can log in to your system as root again." -- source: http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-reset-a-forgotten-root-password-with-knopp… 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

Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr Released
by Peter Reutemann 18 Apr '14

18 Apr '14

"Ubuntu Linux version 14.04 LTS (code named "Trusty Tahr") has been released and available for download. This updated version includes the Linux kernel v3.13.0-24.46, Python 3.4, Xen 4.4, Libreoffice 4.2.3, MySQL 5.6/MariaDB 5.5, Apache 2.4, PHP 5.5, improvements to AppArmor allow more fine-grained control over application, and more. The latest release of Ubuntu Server is heavily focused on supporting cloud and scale-out computing platforms such as OpenStack, Docker, and more. As part of the wider Ubuntu 14.04 release efforts the Ubuntu Touch team is proud to make the latest and greatest touch experience available to our enthusiast users and developers. You can install Ubuntu on Nexus 4 Phone (mako), Nexus 7 (2013) Tablet (flo), and Nexus 10 Tablet (manta) by following these instructions. On a hardware front, ARM multiplatform support has been added, enabling you to build a single ARM kernel image that can boot across multiple hardware platforms. Additionally, the ARM64 and Power architectures are now fully supported. See detailed release notes for more information. Aquick upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu is possible over the network." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/04/17/1756254 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 GNOME Foundation Is Running Out of Money
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '14

13 Apr '14

"The GNOME Foundation is running out of money. The foundation no longer has any cash reserves so they have voted to freeze non-essential funding for running the foundation. They are also hunting down sponsors and unpaid invoices to regain some delayed revenue. Those wishing to support the GNOME Foundation can become a friend of GNOME." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/13/1454215 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

The Ubuntu smartphone actually looks pretty great
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '14

13 Apr '14

"It has been a long time since Canonical announced the Ubuntu Edge smartphone campaign on Indiegogo. It raised an incredible $12 million dollars, but -- equally incredible -- it still fell around $20 million short of its lofty goals. However, that didn't derail Canonical's agenda of bringing its desktop Linux OS, Ubuntu, to mobile devices. In fact, judging by this video demo, the project is still going strong." -- source: http://bit.ly/1kIP1rU 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 3.15 Will Suspend & Resume Much Faster
by Peter Reutemann 13 Apr '14

13 Apr '14

"The Linux 3.15 kernel now in its early life will be able to suspend and resume much faster than previous versions of the Linux kernel. A few days ago we saw ACPI and Power Management updates that enable asynchronous threads for more suspend and resume callbacks. Carrying out more async operations leads to reduced time for the system suspend and then resuming. According to one developer, it was about an 80% time savings within one of the phases. On Friday, work was merged that ensured the kernel is no longer blocked by waiting for ATA devices to resume. Multiple ATA devices can be woken up simultaneously, and any ATA commands for the device(s) will be queued until they have powered up. According to an 01.org blog post on the ATA/SCSI resume optimization patches, when tested on three Intel Linux systems the resume time was between 7x and 12x faster (not including the latest ACPI/PM S&R optimizations)." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/04/12/1833244 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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Princeton Students Develop Open Source Voice Control Platform For Any Device
by Peter Reutemann 09 Apr '14

09 Apr '14

"Two Princeton computer science students have created an open source platform for developing voice-controlled applications that are always on. Created by Shubhro Saha and Charlie Marsh, Jasper runs on the Raspberry Pi under Raspbian, using a collection of open source libraries to make up a development platform for building voice-controlled applications. Marsh and Saha demonstrate Jasper's capability to perform Internet searches, update social media, and control music players such as Spotify." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/04/09/1432244 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] URGENT ALERT: *CRITICAL* OpenSSL vulnerability - heartbleed
by Peter Reutemann 08 Apr '14

08 Apr '14

Apologies if you've received this already. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jaco ... Date: Wed, Apr 9, 2014 at 10:42 AM Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] URGENT ALERT: *CRITICAL* OpenSSL vulnerability - heartbleed To: ... Hi boys & girls, In case you've not quite caught onto this yet - it's pretty damn bad. heartbleed.com go forth & patch/update ASAP - Jaco (been a pretty rough month) _______________________________________________ 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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Hands-on with AVLinux: Crammed with multimedia goodies
by Peter Reutemann 08 Apr '14

08 Apr '14

AVLinux "is specifically intended for creating, editing and playing multimedia content," explains ZDNet.com's Jamie Watson. He says it is "crammed with multimedia goodies." During testing Jamie found that the whole system was geared towards that purpose. In conclusion, Watson said, "Besides being jam-packed with goodies, it is a very good Linux distribution to boot!" -- source: www.zdnet.com/7000028016/ 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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Dyn.com Ends Free Dynamic DNS
by Peter Reutemann 07 Apr '14

07 Apr '14

"For the last 15 years, all of us at Dyn have taken pride in offering a free version of our Dynamic DNS Pro product. What was originally a product built for a small group of users has blossomed into an exciting technology used around the world. That is why with mixed emotions we announced the end of that free hostname program today, officially turning down on May 7th." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/07/1450222 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

Raspberry Pi Compute Module Release
by Peter Reutemann 07 Apr '14

07 Apr '14

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation has developed a new product. It is basically a Raspberry Pi model A processor memory and flash memory on a DDR2 style SODIMM connector. Also available will be a development board that breaks out all the internal connections. The board design will be open sourced so you can develop your own devices using the BCM2835 processor. No network, but support for 2 HDMI displays and 2 cameras, so 3D TV is a possibility." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/04/07/1637249 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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Nautilus Terminal: An Embedded Terminal for Nautilus File Browser in GNOME
by Peter Reutemann 07 Apr '14

07 Apr '14

"Nautilus Terminal is a Nautilus file browser embedded terminal, which follows your movement and automatically cd to your current directory. Nautilus Terminal makes it possible to work in command line while navigating in Real GUI." -- source: http://bit.ly/1mSdyYs 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

Three Alternatives to Ubuntu One Cloud Service
by Peter Reutemann 07 Apr '14

07 Apr '14

"Many of us had hoped it was an April Fool's prank. But Ubuntu One will, in fact, no longer be available as of June 1, 2014 and all data will be wiped July 31, 2014. This will leave a great number of Ubuntu users without a cloud service. Fear not, intrepid users, there are plenty of cloud services and tools available - each with native Linux clients - ready and willing to take your Ubuntu One data and keep it in the cloud." -- source: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/769023 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 Developers Consider On-Screen QR Codes For Kernel Panics
by Peter Reutemann 05 Apr '14

05 Apr '14

"Linux kernel developers are currently evaluating the possibility of using QR codes to display kernel oops/panic messages. Right now a lot of text is dumped to the screen when a kernel oops occurs, most of which isn't easily archivable by normal Linux end-users. With QR codes as Linux oops messages, a smart-phone could capture the display and either report the error string or redirect them to an error page on Kernel.org. The idea of using QR codes within the Linux kernel is still being discussed by upstream developers." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/04/05/2228251 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

NYU Group Says Its Scheme Makes Cracking Individual Passwords Impossible
by Peter Reutemann 03 Apr '14

03 Apr '14

"Researchers at New York University have devised a new scheme called PolyPassHash for storing password hash data so that passwords cannot be individually cracked by an attacker. Instead of a password hash being stored directly in the database, the information is used to encode a share in a Shamir Secret Store (technical details PDF). This means that a password cannot be validated without recovering a threshold of shares, thus an attacker must crack groups of passwords together. The solution is fast, easy to implement (with C and Python implementations available), requires no changes to clients, and makes a huge difference in practice. To put the security difference into perspective, three random 6 character passwords that are stored using standard salted secure hashes can be cracked by a laptop in an hour. With a PolyPassHash store, it would take every computer on the planet longer to crack these passwords than the universe is estimated to exist. With this new technique, HoneyWords, and hardware solutions all available, does an organization have any excuse if their password database is disclosed and user passwords are cracked?." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/04/03/1440211 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

Brendan Eich Steps Down As Mozilla CEO
by Peter Reutemann 03 Apr '14

03 Apr '14

"Brendan Eich has chosen to step down from his role as CEO. He's made this decision for Mozilla and our community. Mozilla believes both in equality and freedom of speech. Equality is necessary for meaningful speech. And you need free speech to fight for equality. Figuring out how to stand for both at the same time can be hard ..." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/04/03/1924250 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

Canonical Shutting Down Ubuntu One File Services
by Peter Reutemann 02 Apr '14

02 Apr '14

"Wanting to focus their efforts on their most important strategic initiatives and ensuring that the company is not spread too thin, Canonical is shutting down Ubuntu One file services. With other services now regularly offering from 25 GB to 50 GB of free storage, the personal cloud storage space wasn't a sustainable place for Canonical. As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One software will not be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 LTS release, and the Ubuntu One apps in older versions of Ubuntu and in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately. The current services will be unavailable from 1 June 2014; user content will remain available for download until 31 July, at which time it will be deleted. For a spark of solace, the company promises to open source the backend code." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/04/02/1355244 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 Apache Allura Project For Project Development Hosting
by Peter Reutemann 01 Apr '14

01 Apr '14

"Today the Apache Software Foundation announced the Allura project for hosting software development projects. Think GitHub or SourceForge on your own servers -- Allura has git, svn, hg, wiki, tickets, forums, news, etc. It's written in python and has a modular and extensible platform so you can write your own tools and extensions. It's already used by SourceForge, DARPA, German Aerospace Center, and Open Source Projects Europe. Allura is open source; available under the Apache License v2.0. When you don't want all your project resources in the cloud on somebody else's walled garden, you can run Allura on your own servers and have full control and full data access." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/04/01/213243 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

Why Arguing That Windows is Better Than Linux Makes You Look Silly
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

'It seems as though you can't throw a rock on the internet without hitting an article which argues for the superiority of Windows over Linux. With titles like "Five reasons I'd rather run Windows 8 than Linux", these articles are a dime a dozen. ... Are these sorts of articles a wee bit pointless? Sure. It's really just preaching to the choir, so to speak. But they're fun to read. They're almost like the tech-nerd equivalent of a gossip rag.' Read Bryan Lunduke's full article, it's quite funny... -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/768257 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 and Manage Btrfs Snapshots and Rollbacks on Linux
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

"Btrfs is the next-generation Linux filesystem all cram-full of advanced features designed for maximum data protection and massive scalability such as copy-on-write, storage pools, checksums, support for 16, count 'em, 16-exabyte filesystems, journaling, online grow and shrink, and space-efficient live snapshots. If you're accustomed to using LVM and RAID to manage your data storage, Btrfs can replace these. A snapshot is a copy of a Btrfs subvolume at a particular point in time. It's many times faster than making a traditional backup, and incurs no downtime. You can make snapshots of a filesystem whenever you want, and then quickly roll back to any of them." Articles: - http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/767332 - http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/767683 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

OpenSUSE To Offer Rolling Release KDE Experience
by Peter Reutemann 31 Mar '14

31 Mar '14

"openSUSE and KDE teams are working on creating four KDE SC repositories for openSUSE which will enable users to get the the kind of experience they want. Users can stick to the default repos that come with openSUSE if they want to use what openSUSE offers. Those users who want to stay updated with the latest KDE SC releases can use the "KDE:Current" repository which will always remain updated. 3rd repo "KDE:Distro:Factory" will offer KDE packages which are being tested and prepared before they are pushed to the 'Current' repo. The fourth repo "KDE:Unstable:SC" will offer early builds as they are being devloped." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/30/2258202 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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git and executable files
by Peter Reutemann 29 Mar '14

29 Mar '14

Hi there During the Android talk at our last meeting, Lawrence encountered the problem that his scripts weren't executable. Maybe the following stackoverflow thread fixes this ("git update-index ..."): http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7048763 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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Facebook To Begin Deploying Btrfs
by Peter Reutemann 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

"After hiring the lead Btrfs developers and Linux kernel block maintainers last year, Facebook is beginning trial deployments of Btrfs. Facebook will start using the next-generation file-system within their web-tier and they will be among the first major public deployments of Btrfs." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/27/1726202 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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creating your own live CD
by Peter Reutemann 27 Mar '14

27 Mar '14

Hi there At the last meeting, a question came up on how to convince businesses to switch to Linux. Live CDs are nice, however, they might not contain all the software that a particular company might need (for a test drive). Creating a custom Live CD - and on USB drives with a persistence partition - would be a good way of giving them something to have a play with. I had a quick look around and came across the following tools: - Ubuntu Customization Kit http://www.howtogeek.com/109736/how-to-create-a-custom-ubuntu-live-cd-or-us… https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/precise/uck/ - SuSE Studio https://susestudio.com/ HTH Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOME 3.12 Released
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '14

26 Mar '14

"Like clockwork, the next version of GNOME has been released with updated applications, bugfixes, and so forth. People can look forward to faster loading times and a little better performance than before. A video has been created to highlight the release! Check it out!" -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/26/2114244 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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XWayland Aiming For Glamor Support, Merge Next X.Org Release
by Peter Reutemann 26 Mar '14

26 Mar '14

"X.Org Server 1.16 this summer should support XWayland, the means of allowing X11 applications to run atop Wayland-based compositors without the need for any application/game changes. With the revised design, XWayland has generic 2D acceleration over OpenGL and a cleaner design compared to earlier revisions. With GNOME 3.12 having better Wayland support and Plasma Next around the corner, it looks like 2014 could be the year of Wayland's take-off!" -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/26/1648235 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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Neovim: Rebuilding Vim For the 21st Century
by Peter Reutemann 22 Mar '14

22 Mar '14

"Neovim is a major overhaul of the vim editor to provide better scripting, cleaner support for plugins and integration with modern graphical interfaces. Modernising the large and complex codebase of Vim is a formidable task, but the developer has a clear plan, and has already begun work. There's a Bountysource fundraiser running to support the effort. If Vim is your editor of choice, check it out." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/03/22/147222 Really looking forward to that overhaul! :-) 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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Speedy Attack Targets Web Servers With Outdated Linux Kernels
by Peter Reutemann 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

"Web servers running a long-outdated version of the Linux kernel were attacked with dramatic speed over two days last week, according to Cisco Systems. All the affected servers were running the 2.6 version, first released in December 2003. 'When attackers discover a vulnerability in the system, they can exploit it at their whim without fear of it being remedied,' Cisco said. After the Web server has been compromised, the attackers slip in a line of JavaScript to other JavaScript files within the website. That code bounces the website's visitors to a second compromised host. 'The two-stage process allows attackers to serve up a variety of malicious content to the visitor,' according to Cisco." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/21/1913207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux May Succeed Windows XP As OS of Choice For ATMs
by Peter Reutemann 21 Mar '14

21 Mar '14

"Some financial services companies are looking to migrate their ATM fleets from Windows to Linux in a bid to have better control over hardware and software upgrade cycles. Pushing them in that direction apparently is Microsoft's decision to end support for Windows XP on April 8, said David Tente, executive director, USA, of the ATM Industry Association. 'There is some heartburn in the industry' over Microsoft's end-of-support decision, Tente said. ATM operators would like to be able to synchronize their hardware and software upgrade cycles. But that's hard to do with Microsoft dictating the software upgrade timetable. As a result, 'some are looking at the possibility of using a non-Microsoft operating system to synch up their hardware and software upgrades,' Tente said." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/21/1512220 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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7 favorite Raspberry Pi projects
by Peter Reutemann 20 Mar '14

20 Mar '14

"Originally designed for education, the Raspberry Pi was inspired by 1981's BBC Micro, also created for education. But when it was released, what makers saw was a very small computer, perfect for putting in all kinds of projects due to the abilities it has crammed into such a small space. Here are a few of my favorites..." -- source: http://opensource.com/life/14/3/favorite-raspberry-pi-projects 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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Data Recovery From Accidentally Deleted Files or Crashed Drives in Ubuntu
by Peter Reutemann 20 Mar '14

20 Mar '14

"This tutorial will help you to recover data from accidentally deleted data from Linux-file systems. This is a very drastic mistake by any user/admin which costs for huge penalties. This script will be a boon for newbies/expert for data management. I will be using TestDisk for data-recovery. Here I have simplified the task with the help of a script." -- source: http://bit.ly/1d1I6GT Testdisk itself actually runs on many operating systems (DOS, Windows, Linux, Mac): http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk 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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OpenSUSE 13.2 To Use Btrfs By Default
by Peter Reutemann 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

"OpenSUSE has shared features coming to their 13.2 release in November. The big feature is using Btrfs by default instead of EXT4. OpenSUSE is committed to Btrfs and, surprisingly, they are the first major Linux distribution to use it by default. But then again, they were also big ReiserFS fans. Other planned OpenSUSE 13.2 features are Wayland 1.4, KDE Frameworks 5, and a new Qt5 front-end to YaST." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/03/19/2125243 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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Enlightenment E19 To Have Full Wayland Support
by Peter Reutemann 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

"Full Wayland support has been added to Enlightenment 0.19. Building upon earlier Wayland support, Enlightenment can now act as its own Wayland compositor by communicating directly with the kernel's DRM drivers instead of having to rely upon Weston. The Wayland support is still considered experimental but it's now the first Linux desktop with full Wayland support." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/19/1344224 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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Malware Attack Infected 25,000 Linux/UNIX Servers
by Peter Reutemann 19 Mar '14

19 Mar '14

"Security researchers from ESET have uncovered a widespread attack campaign that has infected more than 25,000 Linux and UNIX servers around the world. The servers are being hijacked by a backdoor Trojan as part of a campaign the researchers are calling 'Operation Windigo.' Once infected, victimized systems are leveraged to steal credentials, redirected web traffic to malicious sites and send as many as 35 million spam messages a day. 'Windigo has been gathering strength, largely unnoticed by the security community, for more than two and a half years and currently has 10,000 servers under its control,' said Pierre-Marc Bureau, security intelligence program manager at ESET, in a statement. There are many misconceptions around Linux security, and attacks are not something only Windows users need to worry about. The main threats facing Linux systems aren't zero-day vulnerabilities or malware, but things such as Trojanized applications, PHP backdoors, and malicious login attempts over SSH. ESET recommends webmasters and system administrators check their systems to see if they are compromised, and has published a detailed report presenting the findings and instructions on how to remove the malicious code if it is present." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/03/18/2218237 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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Saturday Linux workshop
by Bruce Kingsbury 18 Mar '14

18 Mar '14

I'll be running another Saturday Linux Workshop this weekend; March 22nd, 2014 10:00 am - 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 This is a GNU/Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs, Laptops, Pi's, Android devices etc for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome - light lunch provided - gold coin donation appreciated *NEW: the community house has upgraded to UFB. Now you can download your favorite distro faster than ever!*

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 18 Mar '14

18 Mar '14

Hi everyone We have a WLUG meeting next week on Monday and Lawrence D'Oliveiro will talk about: - Using Android: UI conventions, vendor customization - Structure of Android: Linux kernel, use of processes and user IDs, Toolbox Shell - Programming Android: app (APK) structure, Java & Dalvik, Bionic runtime, privilege model, SDK, NDK (for C/C++ code), platform APIs, OpenGL-ES - Hacking Android: AOSP, alternative ROMs http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/161631632/ 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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HamPUG: Hamilton Python User Group
by Peter Reutemann 18 Mar '14

18 Mar '14

Hi everyone For more local Python stuff in and around Hamilton (and the Waikato), we've set up a mailing list called "HamPUG": http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/hampug Scheduled meetings will appear on meetup.com and on this mailing list. Feel free to subscribe! :-) 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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CASE STUDY: NZ fruit distributor freshens up with Linux
by Peter Reutemann 14 Mar '14

14 Mar '14

"Turners&Growers made the move to Suse Linux and IBM's DB2, while converting to Unicode, inside a short timeframe, but have no regrets to date." -- source: http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/540412 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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Google To Replace GTK+ With Its Own Aura In Chrome
by Peter Reutemann 12 Mar '14

12 Mar '14

"Google's Chromium team is working on an alternative of Gtk+ for the browser, called Aura. Elliot Glaysher, a Google developer explains, 'We aim to launch the Aura graphics stack on Linux in M35. Aura is a cross-platform graphics system, and the Aura frontend will replace the current GTK+ frontend.' The Free Software community is debating: is Google trying to do Canonical? Couldn't Google just switch to Qt, which is becoming an industry standard?" -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/12/0147256 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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$2, 400 'Introduction To Linux' Course Will Be Free and Online This Summer
by Peter Reutemann 09 Mar '14

09 Mar '14

"Earlier this week, The Linux Foundation announced that it would be working with edX, a non-profit online learning site governed by Harvard and MIT, to make its "Introduction to Linux" course free and open to all. The Linux Foundation has long offered a wide variety of training courses through its website, but those can generally cost upwards of $2,000. This introductory class, which usually costs $2,400, will be the first from the Linux Foundation to run as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/08/2258208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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KDE Releases Calligra Suite 2.8
by Peter Reutemann 08 Mar '14

08 Mar '14

"The Calligra team is proud and pleased to announce the release of version 2.8 of the Calligra Suite, Calligra Active and the Calligra Office Engine. Major new features in this release are comments support in Author and Words, improved Pivot tables in Sheets, improved stability and the ability to open hyperlinks in Kexi. Flow introduces SVG based stencils and as usual there are many new features in Krita including touch screens support and a wraparound painting mode for the creation of textures and tiles." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/03/08/0454245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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New attack on HTTPS crypto might reveal if you're pregnant or have cancer
by Peter Reutemann 07 Mar '14

07 Mar '14

"As the most widely used technology to prevent eavesdropping on the Internet, HTTPS encryption has seen its share of attacks, most of which work by exploiting weaknesses that allow snoops to decode cryptographically scrambled traffic. Now there's a novel technique that can pluck out details as personal as someone's sexual orientation or a contemplation of suicide, even when the protection remains intact." -- source: http://bit.ly/1czsdHI 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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Computer History 6/6
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Mar '14

05 Mar '14

Some old classics there. But boy, have we come a long way since characters made out of spheres and cylinders...

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Computer History 4/6
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 05 Mar '14

05 Mar '14

And if you want to see how far computer graphics has come, try this one:

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Canonical Ports Chromium To The Mir Display Server
by Peter Reutemann 05 Mar '14

05 Mar '14

"Months after Intel ported the Chromium open-source web browser to Wayland, Chromium is now running on Ubuntu's Mir. The Mir display server port ended up being based on Wayland's Chromium code for interfacing with Google's Ozone abstraction framework. The Ubuntu developer responsible for this work makes claims that they will be trying to better collaborate with Wayland developers over this code." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/03/05/1240226 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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Google Won't Enable Chrome Video Acceleration Because of Linux GPU Bugs
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '14

04 Mar '14

"Citing 'code we consider to be permanently "experimental" or "beta,"' Google Chrome engineers have no plans on enabling video acceleration in the Chrome/Chromium web browser. Code has been written but is permanently disabled by default because 'supporting GPU features on Linux is a nightmare' due to the reported sub-par quality of Linux GPU drivers and many different Linux distributions. Even coming up with a Linux GPU video acceleration white-list has been shot down over fear of the Linux video acceleration code causing stability issues and problems for Chrome developers. What have been your recent experiences with Linux GPU drivers?" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/03/04/1926233 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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Bug In the GnuTLS Library Leaves Many OSs and Apps At Risk
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '14

04 Mar '14

"According to this article at Ars Technica, '[A] bug in the GnuTLS library makes it trivial for attackers to bypass secure sockets layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protections available on websites that depend on the open source package. Initial estimates included in Internet discussions such as this one indicate that more than 200 different operating systems or applications rely on GnuTLS to implement crucial SSL and TLS operations, but it wouldn't be surprising if the actual number is much higher. Web applications, e-mail programs, and other code that use the library are vulnerable to exploits that allow attackers monitoring connections to silently decode encrypted traffic passing between end users and servers.' The coding error may have been present since 2005." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/14/03/04/2150223 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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Ars walkthrough: Using the ZFS next-gen filesystem on Linux
by Peter Reutemann 04 Mar '14

04 Mar '14

"There are lots of options for running ZFS, and very little of this walkthrough will really depend on your use of Ubuntu in particular or even Linux in general. You can always visit http://zfsonlinux.org directly for help with the initial installation if you prefer RHEL or Fedora or Arch or what have you--and if you're a BSD fan, ZFS is available from the base installer in either PC-BSD or in the latest 10.0 release of FreeBSD itself." -- source: http://bit.ly/1filf41 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

Tor develops its own anonymous IM tool to hide chat from spying eyes
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

"The Tor Foundation is moving forward with a plan to provide its own instant messaging service. Called the Tor Instant Messaging Bundle, the tool will allow people to communicate in real time while preserving anonymity by using chat servers concealed within Tor's hidden network." -- source: http://goo.gl/BUjLY7 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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Latvian hospital uses GNU/Linux
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

"The Children's Hospital in Riga, Latvia uses GNU/Linux for most of its tasks. Around 2003, the hospital deployed openSUSE on some of its machines and installed a basic HIS (Hospital Information System) on it. Later, they developed their own HIS, and moved their new services to Xen virtualization servers. (An HIS is a software used to manage all the data and operations of a hospital in an integrated fashion.) Currently, the hospital has about 600 workstations, and over half of them run Ubuntu." -- source: http://www.muktware.com/2014/02/latvian-hospital-uses-gnulinux/21851 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

Raspberry Pi marks 2nd birthday with plan for open source graphics driver
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

'The Raspberry Pi Foundation, with help from chipmaker Broadcom, is laying out a path toward an open source graphics driver for the tiny computer. Broadcom today "announced the release of full documentation for the VideoCore IV graphics core, and a complete source release of the graphics stack under a 3-clause BSD license," Raspberry Pi creator Eben Upton wrote in a blog post.' -- source: http://bit.ly/1kKjhP2 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 14.04 'Trusty Tahr' beta
by Peter Reutemann 03 Mar '14

03 Mar '14

"The first Beta of Trusty Tahr (to become 14.04 LTS) has now been released for testers and early adopters. This beta features images for Edubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Ubuntu Kylin, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu and the Ubuntu Cloud images. These are not to be used as stable systems but please do test for bugs to report. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs." -- source: http://lwn.net/Articles/588871/ 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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Android Presentation
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Feb '14

26 Feb '14

I suppose it’s time to start thinking about my presentation on Android development on 24th March. I’ll bring a couple of my own devices (must remember a USB cable as well...). If I can have access to the demo machine about an hour before the presentation, I can install the Android SDK on it—I normally put that just in my own user directory. However, I’ve found I have trouble accessing connected devices unless I launch the ADB server as root. I can pull down various bits of sample code off GitHub and developer.android.com. I’ve been able to do Java compilations with OpenJDK as a replacement for Sun JDK. I assume we can project the desktop machine display for everyone to see, but I’m not so sure how we do that with an Android device. (My devices may speak some version of MHL, if that helps.) Or we could run sample apps on an emulator on the desktop machine?

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Saturday Linux workshop
by Bruce Kingsbury 20 Feb '14

20 Feb '14

I'll be running another Saturday Linux Workshop tomorrow; February 22nd, 2014 10:00 am - 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 This is a GNU/Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs, Pi's, Android devices etc for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome - light lunch provided - gold coin donation appreciated

2 1

Ubuntu store apps won't work across mobile and desktop in 14.04
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '14

14 Feb '14

One of Canonical's main goals in bringing Ubuntu to mobile devices is to create a converged platform across smartphones, tablets, and PCs. As such, a developer should be able to write an app that has a single code base yet runs on all three types of devices, presenting a different interface to the user on each form factor. ... Technically, this has already been achieved [with Unity 8]. ... The current goal is to get Unity 8 on the desktop in 14.10, "but we are always assessing our roadmap and reviewing what is realistic," Bacon wrote.' -- source: http://bit.ly/1jdrISm 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

Wine On Android Starts Allowing Windows Binaries On Android/ARM
by Peter Reutemann 13 Feb '14

13 Feb '14

"Wine on Android is happening slowly but surely ... Wine is now in a state to be able to run your favorite Windows (x86) game on your Android-powered ARM device, assuming the game is Windows Solitaire. Wine has been making progress on Android to allow simple applications to run on Wine, but they have run into some challenges, as noted in the annual talk at FOSDEM." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/02/10/0251201 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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Godot Game Engine Released Under MIT License
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '14

12 Feb '14

"Godot is a fully featured, open source, MIT licensed, game engine. It focuses on having great tools, and a visual oriented workflow that can deploy to PC, Mobile and Web platforms with no hassle. The editor, language and APIs are feature rich, yet simple to learn. Godot was born as an in-house engine, and was used to publish several work-for-hire commercial titles. With more than half a million lines of code, Godot is one of the most complex Open Source game engines at the moment, and one of the largest commitments to open source software in recent years. It allows developers to make games under Linux (and other unix variants), Windows and OSX." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/02/10/2332205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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What Are the Weirdest Places You've Spotted Linux?
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '14

11 Feb '14

"Bryan Lunduke recently pulled together a collection of the weirdest places he's found Linux, from installations in North Korea and the International Space Station to a super-computer made out of Legos and computer engineer Barbie. Seen any weird places for Linux not mentioned in this list?" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/02/11/174210 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

Red Hat Hires CentOS Developers
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '14

11 Feb '14

"Karanbir Singh and a handful of other CentOS developers are now full-time Red Hat employees, working in-house on the CentOS distribution with more transparent processes and methods. None of the CentOS developers will be working on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The CentOS project would become another distribution and community cared for by Red Hat, like Fedora, and Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens says the company is planning its future around OpenStack, not just Linux." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/02/11/157217 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

Growing the Linux Community
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '14

11 Feb '14

"An unfortunate truth of the Linux community is that sometimes the most enthusiastic proponents of desktop Linux are the biggest hindrance to adoption on a wider scale. Nothing illustrates this point clearer than reading through the comments of posts that are either suggesting change or are simply disparaging the concept. Two such articles were recently published, David Gewirtz, writing for ZDNet lists five reasons he would rather run Windows 8 than Linux at the end of January, and Jack Wallen suggests talking about Linux in a language we can all understand on TechRepublic, also a ZDNet site. Neither article is that interesting in itself, but the comment stream of each reveals much about the state of the community." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/growing-the-linux-community 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

Kingsoft Office For GNU/Linux Looks As Good As MS Office, Performs Even Better!
by Danial Jose 09 Feb '14

09 Feb '14

Hi All, I installed Kingsoft Office on my Ubuntu powered laptop and found it pretty good. There are three applications in the suite as below - - Kingsoft Writer – MS Word alternative - Kingsoft Spreadsheet – MS Excel alternative - Kingsoft Presentation – MS PowerPoint alternative Kingsoft Office is very much compatible with new versions of MS Office. I tried to open many .docx and .xlsx files in Kingsoft Office, and I can say that compatibility is around 95% even for the complex documents. Best part is that the user interface of Kingsoft Office is very similar to MS Office including the Ribbon interface. In fact, you can think of Kingsoft Office almost a clone of MS Office. This will reduce the learning curve for the new users who have recently migrated from Windows to GNU/Linux. One more useful feature is that multiple documents can be opened in Tabs so there is no need of switching between multiple windows. Don't believe me? Try out the Kingsoft Office yourself! http://wps-community.org/download.html "If you like our product, tell your friends, if you don't, please tell us! > (^_^)" http://wps-community.org/forum/ http://goo.gl/LwaMwe http://goo.gl/dyisOc http://goo.gl/hfMGHG Cheers, Danial José

2 1

Adobe Flash Remote Code Execution Flaw Exploited In the Wild
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '14

09 Feb '14

"Adobe has released an emergency patch for a critical vulnerability affecting Flash Player for Windows, Linux, and OS X, the exploitation of which can result in an attacker gaining remote control of the victims' systems. The flaw is being actively exploited in the wild, but apart from crediting its discovery to researchers Alexander Polyakov and Anton Ivanov of Kaspersky Labs, no details about the ongoing attack has been shared." -- source: http://it-beta.slashdot.org/story/14/02/05/1421229 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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bmon: Real-time Network Traffic Monitor (Console) for Ubuntu Linux
by Peter Reutemann 07 Feb '14

07 Feb '14

Was looking for a "graphical" network traffic monitor (of live traffic) for the console today and came across "bmon". More info and screenshot in the following blog post: http://www.hecticgeek.com/2012/03/bmon-real-time-network-traffic-ubuntu-lin… What is your favorite tool? 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 Could Get a New File Manager as Development Model Shifts
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '14

04 Feb '14

"For some time now, the folks at Canonical, and particularly Mark Shuttleworth, have been discussing delivering Ubuntu with a development model that keeps the OS converged for use on desktop, mobile and server devices. We've been waiting to see granular evidence of how this kind of unified development might work, and a new discussion forum post titled Default File Manager with Unity8 in Future Desktops provides an example. It lays out requirements for a new file manager to be developed for Unity 8 for desktops and laptops. This would actually be the Ubuntu Touch file manager, now in development." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/ubuntu-could-get-a-new-file-manager-as-development-… 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

LibreOffice 4.2 Busts Out GPU Mantle Support and Corporate IT Integration
by Peter Reutemann 30 Jan '14

30 Jan '14

"In catching up with MS Office, the new LibreOffice 4.2 now has full Windows 7/8 integration including Aero peek, thumbnails, jumplists, and recent documents all from the taskbar. In addition, one weak area for LibreOffice has been enterprise network support and the lack of active directory tools: LibreOffice now has GPO and active directory support for system administrators to deploy and manage LibreOffice over corporate networks. LibreOffice also includes an expert configuration Window to assist power users and system administrators when deploying to hundreds of workstation at a time." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/14/01/30/1654234 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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Re: [wlug] wlug Digest, Vol 271, Issue 17
by Mark H. Jones 30 Jan '14

30 Jan '14

> Actually, it is documented in xkeyboard-config(7). The following should > work: > > setxkbmap -options shift:both_capslock > > The Colemak layout can be obtained with: > > setxkbmap -layout 'us(colemak)' > > I would put the above into /etc/default/keyboard (if on a Debian like > system) as > > XKBLAYOUT="us" > XKBVARIANT="colemak" > XKBOPTIONS="shift:both_capslock" > > (untested but that is what I gather from the man file). > > Cheers > Michael. Perfect - now it takes effect before GDM starts. No more switching layouts to enter my login password after a reboot. Thanks Michael.

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Re: [wlug] How to Kill the Caps Lock on your Linux Desktop
by Mark H. Jones 29 Jan '14

29 Jan '14

A while ago I switched to the Colemak keyboard layout which replaces the Caps Lock key with an additional backspace. Most of the time not having Caps Lock was fine but occasionally I find myself having to write whole words in capitals (esp. when programming) which was a pain. If you're using the Gnome desktop environment (or if you load gnome-settings in the background for those using a tiling window manager) you can set the Caps Lock to be toggled by pressing both Shift keys simultaneously. For me this was a huge productivity booster. To do this via Gnome: open the system settings -> Keyboard -> Layout Settings -> Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options and tick "Both Shift-Keys together toggle Caps Lock" If anyone knows how to achieve this via command line, without gnome-settings, please share.

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How to Kill the Caps Lock on your Linux Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jan '14

28 Jan '14

"I really liked being free of the intrusive Caps Lock, since I'm not a very good typist; I look down at the keys a lot, and if I've hit the lock by mistake it can be half a line or more before I notice. Anyway, with Disable suddenly unavailable I did some searching and found that the function of the Caps Lock key could be replaced by adding a script to xmodmap." -- source: http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/758968 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

Does Anyone Make a Photo De-Duplicator For Linux? Something That Reads EXIF?
by Peter Reutemann 24 Jan '14

24 Jan '14

"Imagine having thousands of images on disparate machines. many are dupes, even among the disparate machines. It's impossible to delete all the dupes manually and create a singular, accurate photo image base? Is there an app out there that can scan a file system, perhaps a target sub-folder system, and suck in the images-- WITHOUT creating duplicates? Perhaps by reading EXIF info or hashes? I have eleven file systems saved, and the task of eliminating dupes seems impossible." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/01/23/2227241 Worthwhile reading the comments, mentioning various tools. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

5 6

Passing of Michael McDonald
by Ian McDonald 24 Jan '14

24 Jan '14

Hello all I'm sorry to let you know that Dad passed away on the 12th January and I know many of you knew him. Over the years he enjoyed his time at WLUG going to many meetings, helping with Ubuntu install days etc. He was a strong believer in open source and converted hundreds of machines to Linux and other open source software such as Firefox, LibreOffice. Ian

2 2

Pear OS gone
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '14

23 Jan '14

'David Tavares, founder of Pear OS, apparently messaged the other day on Google+ that the Ubuntu-based distribution would no longer be available for download. According to Softpedia.com, "Mr. Tavares sold the Pear OS distribution to an undisclosed company that will develop the Linux-based operating system for its own products."' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/pear-departure-bodhi-fundraiser-and-mageia-4-rc 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

Scientists detect “spoiled onions” trying to sabotage Tor privacy network
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jan '14

22 Jan '14

"Computer scientists have identified almost two dozen computers that were actively working to sabotage the Tor privacy network by carrying out attacks that can degrade encrypted connections between end users and the websites or servers they visit." -- source: http://bit.ly/1hKCdw4 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: [nzpug] Re: python users in Hamilton
by Bruce Kingsbury 22 Jan '14

22 Jan '14

This might be of interest to WLUG too; ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: William Mckee <will(a)artcontrol.me> Date: 22 January 2014 13:53 Subject: Re: [nzpug] Re: python users in Hamilton To: "nzpug(a)googlegroups.com" <nzpug(a)googlegroups.com> Hello I have been organizing some Python classes to start happening in Hamilton. These will be every Wednesday from 6pm till 8pm at ‘Te Whare o Te Ata’ Community House, 60A Sare Crescent, Fairfield, Hamilton, New Zealand (map<https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%E2%80%98Te+Wh…> ) The first class will be held on 12th February 2014. It's a great spot - 10 computers (and a pi!) are running Debian. All skill levels welcome. Free of charge. Come along and meet fellow python people and let's build some awesome software. Thanks, William Mckee On 18/10/2013 2:07 PM, "Eric Light" <eric(a)ericlight.com> wrote: > Myself and two others from Gravity Computing are likely to get there! We > don't do Python commercially, but we've been dabbling. :-) > On 18/10/2013 1:20 PM, "Chris O'Halloran" <cmoman(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> Hi Bruce >> >> I suggest you suggest a time and place and we'll see if can get a show of >> hands of potential attendees. >> >> Enough people have commented on this thread that there is definitely some >> interest. >> >> Is there a project available at your venue to do "show and tell" >> >> Cheers, >> >> Chris >> >> >> On 17 October 2013 15:11, William Mckee <will(a)artcontrol.me> wrote: >> >>> Hello. >>> I am interested in helping out and getting something happen in Hamilton >>> with Python classes/meetups. >>> Currently I spent the majority of my days working on projects in IPython >>> Notebook in a Linux environment. >>> It would be great to meet you Bruce (and anyone else) and discuss. >>> Here's my github: https://github.com/wcmckee >>> >>> Thanks, >>> William Mckee >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "New Zealand Python User Group" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to nzpug+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to nzpug(a)googlegroups.com. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nzpug. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "New Zealand Python User Group" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to nzpug+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to nzpug(a)googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nzpug. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "New Zealand Python User Group" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to nzpug+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to nzpug(a)googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nzpug. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "New Zealand Python User Group" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to nzpug+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to nzpug(a)googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nzpug. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

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FreeBSD 10.0 Released
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '14

21 Jan '14

"FreeBSD 10.0 has been released. A few highlights include: pkg is now the default package management utility. Major enhancements in virtualization, including the addition of bhyve, virtio, and native paravirtualized drivers providing support for FreeBSD as a guest operating system on Microsoft Hyper-V. Support for the high-performance LZ4 compression algorithm has been added to ZFS and TRIM support for SSD has been added to ZFS. clang is the default compiler. This release has official Raspberry Pi support. For a complete list of new features and known problems, please see the online release notes and a quick FreeBSD installation video is here. FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE may be downloaded via ftp or via a torrent client that supports web seeding." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/01/20/1731239 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

Proposal for Android Presentation
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Jan '14

20 Jan '14

Possible things I can talk about in an Android presentation: * Using Android: UI conventions, vendor customization * Structure of Android: Linux kernel, use of processes and user IDs, Toolbox Shell * Programming Android: app (APK) structure, Java & Dalvik, Bionic runtime, privilege model, SDK, NDK (for C/C++ code), platform APIs, OpenGL-ES * Hacking Android: AOSP, alternative ROMs This can be whittled down. :)

2 1

WLUG AGM: tonight
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jan '14

20 Jan '14

Hi everyone The Waikato Linux Users Group Incorporated will hold the AGM tonight at 7pm. Agenda: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Adoption of updated charter - Election of 2014 Committee - Consumption of pizza Depending on how quick we tick off the points on the agenda, Ian might give a short presentation on Map Tiles and Bash. 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 1

OpenBSD Moving Towards Signed Packages
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jan '14

19 Jan '14

"It's official: 'we are moving towards signed packages,' says Theo de Raadt on the misc@ mailing list. This is shortly after a new utility, signify, was committed into the base tree. The reason a new utility had to be written in the first place is that gnupg is too big to fit on the floppy discs, which are still a supported installation medium for OpenBSD. Signatures are based on the Ed25519 public-key signature system from D. J. Bernstein and co., and his public domain code once again appears in the base tree of OpenBSD, only a few weeks after some other DJB inventions made it into the nearby OpenSSH as well." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/14/01/19/0124202 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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WLUG AGM: tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jan '14

19 Jan '14

Hi everyone The Waikato Linux Users Group Incorporated will hold the AGM on tomorrow at 7pm. Agenda: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Adoption of updated charter - Election of 2014 Committee - Consumption of pizza Depending on how quick we tick off the points on the agenda, Ian might give a short presentation on Map Tiles and Bash. 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 workshop and raspberry jam!
by Bruce Kingsbury 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

Just a reminder to all; I'll be running a Saturday Workshop and Raspberry Jam again this year, on the fourth Saturday of every month. Which means the next one is; January 25, 2014 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 This is a GNU/Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs, Pi's, Android devices etc for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. And William Mckee will be along to talk about our new Python classes that are starting this year. All visitors welcome, light lunch provided, gold coin donation appreciated

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Charter amendments
by Michael Ryan 17 Jan '14

17 Jan '14

> I'm a bit worried about the last bullet-point of Section 4: > > "Attempting to exploit or misuse the society or members of the society for pecuniary gain" > > I'm not a lawyer, but on face value, this seems to include into "ground for expulsion" a very wide range of arguably legitimate behaviours such as: > > Inviting a fellow member to be a partner in a tech startup > Offering one's services to another member as a prospective employee or contractor > Getting technical help via the WLUG mailing list regarding (say) Apache or PostgreSQL, to help him/her develop a for-profit website > > Can someone offer clarification? > > Cheers > David I agree - there are a number of existing rules that are quite specific where I think greater generality would work better. Because of the potential for unfairness I was tempted to make the provisions about expulsion more detailed also - expanding on the right of the member proposed to be expelled, to be able to respond to allegations - but decided the situation of an expulsion was most unlikely to arise and didn't presently warrant more complexity in the charter. In this particular provision, "misuse" is fairly clear as involving an improper intention, but "exploit" is not so objectionable. Making a profit from the exploiter's association with WLUG - the "for pecuniary gain" bit - might merely involve describing a useful relationship, or might for example involve pretending to have an endorsement. It would be better to lose the effect of the specific description in that line by substituting it with, say, "Bringing the society into disrepute" (which I believe would apply to my example, if the good name of WLUG was being associated with some private financial punt). Any comments? I've also found another amendment that could be made - in Rule 7 the word "earlier" should be inserted in the first sentence of the fourth paragraph before "resign", so the sentence reads "Officers and committee members whether elected or appointed shall hold office until the next Annual General Meeting or, earlier, resign or are removed by the committee under Rule 4." "earlier" is intended to apply to both resignation and removal. It avoids the alternative amendment of hanging off the end of the sentence an addition saying "whichever happens first". Regards Michael Ryan Ryan Law Solicitors ph (07) 889 8041 fax (07) 889 8709 DX GA24027 P.O. Box 104 Morrinsville, New Zealand ph (07) 884 0002 fax (07) 884 0039 DX GA24502 P.O. Box 77 Te Aroha, New Zealand This communication is confidential and may contain privileged or copyright material. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not use, disclose, copy or retain it. If you have received it in error, we apologise and would appreciate your advising us by return email and your deleting the email and any printed form you may have made of it. We do not guarantee the integrity of this communication, or that it is free from errors, viruses, or interference arising from its method of transmission.

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Amendments to the charter
by Michael Ryan 15 Jan '14

15 Jan '14

I've attached in .pdf format my suggestions for amendments to the present charter. It's best viewed in colour; the amendments are in blue. For anyone interested, I have the original text version available in latex format. Most of the amendments are additions I suggest be included in the charter, either to clarify matters capable of being mis-interpreted or simply not clear; some are amendments previously adopted by the group but not yet registered with the Registrar of Incorporated Societies. Comments and further amendments are welcome. Regards Michael Ryan Ryan Law Solicitors ph (07) 889 8041 fax (07) 889 8709 DX GA24027 P.O. Box 104 Morrinsville, New Zealand ph (07) 884 0002 fax (07) 884 0039 DX GA24502 P.O. Box 77 Te Aroha, New Zealand This communication is confidential and may contain privileged or copyright material. If you are not the intended recipient, please do not use, disclose, copy or retain it. If you have received it in error, we apologise and would appreciate your advising us by return email and your deleting the email and any printed form you may have made of it. We do not guarantee the integrity of this communication, or that it is free from errors, viruses, or interference arising from its method of transmission.

2 1

WLUG AGM: Monday 20th Jan 2014
by Rene Bartosh 12 Jan '14

12 Jan '14

Hi everyone The Waikato Linux Users Group Incorporated will hold the AGM on January 20th at 7pm. Agenda: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Adoption of updated charter - Election of 2014 Committee - Consumption of pizza Regards Rene

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OpenSUSE Forums Defaced, Email Addresses Leaked
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '14

08 Jan '14

"The openSUSE Forums were hijacked yesterday. An alleged Pakistani hacker who goes by handle H4x0r HuSsY reportedly exploited a vulnerability in the vBulletin 4.2.1 software SuSE uses to host the forum. vBulletin is a proprietary forum software. The openSUSE team notes that user passwords were not compromised. 'Credentials for your openSUSE login are not saved in our application databases as we use a single-sign-on system (Access Manager from NetIQ) for all our services. This is a completely separate system and it has not been compromised by this crack. What the cracker reported as compromised passwords where indeed random, automatically set strings that are in no way connected to your real password.' It's shocking to learn that SUSE/openSUSE are using proprietary forum software vBulleting as well as proprietary single sign on solution." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/01/08/1656231 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 developer builds Pirate Bay torrent search into operating system
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '14

07 Jan '14

"With support from Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth, a third-party Ubuntu developer is building a torrent search project that may be enabled by default in future versions of the operating system." -- source: http://bit.ly/1cOblWw 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

SteamOS 1.0 is Here, Based on Debian 7.1
by Peter Reutemann 29 Dec '13

29 Dec '13

'SteamOS 1.0 was made available for download today through Valve-owned steampowered.com. In the SteamOS FAQ, we discover that SteamOS 1.0 is based on Debian 7.1 stable. Some of the changes for Steam include backporting eglibc 2.17 from Debian testing, updating the kernel to 3.10.11, and auto-updates from the Valve SteamOS repos. Valve chose Debian because they felt it "is the best way for Valve to deliver a fully custom SteamOS experience" to its customers.' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/steamos-1-0-is-here-based-on-debian-7-1 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 1

Explore Linux Heritage With Beautiful Data Visualizations
by Peter Reutemann 27 Dec '13

27 Dec '13

"A favorite hobby of mine is exploring the history of Unix and Linux, so its no surprise that I find this graph, named the GNU/Linux Distribution Timeline (GLDT for short) on Wikimedia fascinating. The graph clearly shows how the big three distributions, Debian, Slackware, and Red Hat, have branched out to over five hundred other distributions, including Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva, Knoppix, and many, many others." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/explore-linux-heritage-with-beautiful-data-visualiz… 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

Minty Day in the Linuxsphere
by Peter Reutemann 27 Dec '13

27 Dec '13

"I'm still lazily using Mint 15, quite happily (until I read these reviews, that is), but others in the blogosphere have been singing the praises of the recently released Mint 16. Most interestingly has been the reported "superb performance" of Mint 16 KDE. Other called Mint 16 Cinnamon "P-p-p-perfect!" Perhaps it's reports like these causing Jim Lynch to ask if Mint is the most popular distribution out there." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/minty-day-in-the-linuxsphere 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

Scientists Extract RSA Key From GnuPG Using Sound of CPU
by Peter Reutemann 19 Dec '13

19 Dec '13

"In their research paper titled RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic Cryptanalysis, Daniel Genkin, Adi Shamir and Eran Tromer et al. present a method for extracting decryption keys from the GnuPG security suite using an interesting side-channel attack. By analysing the acoustic sound made by the CPU they were able to extract a 4096-bit RSA key in about an hour (PDF). A modern mobile phone placed next to the computer is sufficient to carry out the attack, but up to four meters have been successfully tested using specially designed microphones." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/12/18/2122226 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

Fedora 20 Released
by Peter Reutemann 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

"The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 20, code named Heisenbug (release notes). Fedora 20 is dedicated to Seth Vidal, the lead developer of Yum and the Fedora update repository, who recently died in a road accident. Gnome is the default DE of Fedora, and so it is for Fedora 20. However unlike Ubuntu (where they had to create different distros for each DE) Fedora comes with KDE, XFCE, LXDE and MATE. You can install the DE of your choice on top of base Fedora." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/17/1614254 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

Munich Open Source Switch 'Completed Successfully'
by Peter Reutemann 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

"Munich's switch to open source software has been successfully completed, with the vast majority of the public administration's users now running its own version of Linux, city officials said today. In one of the premier open source software deployments in Europe, the city migrated from Windows NT to LiMux, its own Linux distribution. LiMux incorporates a fully open source desktop infrastructure. The city also decided to use the Open Document Format (ODF) as a standard, instead of proprietary options. Ten years after the decision to switch, the LiMux project will now go into regular operation, the Munich City council said." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/12/1813202 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 Touch OS Finally Finds a Smartphone Partner
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"Canonical has been very bold over the past years about expressing plans to bring Ubuntu to new kinds of devices, ranging from smartphones to TVs to tablets. It also recently went on a widely publicized campaign to get an Ubuntu phone crowdfunded. Now, in what may represent a milestone for the company, Mark Shuttleworth has told CNET that Ubuntu Touch OS has won its first smartphone partner. The partner focused on the Linux-based mobile operating system isn't named, but we will reportedly see high-end phones next year." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/report-ubuntu-touch-os-finally-finds-a-smartphone-p… 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

Canonical Moving Away From GNOME Control Center
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"This announcement comes from the ubuntu-desktop mailing list. Due to GNOME Control Center already being a heavily patched version in Ubuntu, Canonical is planning to found their own fork called Unity Control Center. This would be a fork with a limited lifespan and later on they would move to something called Ubuntu System Settings, an in-house project. For now, a PPA has been set up to test the new fork." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/11/1814220 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 Has a New Cipher — Chacha20-poly1305 — from D.J. Bernstein
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"Inspired by a recent Google initiative to adopt ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for TLS, OpenSSH developer Damien Miller has added a similar protocol to ssh, chacha20-poly1305(a)openssh.com, which is based on D. J. Bernstein algorithms that are specifically optimised to provide the highest security at the lowest computational cost, and not require any special hardware at doing so. Some further details are in his blog, and at undeadly. The source code of the protocol is remarkably simple — less than 100 lines of code!" -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/12/11/173213 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

Proprietary Unix Continues to Fall
by Peter Reutemann 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

"Analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) posted a press release Wednesday highlighting the rapid decline of IBM's AIX and P-Series hardware. Along side the drop in proprietary Unix systems is an associated rise in sales of X86 servers running Linux. IBM has clearly identified this as a long term trend, investing $1 billion dollars in Linux development on Power systems. With the reported 20% drop in sales, the writing my finally be on the wall for AIX." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/proprietary-unix-continues-to-fall Did a syadmin course back at uni using AIX (yes, it was way back in the late 90s). The IBM guy running parts of the course mentioned how they'd be investing lots of money in Linux over the next few years. I wonder whether they were already developing an exit strategy back then. 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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WLUG on meetup.com
by Peter Reutemann 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

Hi everyone Just to let you know that WLUG is now also on meetup.com: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/ 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

The FLOSS 2013 survey
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '13

04 Dec '13

"In 2002, the first FLOSS survey was launched. With over 2500 participants, it was the first large survey of Free/Libre/Open Source developers around the world. This survey had major impact in the community, academia and politics. 10 years later we would like to replicate the survey in order to see how the community has changed." -- source: http://floss2013.libresoft.es/ 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

GNOME 3 Worst Linux Idea Yet
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '13

04 Dec '13

"Linux Journal's Readers' Choice Awards 2013 found that GNOME 3 was the Best "Worst" Linux/Open Source Idea to come down the pike. Of course the other categories may be of interest as well. These include Best Distribution, Best Linux Tablet, and Best Linux Server Vendor." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/gnome-3-worst-linux-idea-yet 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 Mint 16 Released
by Peter Reutemann 02 Dec '13

02 Dec '13

'Clement Lefebvre, founder of Mint, today announced the releases of Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon and MATE editions. In separate announcements Lefebvre said, "Linux Mint 16 is the result of 6 months of incremental development on top of stable and reliable technologies. This new release comes with updated software and brings refinements and new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use." * The boot and login sequence no longer scan your system for btrfs partitions. * The MDM display manager no longer listens or communicates over the network. * The Update Manager is now started with a delay to make it faster for the session to load. * The Software Manager features significant speed improvements. * The Linux Mint 16 ISO images are easier on the system and faster to decompress during the live session. * Safer kernel updates. * Faster boot sequence and faster login. * Better EFI support. * Better support for Steam and added to repositories * Better colors in terminal * Better help support.' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/linux-mint-16-released Just started downloading the MATE version... 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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f.lux
by mailinglist 02 Dec '13

02 Dec '13

Hi all, I came across this on National Radio over the weekend. There is a linux version too. f.lux is a bit of software that subtly changes the colour of your computer, tablet and phone screen to help you sleep well. With Michael Herf of f.lux. http://justgetflux.com/linux.html http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/thiswayup/audio/2578136/f-lux

1 0

New Linux worm targets routers, cameras, “Internet of things” devices
by Peter Reutemann 28 Nov '13

28 Nov '13

"Researchers have discovered a Linux worm capable of infecting a wide range of home routers, set-top boxes, security cameras, and other consumer devices that are increasingly equipped with an Internet connection." -- source: http://bit.ly/17VaXYG 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 Burning Bridges of Ubuntu
by Peter Reutemann 27 Nov '13

27 Nov '13

"According to this article, 'Whether Ubuntu is declining is still debatable. However, in the last couple of months, one thing is clear: internally and externally, its commercial arm Canonical appears to be throwing the idea of community overboard as though it was ballast in a balloon about to crash.' The author points out instances of community discontent and apparent ham-handedness on Mark Shuttleworth's part. Yet isn't this just routine kvetching in the open source community?" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/11/27/1955239 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 Remote Control Your Camera with Darktable on Linux
by Peter Reutemann 27 Nov '13

27 Nov '13

"We've talked about Darktable before, because it is a wonderful advanced RAW photo editor and workflow manager. My current favorite feature is tethered shooting, which is connecting a camera to your computer and controlling it with Darktable. Obviously this is not very convenient for hiking or street photography, but for studio and tripod work it's the bee's knees." -- source: http://bit.ly/1jK1fdy 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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Meeting tonight
by Peter Reutemann 25 Nov '13

25 Nov '13

Hi everyone Just a reminder that we have a WLUG meeting tonight. Elroy will be talking about Asterisk and Raspberry Pi. The committee will meet prior to that at 6.30pm. Hope to see you there. 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

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 24 Nov '13

24 Nov '13

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting coming up next Monday: Elroy will be talking about his adventures with Asterisk and VOIP. http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/743/meeting Prior to that, at 6.30pm, a committee meeting has been scheduled. For details, please see: http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/3476/committee-meeting Hope to see you there. 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 4

Saturday Workshop Nov 23
by Bruce Kingsbury 20 Nov '13

20 Nov '13

Just a reminder to all; I'm running my own independent Saturday Workshops. November 23, 2013 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 A Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome, light lunch provided, gold coin donation appreciated

1 0

Canonical Developer Warns About Banking With Linux Mint
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '13

18 Nov '13

"Ubuntu developer Oliver Grawert does not prefer to do online banking with Linux Mint. In the official mailing list of the distribution, Ubuntu developers stated that the popular Ubuntu derivative is a vulnerable system and people shouldn't go for online banking on it. One of the Ubuntu developers, Oliver Grawert, originally pointed out that it is not necessary that security updates from Ubuntu get down to Linux Mint users since changes from X.Org, the kernel, Firefox, the boot-loader, and other core components are blocked from being automatically upgraded." 'Clement Lefebvre, the Linux Mint project founder, has since made a statement and confirmed that Oliver Grawert seems "more opinionated than knowledgeable" adding "the press blew what he said out of proportion." ' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/11/18/2046208 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

Yearly FreeBSD Foundation Fundraising Campaign Is On
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '13

17 Nov '13

"The FreeBSD Foundation's annual year-end fundraising drive is currently running. Their goal this year is US$ 1M, and they're currently at US$ 427K. In 2013, the efforts that were funded were from the last drive were: Native iSCSI kernel stack, Updated Intel graphics chipset support, Integration of Newcons, UTF-8 console support, Superpages for ARM architecture, and Layer 2 networking updates. Also various conferences and summit sponsorships, as well as hardware purchases for the Project. The Foundation is a US 501(c)3 non-profit, so your donations (if in the US) are tax-deductible. Some of the larger 2013 (corporate?) sponsors so far are NetApp, LineRate, WhatsApp, and Tarsnap." -- source: http://bsd.slashdot.org/story/13/11/17/0046224 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's New Sputnik 3 Mates Touchscreen With Ubuntu
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '13

17 Nov '13

"I find it interesting that Dell has started selling a thin and light touchscreen laptop called the XPS 13 Developer Edition, which will have Ubuntu Linux OS and Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, code-named Haswell. The laptop, code-named Sputnik, has a 13.3-inch touchscreen and will run on Ubuntu 12.04 OS. It is priced starting at $1,250 and is available in the U.S." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/11/16/2329230 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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WLUG meeting tonight
by Peter Reutemann 17 Nov '13

17 Nov '13

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting tonight: Elroy Liddington: Raspberry Pi, Asterisk Chris O'Halloran: LaTeX http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/741/meeting Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

5 9

Pear OS 8 Released – Review and Installation Guide with Screenshots
by Peter Reutemann 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

"Pear OS 8 was released recently. Pear OS main goal is to be an Ubuntu/Debian based Linux Operating System for Desktop, Notebook, Phones and Tablets. Pear OS 8 is based on GNOME but look and feel is similar and inspired from newly released Apple iOS7. Pear Cloud is the newly included feature in Pear OS 8 to backup and sync data over the internet." -- source: http://www.tecmint.com/pear-os-8-released-review-and-installation-guide-wit… 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

Article: "Why I love OwnCloud: answer to Dropbox lock-in"
by Peter Reutemann 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

We covered OwnCloud in the past on the mailing list. Below is an article on how to install it on Redhat: http://opensource.com/business/13/11/owncloud-answer-dropbox-lock The repos list mainly RPM based distros, but also Xubuntu a debian-based system: http://download.owncloud.com/download/repositories/ 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

open font library
by Peter Reutemann 11 Nov '13

11 Nov '13

One problem that I quite often faced on Linux, was finding nice (free) fonts. Looks like the Open Font Library is a good place to look for them now: http://openfontlibrary.org/ How to install TTF/OTF fonts: - http://xmodulo.com/2013/07/how-to-install-custom-fonts-in-linux-desktop.html - http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/installing-fonts-linux 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

GIMP, Citing Ad Policies, Moves to FTP Rather Than SourceForge Downloads
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '13

08 Nov '13

"GIMP, a free and open source alternative to image manipulation software like Photoshop, recently announced that it will no longer be distributing their program through SourceForge. Citing some of the ads as reasons, they say that the tipping point was 'the introduction of their own SourceForge Installer software, which bundles third-party offers with Free Software packages. We do not want to support this kind of behavior, and have thus decided to abandon SourceForge.' The policy changes were reported back in August by Gluster. GIMP is now distributing their software via their own FTP page instead." -- source: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/13/11/07/2328228 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

10 Years of Fedora According to the FPLs (Fedora Magazine)
by Peter Reutemann 07 Nov '13

07 Nov '13

Fedora Magazine looks at ten years of Fedora history by talking with former project leaders. "In the early days, Fedora was not as you see it today. The community didn’t have the ability to contribute directly to Fedora as they do today – hence the 'Core' naming. The community worked on the 'extras' repositories, but the core of Fedora was developed by Red Hat without direct access to the community. This put the FPL in an uncomfortable spot. [Michael K.] Johnson says he pushed for a source code control system that the community would have access to, but was unable to get the green light. Calling it a 'failure to take Fedora seriously as important to Red Hat’s future,' Johnson says he felt he’d lost credibility with the community and 'whoever replaced me would have one short opportunity to fix this, or the community would fail.'" -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/747271-10-years-of-fedora-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

1 0

OpenPhoenux Neo900 Bills Itself As Successor To Nokia's N900
by Peter Reutemann 02 Nov '13

02 Nov '13

"The latest device in the OpenPhoenux open hardware family is the Neo900, the first true successor to the Nokia N900. The Neo900 is a joint project of the Openmoko veteran Jörg Reisenweber and the creators of the GTA04/Letux2804 open hardware smartphone at Golden Delicious Computers. Furthermore, it is supported by the N900 Maemo5/Fremantle community, the Openmoko community and the OpenPhoenux community, who are working together to get closer to their common goal of providing an open hardware smartphone, which is able to run 100% free and open source software, while being independet of any big hardware manufacturer." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/11/02/1637236 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

ATM machine
by Ian Stewart 30 Oct '13

30 Oct '13

For those who remember the Bitkoin presentation at wlug a couple of years ago... It seems to be a currency that continues to develop. If you are in Vancouver you can now use the worlds first Bitkoin ATM. According to an article in today's The Guardian newspaper... "With the Bitkoin ATM, users scan their hand to confirm identity, then funds move to or from a virtual wallet on their smartphone." "The system limits transfers to $1,000 a day, in an effort to curb money laundering and other fraud." "Bitkoin is not a recognised currency in Canada, so Ottawa's anti-money laundering watchdog, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, does not monitor its trade." ... I don't know if Bitkoins are recognised as a currency in NZ, but I do know that the Waikato Uni's mail system that we are using currently blocks e-mails in which the word "Bitkoin" is spelt correctly! cheers, Ian.

1 0

Ubuntu's Mark Shuttleworth Wins Austria's Big Brother Award
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '13

28 Oct '13

"Austria's Big Brother Awards awarded the coveted Big Brother Award to Ubuntu's founder Mark Shuttleworth for Ubuntu Dash's privacy reducing online extensions to local searches." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/10/28/2210220 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

Debian To Replace SysVinit, Switch To Systemd Or Upstart
by Peter Reutemann 28 Oct '13

28 Oct '13

"Debian has been one of the last holdouts using SysVinit over a modern init system, but now after much discussion amongst Debian developers, they are deciding whether to support systemd or Upstart as their default init system. The Debian technical committee has been asked to vote on which init system to use, which could swing in favor of using Upstart due to the Canonical bias present on the committee." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/10/28/1621219 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

Using DSH (Distributed Shell) to Run Linux Commands Across Multiple Machines
by Peter Reutemann 25 Oct '13

25 Oct '13

"Systems Administrators know all too well the importance of being able to monitor and administer numerous machines in a short time, and preferably, with as little running around as possible. Whether it is a small cloud environment, or an enormous server cluster, the ability to centrally manage computers is essential. To partly accomplish this, I am going to show you how to use a nifty little tool called DSH that allows a user to run commands over multiple machines." -- source: http://www.tecmint.com/using-dsh-distributed-shell-to-run-linux-commands-ac… 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

xen 4.2 on ubuntu 13.04
by Jonathan Wood 25 Oct '13

25 Oct '13

Hi all I am trying to get my xen machine to pass through the usb devices to a windows vm and now I keep getting pt_pci_read_config: [00:05:0] Error: Failed to read register with invalid access size alignment. [Offset:0eh][Length:4] in my vm log can anyone please help

1 0

Te Whare o Te Ata Monthly Linux Workshop
by Bruce Kingsbury 25 Oct '13

25 Oct '13

Just a reminder to all; I'm running my own independent Saturday Workshops. October 26, 2013 10:00 am – 2:00 pm *Te Whare O Te Ata* 60a Sare Cres Hamilton, 3214 07 8557804 A Linux-focused workshop where people can bring their PCs for trouble-shooting and to learn or try out new skills. All visitors welcome, light lunch provided, gold coin donation appreciated

1 0

Torvalds: Free OS X Is No Threat To Linux
by Peter Reutemann 24 Oct '13

24 Oct '13

"Apple is now offering upgrades to the latest version of OS X for free. When Linux inventor Linus Torvalds was asked whether this threatened Linux (presumably by someone who had only a passing knowledge of all the things 'free' can mean when applied to software) it gave him an opportunity for a passionate defense of open source. Torvalds also says that he'll keep programming until it gets 'not interesting,' which hasn't happened yet." -- source: http://apple.slashdot.org/story/13/10/24/1324234 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

PHP.net Compromised
by Peter Reutemann 24 Oct '13

24 Oct '13

"The open source PHP project site was compromised earlier today. The site appears to have been compromised and had some of its Javascript altered to exploit vulnerable systems visiting the website. Google's stop-badware system caught this as well and flagged php.net as distributing malware, warning users whose browsers support it not to visit the site. The comment by a Google employee over the hacker news thread (official Google webmaster forum thread) seems to suggest that php.net wasn't incorrectly flagged." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/10/24/1858200 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

Torvalds: SteamOS Will 'Really Help' Linux On the Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '13

23 Oct '13

"Linus Torvalds has welcomed the arrival of Valve's Linux-based platform, SteamOS, and said it could boost Linux on desktops. The Linux creator praised Valve's 'vision' and suggested its momentum would force other manufacturers to take Linux seriously — especially if game developers start to ditch Windows. Should SteamOS gain traction among gamers and developers, that could force more hardware manufacturers to extend driver support beyond Windows. That's a sore point for Torvalds, who slammed Nvidia last year for failing to support open-source driver development for its graphics chips. Now that SteamOS is on the way, Nvidia has opened up to the Linux community, something Torvalds predicts is a sign of things to come. 'I'm not just saying it'll help us get traction with the graphics guys,' he said. 'It'll also force different distributors to realize if this is how Steam is going, they need to do the same thing because they can't afford to be different in this respect. They want people to play games on their platform too.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/10/23/184236 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 Touch On a Nexus 7: "Almost Awesome"
by Peter Reutemann 23 Oct '13

23 Oct '13

"I installed Ubuntu Touch "1.0" on my first-generation Nexus 7 tablet and have been using it as my main tablet system for the last four days. Here's how it went. First off, the installation was surprisingly painless. I followed the official instructions and didn't encounter a single problem. That being said, the installation is really geared toward software developers, power users or people already comfortable on a Linux command line. If you're not in one of those categories, I recommend holding off for the time being. Once installed, Ubuntu Touch booted up rather quickly — in only just a few seconds (a fair bit faster than Android 4.x on the same tablet). And, immediately, I was presented with a short tutorial that appears the first time the system is booted, which, I might add, has got to be one of the slickest, least annoying tutorials I've seen. But... there were problems. The battery life was, to put it mildly, terrible. Performance has been mixed, and the OS was prone to what I call 'The Pulsating Seizure Feature' a few dozen times over the weekend. In a nutshell: launching apps (and, occasionally, moving between apps) can cause the device to freeze and begin flashing the screen rapidly." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/10/22/1344209 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

Crunchbang DDoS attack
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Been trying to update my #! laptop and it continuously failed doing so. Then I found out that #! has been hit by a DDoS attack, unfortunately: "DDoS Attack 2013-10-17 (ongoing) It saddens me to report that the repo and torrent server are experiencing another DDoS attack. As with the previous attack, I do not have much information to share, but I will try and keep everyone informed as to what is happening. When I find out, you'll find out. Apologies for the disruption." http://crunchbang.org/forums/viewtopic.php?id=29646 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 1

Ubuntu 13.10 has arrived
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '13

21 Oct '13

Get it from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/ Would love to have a play around with the phone version: http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/install But, I don't have a spare Galaxy Nexus or Nexus 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 1

The Navy’s newest warship is powered by Linux
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

"When the USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) puts to sea later this year, it will be different from any other ship in the Navy's fleet in many ways. The $3.5 billon ship is designed for stealth, survivability, and firepower, and it's packed with advanced technology. And at the heart of its operations is a virtual data center powered by off-the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over 6 million lines of software code." -- source: http://bit.ly/1aX0Ktb I always have mixed feelings when FLOSS is used by the military... Cheers, Peer -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

2 2

WLUG meeting tomorrow night
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting on tomorrow night: Elroy Liddington: Raspberry Pi, Asterisk Chris O'Halloran: LaTeX http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/741/meeting 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 mount Google Drive on Linux
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

"As I speak, more than 22,000 people signed up for a petition, desperately wanting to have an official native Linux client for Google Drive, and yet their voice is still being ignored by Google. Perhaps when it comes to boosting their bottom line, Linux desktop market is not a priority for Google. They can ignore Linux desktop market all they want, but they cannot ignore the power of FOSS. Faced with the frustration, the open-source community responded, producing unofficial Google Drive clients such as Grive or SyncDrive. These clients are file synchronization tools which sync files and folders between local file system and remote Google Drive. As such, you cannot mount Google Drive using these tools. If you want to mount Google Drive on Linux, you can try google-drive-ocamlfuse, which is a FUSE-based file system backed by Google Drive. Using this user-space file system, you can mount your Google Drive account on Linux, and have full read/write access to files/folders in Google Drive as if they were local files/folders." -- source: http://xmodulo.com/2013/10/mount-google-drive-linux.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

NFTables To Replace iptables In the Linux Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '13

20 Oct '13

"NFTables is queued up for merging into the Linux 3.13 kernel. NFTables is a four-year-old project by the creators of Netfilter to write a new packet filtering / firewall engine for the Linux kernel to deprecate iptables (though it now offers an iptables compatibility layer too). NFTables promises to be more powerful, simpler, reduce code complication, improve error reporting, and provide more efficient handling of packet filter rules. The code was merged into net-next for the Linux 3.13 kernel. Iptables will still be present until NFTables is finished, but it is possible to try it out now. LWN also has a writeup on NFTables." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/10/19/2118247 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

Cinnamon 2.0 now officially available
by Peter Reutemann 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

"Prior to version 2.0, and similar to Shell or Unity, Cinnamon was a frontend on top of the GNOME desktop. In version 2.0, and similar to MATE or Xfce, Cinnamon is an entire desktop environment built on GNOME technologies. It still uses toolkits and libraries such as GTK or Clutter and it is still compatible with all GNOME applications, but it no longer requires GNOME itself to be installed. It now communicates directly with its own backend services, libraries and daemons: cinnamon-desktop, cinnamon-session and cinnamon-settings-daemon." -- source: http://www.muktware.com/2013/10/cinnamon-2-0-now-officially-available 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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Python classes?
by Bruce Kingsbury 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

We've had discussions in the past about running classes in python and/or basic Linux know-how. I'm interested in running a weekly python class at the community center either during the day or after 5pm. Facilities available are ten reasonable computers running Debian 6.0 and I can easily install any IDE or libraries required. Uncapped internet is also available. Unfortunately I don't know python beyond having written a few trivial programs so I'd be learning at the same time, hopefully at least a week ahead of what I'm teaching. If anyone else is interested in running classes and already knows Python that would be much better and I'd come along to those instead. So; discussion about who else would like to attend such classes and/or if anyone would be interested in teaching them?

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https://www.writelatex.com/about
by mailinglist 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

If you are into Latex, I was amazed at this site! https://www.writelatex.com/about The above reads like a dodgy spam message I know. But seriously if you're looking to use a text/code based document tool, Latex is pretty cool. I'm just amazed at what people have managed to put together. A web based front end for Latex. Probably heaps more. I haven't started exploring it yet. Cheers, Chris

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Oracle Attacks Open Source; Says Community-Developed Code Is Inferior
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '13

15 Oct '13

"Oracle has a love-hate relationship with open source technologies. In a whitepaper (PDF) for the Deparment of Defense, Oracle claims that TCO (total cost of ownership) goes up with the use of open source. They're essentially trying to build a case for the use of their own products within the government. 'The skill required to successfully and economically blend source code into a commercially viable product is relatively scarce. It should not be done directly at government expense.' Oracle also attacks the community-based development model, calling it more insecure than company developed products. 'Government-sponsored community development approaches to software creation lack the financial incentives of commercial companies to produce low-defect, well-documented code.'" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/10/15/1828211 Funny, considering that they have multiple open-source projects... Oracle Linux, MySQL, ... 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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advanced copy
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '13

13 Oct '13

Just came across this article on an "advanced copy" command: http://www.tecmint.com/advanced-copy-command-shows-progress-bar-while-copyi… Wasn't to keen on recompiling from source etc. However, when looking through my Linux Mint's Synaptic, I came across "gcp": "gcp is an advanced command line file copy system with an interface similar to that of cp. It features: - transfer progression indication - continuous copying on error (skip to next file) - copy status logging - name mangling to handle target filesystem limitations - forced copy serialization - transfer lists management" Here is an example output: mymachine:[110]~/media>gcp -r maps/ maps.bak Copying 2.26 GiB 100% |##############################| 148.01 M/s Time: 00:00:16 Quite funky for large copy-operations on the command-line, where you'd like to have some kind of progress indicator. Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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What is a good file manager for Linux?
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

"One of must-have utilities on Linux desktop is file manager (or file browser). A typical file manager can not only handle common file management operations, but also offer advanced functionality that differentiates itself with others. If you are not happy with a default file manager that comes with the Linux desktop you are using, don’t worry. There are plenty of other file managers to choose from. In this post, I will showcase 13 popular file managers available on Linux. For each file manager, I am going to briefly mention its notable features." -- source: http://xmodulo.com/2013/10/good-file-manager-linux.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Chromium To Support Wayland
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

"Chromium developers have started porting Chromium to X11 alternatives such as Wayland. Tiago Vignatti sent a message to the freedesktop mailing list, 'Today we are launching publicly Ozone-Wayland, which is the implementation of Chromium's Ozone for supporting Wayland graphics system. Different projects based on Chromium/Blink like the Chrome browser, ChromeOS, among others can be enabled now using Wayland.'" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/10/07/2212245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Raspberry Pi as PVR
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '13

06 Oct '13

Hi there Came across this post regarding the Raspberry Pi as PVR: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=18090 The tutorial is for the "Digital Now TinyUSB2 DVB-T" card. However, further down in that thread, it is also mentioned that the "Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick (DVB-T tuner)" can be used as well: http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=8604 I might look into this at some stage, as recording TV is currently the only feature that I miss from my Raspberry Media Center. :-) 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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Scrambled Code Keeps Software Safe
by mailinglist 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

Scrambled Code Keeps Software Safe A new form of encryption could make practically unhackable code http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/scrambled-code-keeps-software-s…

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French Police To Switch 72,000 Desktop PCs To Linux
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '13

03 Oct '13

"France's National Gendarmerie — the national law enforcement agency — is now running 37,000 desktop PCs with a custom distribution of Linux, and by summer of 2014, the agency plans to switch over all 72,000 of its desktop machines. The agency claims that the TCO of open source software is about 40 percent less than proprietary software from Microsoft, referring to their article published by EU's Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations. Initially Gendarmerie has moved to Windows versions of cross-platform OSS applications such as OpenOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Now they are completing the process by changing the OS. This is one of the largest known government deployments of Linux on the desktop." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/10/03/185235 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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Puppy Project in Peril as Founder Retires
by Peter Reutemann 01 Oct '13

01 Oct '13

"It's been over a week since Barry Kauler announced his retirement (again) and the Puppy project's future is now very unclear. Saying Woof and Puppy are now in "maintenance mode," where essential fixes are made, Kauler stated no new features or releases will be planned. Instead, he'd like to develop for the Ubuntu phone." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/puppy-project-in-peril-as-founder-retires 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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WLUG meeting tonight
by Peter Reutemann 29 Sep '13

29 Sep '13

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting tomorrow night at 7.30pm: http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/739/meeting I'll be talking about MOOCs (massive online open courses). 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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Oracle makes tablet with Raspberry Pi and Java
by Peter Reutemann 27 Sep '13

27 Sep '13

'The enterprise software and hardware company has unveiled the "DukePad," a tablet powered by a Raspberry Pi and JavaSE Embedded 8. It's not actually for sale, but Oracle described it a few days ago in a technical keynote at its JavaOne conference and posted all the details on the OpenJDKWiki. In addition to providing instructions, open source software, and pointers to the necessary hardware, Oracle said it is "working with suppliers to make available pre-made kits that can be more easily assembled."' -- source: http://bit.ly/14MAWjj 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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SimpleScreenRecorder
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '13

26 Sep '13

"SimpleScreenRecorder is a Qt screen recorder for Linux which, despite its name, comes with more features than other similar tools. The application is very easy to use and the default settings should be enough for most cases, so usually you won't need to change any settings." -- source: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/06/simplescreenrecorder-powerful-screen.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Unsubscribe
by robert＠datamatrix.co.nz 26 Sep '13

26 Sep '13

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Middle-Click Paste? Not For Long
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

"Select to copy and middle-click to paste. That's very convenient usability feature associated with UNIX graphical environments. But it is confusing for new users, so the ability to middle-click paste was briefly removed from GNOME 3.10. It was restored few days later, but with clear message: middle-click paste will be permanently removed from next GNOME version." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/09/24/1252243 Man, that's one of my favorite feature!! 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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Linus Torvalds worries about how Linux will handle end of Moore’s Law
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

'Perhaps the most hotly anticipated event at LinuxCon was this morning's kernel developer panel featuring none other than Linux creator Linus Torvalds. In the panel, Torvalds said he's worried the possible end of Moore's Law might finally be within sight, providing challenges to both hardware and software developers. "On the five- to 10-year timeframe scale, I'm very interested to see how the industry actually reacts to the fact that soon we will come against some physical limits," Torvalds said. "People used to be talking about having thousands of cores on one die because it keeps shrinking, and those people clearly have no idea about physics because we won't be shrinking for much longer."' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/linus-torvalds-worrie… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora Project Turns 10
by Peter Reutemann 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

"It was ten years ago this past Sunday September 22nd, that the Red Hat sponsored Fedora project was born. The first Fedora release didn't come until six weeks later in November of 2003. Over the last 10 years the project has transformed itself from being entirely controlled by Red Hat to being a true community effort. In a video interview, the current Fedora Project Leader, Robyn Bergeron talks about the past and the future of Fedora. 'We need to think about how we're actually making the sausage,' Bergeron said. 'I think we can try and abstract and automate the things we have to do a lot, so our really awesome people's brains can be applied to solving problems that aren't yet automate-able.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/09/23/2350220 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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phpxmail problem
by Michael McDonald 24 Sep '13

24 Sep '13

Hi I've loaded Xmail on to my laptop running Ubuntu 13.04. I'm trying to use phpxmail to administer it - installed apache and php5 and copied the phpxmail files to /var/www Only problem is that when opening the scripts with my browser (Chrome) the script is not run and the browser just displays the text of the script. (might not be true for all of the scripts) To add to the confusion, the following DOES execute correctly ... <?php phpinfo(); ?> Any suggestions of where to look for the problem? Thanks Michael

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Valve Announces Linux-Based SteamOS
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '13

23 Sep '13

'Today Valve Software announced SteamOS, a Linux-based gaming operating system designed for, as Valve puts it, "living room machines." They say, "In SteamOS, we have achieved significant performance increases in graphics processing, and we're now targeting audio performance and reductions in input latency at the operating system level. Game developers are already taking advantage of these gains as they target SteamOS for their new releases." One major feature they're touting is the ability to use the SteamOS machine to stream video games from other Windows and Mac computers in the house to your TV. They mention media streaming as well, but without much detail. "With SteamOS, 'openness' means that the hardware industry can iterate in the living room at a much faster pace than they've been able to. Content creators can connect directly to their customers. Users can alter or replace any part of the software or hardware they want. Gamers are empowered to join in the creation of the games they love. SteamOS will continue to evolve, but will remain an environment designed to foster these kinds of innovation." ' -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/09/23/177246 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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$199, 4.2” computer is Intel’s first Raspberry Pi competitor
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '13

22 Sep '13

'With the Raspberry Pi, Arduino Due, and BeagleBone, the world is full of cheap, tiny computers that can be used by creative developers in everything from robots to space flight. One thing these platforms have in common is an ARM processor. Now they have some competition from Intel with its "MinnowBoard," a $199 computer in the form of a 4.2" x 4.2" board with an Intel Atom processor. [...] It's notable that the MinnowBoard is an open hardware platform, a distinction that Arduino and BeagleBone can claim but Raspberry Pi cannot. Users could create their own MinnowBoards by buying the items on the bill of materials [...].' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/09/199-4-2-computer-is-i… 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 Dash Is Now Anonymized In Ubuntu 13.10
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '13

22 Sep '13

'Last year, Canonical drew heat for the troublesome privacy implications that people like Richard Stallman saw in its in-built search-and-shopping facilities. An anonymous reader now writes "Long story short — Canonical now makes the user's data anonymous." ' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/09/22/1538202 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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WLUG meeting tomorrow night
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '13

22 Sep '13

Hi everyone There is a WLUG meeting tomorrow night at 7.30pm: http://www.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/739/meeting Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu's Smartphone OS Will Be Ready to Launch on October 17th
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '13

19 Sep '13

"The Ubuntu Edge smartphone may have missed its crowdfunding goal by a huge amount, but the Ubuntu Touch operating system is far from dead — it now has a planned release date of October 17th. That's according to a blog postfrom Canonical employee and QA community coordinator Nicholas Skaggs, who said that Ubuntu is "committed to delivering an image" of the OS for supported devices (Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7, and Nexus 10). That's backed up by a post on the Ubuntu Phone Team mailing list that confirms "phone 1.0 will be a reality" in four and a half weeks." -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/embedded-mobile/mobile-linux/739094 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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meeting on Monday next week
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '13

19 Sep '13

Hi there There is a WLUG meeting coming up on Monday next week. As of now, there aren't any specific topics. But if you have something for a quick show and tell, please do let me know. :-) Otherwise, we'll just have a social gathering, trading interesting news. 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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OpenSUSE May Be First Major Distro To Adopt Btrfs By Default
by Peter Reutemann 19 Sep '13

19 Sep '13

"The openSUSE Linux distribution looks like it may be the first major Linux distribution to ship the Btrfs file-system by default. The openSUSE 13.1 release is due out in November and is still using EXT4 by default, but after that the developers are looking at having openSUSE using Btrfs by default on new installations. The Btrfs features to be enabled would be the ones the developers feel are data-safe." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/09/19/1352215 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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