- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Intel Has a New Spectre and Meltdown Firmware Patch For You To Try Out
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '18

21 Feb '18

'The Spectre/Meltdown debacle continues to rumble on, and now the chip manufacturer has announced the availability of a new 'microcode solution' to the vulnerability. The updated firmware applies to 6th, 7th and 8th Generation Intel Core devices, and the release sees the company crossing its fingers and hoping that everything works out this time. This is Intel's second attempt at patching the vulnerability, and this time around both the company and its customers will be praying that the fix for Skylake, Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake chips actually does the job.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/02/21/186257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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FreeBSD's New Code of Conduct
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '18

21 Feb '18

'FreeBSD has a new code of conduct, which is making several people angry. From the blog post: This code of conduct applies to all spaces used by the FreeBSD Project, including our mailing lists, IRC channels, and social media, both online and off. Anyone who is found to violate this code of conduct may be sanctioned or expelled from FreeBSD Project controlled spaces at the discretion of the FreeBSD Code of Conduct Committee. Participants are responsible for knowing and abiding by these rules. Harassment includes but is not limited to: Comments that reinforce systemic oppression related to gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, mental illness, neurodiversity, physical appearance, body size, age, race, or religion. Unwelcome comments regarding a person's lifestyle choices and practices, including those related to food, health, parenting, drugs, and employment. Deliberate misgendering. Deliberate use of "dead" or rejected names. Gratuitous or off-topic sexual images or behaviour in spaces where they're not appropriate. Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual descriptions like "hug" or "backrub") without consent or after a request to stop. Threats of violence. Incitement of violence towards any individual, including encouraging a person to commit suicide or to engage in self-harm. Deliberate intimidation. Stalking or following. Harassing photography or recording, including logging online activity for harassment purposes. Sustained disruption of discussion. Unwelcome sexual attention. Pattern of inappropriate social contact, such as requesting/assuming inappropriate levels of intimacy with others. Continued one-on-one communication after requests to cease. Deliberate "outing" of any private aspect of a person's identity without their consent except as necessary to protect vulnerable people from intentional abuse. Publication of non-harassing private communication without consent. Publication of non-harassing private communication with consent but in a way that intentionally misrepresents the communication (e.g., removes context that changes the meaning). Knowingly making harmful false claims about a person.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/18/02/17/0826206 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How to Get Started Using WSL in Windows 10
by Peter Reutemann 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

'In this article, we will walk through the process of getting started with WSL on your Windows 10 machine. You must be running the latest version of Windows 10 with Fall Creator Update installed. Then, check which version of Windows 10 is installed on your system by searching on “About” in the search box of the Start menu. You should be running version 1709 or the latest to use WSL. If an older version is installed, you need to download and install the Windows 10 Fall Creator Update (FCU) from this page. Once FCU is installed, go to Update Settings (just search for “updates” in the search box of the Start menu) and install any available updates.' -- source: https://www.linux.com/blog/learn/2018/2/how-get-started-using-wsl-windows-10 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

Hi everyone Just to let you know that we have a meeting next Monday: 'Ian Young will be demoing Manjaro (https://manjaro.org/) a Linux distribution that has become very popular recently according to the Linux Journal's poll (https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/14/1850259) General discussion on backup tools and strategies: What tool do you use? What approach is working for you? What should you stay away from at all costs?' Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/246736977/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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cron Is Becoming Obsolete
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '18

20 Feb '18

I have to get out of the habit of (only) checking various /etc/cron* locations for periodic system tasks. Debian is making more and more use of systemd timer tasks. The nice thing is, you can see them all with a simple command: systemctl status \*.timer Got caught out with this on a client’s machine the other day: when you install the certbot package (for managing certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt) on Debian, it also automatically adds a systemd timer to run certificate renewals twice a day, you don’t need to set up your own cron task to manage this.

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Chrome Extension Brings 'View Image' Button Back
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '18

19 Feb '18

'Google recently removed the convenient "view image" button from its search results as a result of a lawsuit with stock-photo agency Getty. Thankfully, one day later, a developer created an extension that brings it back. 9to5Google reports: It's unfortunate to see that button gone, but an easy to use Chrome extension brings it back. Simply install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, and then any time you view an image on Google Image Search, you'll be able to open that source image. You can see the functionality in action in the video below. The only difference we can see with this extension versus the original functionality is that instead of opening the image on the same page, it opens it in a new tab. The extension is free, and it will work with Chrome for Windows, Mac, Chrome OS, or anywhere else the full version of Chrome can be used. 9to5Google has a separate post with step-by-step instructions to get the Google Images "view image" button back.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/02/19/0334208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Skype Can't Fix a Nasty Security Bug Without a Massive Code Rewrite
by Peter Reutemann 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

'ZDNet reports of a security flaw in Skype's updater process that "can allow an attacker to gain system-level privileges to a vulnerable computer." If the bug is exploited, it "can escalate a local unprivileged user to the full 'system' level rights -- granting them access to every corner of the operating system." What's worse is that Microsoft, which owns Skype, won't fix the flaw because it would require the updater to go through "a large code revision." Instead, Microsoft is putting all its resources on building an altogether new client. From the report: Security researcher Stefan Kanthak found that the Skype update installer could be exploited with a DLL hijacking technique, which allows an attacker to trick an application into drawing malicious code instead of the correct library. An attacker can download a malicious DLL into a user-accessible temporary folder and rename it to an existing DLL that can be modified by an unprivileged user, like UXTheme.dll. The bug works because the malicious DLL is found first when the app searches for the DLL it needs. Once installed, Skype uses its own built-in updater to keep the software up to date. When that updater runs, it uses another executable file to run the update, which is vulnerable to the hijacking. The attack reads on the clunky side, but Kanthak told ZDNet in an email that the attack could be easily weaponized. He explained, providing two command line examples, how a script or malware could remotely transfer a malicious DLL into that temporary folder. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/02/12/2319257 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ubuntu Wants To Collect Data About Your System -- Starting With 18.04 LTS
by Peter Reutemann 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

' In an announcement on Ubuntu mailing list, Will Cooke, on behalf of the Ubuntu Desktop team, announced Canonical's plans to collect some data related to the users' system configuration and the packages installed on their machines. From a report: Before you read anything further, it's important to note that users will have the option to opt-out of this data collection. The company plans to add a checkbox to the installer, which would be checked by default. The option could be like: "Send diagnostics information to help improve Ubuntu." As per your convenience, you can opt-out during the installation. An option to do the same will also be made available in the Privacy panel of GNOME Settings. With this data collection, the team wishes to improve the daily experiences of the Ubuntu users. It's worth noting that the collected data will be sent over encrypted connections and no IP addresses will be tracked. To be precise, the collected data will include: flavour and version of Ubuntu, network connectivity or not, CPU family, RAM, disk(s) size, screen(s) resolution, GPU vendor and model, OEM manufacturer, location (based on the location selection made during install), no IP information, time taken for Installation, auto-login enabled or not, disk layout selected, third party software selected or not, download updates during install or not, livePatch enabled or not.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/02/15/1410203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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DeepFakes Explained
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

Heard about the latest hot new trend on the Internet? Slightly disturbing, even? It’s splicing someone’s face into a video in place of that of an entirely unrelated person, to make it look like they’re the one in the scene. Except that the result doesn’t look fake at all--you’d think it was real. Naturally, Rule 34 applies. But here <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XchCsYtYMQ> is a watchable, and entirely SFW, overview of how it all works. Oh, and the software for doing this is all over GitHub.

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Manjaro at meeting
by Ian Young 15 Feb '18

15 Feb '18

I have been using Manjaro of late so could try to summon up something to say ~ IanY

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Critical Telegram flaw under attack disguised malware as benign images
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'Makers of the Telegram instant messenger have fixed a critical vulnerability that hackers were actively exploiting to install malware on users' computers, researchers said Tuesday. The flaw, which resided in the Windows version of the messaging app, allowed attackers to disguise the names of attached files, researchers from security firm Kaspersky Lab said in a blog post. By using the text-formatting standard known as Unicode, attackers were able to cause characters in file names to appear from right to left, instead of the left-to-right order that's normal for most Western languages.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/telegram-app-purged-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft’s compiler-level Spectre fix shows how hard this problem will be to solve
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'The Meltdown and Spectre attacks that use processor speculative execution to leak sensitive information have resulted in a wide range of software changes to try to limit the scope for harm. Many of these are operating system-level fixes, some of which depend on processor microcode updates. But Spectre isn't a simple attack to solve; operating system changes help a great deal, but application-level changes are also needed. Apple has talked about some of the updates it has made to the WebKit rendering engine, used in its Safari browser, but this is only a single application. Microsoft is offering a compiler-level change for Spectre. The "Spectre" label actually covers two different attacks. The one that Microsoft's compiler is addressing, known as "variant 1," concerns checking the size of an array: before accessing the Nth element of an array, code should check that the array has at least N elements in it. Programmers using languages like C and C++ often have to write these checks explicitly. Other languages, like JavaScript and Java, perform them automatically. Either way, the test has to be done; attempts to access array members that don't exist are a whole class of bugs all on their own. [...] In fairness, Microsoft does warn that "there is no guarantee that all possible instances of variant 1 will be instrumented," but as Kocher's examination shows, it's not simply that some Spectre-vulnerable code will escape the compiler's fixes. Much—and perhaps even most—Spectre-vulnerable code will escape. And even if it were only a few instances, bad guys would be able to locate the unprotected routines and focus their attacks accordingly.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/microsofts-compiler-level-spectre-f… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Would You Let A Site Mine Cryptocurrency In Return For Blocking Ads?
by Rowan Schischka 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

> What do you think: is it a fair trade? Not fair trade but fair game. The technology used is coinhive and anybody at any level of computer skill can block it. Firefox's noscript plugin and Pi-hole are both effective.

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Linux Journal: Best Linux Distribution
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'We started things off with Best Linux Distribution, and nearly 10,000 readers voted. The winner was Debian, with many commenting "As for servers, Debian is still the best" or similar. One to watch that is rising in the polls is Manjaro (7 percent), which is independently based on the Arch Linux. Manjaro is a favorite for Linux newcomers and is known for its user-friendliness and accessibility. And, now for the top three LJ winners: Debian (33 percent), openSUSE (12 percent), and Fedora (11 percent).' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/14/1850259 Does anyone want to give Manjaro a spin at the next meeting? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Would You Let A Site Mine Cryptocurrency In Return For Blocking Ads?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

This was inevitable, really. Salon.com <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/salon-to-ad-blockers…> now asks you, when it notices you are running an ad-blocker, if you would like to contribute some CPU to running a cryptocurrency miner for them instead. What do you think: is it a fair trade? Is it a sustainable revenue model, at least better than doing the mining without asking your permission?

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The Most Popular Linux Desktop Programs
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'The most recent Linux Questions poll results are in. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing for ZDNet: LinuxQuestions, one of the largest internet Linux groups with 550,000 members, has just posted the results from its latest survey of desktop Linux users. In the always hotly-contested Linux desktop environment survey, the winner was the KDE Plasma Desktop. It was followed by the popular lightweight Xfce, Cinnamon, and GNOME. If you want to buy a computer with pre-installed Linux, the Linux Questions crew's favorite vendor by far was System76. Numerous other computer companies offer Linux on their PCs. These include both big names like Dell and dedicated small Linux shops such as ZaReason, Penguin Computing, and Emperor Linux. Many first choices weren't too surprising. For example, Linux users have long stayed loyal to the Firefox web browser, and they're still big fans. Firefox beat out Google Chrome by a five-to-one margin. And, as always, the VLC media player is far more popular than any other Linux media player. For email clients, Mozilla Thunderbird remains on top. That's a bit surprising given how Thunderbird's development has been stuck in neutral for some time now. When it comes to text editors, I was pleased to see vim -- my personal favorite -- win out over its perpetual rival, Emacs. In fact, nano and Kate both came ahead of Emacs.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/13/1652238 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Active Browser Tabs Vs Active Browser Windows
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

I have noticed some interesting behaviour with video playback on various websites, at least with Firefox. Videos on the NZ Herald website, for example, don’t start playing until the tab becomes the active one in the window. Also on YouTube, sometimes after an ad, there is a display inviting you to take part in some kind of survey. This displays for a fixed amount of time, but that time only accumulates while the tab is active -- make it inactive, and the time counter stops until it becomes active again. *But* ... the active tab is still considered to be active even if the window is not the frontmost one. This means if you want to do something else while waiting for a YouTube ad to finish playing (with the sound off, of course) and the extra display to disappear, you just have to do it in an entirely separate window.

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Facebook is Pushing Its Data-tracking Onavo VPN Within Its Main Mobile App
by Peter Reutemann 14 Feb '18

14 Feb '18

'Onavo Protect, the VPN client from the data-security app maker acquired by Facebook back in 2013, has now popped up in the Facebook app itself, under the banner "Protect" in the navigation menu. Clicking through on "Protect" will redirect Facebook users to the "Onavo Protect -- VPN Security" app's listing on the App Store. We're currently seeing this option on iOS only, which may indicate it's more of a test than a full rollout here in the U.S. Marketing Onavo within Facebook itself could lead to a boost in users for the VPN app, which promises to warn users of malicious websites and keep information secure as you browse. But Facebook didn't buy Onavo for its security protections. Instead, Onavo's VPN allow Facebook to monitor user activity across apps, giving Facebook a big advantage in terms of spotting new trends across the larger mobile ecosystem. For example, Facebook gets an early heads up about apps that are becoming breakout hits; it can tell which are seeing slowing user growth; it sees which apps' new features appear to be resonating with their users, and much more. Further reading: Do Not, I Repeat, Do Not Download Onavo, Facebook's Vampiric VPN Service (Gizmodo).' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/02/13/2026211 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Camera Makers Still Showing Zero Interest In Protecting Users With Built-In Encryption
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

From <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180204/07404639150/camera-makers-still-…>: The Freedom of the Press Foundation sent a letter to major camera manufacturers in December 2016, letting them know filmmakers and journalists would appreciate a little assistance keeping their data out of governments' hands. ... We've covered many cases where police officers have seized phones/cameras and deleted footage captured by bystanders. ... Unfortunately, it doesn't look like camera manufacturers are considering offering encryption. The issue still doesn't even appear to be on their radar, more than a year after the Freedom of the Press Foundation's letter -- signed by 150 photographers and filmmakers -- indicated plenty of customers wanted better protection for their cameras. ... If a government can search something, it will. Encryption may not thwart all searches, but it will at least impede the most questionable ones.

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meeting next month
by Peter Reutemann 13 Feb '18

13 Feb '18

Hi everyone At the last meeting, Ian suggested to have cryptocurrencies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocurrency) as topic for our meeting next month. One aspect is the increasing amount of power that is consumed in order to mine "coins". The other interesting aspect introduced by, but not limit to, cryptocurrencies is the concept of the blockchain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain) an open, distributed ledger of transactions. Is there interest? Any volunteers to talk about something regarding this topic (history, current status, etc)? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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That mega-vulnerability Cisco dropped is now under exploit
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'Hackers are actively trying to exploit a high-severity vulnerability in widely used Cisco networking software that can give complete control over protected networks and access to all traffic passing over them, the company has warned. When Cisco officials disclosed the bug last week in a range of Adaptive Security Appliance products, they said they had no evidence anyone was actively exploiting it. Earlier this week, the officials updated their advisory to indicate that was no longer the case.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/02/that-mega-vulnerabil… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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VideoLAN VLC releases version 3.0 with HDR and 360-degree video
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'The popular cross-platform, open-source video player VLC has received a significant update in 3.0, the first in what will be called the Vetinari branch. It adds support for HDR, including both 10-bit and 12-bit color and 360-degree video. This release version now also fully supports Chromecast streaming, a feature we first played with back in 2016. While VLC is open source, this part of it isn't; Tom's Hardware reports that VideoLAN explained it "used Google’s official closed-source SDK to build out the feature, which prevents it from releasing the source." [*] Other major added features include 3D audio support, audio passthrough for HD audio codecs, and support for browsing NAS drives. As always, a bunch of new codecs are supported too.' [*] 'Please note that Chromecast support in VLC 3.0 is fully open-source for all platforms! That’s the reason why it took us so long to ship as we completely reverse-engineered the entire thing. The closed-source component by Google can’t be used for legal reasons in VLC, isn’t compatible with Macs, Linux and Windows and supports a very limited set of codecs only. With our code, you can play basically anything VLC can decode on your Chromecast (as we transcode on-the-fly if needed).' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/videolan-vlc-releases-version-3-0-w… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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'Razer Doesn't Care About Linux'
by Peter Reutemann 12 Feb '18

12 Feb '18

'Razer is a vendor that makes high-end gaming hardware, including laptops, keyboards and mice. I opened a ticket with Razor a few days ago asking them if they wanted to support the LVFS project by uploading firmware and sharing the firmware update protocol used. I offered to upstream any example code they could share under a free license, or to write the code from scratch given enough specifications to do so. This is something I've done for other vendors, and doesn't take long as most vendor firmware updaters all do the same kind of thing; there are only so many ways to send a few kb of data to USB devices. The fwupd project provides high-level code for accessing USB devices, so yet-another-update-protocol is no big deal. I explained all about the LVFS, and the benefits it provided to a userbase that is normally happy to vote using their wallet to get hardware that's supported on the OS of their choice. I just received this note on the ticket, which was escalated appropriately: "I have discussed your offer with the dedicated team and we are thankful for your enthusiasm and for your good idea. I am afraid I have also to let you know that at this moment in time our support for software is only focused on Windows and Mac." The post, written by Richard -- who has long been a maintainer of GNOME Software, PackageKit, GNOME Packagekit, points out that Razer executive Min-Liang Tan last year invited Linux enthusiasts to suggest ideas to help the company make the best notebook that supports Linux.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/02/12/0722235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How the First Open Source Software and Hardware Satellite UPSat Was Built
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '18

11 Feb '18

'UPSat is the first open source -- both hardware and software -- satellite to have ever been launched in orbit. Pierros Papadeas, the Director of Operations for Libre Space Foundation, which helped build the UPSat, talked about the project at FOSDEM, a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event focused on free and open-source software development. You can watch the talk here; and read an interview of him with folks at FOSDEM ahead of the talk here. Two excerpts from the interview: Q: What challenges did you encounter while designing, building, testing and eventually launching UPSat in orbit? PP: The challenges where numerous, starting with the financial ones. Lack of appropriate funding led us to invest heavily in the project (through Libre Space Foundation funds) to ensure its successful completion. Countless volunteer participation was also key to the success. On the technical side, with minimal documentation and knowledge sharing around space projects we had to re-invent the wheel and discover many procedures and practices in a really short time-frame (6 months - unheard for a space mission). Lack of tools and equipment made our building process a creative exploration as we had to figure out ways to achieve specific tasks resorting to purpose-built projects in our local lab (hackerspace.gr). Testing and verification facilities where also a challenge mainly as we had to undergo much more extensive tests than other missions, having none of our components already "flight proven". Again creativity and countless hours of negotiations and documentation got us to the final delivery point. Launching UPSat in orbit was secured once the delivery happened, but as any typical space mission it came with long delays and timeline push-backs. Q: What do you hope to accomplish by giving this talk? What do you expect? Through this talk we would like to raise awareness for open source initiatives in space, and inspire open source technologists (engineers, programmers, analysts, makers) to engage in an open source project. We would also love to gather feedback and ideas on next steps and provide contribution opportunities for interested parties.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/02/11/2139203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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EFF Founder John Perry Barlow Has Died At Age 70
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '18

08 Feb '18

'The Electronic Frontier Foundation reports that its founder, John Perry Barlow, has passed away quietly in his sleep this morning. He was 70 years old. From the report: It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow's vision and leadership. He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance. Barlow was sometimes held up as a straw man for a kind of naive techno-utopianism that believed that the Internet could solve all of humanity's problems without causing any more. As someone who spent the past 27 years working with him at EFF, I can say that nothing could be further from the truth. Barlow knew that new technology could create and empower evil as much as it could create and empower good. He made a conscious decision to focus on the latter: "I knew it's also true that a good way to invent the future is to predict it. So I predicted Utopia, hoping to give Liberty a running start before the laws of Moore and Metcalfe delivered up what Ed Snowden now correctly calls 'turn-key totalitarianism.'" Barlow's lasting legacy is that he devoted his life to making the Internet into "a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth... a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity."' -- source: https://politics.slashdot.org/story/18/02/07/234213 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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