- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

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

12 Feb '15

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

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Owncloud 8 Released
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

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

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Kali Linux 1.1.0 Released
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '15

12 Feb '15

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

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

12 Feb '15

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

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

12 Feb '15

'Every year on 14th February, the Free Software Foundation Europe asks all Free Software users to think about the hard-working people in the Free Software community and to show them their appreciation individually on this "I love Free Software"-Day. Like last year the campaign is dedicated to the people behind Free Software because they enable us to use, study, share and improve the software which enables us to work in freedom. This time the focus especially lies on the small contributions to the big picture of the Free Software community.' -- source: http://fsfe.org/news/2015/news-20150209-01.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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

11 Feb '15

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

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

11 Feb '15

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

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

11 Feb '15

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

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

11 Feb '15

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

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

10 Feb '15

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

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

09 Feb '15

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

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

09 Feb '15

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

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

08 Feb '15

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

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

08 Feb '15

"Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi 2 owners who are trying to photograph their devices, ... the Raspberry Pi 2 has been found to be Xenon flash sensitive. Any camera with a Xenon flash aimed at the device is causing the device to freeze for a few seconds before rebooting." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0643254 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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The First Ubuntu Phone Is Here, With Underwhelming Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

'A few days ago, Fast Company reviewer Jay Cassano was enthusiastic about Ubuntu's approach to apps for its new phone OS: namely, not relying on them, and instead interfacing seamlessly with existing websites and protocols. Now, new submitter ablutions (4006541) writes with a less than glowing review at The Daily Dot of the actual hardware that the OS is launching on. A sample that conveys the gist: "Let's start with the good stuff: It sports a 4.5-inch multi-touch screen and a respectable 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel lens on the front. That's pretty much it. The list of negatives is a bit longer."' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0034236 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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IEEE Computer Society YouTube Channel
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

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

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

07 Feb '15

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

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Samba issues
by David Nicholls 04 Feb '15

04 Feb '15

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

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

03 Feb '15

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

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

02 Feb '15

"The Linux Foundation has announced the launch of its new self-paced Essentials of System Administration course (LFS201), which comes bundled with a Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator exam. The full schedule of all 2015 Linux Foundation training courses is also now available." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/the-linux-foundation-offers-a-self-paced-sysadmin-c… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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

02 Feb '15

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

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

01 Feb '15

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

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

01 Feb '15

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

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

31 Jan '15

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

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

30 Jan '15

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

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