- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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