- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

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

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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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