- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

The OggBox Project
by Peter Reutemann 15 Aug '12

15 Aug '12

Not strictly speaking Linux, but with all those little hackable boxes around, I thought this worth mentioning: "The OggBox is a simple, hackable open hardware music player. It's a pocket sized device, about the size of a smart phone which can play or record open formats to or from an SD card. It will support Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and WAV files, but has only been tested on Ogg so far. The hardware was designed in KiCAD and all the files are available to download and use (CC-BY-SA)." --source: http://www.nathandumont.com/node/269 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 debates replacing Nautilus file manager
by Peter Reutemann 12 Aug '12

12 Aug '12

"Members of the Ubuntu development team are discussing whether the distribution should switch away from GNOME's Nautilus file manager and if it should include an older version of the software until a decision has been reached" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1665463 I'm actually quite happy with Mate's custom version of Nautilus. After all those years of people complaining about Nautilus not being able to do an "undo", the Mate version of Nautilus called "Caja" can do exactly this. Yay! :-) 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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Rasberry Pi Foundation announces the Gertboard
by Peter Reutemann 10 Aug '12

10 Aug '12

"The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced an I/O breakout board for the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. The Gertboard uses an Arduino microcontroller and enables the Raspberry Pi to access a variety of electronics devices" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1664335 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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Digia buys Qt
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '12

09 Aug '12

"The open source cross platform application framework Qt has been sold by its owner Nokia. Digia, the Finnish software and services company that previously purchased the commercial assets of Nokia's Qt development has announced that it is acquiring the entire Qt business and assets from Nokia." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1663753 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] Introducing the Hackberry - a higher-spec RPi-like board
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '12

09 Aug '12

Sorry for cross-posting, but I thought this might be of interest. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shiv Manas <...> Date: Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 11:31 PM Subject: [NZOSS-Openchat] Introducing the Hackberry - a higher-spec RPi-like board To: NZOSS Open Discussion List <openchat(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz> Hi all, Just a heads-up for those of you who haven't heard of the Hackberry - it's a $60 - $65 (US) development board featuring the Allwinner A10 SoC. Specs: 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU Mali400 GPU (same GPU used in a Galaxy S2!) 512MB - 1GB RAM Android and Linux support https://www.miniand.com/products/Hackberry%20A10%20Developer%20Board The A10 SoC has been around for a while now in the form of cheap tablets and USB-stick PCs, so there should already be quite a few distros and ROMs available that one could download and hack around with. :) Regards, Shiv _______________________________________________ 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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GNOME OS plans laid out
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"At the recent Guadec 2012 GNOME developers conference, birds of a feather sessions saw the project set out goals for a GNOME OS initiative to improve GNOME for all users and developers." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1662865 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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Debian Changes Default Desktop From GNOME To XFCE
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"The default desktop within Debian 7.0 'Wheezy' has changed from GNOME to Xfce. GNOME, KDE, and LXDE will continue to be available, but the decision was made to default to Xfce. The reported reasoning comes down to size constraints in fitting GNOME on a single CD." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/08/08/1455243/debian-changes-default-des… 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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Desktop Fragmentation
by Peter Reutemann 08 Aug '12

08 Aug '12

"Competition may be good for business, but competition among Linux desktops is currently so fierce that it may end up being to everyone's detriment in the medium-term." read more at http://h-online.com/-1662354 Personally, I'm curious which desktops will prevail. Survival of the fittest, i.e., largest developer/user base? Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint team forks Nautilus
by Peter Reutemann 07 Aug '12

07 Aug '12

"The Linux Mint team has forked GNOME's file manager after design changes led to the removal of some features. The result is the Nemo file manager which is based on the last Nautilus version before these changes were incorporated." --source: http://h-online.com/-1660545 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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Adafruit launches educational distro for Raspberry PI
by Peter Reutemann 06 Aug '12

06 Aug '12

Regarding Raspberry PI and schools... "Adafruit Industries has published a new Linux distribution called "Occidentalis" for hardware hacking and teaching electronics using the ARM-based Raspberry Pi mini-computer. Its developers say that they decided to create Occidentalis because Raspbian – a Debian-based distribution released by the Raspberry Pi Foundation last month – didn't include many of the tools and software components that most hardware hackers would need. " --source: http://h-online.com/-1660567 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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BerryTerminal
by Peter Reutemann 05 Aug '12

05 Aug '12

Hi there It looks like "BerryTerminal" is exactly what Ian was after at the Saturday workshop, a Linux distro for LTSP/Raspberry Pi: "BerryTerminal is a minimal Linux distribution designed to turn the Raspberry Pi mini computer into a low-cost thin client. It allows users to login to a central Edubuntu or other LTSP server, and run applications on the central server. " http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/start NB: It's still labeled "alpha". 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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Upcoming Event: Next-generation Networks
by David Hallett 04 Aug '12

04 Aug '12

Institute of IT Professionals National Series: Next-generation Networks 23 August 2012: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Wintec City Campus Events Room 2 Gallagher Hub Gate 3, Tristram Street Hamilton National Series: Next-generation Networks Research networks have long been at the forefront of the technological revolution changing our society. Their role in bridging the gap between the high-end requirements of the science community and services available commercially led to inventions such as the Internet and World Wide Web. Often a leading indicator for emerging trends in the commercial sector, research networks have led the way in virtualization, security, and performance management. Today, research networks are facing a deluge of data that is forcing them to rethink how people, sensors, and machines are connected. In this topical presentation, REANNZ CEO Steve Cotter will talk about the challenges research networks are facing and why they are exploring new paradigms like software defined networking and energy efficiency. If you are interested in hearing about the latest cutting-edge trends in networking and how they could have an impact on New Zealand businesses and consumers, this is the talk for you. About The Speaker Steve Cotter has an extensive background in developing highly engineered, cutting-edge networking systems that require a deep understanding of advanced technologies and business drivers. He joined REANNZ from the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) in 2011. As the head of ESnet, he was responsible for providing high-performance networking to thousands of researchers and scientists at more than 40 national laboratories and research institutions. Prior to ESnet, he served as Google's network deployment manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before being hired by Google, Steve worked for Internet2 as Deputy Operations Officer and was CEO & President of their wholly owned subsidiary, FiberCo. Note: Light lunch provided. Free for IITP members, inexpensive for others. Registration required at the following URL: http://www.iitp.org.nz/events/waikato_bop/621-Next-generation_Networks Regards, David Hallett, BSc, MIITP ITCP P.O. Box 15-516 Hamilton, New Zealand Mobile: +64-21-802 256

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New wine, old wineskins
by Michael McDonald 03 Aug '12

03 Aug '12

New wine, old wineskins Thought I might have had a problem to bring along to tomorrow's work but alas, I managed to find a workaround. Read on ... Had a long day Saturday trying to get Ubuntu 12.04 on to an old computer (or two). Live CD ran perfectly OK, but install seemed to crash at the same spot each time. The last machine I tried had an AMD 2000+ CPU, so after the failure with the 32 bit live CD, downloaded and tried the AMD/64 bit version. No go for that ... CPU was 32 bit - AMD wasn't relevant in this case! Did a little bit of Googling and it looked like PAE (pyhsical address extension) might be the problem. Recommended action was try Xubuntu or Lubuntu. Downloaded Xubuntu. Live CD ran up normally but install crashed, apparently at the same spot. Oh well, may have to live with an older version, so installed 11.10. Live CD was fine, Install went fine. Reboot ... and YUCK ... 640x480 (or worse) screen display. Also promptly appearing was the screen offering an upgrade to 12.04. Do I decide to chase the nVidia driver problem or try the online upgrade? Chose the latter (can always reinstall 11.10). Some windows were a bit of a problem ... had to use Alt/F7 to move them around so I could see the buttons at the bottom of the window. I was reminded why I always do fresh installs when changing sytems. It took at least two hours, and downloaded at least 700MB of files from the Internet. And guess what... Success! Video fine, 12.04 runs fine. Total Internet usage for the day was over 3.5GB. Would have been quicker for me to to pop down to PBTech, buy a "clean" computer, and install U12.04! Michael

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Nokia reportedly planning to sell Qt as more developers are laid off
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

"Nokia is shutting down its Qt offices in Australia, laying off the team that was responsible for developing key parts of the open source development toolkit, including the QML user interface layout system." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/08/nokia-reportedly-plan… 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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Bogus leap second disrupts Linux systems
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

"Last night, various time servers wrongly announced that a leap second would be applied; it is as yet unclear whether this was caused by a simple bug or whether it could have been a DoS attack that targeted Linux systems." --source: http://h-online.com/-1657965 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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MATE 1.4 desktop improves Caja file manager
by Peter Reutemann 01 Aug '12

01 Aug '12

Funny... Ever since GNOME 2.x got forked and the MATE project was born, the progress of the desktop seems much faster than it used to be... "Version 1.4 of the fork of the older 2.x branch of GNOME adds support for sharing files via bluetooth and features further improvements to the Caja file manager." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1655846 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Meeting topics for 23 Jul 2012
by Rene Bartosh 23 Jul '12

23 Jul '12

Hi all, Does anyone have any subjects they would be willing to present at the next Monday meeting (in a weeks time)? Or for any upcoming meetings for that matter? I have a Raspberry PI on order (as I suspect a few others do too) which I am happy to bring along for a look and a tinker once it arrives - should be in the next month or two. Also I've signed up for the Beginners and Friends Python Programming Workshop (see http://www.meetup.com/nz-python-user-group/events/71029952/) so I'm happy to give a quick recap of that if anyone is interested. Another topic I could talk on is the XBMC home theater package - xbmc.org if anyone is interested. Regards, Rene -- >From Rene Bartosh (Gmail account) <kirjava(a)gmail.com> Personal: http://kirjava.net.nz/

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Measuring / limiting internet use
by Bruce Kingsbury 20 Jul '12

20 Jul '12

At community centre I have a debian server that routes / filters all network traffic. Is there any easy way to produce graphs of daily internet use by machine, by site visited, etc? I've tried to set up a few different packages but I can't figure any of them out, what's the easiest option? Also at home I have one computer that uses between 2GB and 3GB every day. Is there any easy way to limit this to 200M a day and then just cut off the internet for the next 24 hours?

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Sublime Text Editor
by mailinglist 19 Jul '12

19 Jul '12

Hi all, For anyone writing code, this was a new one for me yesterday http://www.sublimetext.com There is a ppa for it which is simpler than the website's download option. https://launchpad.net/~webupd8team/+archive/sublime-text-2/ Dependencies include Mono and you are obliged to pay for it if you decide to use it. I've had a quick play with it. Looks pretty whizzy but I've yet to decide if I'll buy it. If anything, it's an insight into what is possible. Cheers, Chris

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4 Intriguing Desktop Linux Options Coming Soon to Retail Stores
by Peter Reutemann 13 Jul '12

13 Jul '12

1. Chromebooks at Best Buy 2. The New Asus EeePC 1225C 3. Dell's 'Project Sputnik' 4. The Diminutive Desktop -- source: https://www.linux.com/news/hardware/desktops/601187-desktop-linux-coming-so… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Re: [wlug] raspberry pi order (David McNab)
by Eric Light 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

I'd be interested as well - again, only in model 'B'. Perhaps someone could set up a 'registration' page on the wiki or elgg? Cheers, - Eric On Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 12:00, <wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> wrote: > > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:35:46 +1200 > From: stephen pearce <pearce.sg(a)gmail.com> > To: wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > Subject: [wlug] raspberry pi order > > Hi > I would be interested in at least one .. and am prepared to pay cost > if there is a bulk order .. if this goes ahead could you let me know > and I'll forward you the money > Thanks > > > -- > Stephen Pearce > Critical Care > Whangarei > ph 021 390 997 > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:40:29 +1200 > From: David McNab <david(a)rebirthing.co.nz> > To: Waikato Linux Users Group <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: Re: [wlug] raspberry pi order > > On 24/04/12 10:35, stephen pearce wrote: > > Hi > > I would be interested in at least one .. and am prepared to pay cost > > if there is a bulk order .. if this goes ahead could you let me know > > and I'll forward you the money > > Thanks > Ditto, but I would only want a Model B. The A's lack of ethernet is a > bit of a blocker. > > Cheers > David > >

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Ex-Nokia Staff To Build MeeGo-based Smartphones
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '12

08 Jul '12

"A group of ex-Nokia staff and MeeGo enthusiasts has formed Jolla (Finnish for 'dinghy'), a mobile startup with the aim of bringing new MeeGo devices to the market. According to its LinkedIn page, Jolla consists of directors and core professionals from Nokia's MeeGo N9 organization, together with some of the best minds working on MeeGo in the communities." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/07/07/2036239/ex-nokia-staff-to-build-me… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Meeting?
by Michael McDonald 04 Jul '12

04 Jul '12

There's been no mention ... are we meeting tonight (Mon 25 Jun)? Michael

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FishPi: Raspberry Pi Powered Autonomous Boat To Cross the Ocean
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '12

28 Jun '12

"The Raspberry Pi is a triumph in computing, and it's now set to become a triumph in robotics as one developer plans to build a model boat around it and sail it across the Atlantic Ocean, completely unmanned. It's codenamed FishPi and will see a model boat sail across the Atlantic all by itself save for a camera, GPS module, compass and solar panels." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/06/27/154242/fishpi-raspberry-pi-powered… 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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Are Open-Source Desktops Losing Competitiveness?
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '12

26 Jun '12

"Peter Penz has been a user of KDE since version 1.2, and he led the development of the Dolphin file manager for the past six years. Now, he's quitting KDE development and handing off Dolphin. His reasons for quitting KDE development are described in a blog post. Penz speaks of KDE losing competitiveness to Apple and Microsoft due to increased complexity and other reasons. 'Working on the non-user-interface parts of applications can be challenging, and this is not something that most freetime-contributors are striving for. But if there are not enough contributors for the complex stuff behind the scenes and if no company is willing to invest fulltime-developers to work on this... well then we are losing ground.' Are open-source desktops losing?" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/06/26/1940250/are-open-source-deskt… 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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