- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Why So Many Apps Are Asking To Use Bluetooth on iOS 13
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

'Apple's new iOS 13 update adds a new privacy measure that requires apps to get your consent in order to use your device's Bluetooth. From a report: After installing the latest version of iOS, trust me when I say you'll be surprised by the number of apps asking for Bluetooth permission the next time you open them. Some might seem very strange (like Dunkin' Donuts in my case), but others probably won't make you think twice about giving the thumbs-up. The reason Apple implemented this is because Bluetooth has enabled companies to sneakily track your location over Bluetooth by using beacons in stores, shopping malls, and even on popular city streets if they're placed within range of a place you'd walk by. This is entirely separate from your iPhone's location privacy settings, which makes it seem all the more underhanded. A beacon is very easily able to detect your device's Bluetooth chip and log that with a retailer or some other app on your phone. So getting more strict about Bluetooth is a good move by Apple to prevent unwanted tracking of its customers. Similarly, the company is also getting even more transparent about location, showing you on a map how often and where apps have recorded your position. This prompt is much easier to understand, and will probably startle people into slimming down the list of apps that can monitor where they are. As it should!' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/19/09/26/1928204 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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High-severity vulnerability in vBulletin is being actively exploited
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

'Attackers are mass-exploiting an anonymously disclosed vulnerability that makes it possible to take control of servers running vBulletin, one of the Internet’s most popular applications for website comments. Sites running the app should take comments offline until administrators install a patch that vBulletin developers released late Wednesday morning. The vulnerability was disclosed through an 18-line exploit that was published on Monday by an unidentified person. The exploit allows unauthenticated attackers to remotely execute malicious code on just about any vBulletin server running versions 5.0.0 up to 5.5.4. The vulnerability is so severe and easy to exploit that some critics have described it as a back door.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/public-exploit-code-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The /e/ Google-Free, Pro-Privacy Android Clone Is Now Available
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '19

26 Sep '19

'Gael Duval, creator of the popular early Linux distribution, Mandrake Linux, wanted a smartphone, which was open source, would run a wide variety of popular software, and protect your privacy. His answer was the Android-based /e/ operating system and smartphones. While it's still in beta, both its code and refurbished Samsung phones running it are now available. Duval's approach hasn't been to reinvent the mobile operating system wheel, but instead to clean up Android of its Google privacy-invading features and replace them with privacy-respecting one, in which, as Duval said in an interview, "Your data is your data." To do this, he's started with LineageOS. This is an Android-based operating system, which is descended from the failed CyanogenMod Android fork. According to Duval, the /e/ operating system is a Lineage OS fork. It also blends in features from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) 7, 8, and 9 source-code trees. In the /e/ OS all Google services have been removed and replaced with MicroG services. MicroG replaces Google's libraries with purely open-source implementations without hooks to Google's services. This includes libraries and apps which provide Google Play, Maps, Geolocation, and Messaging services for the Android applications when they need them. What this means is that you can run some Android apps, which normally only work on a fully Google-enabled Android phone on an /e/ phone. These compatible apps are available via the /e/ app store. The /e/ platform also comes with its own services, the report notes. For example, its search program uses Qwant, a popular, privacy-first European-based search engine, and for cloud storage, you get /e/'s own cloud, which is based on the open-source NextCloud. You can download and install /e/ on 85 different smartphone models. You can also buy an /e/ phone today if you're in the EU.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/09/25/2129247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Developer Made an Ad Blocker That Works On Podcasts and Radio
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

'Meet AdBlock Radio, an adblocker for live radio streams and podcasts. Its creator, Alexandre Storelli, told Motherboard he hopes to help companies "develop alternative business models for radio and podcast lovers that do not want ads." "Ads exploit the weaknesses of many defenseless souls," Storelli told Motherboard. "Ads dishonestly tempt people, steal their time and promise them a higher social status. Blocking them will be a relieving experience for many." Most audio ads exploit "auditory artifacts" to produce an ad that can't be ignored or tuned out because it feels louder than it actually is -- this has gotten so bad that there has actually been a "sonic arms race" where ads have been made increasingly louder over the years. "Adblock Radio detects audio ads with machine-learning and Shazam-like techniques," Storelli wrote about the project. He said he's been working on it for more than three years and that it uses techniques such as speech recognition, acoustic fingerprinting, and machine learning to detect known ad formats. It uses a crowdsourced database of ads and "acoustic fingerprinting," which converts audio features into a series of numbers that can be combed by an algorithm. Storelli has made Adblock Radio open-source and given detailed instructions on how to build on it, integrate it into user devices, and deploy it in a way that pressures radio stations (and podcasts) to self-regulate the quality of their ads.' -- source: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/19/09/25/2056215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android 10 Go Edition Improves Speed and Security For Low-cost Phones
by Peter Reutemann 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

'Android Go has made smartphones more accessible by focusing on lower-cost devices, but it's frequently pokey and sometimes insecure -- not a great introduction to modern mobile tech. Google is aware of this, though, and it's tackling those issues head-on with its newly unveiled Android 10 Go edition. From a report: The scaled-back version of Android 10 puts a strong focus on speed, with faster and more memory-efficient app switching as well as launching that's 10 percent faster than in Android 9 Go. It should be more reliable, too. For some, data protection may be the real star of the show. Android 10 Go edition includes a new Adiantum encryption system that should secure data without affecting performance or requiring special hardware. You won't have to worry that your sensitive info is vulnerable simply because you bought an entry-level device.' -- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/19/09/25/1648239 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft’s Cascadia Font Offers Ligatures For Programmers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

I just heard of this <https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/cascadia-code/>, though it was apparently announced back in May. It has OpenType context-dependent substitutions for displaying “>=” as “≥”, “/=” as “≠” among others. Me? I just think it’s about time programming languages supported those Unicode characters directly.

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Quantum Computers Are Analog Computers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

Google continues to experiment with quantum computing <https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/paper-leaks-showing-a-quantum-compu…>. This latest result (albeit preliminary) sounds impressive: But that seriously understates what's going on here. Every calculation that's done on a quantum computer will end up being a measurement of a quantum system. And in this case, there is simply no way to get that probability distribution using a classical computer. With this system, we can get it in under 10 minutes, and most of that time is spent in processing that doesn't involve the qubits. As the researchers put it, "To our knowledge, this experiment marks the first computation that can only be performed on a quantum processor." but it is still just reinforcing the point I made earlier <https://list.waikato.ac.nz/hyperkitty/list/wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz/thread…>, that quantum computers are just a reboot of the old idea of “analog” computers. These are able to do fast simulations of physical systems (in this case, a quantum probability distribution), to limited precision. But they continue to be useless for number-theoretic calculations, such as factoring large integers. Or code cracking.

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EU Right To Be Forgotten Is For Europe Only
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Sep '19

25 Sep '19

The EU Court of Justice has ruled in favour of Google <https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/09/google-wins-case-as-court-rules…>, in saying that France’s claim that any “right to be forgotten” has to be implemented worldwide cannot apply. While it is true that, in an always-online connected world, the ease of bypassing regional bans makes a mockery of local laws, how do you reconcile the ability of one country to impose communication blocks on others with the idea of national sovereignty?

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Linux Foundation Exec Believes Edge Computing Will Be More Important Than Cloud Computing
by Peter Reutemann 23 Sep '19

23 Sep '19

'Once upon a time, back when we all had mainframes and then servers in our offices, we had edge computing. Our compute power was literally down the hall. Then, along came the cloud, and all that changed. Computers were hundreds of miles but milliseconds away. Now, with the rise of IoT, 5G, and our never-satisfied need for speed, edge computing is coming back with a vengeance. Indeed, at his keynote at Open Networking Summit in Belgium, Arpit Joshipura, The Linux Foundation's general manager of networking, said "edge computing will overtake cloud computing" by 2025. When Joshipura is talking about edge computing, he means compute and storage resources that are five to 20 milliseconds away. He also means edge computing should be an open, interoperable framework. This framework should be independent of hardware, silicon, cloud, or operating system. Open-edge computing should also work with any edge-computing use case: Internet of Things (IoT) edge, a telecom edge, cloud edge, or enterprise edge, whatever, "Our goal here is to unify all of these." This is being done via LF Edge. This Linux Foundation organization seeks to bring all edge computing players under one umbrella with one technology. Its purpose is to create a software stack that unifies a fragmented edge market around a common, open vision for the future of the industry. To make this happen, Joshipura announced two more projects were being incorporated into LF Edge: Baetyl and Fledge.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/19/09/23/1722226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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GNU's Former Kernel Maintainer Shares 'A Reflection on the Departure of Richard Stallman'
by Peter Reutemann 22 Sep '19

22 Sep '19

'Thomas Bushnell, BSG, founded GNU's official kernel project, GNU Hurd, and maintained it from 1990 through 2003. This week on Medium he posted "a reflection on the departure of RMS." There has been some bad reporting, and that's a problem. While I have not waded through the entire email thread Selam G. has posted, my reaction was that RMS did not defend Epstein, and did not say that the victim in this case was acting voluntarily. But it's not the most important problem. It's not remotely close to being the most important problem. This was an own-goal for RMS. He has had plenty of opportunities to learn how to stfu when that's necessary. He's responsible for relying too much on people's careful reading of his note, but even that's not the problem. He thought that Marvin Minsky was being unfairly accused. Minsky was his friend for many many years, and I think he carries a lot of affection and loyalty for his memory. But Minsky is also dead, and there's plenty of time to discuss at leisure whatever questions there may be about his culpability. RMS treated the problem as being "let's make sure we don't criticize Minsky unfairly", when the problem was actually, "how can we come to terms with a history of MIT's institutional neglect of its responsibilities toward women and its apparent complicity with Epstein's crimes". While it is true we should not treat Minsky unfairly, it was not -- and is not -- a pressing concern, and by making it his concern, RMS signaled clearly that it was much more important to him than the question of the institution's patterns of problematic coddling of bad behavior. And, I think, some of those focusing themselves on careful parsing of RMS's words are falling into the same pitfall as he.... Minsky was RMS's protector for a long long time. He created the AI Lab, where I think RMS found the only happy home he ever knew. He kept the rest of the Institute at bay and insulated RMS from attack (as did other faculty that also had befriended RMS). I was around for most of the 90s, and I can confirm the unfortunate reality that RMS's behavior was a concern at the time, and that this protection was itself part of the problem... Bushnell also calls Stallman "a tragic figure. He is one of the most brilliant people I've met, who I have always thought desperately craved friendship and camaraderie, and seems to have less and less of it all the time. This is all his doing; nobody does it to him. But it's still very sad. As far as I can tell, he believes his entire life's work is a failure..." But Bushnell concludes that "It is time for the free software community to leave adolescence and move to adulthood, and this requires leaving childish tantrums, abusive language, and toxic environments behind."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/19/09/21/0253227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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