- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Ubuntu Touch Beats Firefox OS For 'Best of MWC' From CNET
by Peter Reutemann 01 Mar '13

01 Mar '13

"This week at Mobile World Congress both Firefox OS and Ubuntu have been wooing the audience with their mobile offerings. CNET reviewed both and felt that Ubuntu was 'the clear winner.' From the article, 'The team thought that Ubuntu Touch, the tablet version of which we got our hands-on for the first time at MWC, feels more like the complete package at this point. We liked its slick, elegant interface that makes use of every side of the screen and puts your content and contacts front and center, minimizing the time spent hopping back to a home screen.'" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/02/28/2120252/ 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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ipv6 webcam
by Bruce Kingsbury 26 Feb '13

26 Feb '13

I've got a machine running apache2/php5/mysql and motion at pi.fairfield.org.nz (ipv6 only outside our lan) In theory it should work, but it seems motion is ipv6 only. is there some way eg php script that I can have apache connect to localhost:8081 and just forward the raw data through to the browser? I set up two scripts webcam.php and webcam2.php that are supposed to do this, but neither seem to work (as far as I can test them; I won't have ipv6 at home until tomorrow). webcam.php is this; <?php $socket = socket_create(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, SOL_TCP); socket_connect($socket, '127.0.0.1', 8081); $reply = ""; do { $recv = ""; $recv = socket_read($socket, '1400'); if($recv != "") { $reply .= $recv; } } while($recv != ""); echo($reply); ?> webcam2.php is this; <?php system(nc 127.0.0.1 8081); ?>

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Booting desktop Linux on the Chromebook Pixel
by Peter Reutemann 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

"Google engineer Bill Richardson has detailed how to boot Linux Mint on the new Chromebook Pixel. The Pixel is the first Chromebook to include the option of booting other operating systems with a third-party bootloader." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1809912 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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Special General Meeting 25th March 2013 - Change of Charter
by Rene Bartosh 25 Feb '13

25 Feb '13

Notice is hereby given of a special general meeting to take place at 7:30pm on Monday 25th March 2013 at MS4.G.02. A draft of the revised charter will be tabled, this will reduce the quorum to the smaller of 5 members or 50% of the general membership, and reduce the size of the committee to 4. Regards, Rene Bartosh WLUG Secretary -- >From Rene Bartosh (Gmail account) <kirjava(a)gmail.com> Personal: http://kirjava.net.nz/

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SPAM filtering.
by Colin Palmer 24 Feb '13

24 Feb '13

On 22 February 2013 16:21, mailinglist <mailinglist(a)blahdeblah.co.nz> wrote: > he he, finally got the link through that I wanted to share. Any one at > the Uni realise how agressive the present spam filters are? > Yes, we do. The list server uses Postini to do spam detection, but leaves it up to Mailman to make discard and moderate decisions, so you can make it a bit less aggressive by tweaking the header rules in each list's spam filters section. -- Colin Palmer <colinp(a)waikato.ac.nz> Linux Architect, Systems and Development Team

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(no subject)
by Ronnie Collinson 24 Feb '13

24 Feb '13

Sounds good. Just some small typos corrected and I booked the room for 25/2: Regrettably, I must inform you all, that we failed to attain quorum at the AGM last night, with only 7 members arriving. As by the charter, we will hold a second AGM on February 25th (after Christmas and summer festivities). If we fail to obtain quorum or a new committee, we may have no choice but to file for dissolution with the registrar (could be re-registered for a fee of $204.45). If this is needed we will endeavour to leave as much of the online presence running as possible. The club does however remain in good financial standing. If any member is unable to attend the AGM, we will be happy for you to attend via IRC, we will attempt to stream the meeting too (perhaps audio-only via mumble). On behalf of committee

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 21 Feb '13

21 Feb '13

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second attempt at http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards

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Ubuntu For Tablets Announced
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '13

19 Feb '13

"Keeping its promise from yesterday Ubuntu has announced an operating system for tablets dubbed 'Ubuntu for Tablets' that it says will work on tablets of any size. Advertised to work on both entry level tablets as well as high-end tablets with enterprise specifications, the operating system offers multitasking, safer sharing, instant launch of applications through the menu bar on the left, effortless switching between applications among other features." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/02/19/1655233/ubuntu-for-tablets-announc… 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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ANNOUNCE: WLUG meeting is one week away
by Meeting Reminder Bot 17 Feb '13

17 Feb '13

The Waikato Linux Users Group have a meeting in one week from today: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second attempt at http://www.wlug.org.nz/AGM Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards

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Samsung Laptop Bug Is Not Linux Specific
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '13

10 Feb '13

"Matthew Garrett, a Linux kernel developer who was investigating the recent Linux-on-Samsung-in-UEFI-mode problem, has bricked a Samsung laptopusing a test userspace program in Windows. The most fascinating part of the story is on what is actually causing the firmware boot failure: 'Unfortunately, it turns out that some Samsung laptops will fail to boot if too much of the [UEFI] variable storage space is used. We don't know what "too much" is yet, but writing a bunch of variables from Windows is enough to trigger it. I put some sample code here — it writes out 36 variables each containing a kilobyte of random data. I ran this as an administrator under Windows and then rebooted the system. It never came back.'" -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/02/09/2146207/samsung-laptop-bug-is-n… 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 developers plan "Linux apps"
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '13

08 Feb '13

"Some GNOME developers are planning to implement an app format that allows developers to provide their Linux programs in distribution-independent files that can be installed as easily as smartphone apps. A sandbox model is supposed to isolate the apps from each other, and from the rest of the system, in a way that goes further than the isolation in current Linux distributions. Various developers worked to conceptualise such "Linux apps" at the GNOME Developer Experience Hackfest, which was held in the run-up to FOSDEM 2013 in Brussels. At the hackfest, the GNOME developers also declared JavaScript as the de-facto standard for GNOME programming." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1798691 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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(no subject)
by Bruce Kingsbury 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

This is STILL causing me grief. Firefox under Debian defaults to US_Letter after every single upgrade. I have to go into about:config and change each occurence of "Letter" back to "A4" otherwise if anyone tries to print from Firefox it stops the printer and I have to manually flush out all the US_Letter jobs. Locale settings in debian are all set to New Zealand. Every other program defaults to A4. Is there any way of universally making Firefox always default to A4? It's realld driving me MAD!!!!

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Ubuntu Smartphone Shipping In October
by Peter Reutemann 07 Feb '13

07 Feb '13

"Smartphones running the open source Ubuntu operating system will be available to customers beginning in October 2013, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth told CIO Journal. Ubuntu will be available on a full range of devices, including desktop and tablet computers, potentially providing corporate IT executives a way to reduce the number of devices they purchase and manage, and would allow users to access all manner of corporate data through a single, pocket-sized device. 'You can share Windows apps to the phone desktop,' said Mr. Shuttleworth during a meeting in New York Tuesday." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/02/06/217237/ubuntu-smartphone-shipping-… 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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Windows Software Coming To Android Via Wine
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Software that allows Windows apps to run on Android devices was demoed at the Fosdem 2013 open source conference this weekend. The demo by Alexandre Julliard, one of the original developers of Wine, showed Wine running on an emulated Android environment. Phoronix reports the performance of Wine on Android to be 'horrendously slow' but says these problems were attributed to it running on an emulated environment rather than a native Android OS. ... The makers claim it bypasses many performance and memory penalties of other methods for simulating computing environments, such as running virtual machines, by translating Windows API calls into POSIX calls on the fly. The Android OS predominantly runs on ARM-based devices today, and a separate demo at the Fosdem conference showed Wine running on ARM-based hardware. There was no news on when support for ARM-based devices or Android will be added to a publicly available Wine release." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/02/04/2228218/windows-software-coming-to-… 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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Booting Via UEFI Can Brick Samsung Notebooks
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Heise News reports today some Samsung notebooks can be turned into a brick if booted just one time via UEFI into Linux. Even the firmware does not boot anymore. Some reports in the Ubuntu bug tracker system report that such notebooks can not be recovered without replacing the main board. Other Linux distributions may be affected as well. Kernel developers are discussing a change in the samsung-laptop driver." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/01/30/1426255/linux-booting-via-uefi-can… 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 Goes JavaScript
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"Much to most programmers' shock and dismay Gnome has made JavaScript its main language for apps. It will still support other languages and it still supports C for libraries, but for apps it is JavaScript that rules. JavaScript seems to be a good choice for Gnome 3, as the shell UI is written in the language. It is also consistent with the use of JavaScript in WinRT, Chrome Apps, and FirefoxOS apps, and generally the rise of web apps. As you might expect, the initial reactions are of horror at the idea that JavaScript has been selected rather than the favorite language of the commenter. There is a great deal of ignorance about (and prejudice against) JavaScript, which is often regarded as an incomplete toy language rather than the elegant and sparse language that it actually is." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/02/04/1819231/gnome-goes-javascript 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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MS Won't Release Study Disputing Munich's Linux-Switch Savings
by Peter Reutemann 04 Feb '13

04 Feb '13

"As previously reported on Slashdot, in November of last year, the city of Munich reported savings of over €10 million from its switch to Linux. Microsoft subsequently commissioned a study (conducted by HP) that found that, in fact, 'Munich would have saved €43.7 million if it had stuck with Microsoft.' Now, Microsoft has said it won't release the study, saying that '[it] was commissioned by Microsoft to HP Consulting for internal purposes only.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/01/22/1716244/ms-wont-release-study-disp… Sounds like good old FUD to me... Like "Linux is infringes on heaps of our patents", without ever stating which patents exactly, if I recall that correctly: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/ 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 login screen accessability features
by Bruce Kingsbury 01 Feb '13

01 Feb '13

I'm having a bit of a problem with people fiddling at the logon screen, turning on features like sticky keys and screen reader and large text. These stay on even after the computers are shut down and I have to go around all the machines and turn them off again. Is there any way to dissable the accessability menu in GDM? Or at least some way that I can easily reset everything back to off?

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Bit coin links and Greg's presentation notes.
by Chris O'Halloran 27 Jan '13

27 Jan '13

Hello All, Here is some more information from Greg's note at last Friday's presentation. I'd also like to thank Greg for volunteering to talk and for such a well presented and technical topic. Seeing the data miner in action was also a bonus. Attached is the email that Greg sent to Bruce and myself earlier this week. It seems as though there is plenty more reading on the topic. I've also loaded Greg's presentation to google docs so that those that weren't at the meeting can appreciate the presentation. <quote> Hi Chris, Bruce, as discussed here's the slideshow and talk-notes from last night I promised I'd send to you to forward on to relevant people, (group-wide bounced me on the email size limit). Also here's a list of relevant links as requested; Project home page http://www.bitcoin.org/ Wiki Main_Page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Main_Page Network status live feed http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/ Forum https://forum.bitcoin.org/ Layman promo video site http://www.weusecoins.com/ Instawallet (web wallet) https://www.instawallet.org API -reference pages https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/API_reference_(JSON-RPC) https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Original_Bitcoin_client/API_Calls_list Monetary theory - Austrian economics http://www.libertariannews.org/2011/06/18/the-economics-of-bitcoin-how-bitc… http://austrianeconomists.typepad.com/weblog/2009/05/the-best-of-modern-aus… http://mises.org/journals/qjae/pdf/qjae9_4_5.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_School http://mises.org/ Szabo bitgold post http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2005/12/bit-gold.html Namecoin, distributed DNS Dot-bit project homepage http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page Feel free to email me for further links or information. Cheers, Greg B. Link to Greg's Bit Coin presentation<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1ggO7B5SX…> Link to Gregs' presentation notes<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1SqdoXYL8…> </quote>

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Ubuntu considers “huge” change that would end traditional release cycle
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

"In the nine-year history of Ubuntu Linux, a new version of the operating system has come out every six months. But Canonical, Ubuntu's developer, is considering ditching that model in favor of one that produces an entirely new version only once every two years—while speeding up the overall pace of development by adopting a "rolling release" cycle in between." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/01/ubuntu-considers-huge… 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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Pear Linux
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

Hi there Last week, I came across the Pear Linux distribution, an Ubuntu remix, which is visually quite appealing: http://pearlinux.fr/ The last couple of days, I've unsuccessfully tried to run the live CD on: - virtualbox - old Dell Vostro dual-core laptop - Lenovo x100e The SysLinux prompt ("boot:") shows up and when continuing, the CPU seems to go nuts and nothing happens anymore. Just wondering whether anybody else had any luck installing it... 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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Test
by mailinglist 23 Jan '13

23 Jan '13

Hi guys, Sorry again. It's definitely what I'm trying to talk about. The spam filters are just blocking it though the messages happily get through to my work email. At least I know why I cannot contribute to the list. Cheers, Chris

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test message
by mailinglist 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

Hi guys, Sorry about the messages. I've been trying to send a message so many times but it seems as though some filter is blocking it. Cheers, Chris

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test message
by mailinglist 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

sorry for the test message

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AGM second attempt
by Bruce Kingsbury 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

Following the failure to reach quorum at the 2012 AGM, we will have a second attempt at an AGM on Monday 25th February. This meeting will be at MS4.G.02, from 7:30pm onwards

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Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

"Steam is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS, and Valve has got to the point where they are happy to start urging Windows users to make the switch. Proof of that comes from a 'Join the Beta' promotion on the homepage of Steam suggesting you try Steam for Linux. There's even a download link to get Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which removes yet another barrier to entry. With Gabe Newell's clear hatred of Windows 8, this shouldn't be a surprising move. We aren't going to see another version of Windows appear for a few years, so in Valve's eyes pushing Linux to gamers makes a lot of sense." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/01/21/2021206/valve-starts-promoting-ste… 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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GPLv3 driver for exFAT reaches version 1.0
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '13

21 Jan '13

"ExFAT project member Andrew Nayenko has released version 1.0.0 of fuse-exfat, a filesystem driver that can read and write to Microsoft's exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) filesystem. Like the Ntfs-3G NTFS driver that is used in Linux distributions, the exFAT driver is based on FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) and works under Linux as well as OS X." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1788226 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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64-bit Window version of Scribus open source DTP program available
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Those who use the open source Scribus layout program under Windows can, like those who use it under Linux, finally install the new version 1.4.2 as a native 64-bit application on the 64-bit versions of Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This means that the program is no longer subject to the memory limit of 2 GB per process that exists with 32-bit applications. Those who use an older version of Windows can still download and install a 32-bit version of Scribus." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1785023 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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Kolab 3 debuts new user interface
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Kolab Systems has released Kolab 3, the latest incarnation of their open source groupware server. Kolab 3 has been in development for quite some time and was originally expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2012. Kolab 2.4, released in May 2012, included a preview of some of the new features, including a new web interface based on the Roundcube email client, that supports mobile use on smartphones and tablets. Development of Roundcube is being funded by Kolab Systems." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1784192 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 18 - released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '13

15 Jan '13

Fedora 18 has been released. You can review the flavours of desktop iso's available for download here... https://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options The default desktop iso uses Gnome. Others available include KDE, LXDE and Xfce The nearest download site for Gnome and KDE seems to be in Aussie at... http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/i386/ Fedora-18-i686-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:48 889M Fedora-18-i686-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:38 805M http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/x86_64/ Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:49 916M Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:51 831M -- 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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Report: ZTE to bring Firefox OS to Europe
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '13

11 Jan '13

"The Chinese phone maker ZTE says that it is working with an unnamed European wireless carrier to bring smartphones based on Mozilla's Firefox OS to the market this year. According to the Bloomberg report, Cheng Lixin, the CEO of ZTE's US business revealed the plan during an interview at CES, the consumer electronics show taking place in Las Vegas." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1780805 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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Plasma Active, Sailfish, and Ubuntu Phone Developers Discussing Common APIs
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

"Jolla's Sailfish, Canonical's recently announced Ubuntu Phone, and KDE's Plasma Active environments are all using Qt5's QML for interface design. Unfortunately, the set of UI components provided by each, although similar, are incompatible with the others. After a chat on IRC between developers of all three platforms, they've decided to discuss the reasons behind each implementation, in the hopes that they can work toward a common architecture." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/01/10/1513251/plasma-active-sailfish-an… Now that would be quite a feat! Fingers crossed... 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 14 Is a Breath of Fresh Air
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jan '13

09 Jan '13

"Linux Mint 14 contains some well-needed facelifts. For example, the Mint Display Manager used for the login screen is refreshingly improved. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes with some 30 installed by default and about 2,000 more available for download. Even better, the format is so easy to apply for making themes that you can quickly add your own personalization to make your login screen look your way." -- source: http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/76989.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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Mindstorms EV3: Lego announces new robotics kit
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '13

08 Jan '13

'Announced for the second half of 2013, Lego's Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit includes a completely new central operating component, which Lego calls the "Intelligent Brick". The controller uses an ARMv9 (the company's previous NXT 2.0 products work with ARMv7) and includes 16MB of flash memory that can be further expanded with an SD card. A quite generous 64MB of RAM is probably required by the new operating system. According to the specifications, it is Linux-based and should, therefore, be "hackable".' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1778671 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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Snowlinux 4 "Glacier" released
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jan '13

07 Jan '13

'Snowlinux 4 "Glacier" is based upon Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 "Wheezy" and uses Linux 3.5. MATE 1.4 is the default desktop environment and LightDM as new default login manager to replace GDM 3. It was built an own greeter for LightDM. There were introduced much new features like snowMenu, the Snowlinux menu and snowMount, the Snowlinux mount tool for drives. The Snowlinux-Metal-Theme was colored blue and the icon set was updated with the latest Faience icons. Snowlinux uses Pidgin now as default IM client. This release comes along Firefox 17 and Thunderbird 17, LibreOffice, Rhythmbox and Shotwell.' -- source: http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=07652 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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Mobile Raspberry Pi Computer: Build your own portable Pi-to-Go
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jan '13

05 Jan '13

"When I started this project four weeks ago, I just wanted to see if it was possible to make an ultra portable, mobile Raspberry Pi<http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-build-…>that you can take to-go. As I was building my Pi-to-Go I kept saying to myself, it would be cool if it had this, and then I would find a way to make it happen." -- source: http://blog.parts-people.com/2012/12/20/mobile-raspberry-pi-computer-build-… 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 Gets an Open Source Educational Manual
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '13

03 Jan '13

Last year a group of UK teachers started working on a Creative Commons licensed teaching manual for the Raspberry Pi. That work has produced the Raspberry Pi Education Manual which is available at the Pi Store or here as a PDF. From Raspberry Pi: "The manual is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 unported licence, which is a complicated way of saying that it’s free for you to download, copy, adapt and use – you just can’t sell it. You’ll find chapters here on Scratch, Python, interfacing, and the command line. There’s a group at Oracle which is currently working with us on a faster Java virtual machine (JVM) for the Pi, and once that work’s done, chapters on Greenfoot and Geogebra will also be made available – we hope that’ll be very soon." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/01/02/2316251/raspberry-pi-gets-an-open-s… 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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Steam for Linux beta now open to the public
by Peter Reutemann 20 Dec '12

20 Dec '12

"Good news for those who didn't score an invite to the first round of Valve's closed beta of Steam for Linux. The service is now available to anyone running Linux." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/12/steam-for-ubuntu-beta-now-open-to-the… 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 Team Launches Pi Store
by Peter Reutemann 17 Dec '12

17 Dec '12

"Raspberry Pi developer team has introduced the Pi store, a place to get software for Raspberry Pi, in collaboration with IndieCity and Velocix. The team hopes that the store will become a one-stop-shop for Raspbian Pi users. The store already has 23 major applications available for users including LibreOffice and Asterisk. There are classic games like Freeciv and OpenTTD and Raspberry Pi exclusive Iridium Rising. The team also managed to get 'one piece of commercial content: the excellent Storm in a Teacup from Cobra Mobile.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/17/1353255/raspberry-pi-team-launches… 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 Nukes 386 Support
by Peter Reutemann 13 Dec '12

13 Dec '12

sfcrazy writes with news that Linus pulled a patch by Ingo Molnar to remove support for the 386 from the kernel. >From Ingo's commit log: "Unfortunately there's a nostalgic cost: your old original 386 DX33 system from early 1991 won't be able to boot modern Linux kernels anymore. Sniff." Linus adds: "I'm not sentimental. Good riddance." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1414238/linux-nukes-386-support 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 install Ubuntu on Acer's $199 C7 Chromebook
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"Maybe you think the price of Acer's new $199 C7 Chromebook is appealing and that the hardware doesn't look bad, but you're a little worried about using Chrome OS to get your work done. Or maybe you're looking for a small, cheap laptop to run Ubuntu, and you're not really interested in buying a computer running a Windows license you'll never use. If either of those sentences describe you and you aren't afraid of the command line, it's actually pretty easy to convert the cheapest Chromebook yet into a nice little Linux laptop." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-acers-199-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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Samba 4.0 Released: the First Free Software Active Directory Compatible Server
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"We released Samba 4.0 today, containing the first compatible Free Software implementation of Microsoft's Active Directory protocols. 'Samba 4.0 comprises an LDAP directory server, Heimdal Kerberos authentication server, a secure Dynamic DNS server, and implementations of all necessary remote procedure calls for Active Directory. Samba 4.0 provides everything needed to serve as an Active Directory Compatible Domain Controller for all versions of Microsoft Windows clients currently supported by Microsoft, including the recently released Windows 8. The Samba 4.0 Active Directory Compatible Server provides support for features such as Group Policy, Roaming Profiles, Windows Administration tools and integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Free Software compatible services such as OpenChange.'" -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/11/1922220/samba-40-released-the-firs… 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 3.7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '12

11 Dec '12

"Linux kernel 3.7 has been released. This release adds support for the new ARM 64-bit architecture, ARM multiplatform — the ability to boot into different ARM systems using a single kernel; support for cryptographically signed kernel modules; Btrfs support for disabling copy-on-write on a per-file basis using chattr; faster Btrfs fsync(); a new experimental 'perf trace' tool modeled after strace; support for the TCP Fast Open feature in the server side; experimental SMBv2 protocol support; stable NFS 4.1 and parallel NFS; a vxlan tunneling protocol that allows to transfer Layer 2 ethernet packets over UDP; and support for the Intel SMAP security feature. Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available. Here's the full list of changes." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/12/11/160259/linux-37-released 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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Old-ish Fiber-Optic Gear For Disposal
by Elroy 08 Dec '12

08 Dec '12

Need to clear garage. Have various older hubs (~16-24 ports 10Mbps ethernet plus optical ports), various older fiber-optic cables (mainly patch (less than 1m)), and other bits and pieces. Most gear is untested, was bought as-is. Also have a couple 100Mbps UTP <==> 100Mbps fiber converters. Would prefer they go to non-profit/educational homes; if for-profit, then I'd appreciate a few dollars to a good cause I know of (wikipedia being one). Will try to get a more detailed list shortly. Elroy.

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Python Creator Guido van Rossum Leaves Google For Dropbox
by Peter Reutemann 08 Dec '12

08 Dec '12

"Guido van Rossum, the proclaimed Python Benevolent Dictator For Life, has left Google to work for Dropbox. In their announcement, Dropbox says they relied heavily on Python from the beginning, citing a mix of simplicity, flexibility, and elegance, and are excited to have GvR on the team. While this is, without a doubt, good news for Dropbox, the big question is what this will mean for Python (and for Google)." -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/2242237/python-creator-guido-… 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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$100 Android/Linux tablet hits funding goal, ships in January
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

'A $100 tablet that can run both Android and Linux is on the verge of becoming a reality. We wrote about the "PengPod" last month when its creators were seeking $49,000 on a Kickstarter-like site called Indiegogo. The project's deadline expired last night, with the PengPod getting a healthy $72,707 from more than 500 contributors.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/12/100-androidlinux-tablet-hits-funding… 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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Comment: OpenOffice's Tale of Two Cities
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

Failure in Freiburg, success in Munich. Experiences with open source software in the public sector couldn't be more different. If there's a lesson to be drawn from this, it's "go the whole hog or not at all". -- source: http://h-online.com/-1760502 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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Secure Boot bootloader for Linux
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

"Linux developer Matthew Garrett has released a version of his Shim Secure Boot bootloader that allows any Linux distribution to be launched on Secure Boot systems without the need to disable UEFI Secure Boot. As Garrett's Shim binary has been signed by Microsoft, the Secure Boot bootloader will be executed by almost any type of UEFI firmware." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1761089 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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Plan 9 ported to the Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

'Plan 9 developer Richard Miller has ported the open source Unix-like operating system to the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. Plan 9, which was originally developed primarily for research into distributed operating systems by Bell Labs, is still being developed at Bell Labs (now a subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent) and a number of independent developers. The operating system extends the classic "everything is a file" philosophy of Unix to network objects without differentiating between local and remote resources.' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1761509 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 launches Ubuntu-powered Sputnik for developers
by Peter Reutemann 03 Dec '12

03 Dec '12

"Dell has launched its Ubuntu laptop for developers in the US. The project, which was first announced in May, uses an XPS 13 Ultrabook as the base for a customised Ubuntu 12.04 installation that is aimed at application developers and systems administrators. Dell has worked with Ubuntu sponsor Canonical and various hardware manufacturers to provide support for the hardware, and the system ships with additional features such as the sputnik command that allows developers to easily replicate their development environment on other machines." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1759350 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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