- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Check Point Releases Open-Source Fix For Common Linux Memory Corruption Security Hole
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '20

22 May '20

'For years, there's been a known security vulnerability hiding in the GNU C Library (glibc). This library, which is critical for Linux and many other operating systems and programs, had a dynamic memory management security hole that could be used for denial of service (DoS) attacks. Now, the security company, Check Point, has issued an open-source patch, which will make it much more difficult to exploit this memory allocation (malloc) problem. Check Point re-encountered this known problem when it discovered that so-called smart light bulbs could be used to hack into networks by exploiting unprotected single-linked-lists. The double-linked-list version of this problem had been fixed back in 2005 with Safe-Unlinking. But, the single-linked-list version, which is present in the memory primitive functions Fast-Bins and Thread Cache (TCache), remained vulnerable. Now, the fix is in for this problem. This new built-in security mechanism is called Safe-Linking. It protects malloc by signing its single-linked-list pointers with random numbers derived from Linux's Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) functionality. Combined with memory chunk alignment integrity checks, it protects the memory pointers from hijacking attempts and thus the system itself. The patch is now being integrated with the most common standard C library implementation, glibc. Safe-Linking will be released in glibc 2.32 in August 2020. It's already up and running in glibc's popular embedded counterpart: uClibc-NG.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/05/21/2018256 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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Raspberry Pi 4 Beta Firmware Brings True USB Boot for High-Speed Storage, No microSD Required
by Peter Reutemann 22 May '20

22 May '20

'Owners of a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer looking to make the most of the device's high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity by turning it into the device's primary storage can now do so — at least, if they're willing to help out with beta-testing the latest firmware. The Raspberry Pi 4 launched last year with a range of improvements over its predecessor, including the option of up to four times as much memory and high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity for peripherals, but with a couple of regressions: The loss of the ability, present in the Raspberry Pi 3 range, to boot from a network server or USB Mass Storage device.' -- source: https://www.hackster.io/news/raspberry-pi-4-beta-firmware-brings-true-usb-b… 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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Term Of The Week: “RPA”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 May '20

21 May '20

Came across this phrase “robotic process automation” (RPA) <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/05/sba_rpa_ban/> which seems to be just another name for “web-scraping”. The site in question also offers APIs that can be used more directly to make requests and receive info. It’s just that the scraping works on a GUI designed for human users and human response times and data rates, so it creates a lot more overhead on the servers when being driven automatically with a lot of requests. Some outfits try to say that using such technology on their site is a violation of their terms of service. As one of the reader comments points out, if a company is banned from using a scraper bot that is batching its requests, and has to resort to hiring an army of humans, creating a concomitant swarm of separate login sessions, to enter the same data, the result can be even worse load on the servers.

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Information Technology Asset Management (ITAM) Forum
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 May '20

21 May '20

Choice quote from the founder/chairman <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/20/itam_forum_launches/>: “One of the reasons people have been interested in ITAM in the past is because they are sick of software audits and want to learn to defend themselves against audits...” Given the way the proprietary licence agreements are worded, it’s hard to see how you can avoid this and still use the same software. Further: “Ten years ago, people thought everything would be compliant in the cloud. Although software compliance is less of an issue, costs certainly aren’t planned. It is as complex as ever. Whether it's on the desktop, in the data centre or in the cloud, you’re looking at roughly 35 per cent waste across all of those platforms.” That’s a pretty high figure. It means that, when you buy proprietary software, you are paying about a 50% markup on the supposed price.

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Samsung Smart TV - blocking ads
by Peter Reutemann 21 May '20

21 May '20

Hi everyone Just came across this tip on reddit for blocking ads on your Samsung Smart TV: https://www.reddit.com/r/YouShouldKnow/comments/gn7fw5/ysk_if_you_own_a_sam… Blocking "ads.samsung.com" (or similar) on the router seems to be sufficient... The above link has more domains listed for Samsung and LG. Not that I'm connecting my TV to the internet in the first place... ;-) 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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List Of Spreadsheet Horror Stories
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 May '20

21 May '20

One of the things the European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group likes to do is collect horror stories about the (mis)use of spreadsheets <http://eusprig.org/horror-stories.htm>. Found the link in a reader comment <https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/all/2020/05/19/sap_analytics_cloud_o…> to this article <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/19/sap_analytics_cloud_office_integra…> about how software company SAP, creator of a complete business analytics suite, has felt compelled to include an interface to Microsoft Excel, just because that’s what most of its customers are familiar with.

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SD Cards Version 8 Are Coming
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 May '20

20 May '20

According to the pic linked from this article <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/20/sd_8_for_sd_express/>, the new SD card spec uses PCIe instead of the previous “SD Bus” interface to achieve around ... is it 4GB/s, or 4Gb/s? The article says it both ways, while the diagram uses capital B throughout. The current fastest SD cards have two rows of pins; this spec adds a third row.

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Linux distro review: Fedora Workstation 32
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

'Today's Linux distro review is one I've been wanting to do for quite some time—Fedora Workstation. Fedora is one of the heavyweight desktop distros of the Linux world, with a vibrant community and a strong presence at every open source convention I've ever attended. (Remember physically attending events? Ars remembers.) I never felt particularly drawn to Fedora myself, because it's a bleeding-edge distro—one targeted to the very newest software, possibly at the expense of stability. That's not what I personally want in an operating system—I fix broken things professionally; I'd prefer not to fix them personally any more than I have to. But as one of the few distros using the next-generation Wayland display server by default, Fedora made me very curious indeed. Although the screenshots taken throughout this review are of virtual machines, my first installation of Fedora Workstation (ever!) was bare metal, on the HP Dragonfly Elite G1.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/05/linux-distro-review-fedora-workstat… 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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“To Fix Social Media, We Need To Introduce Digital Socialism”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 May '20

20 May '20

Some may find this opinion piece <https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/fix-social-media-introduce-digita…> a bit too political, I don’t know. But he does mention some interesting open-source software projects, like the various “Fediverse” networks of decentralized social-media servers, and the “LibreSocial” project, which is trying to get rid of what little centralization still exists in those networks. Where I suppose it gets controversial is where he suggests that funding for such projects could be raised by taxing the existing Big Tech firms. But certainly many would agree the open-source projects he mentions are worth pursuing regardless.

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OT: NZ COVID Tracer app
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

Hi everyone Just came through on my twitter feed: the NZ COVID Traver app is ready: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-… 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 Launches Windows Terminal 1.0, Unveils GPU Support and Linux GUI Apps in WSL
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

'At Build 2020 today, Microsoft gave developers a slew of new tools to coax them into using Windows over macOS or Linux. From a report: Windows Terminal is now out of preview for enterprises, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) 2 is getting support for GPUs, Linux GUI apps, and a simplified install experience. Microsoft even released a Windows Package Manager in preview. Windows 10 runs on 1 billion monthly active devices (PCs, Xbox One consoles, and HoloLens devices), making it a massive platform for developers to target. [...] Microsoft today released Windows Terminal 1.0, which means it is stable for enterprise use. The open source application features multiple tabs, panes, tear-away windows, shortcuts, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, emojis, ligatures, extensions, GPU-accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations. Windows Terminal is for users of PowerShell, Cmd, WSL, and other command-line tools. Microsoft also unveiled WSL improvements today, including support for GPUs, Linux GUI apps, and a simplified install experience. WSL is a compatibility layer for running Linux binary executables natively on Windows. Microsoft first shared it was working on WSL 2 a year ago at Build 2019. WSL 2 is slated to arrive in the next major Windows 10 update coming later this month (brilliantly called the Windows 10 May 2020 Update), but it won't have these new features. In the second half of the year, WSL 2 will get support for GPU compute workflows. ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/05/19/163224 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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Chrome 83 Released With Enhanced Privacy Controls, Tab Groups Feature
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

'Google has released today version 83 of its Chrome web browser, one of the most feature-packed Chrome updates released since the browser's initial launch back in 2009. From a report: Today's v83 release includes a slew of new features. These include enhanced privacy controls, new settings for managing cookie files, a new Safety Check option, support for tab groups, new graphics for web form elements, a new API for detecting barcodes, and a new anti-XSS security feature, among many many others. The reason why Chrome 83 includes so many features is because Google canceled the Chrome 82 release due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As a result, some of the Chrome 82 features were pushed into Chrome 83, while others were rescheduled for later this year.' -- source: https://slashdot.org/story/20/05/19/185244 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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OpenBSD 6.7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

'New OpenBSD version. String of good news. Some of the new changes, as highlighted by Phoronix, include: - FFS2 file-system improvements including using 64-bit timestamps and block numbers by default for new installs. - Support for the Raspberry Pi 4 on ARM64 while improving the Raspberry Pi 3 support too. Raspberry Pi 2/3 support has also improved for OpenBSD ARMv7. - Better support for Rockchip systems like the Pinebook Pro. - Various SMP improvements including better AMD SMT/Core/Package detection. - A wide variety of different hardware driver improvements, including Intel AX200 WiFi device support. - A FIDO driver introduced for FIDO/U2F security keys support. - Fixed handling of USB 2.0 devices when in use on different USB 3.0 controllers. - The PowerPC OpenBSD build switched over to Clang as its default code compiler. - Various dhclient fixes. - Various security improvements. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/05/19/1935202 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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meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 May '20

20 May '20

Hi everyone For the meeting next week, the idea was to have a distro showdown. Since not everyone had experience yet with BigBlueButton, I would like to offer a trial run on Sunday night 8pm for the presenters. That should give them a chance to sort out video and audio. I'll send out a test link to the presenters off-list later on in the week. So far, I've got: - Ian - Ubuntu 20.04 - Tom - GhostBSD - Peter - Manjaro (never used it, but we can explore it together) Anyone else wanting to demo a distro? 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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ZFS versus RAID: Eight Ironwolf disks, two filesystems, one winner
by Peter Reutemann 19 May '20

19 May '20

'This has been a long while in the making—it's test results time. To truly understand the fundamentals of computer storage, it's important to explore the impact of various conventional RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) topologies on performance. It's also important to understand what ZFS is and how it works. But at some point, people (particularly computer enthusiasts on the Internet) want numbers. First, a quick note: This testing, naturally, builds on those fundamentals. We're going to draw heavily on lessons learned as we explore ZFS topologies here. If you aren't yet entirely solid on the difference between pools and vdevs or what ashift and recordsize mean, we strongly recommend you revisit those explainers before diving into testing and results. And although everybody loves to see raw numbers, we urge an additional focus on how these figures relate to one another. All of our charts relate the performance of ZFS pool topologies at sizes from two to eight disks to the performance of a single disk. If you change the model of disk, your raw numbers will change accordingly—but for the most part, their relation to a single disk's performance will not.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/05/zfs-versus-raid-eight-ironwolf-disk… 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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Re: wlug Digest, Vol 347, Issue 17 - DishTV Box
by tom butz 19 May '20

19 May '20

Hi John, I've been using the cheap one (99 dollars) and it works well. They expect the hard-disk/memory stick to be formatted FAT32. The system could do that for you. The recording format is proprietary: it's .mpg, but if you play it back, there is an enormous amount of jitter every 5 seconds or so. There is no documentation, maybe because FreeView told them to keep it secret. The USB-connection is USB2 and supplies 500 mA of power: that should be enough for a memory stick but not an ordinary HD (they usually draw about 1000 mA). I've kept an old HD out of a notebook and use it with an adapter. It's slow but I've never lost anything. Maybe there are Y-connectors around that would bump the HD's power to 1000 mA, but I've not managed to find one. The system records in ordinary density and doesn't use a lot of space. As everything is so proprietary I haven't found a way to transfer/add parts to another HD/stick. Everything sits in 1 directory with a few subdirectories. Transferring the stuff to a computer would work if you filmed the TV-screen. You would then also be able to cut out the ads. I've read somewhere that there are devices that would record HDMI-output (which the DishTV provides) on a USB-device, so that should do the job. Gameplayers use something like that to record their moves... Just an aside: recording OnDemand movies: easy if you use 'simplescreenrecorder' (Windows and Linux). It creates an MKV-file you can edit. Tom.

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dish tv
by john 18 May '20

18 May '20

Hi all' Does anyone know the file format for the Dish TV sat box?? I have a replacement empty drive. No File allocation and wonder if the Dish box will format the disk to it's own system? Cheers John.

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Slack Now Strips Location Data From Images
by Peter Reutemann 16 May '20

16 May '20

'Slack has started to strip uploaded photos of their metadata. What may seem like an inconsequential change to how the tech giant handles storing files on its servers, it will make it far more difficult to trace photos back to their original owners. From a report: Almost every digital file -- from documents on your computer to photos taken on your phone -- contains metadata. That's data about the file itself, such as how big the file is, when it was created, and by whom. Photos and videos often include the precise coordinates of where they were taken. But that can be a problem for higher-risk Slack users, like journalists and activists, who have to take greater security precautions to keep their sources safe. The metadata inside photos can out sources, deanonymize whistleblowers, or otherwise make it easier for unfriendly governments to target individuals. Even if a journalist removes the metadata from a photo before publishing, a copy of the photo -- with its metadata -- may remain on Slack's servers. Whether a hacker breaks in or a government demands the data, it can put sources at risk' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/05/11/2051209 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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ddr2 ram
by john 16 May '20

16 May '20

Some years ago, Windows Vista offered users who plugged in a USB flash drive the option of using the device as extra ram. I never actually tried this due to large amount of doubt about the functional ability of the claim. However I now have a number of Linux machines with DDR2 that I am unable to increase the physical memory of and wonder if this is a feasible option for these machines. Cheers John

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Standby Fares For Those Flying Cloud
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 May '20

14 May '20

New concept: “Spot” VMs on cloud services <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/13/azure_spot_vms/>. These are offered for a very low price, but equally the jobs run at very low priority, and are liable to be evicted at short notice--as little as 30 seconds, according to the article. They are there to fill up unused capacity that cannot be sold at the regular rate. But as soon as a customer appears willing to pay that rate, out you go.

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3D File Manager As A Service
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 May '20

13 May '20

This company called Saganworks is offering a navigable 3D world for accessing your files stored on their servers <https://blocksandfiles.com/2020/05/12/saganworks-virtual-reality-rooms-for-…>. This sort of thing has been done lots of times before, famously on SGI workstations (and seen in the “Jurassic Park” movie). I suppose Microsoft Bob also counts, in a way. Quote: “We don’t live in a 2D world, yet that’s how we’ve been retaining knowledge and memories from the time of early cave dwellers until now.” Speak for yourself, non-command-line user. Yes, the name is a contrived acronym, and also a homage to Carl Sagan ...

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Ventoy USB Image Multi-Bootloader
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 May '20

13 May '20

Been watching this video <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYJ8du9TaxE> about a bootloader called “Ventoy”. Basically you install it onto a suitably-large USB stick, then you can just copy .iso image files of all the distros you want to try, and when you boot off that stick, it will offer a list of which OS image you want to start up. This even includes some Microsoft Windows installation images. Not everything is fully-compatible, though.

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Commercial Use Of Open Source: Good & Bad
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 May '20

13 May '20

<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/12/open_source_bugs/> The good news: commercial adoption of Open Source is on the up: ... almost all (99 per cent) of the codebases examined have at least one open source component and that 70 per cent of the code overall is open source. That's about twice as much as the company's 2015 report, which found only 36 per cent of audited code was open source. The bad news: the companies concerned seem to have few or no procedures in place for keeping those open-source components up to date: Ninety-one percent of the audited applications had components that are either four years out of date or have exhibited no active development for two years. In 2019 – the time-period covered by the 2020 report – the percentage of codebases containing vulnerable components rose to 75 per cent, up from 60 per cent in 2018. They also seem to be a little bit careless about the legalities: The Synopsys report also found that 68 per cent of codebases exhibited an open source license conflict and that 33 per cent of them had no identifiable license.

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Eclipse Foundation Moving Base To Europe
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 May '20

13 May '20

The Eclipse Foundation is “re-domiciling the legal entity that controls The Eclipse Foundation from the US to Europe” <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/12/eclipse_moves_to_europe/>. Seems like Europe is already accounting for a much bigger chunk of contributions than the US: Membership dues will eventually be stated in Euros and a new version of the membership agreement will be coming down the line to reflect the foundation's new status as a Belgian entity. This reader comment <https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/all/2020/05/12/eclipse_moves_to_euro…> gives some other examples of Open Source projects where either their organizations or the bulk of their contributors are not (or no longer) US-centric. E.g. The Document Foundation (which runs the LibreOffice project) is based in Berlin.

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Apache 101: 0-WordPress in 15 minutes
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '20

13 May '20

'Recently, we took a look at the Caddy Web server. Today, we're going to back things up a little bit and look at the A from the classic LAMP stack: the Apache Web server. Apache has a bad reputation for being old, crusty, and low-performance—but this idea mostly stems from the persistence of ancient guides that still show users how to set it up in extremely antiquated ways. In this guide, we're going to set up an Ubuntu 20.04 droplet at Digital Ocean with an Apache Web server set up properly and capable of handling serious levels of traffic.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/apache-101-0-wordpre… 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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Thunderbolt Bug Lets Hackers Steal Your Data in 'Five Minutes'
by Peter Reutemann 13 May '20

13 May '20

'A new set of flaws discovered in the Intel Thunderbolt port has put millions of machines at risk of local hacking. This new research by Eindhoven University's Bjorn Ruytenberg suggests that if a hacker gains access to a machine for just five minutes, they could bypass login methods to gain full data access. From a report: Thunderbolt ports are present in machines with Windows, Linux, and macOS. So, that covers a lot of computers. Ruytenberg said all Thunderbolt versions and systems shipped between 2011 to 2020 are affected and no software patch can fix these vulnerabilities. So, Intel would need to redesign silicon in order to fix these flaws. There's not much you can do here. However, with open-source software called Thunderspy, developed by Ruytenberg and their team, you can check if you're affected by the Thunderbolt bug.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/05/11/1450208 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 Wants Notebooks
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 May '20

12 May '20

One of the plans announced for Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code development environment <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/11/visual_studio_code_145_released/> is “notebooks” à la Jupyter: The team is also working on native support for notebooks, though rather than just support Jupyter notebooks (for which support already exists as part of the Python tools) the intention is to "build a Notebook solution that is unbiased and supports different styles of Notebooks". Of course, Jupyter itself already allows you to use other programming languages, not just Python. By the way, interesting to note that Jupyter is becoming the recognized reference for the notebook paradigm, as opposed to Mathematica which is where the idea originated.

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ZFS 101—Understanding ZFS storage and performance
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '20

11 May '20

'As we all enter month three of the COVID-19 pandemic and look for new projects to keep us engaged (read: sane), can we interest you in learning the fundamentals of computer storage? Quietly this spring, we've already gone over some necessary basics like how to test the speed of your disks and what the heck RAID is. In the second of those stories, we even promised a follow-up exploring the performance of various multiple-disk topologies in ZFS, the next-gen filesystem you have heard about because of its appearances everywhere from Apple to Ubuntu. Well, today is the day to explore, ZFS-curious readers. Just know up front that in the understated words of OpenZFS developer Matt Ahrens, "it's really complicated." But before we get to the numbers—and they are coming, I promise!—for all the ways you can shape eight disks' worth of ZFS, we need to talk about how ZFS stores your data on-disk in the first place.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/zfs-101-understandin… 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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Which Linux Desktop Environment is the Best?
by Peter Reutemann 11 May '20

11 May '20

'Tom's Hardware "put five of the most popular desktop environments up against each other in a no-holds-barred, seven-round face-off. We've rated GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, Awesome and Regolith on a 10-point scale based on Installation, Applications, User Experience, User Documentation, Performance, Extensions and Configurability." It's a good read, with a detailed and thoughtful 3,700-word analysis, especially about memory performance: When you use the standard desktops, Gnome and KDE, you will likely notice that you are using a lot of memory... If you haven't noticed yet, try running htop in a separate window while you try out your choices. You should see a substantial difference with Awesome, i3 and, if you are elite, dwm. The difference in memory footprint is staggering when you start measuring. GNOME starts with somewhere in the region of 3GB at boot. This can be trimmed down by serious tweaking, but not very much. In comparison, the Awesome window manager weighs in at around 600MB... You can put a lot of eye candy and daemons before you weigh down your system as much as the others... Getting the advantage comes at a cost, though: you need to learn a few new habits to use Awesome desktop environment. Among GNOME, KDE, and Cinnamon, the article ultimately calls KDE "the most polished... decorative and versatile of the bunch. This comes at a cost, though." Cinnamon has the best balance between extensions and ease of use, while it is also fast and responsive. At the same time, it is not that heavy on resources. You can also add a wide range of extensions in the shape of widgets that send you ongoing and updated information. Regolith requires a bit more training, but it does set itself up for you so you can continue as you did with GNOME. Adding extensions and other gadgets is a bit more tricky, however... With Awesome you have to set up and practice to use it! It's easily the hardest in the group to get started with. When you are up and running, Awesome does deliver the most benefits from a resource point of view... Overall Winner: Cinnamon...because of its strong combination of user experience, performance and customization. ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/05/10/1552222 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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Source Code For Contact-Tracing Apps
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 May '20

10 May '20

The UK and Australia have both published the source code for their contact-tracing apps on GitHub <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/09/coronavirus_tracing_app_source_cod…>. And of course a lot of people are going over them with a fine-toothed comb. Some are even suggesting that one for Apple’s platform, for example, might be violating the company’s rules on using Bluetooth while running in the background. It’s hard to see how these apps won’t be a big battery drain anyway. Maybe the NZ government is wise not to make this sort of thing a priority for now.

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Do Working-From-Home Developers Risk Burning Out?
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '20

10 May '20

'"Software developers, like everyone else, have had to transition to a work-from-home world," writes InfoWorld. For the users of GitHub, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant changes in work cadence and collaboration, along with an increased risk of burnout, a GitHub study of usage patterns on the Microsoft-owned code sharing site has found." In an "Octoverse spotlight" analysis published May 6, 2020, GitHub compared the first three months of 2020 with the first three months of 2019... GitHub said its analysis shows that developers have been resilient to the change wrought by COVID-19, with activity holding consistent or increasing through the crisis. But their analysis also found: - Developers are working longer, by "up to an hour per day," seven days a week. - Slightly more pushes, pull requests, reviewed pull requests, and commented issues. - More collaboration on open source projects, and less time to merge pull requests into open source projects.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/09/0158217 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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3D Printed N95 Montana Mask Design Released Under GPLv3
by Peter Reutemann 10 May '20

10 May '20

'Since the COVID-19 pandemic has made Personal Protective Equipment worth it's weight in gold, Makers have been trying to help bridge the gap. While sewn masks have been the most common solution, the 3D printing community has been pitching in as well. The Montana Mask has been one of the most popular designs... Thursday, the group Make the Masks announced that the design files and STLs to print the mask have been released under the GNU General Public License v3, allowing anyone to print, sell, remix or improve the design, as long as they conform to the license. Importantly, the GPLv3 includes an international non-exclusive patent grant, meaning that even if the inventors decide to apply for a patent, it will not restrict anyone from using the design.' -- source: https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/05/09/1859238 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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Where Does Ad Money Go?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 May '20

08 May '20

The accounting firm PwC (does that still stand for “Price Waterhouse Coopers”?) has done a study <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/07/ad_tech_fees_sucked/> of the online ad market, to see where all the money is going. Turns out only about half the money spent by advertisers makes it all the way to the publishers, with the rest siphoned off by various intermediaries along the way (not all of them legitimate), and 15% could not be accounted for at all. Much of this trading is now done “programmatically”, between automated systems, rather than by direct agreements between humans. And these systems are more complex (i.e. “having more stages where a percentage cut can be taken”) than they need to be.

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Inkscape Approaches Version 1.0
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 May '20

08 May '20

Inkscape v1.0 is tentatively due to be released on May 1st. Here <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/16_years_inkscape_v1/> is a backgrounder on how development has been progressing. There seems to be this assumption that Apple users are important: Mac support is hugely important, thanks to the wide use of Macs in the artistic and designer community. while on the other hand, They know that macOS usage has been very small. The new version is using GTK+3, and the UI is more customizable than before. The command shell has also been improved. Finally: Is the open-source business model, or lack of it, holding back Inkscape? "We would advance much faster with even one or two full-time people," said Jeanmougin. "That has been some frustration because we only rely on donations. We get much less than what we would need to hire people."

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MPA and Amazon Ask GitHub To Suspend Kodi Add-On Developer's Account
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '20

08 May '20

'The MPA, MPA-Canada, and Amazon have filed a request with Github requesting that a Kodi add-on developer's account be deleted from the platform. Citing a copyright case and a permanent injunction handed down by Canada's Federal Court, the content companies claim that the account is still being used to infringe their rights. Github has left the account intact, however. TorrentFreak reports: In February 2018, a developer known online as 'Blamo' (aka 'Mr. Blamo') revealed that he, in common with several of his counterparts, had been threatened by content companies. From there the trail went cold but according to a complaint filed against Github this week, legal action in Canada followed. On September 7, 2018, a dozen companies including the studios of the MPA/MPA-Canada plus Amazon and Netflix launched a copyright infringement lawsuit at Canada's Federal Court against an individual "doing business" as Mr. Blamo. "In the context of that action, our clients alleged that [Blamo] notably developed, hosted, promoted and distributed infringing add-ons for the Kodi media center, which provided unauthorized access to motion pictures and television content for which the copyright is owned by our clients," the MPA writes. According to Federal Court records, Blamo did not mount any kind of defense so as a result, the matter was decided in his absence. On January 15, 2019, the Federal Court handed down a final judgment, including a declaration of infringement and a permanent injunction. "The permanent injunction enjoins and restrains [Blamo] from, inter alia, hosting, distributing or promoting infringing Kodi add-ons and their repositories, including notably the 'Blamo' repository and the "Chocolate Salty Balls' infringing add-ons," the MPA adds. The problem here is that, according to the MPA and associated companies, Blamo has a Github account where it is claimed he continues to "host and distribute infringing Kodi add-ons and their repository, including notably the Chocolate Salty Balls infringing add-on and the Blamo repository." This, the MPA says, amounts to contempt of court. What's particularly interesting here, however, is that the MPA isn't asking for the specified URLs to be deleted. Instead, it asks for Blamo's entire Github account to be deactivated instead.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/05/07/2018227 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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Apple IOS XML Bug
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 May '20

08 May '20

>From <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/05/ios_xml_bug.html>: So Siguza's exploit -- which granted an app full access to the entire file system, and more - uses malformed XML comments constructed in a way that one of iOS's XML parsers sees its declaration of entitlements one way, and another XML parser sees it another way. The XML parser used to check whether an application should be allowed to launch doesn't see the fishy entitlements because it thinks they're inside a comment. The XML parser used to determine whether an already running application has permission to do things that require entitlements sees the fishy entitlements and grants permission. Further: Implementing 4 different parsers is just asking for trouble, and the "fix" is of the crappiest sort, bolting on more crap to check they're doing the right thing in this single case. None of this is encouraging. Conway’s Law comes to mind: “any piece of software reflects the organizational structure that produced it”. 3 different XML parsers sounds like 3 different groups working on those parts of the OS, while the addition of a fourth to block the hole suggests that nobody with any responsibility for security was able to get through to any of those groups to fix their parsing.

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Microsoft's GitHub Account Allegedly Hacked, 500GB Stolen
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '20

08 May '20

'A hacker claims to have stolen over 500GB of data from Microsoft's private GitHub repositories, BleepingComputer reports. From the report: This evening, a hacker going by the name Shiny Hunters contacted BleepingComputer to tell us they had hacked into the Microsoft GitHub account, gaining full access to the software giant's 'Private' repositories. The individual told us that they then downloaded 500GB of private projects and initially planned on selling it, but has now decided to leak it for free. Based on the file stamps in the leaked files, the breach may have occurred on March 28th, 2020.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/05/07/1850248 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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Google Authenticator's First Android Update in Years Lets You Move Your Account Between Devices
by Peter Reutemann 08 May '20

08 May '20

'Google Authenticator, the company's code-based authentication app, has received its first update in three years, updating the app's interface for larger screens with more modern aspect ratios and delivering one of the platform's most-needed features. From a report: The Android version was last updated on August 22nd, 2017, while the iOS one was updated around a year ago to adjust it for iPhone X screens. Now, for the first time, Authenticator users will be able to easily transfer their account from one device to another without needing to manually transfer each code or disable and reenable two-factor authentication (2FA) on each account. The update introduces this feature through an import / export tool that lets you choose which accounts to include and transfer using a single QR code scan. It's a feature that competitor Authy has provided for quite some time, so it's refreshing to see it come to Authenticator, even if it's years late.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/05/07/1450227 Finally... Could have used that a while ago... 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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Caddy offers TLS, HTTPS, and more in one dependency-free Go Web server
by Peter Reutemann 07 May '20

07 May '20

'Yesterday, the Caddy Web server reached an important milestone, with its 2.0.0 release. Caddy bills itself as "The Ultimate Server," with no dependencies, automatic TLS certificate obtainment and renewal, and much smaller configuration files than Apache or Nginx. Senior Technology Editor Lee Hutchinson expressed both curiosity about Caddy and his own personal inertia in the Ars slack: Caddy is an app where every time i see it or think of it i say “I should mess with it, it looks neat” and then I never do. I’ve gotten so enmeshed in my haproxy - varnish - nginx stack that breaking out feels like more trouble than it’s worth. I hadn't ever heard of Caddy until Lee mentioned it, but I know a call to action when I hear one.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/05/caddy-offers-tls-https-and-more-in-… 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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Firefox 76 Arrives With Password Management and Zoom Improvements
by Peter Reutemann 06 May '20

06 May '20

'Mozilla today launched Firefox 76 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Firefox 76 includes new Firefox Lockwise password functionality, Zoom improvements, and a handful of developer features. From a report: Lockwise, the password management service formerly known as Firefox Lockbox, is getting smarter. The Firefox feature already lets you generate, manage, and protect all those passwords for streaming services, grocery deliveries, and anything else that helps during the pandemic. If you share your device with family or roommates, Lockwise in Firefox 76 can now protect your saved passwords. When you try to view or copy a password from your "Logins and Passwords" page, you will be prompted for your device's account password. [...] Firefox 76 adds support for Audio Worklets, which run custom JavaScript audio processing code for applications like VR and gaming on the web. Unlike their predecessor, ScriptProcessorNode, worklets run off the main thread in a similar way to web workers. Mozilla also notes Audio Worklets are "being adopted by some of your favorite software programs." The company specifically called out Zoom, which has become a phenomenon of its own during the pandemic. In short, you now join Zoom calls in Firefox without having to download or install the Zoom client.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/05/160252 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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Xiaomi Releases Browser Update Amid Accusations It Collects Private Browsing Data
by Peter Reutemann 06 May '20

06 May '20

'Xiaomi released software updates for its browser apps on Monday amid fresh accusations it's been collecting private data from people who use its phones and browser apps. CNET reports: In a blog post, Xiaomi said the update will allow you to switch off aggregated data collection while on incognito mode in its three browser apps: Mi Browser, Mi Browser Pro, and Mint Browser. The software update was rolled out on Google Play. "We believe this functionality, in combination with our approach of maintaining aggregated data in non-identifiable form, goes beyond any legal requirements and demonstrates our company's commitment to user privacy," the company said in its post. The release of the software update comes after a Forbes report published last Thursday raised concerns about the Chinese phone-maker's use of private data. It suggested Xiaomi may be collecting data on the websites users visit as well as granular information about apps used and files opened on devices. In response to the report, Xiaomi defended its practices last week saying it's "fully compliant with user privacy protection laws and regulations in the countries and regions we operate in.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/05/05/2013244 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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Ubuntu 20.04: Welcome to the future, Linux LTS disciples
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '20

05 May '20

'This is most definitely the strangest spring in a very long time, with all sorts of event and hardware delays or outright cancellations. But one thing that has arrived right on schedule? The latest version of Ubuntu Linux. Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa, as this release is known) is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, which means Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical, will provide support through 2025. The LTS releases are what Canonical calls "enterprise grade," and these tend to be conservative when it comes to adopting new technologies. The interim releases, like last year's Ubuntu 19.10, are instead where the company tends to experiment. Perhaps not surprisingly, Canonical estimates that 95 percent of all Ubuntu installations are LTS releases. Which is to say, this is a big update that the bulk of Ubuntu's user base will be upgrading to eventually. The good news for Ubuntu fans is that 20.04 has been a fantastic release in our testing. This update has been very solid in day-to-day use, and it still manages to (optionally!) include support for some cutting-edge new features, like the beginnings of a tool to manage ZFS snapshots. There's also a major kernel bump, and considerable work has gone into improving and polishing the default Yaru theme. That's a running theme in Ubuntu, where much of what makes it great are small changes and new features that individually might not be remarkable but all together create a system that is fast, stable, and hard to beat. The security improvements offered this time around almost alone make Ubuntu 20.04 a must-have upgrade. But the Ubuntu 20.04 update has plenty of new stuff for all the various Ubuntu flavors as well. So even if the default GNOME desktop doesn't excite you, there's big news in Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu Mate, and more. There's also some good news for Raspberry Pi users, who get first-class support for the Pi 4 platform out of the box (and when I say first class, I mean, frankly, better than the official Pi distro, Raspian).' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/05/ubuntu-20-04-welcome… 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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Academics Turn PC Power Units Into Speakers To Leak Secrets From Air-Gapped Systems
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '20

05 May '20

'Academics from an Israeli university have published new research last week showing how an attacker could turn a computer's power supply unit into a rudimentary speaker that can secretly transmit data from an infected host using audio waves. From a report: The technique, named POWER-SUPPLaY, is the work of Mordechai Guri, the head of R&D at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel. Over the last half-decade, Guri has been pioneering research into new covert data exfiltration channels. The techniques Guri has been developing can be used for stealing data through unconventional means. Guri has been developing these techniques specifically for extracting data from air-gapped systems -- computers isolated on local networks with no internet access. Such computers are often used on government or corporate networks to store sensitive data, such as classified files or intellectual property. Air-gapped systems are protected by several layers of defenses, on top of the "air gap," and you need novel data transmission techniques to go around these defenses. For example, some air-gapped systems don't have speakers, because it's been proven in the past that speakers could be abused to leak information from a secure system using inaudible sound waves.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/05/04/176208 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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Google Purged Almost 1,000 Abusive 'Creeperware' Apps. Now Some Are Coming Back.
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '20

05 May '20

'In June 2019, a group of cybersecurity researchers notified Google of more than 1,000 potentially malicious apps on the company's Play Store that can be used to surveil, monitor, and harass users. Their findings, which have not previously been reported, eventually led to one of the largest ever mass removals of Android apps. Less than a year later, there are signs that the "creeperware," as the researchers called it, is returning. From a report: The label comprises a broad category of abusable apps, including tools for spying, spoofing phone numbers, and secretly recording video and audio. Some of those programs banned by Google have now rebranded or added disclaimers and returned to the Play Store. Meanwhile, new programs with overtly abusive purposes have slipped through the company's automated monitoring systems. The initial 1,095 apps flagged by researchers came in a variety of forms. Catch Cheating Spouse and its ilk offered stalkerware packages: Once installed on a victim's phone, the user could track the device's location, read messages, listen to calls, remotely record through the microphone, or log passwords. Many of the programs had innocuous names but hostile purposes. Spoof Text Message, for example, advertised itself with a video using the tagline "Don't like your buddy's girlfriend? Well, break them up!" Others, like GirlFriend Cell Tracker, were more explicit in their motivation. "When we reported these apps to Google initially, it felt like they didn't really know what to do with them," said Kevin Roundy, the technical director of NortonLifeLock's research group, and one of the lead members of the team that uncovered the malicious apps last June.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/05/04/1528219 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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Hackers Breach LineageOS Servers Via Unpatched Vulnerability
by Peter Reutemann 05 May '20

05 May '20

'Hackers have gained access to the core infrastructure of LineageOS, a mobile operating system based on Android, used for smartphones, tablets, and set-top boxes. The intrusion took place on Saturday night at around 8 pm (US Pacific coast), and was detected before the attackers could do any harm, the LineageOS team said in a statement published less than three hours after the incident. The LineageOS team said the operating system's source code was unaffected, and so were any operating system builds, which had been already paused since April 30, because of an unrelated issue. Signing keys, used to authenticate official OS distributions, were also unaffected, as these hosts were stored separately from the LineageOS main infrastructure. LineageOS developers said the hack took place after the attacker used an unpatched vulnerability to breach its Salt installation.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/20/05/04/0341202 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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What Keeps Developers Happy? Contributing to Open Source
by Peter Reutemann 04 May '20

04 May '20

'This week long-time open source advocate Matt Asay warned employers that the best way to keep their developers happy was to let them contribute to open source projects: SlashData recently surveyed over 16,000 developers to see what makes them tick... what they care about. The data is collected in SlashData's State of the Developer Nation, though let me give you the tl;dr: 59% of developers contribute to open source software today. Why do they contribute? The top two reasons are: To improve coding skills and because they believe in open source. Want to keep those developers happy and employed with you? Let them contribute... [Y]our employees want to contribute both code and knowledge — they want to be part of something. Talking to Bert Hubert, founder of PowerDNS, a supplier of open source DNS software, services, and support, he stressed that an open source project must be "a fun place where people feel that they are learning things, that they're contributing things, that they're being valued." Perhaps not surprisingly, these are the same elements developers expect from their employers. By making open source a valued part of workplace expectations, employers tick both boxes. Is it an absolute requirement that you encourage your developers to contribute to open source projects? No. But many of your best developers will chafe at keeping their talents locked up behind the firewall, and other developers simply won't apply if you have a reputation for being an open source scrooge. The article was written by Matt Asay, a former COO of Canonical now working at AWS. (Right before becoming Canonical's COO, Matt answered questions from Slashdot readers). The survey he cites also found that out of 17,000 developers they talked to, just 3% said they were paid to contribute to open source. The other 97% contributed for free.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/03/1746244 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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Copyleft and the Cloud: Where Do We Go From Here?
by Peter Reutemann 04 May '20

04 May '20

'Free software evangelist Jeremy Allison - Sam (Slashdot reader #8,157) is a co-creator on the Samba project, a re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, and he also works in Google's Open Source Programs Office. Now he shares his presentation at the Software Freedom Conservancy's "International Copyleft Conference." He writes: The Samba project has traditionally been one of the strongest proponents of Copyleft licensing and Free Software. However, in the Corporate Cloud-first world we find ourselves, traditional enforcement mechanisms have not been effective. How do we achieve the goals of the Free Software movement in this new world and how do we need to change what we're doing to be successful ? Traditional license enforcement doesn't seem to work well in the Cloud and for the modern software environment we find ourselves. In order to achieve the world of Free Software available for all I think we need to change our approach. Both GPLv3 and the AGPL have been rejected soundly by most developers. I would argue that we need a new way to inspire developers to adopt Free Software goals and principles, as depending on licensing has failed as licensing itself has fractured. Communication and collaboration are key to this. Stand-alone software is essentially useless. Software interoperability and published protocol and communication definitions are essential to build a freedom valuing software industry for the future The talk's title? "Copyleft and the Cloud: Where do we go from here?"' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/05/02/180237 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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Google's reCAPTCHA Is Being Used To Hide Phishing Pages
by Peter Reutemann 04 May '20

04 May '20

'New research from Barracuda Networks has revealed that cyber-criminals are increasingly using official reCAPTCHA walls to disguise malicious content from email security systems and trick unsuspecting users... [S]ophisticated scammers are beginning to use the Google-owned service to prevent automated URL analysis systems from accessing the actual content of phishing pages, and to make phishing sites more believable in the eyes of the victim, Barracuda Networks warned. In fact, the security solutions provider observed a single phishing campaign that sent out 128,000 emails to a variety of organizations and employees using reCAPTCHA walls to conceal fake Microsoft log-in pages. This campaign used the lure of a voicemail receipt to fool users into solving the reCAPTCHA wall before being redirected to the malicious page, with any log-in info entered then sent straight to the scammers.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/05/03/1613229 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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Join me in taking action
by Roderick Aldridge 01 May '20

01 May '20

I just took part in an Electronic Frontier Foundation campaign titled "Help Stop the Sale of Public Interest Registry to a Private Equity Firm". Will you join me? Take action here: https://act.eff.org/action/help-stop-the-sale-of-public-interest-registry-t… In case you haven't seen this. I expect a lot of FOSS people and organisations are at risk. Roderick

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ISP
by john 01 May '20

01 May '20

Hi All, I am convinced that my ISP has reduced the throttle on my UFB. They wrote and told me that due to the virus I was to get unlimited use (I had nearly 2TB of rollover) I used to think it a lucky day if I got 1.5MB but recently speeds over up to 3 MB are common. Cheers John

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