- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Open Review Toolkit
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

The Open Review Toolkit is software that turns a book manuscript into a website where users can read and annotate your text, and “you can collect valuable data to help launch your book”. <http://freedom-to-tinker.com/2016/11/27/announcing-the-open-review-toolkit/>

1 0

Ex-Debian systemd Haters Celebrate Second Birthday
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

Two years going, this Linux OS that aims for "Init Freedom" isn't the most vibrant distribution out there. When's the last time you've heard of Devuan or even used it yourself? This year much of the systemd "hate" seems to have calmed down compared to prior years, although new features continue to be tacked onto systemd. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Devuan-Systemd-Debian-Turns-…>

1 0

resistance futile goto WIN 10 now
by Ian Young 28 Nov '16

28 Nov '16

While messing about with a laptop that has a video defect causing the screen to remain blank initially, I tried a distro called Zorin. Amazingly it lit up the screen early in the process of starting Linux. So impressed was I that I looked up Zorin on the Guggle and found this article. In the comments was this gem. Looks like I won't be needing Linux any more. But the price will be using Windows 10. Nah, maybe I'll just stay in the backwoods. http://hothardware.com/news/zorin-os-12-linux-distro-could-be-a-windows-10-… "I guess I just don't see much point anymore now that Windows 10 can natively run Ubuntu. Bash, SSH, Telnet, full desktop, X11 etc. The Linux subsystem runs fine alongside Win 10. You have both running simultaneously. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0hCB8_HFzg Have a look all you Linux fans, after all, it no longer has to be one or the other. If you have the anniversary update, you already have ubuntu waiting to be activated. It's a fairly long video but should cover everything you might want to know." PS Caveat. Had to transcribe the YouTube link so may be subject to error, and I haven't watched it.

2 1

Debian Putting Everything On The /usr
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Nov '16

25 Nov '16

In the old days, back when disks were smaller, Unix and Linux systems tended to have the “/” (root) and “/usr” directories on different volumes. In fact, I can remember that the DEC/Compaq Tru64 UNIX installer insisted on arranging things this way, even though the disks were quite big enough by then to put the whole OS on one volume. (I just moved /usr into the root volume afterwards and removed the redundant mount point.) One consequence of this was that you had to be careful where you put core parts of the system: things had to be designed so that you would still have some useable functionality if you only had / mounted and not /usr (for recovery purposes). Thus, binaries in /bin and /sbin could depend on shareable libraries in /lib, but not /usr/lib, while of course binaries in /usr/bin and /usr/sbin could freely depend on both. These days, nobody cares about such a possibility any more. Other distros (notably Red Hat) abandoned the root-usr distinction a long time ago, and merged things so /bin was just a symlink to /usr/bin, and /lib to /usr/lib, anyway. You can still put /usr on a separate volume, but your system will no longer work if it cannot be mounted. Now Debian is following suit. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/24/debian_testing_merged_codeusrcode/>

1 0

System76 Oryx Pro Ubuntu Laptop Review
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Nov '16

24 Nov '16

Comes preinstalled with your choice of Ubuntu LTS 16.04.1 or 16.10 (officially), unofficially it seems they are tolerant of those who prefer other distros. A high-spec machine, solidly-built, which certainly cannot be described as “anorexic”. And with a price tag to match. And unfashionably expandable, too: In total, this laptop offers an Ethernet port, an SD card slot, 2 Mini DisplayPorts, an HDMI port, 2 USB 3.1 Type-C ports, 3 USB 3.0 Type-A ports, and both headphone and mic jacks. The GTX 1070 models even include a headphone amplifier. <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/11/system76-oryx-pro-review-linux-in-a-…>

1 0

Tor phone is antidote to Google “hostility” over Android, says developer
by Peter Reutemann 23 Nov '16

23 Nov '16

'The Tor Project recently announced the release of its prototype for a Tor-enabled smartphone—an Android phone beefed up with privacy and security in mind, and intended as equal parts opsec kung fu and a gauntlet to Google. The new phone, designed by Tor developer Mike Perry, is based on Copperhead OS, the hardened Android distribution profiled first by Ars earlier this year.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/tor-phone-prototype-google-hostilit… 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/

1 0

Fedora 25 Now Available -- Makes It Easier To Switch From Windows 10 Or Mac
by Peter Reutemann 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

'After the release of both alpha and beta versions, Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines. If you aren't familiar with the popular Linux-based operating system, please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. One of the most endearing qualities of Fedora is its focus on only offering truly free open source software. Also, you can always count on a very modern version of the Linux kernel being available. Despite having very up-to-date packages, it is always very stable too. My favorite aspect, however, is the commitment to the GNOME desktop environment; other DEs are available, though. The team says, "Fedora 25 Workstation now makes it easier to for Windows and OS X users to get started, with Fedora Media Writer serving as the default download for those operating systems. This tool helps users find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable media, like a USB stick, allowing potential Fedora users to 'test drive' the operating system from that media environment. Fedora can then be installed to their systems with the same process".' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/16/11/22/154248 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/

1 0

Introducing ... The Tor Phone
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Nov '16

22 Nov '16

"The iOS App Store is at a significant disadvantage there even compared to Google Play," [Tor developer Mike Perry] told us. "Each iOS app is re-encrypted specifically for the user with Apple's DRM, making it technically impossible to verify that the package you installed matches the official one." ... In order to solve the Android security mess, Google is taking steps that hurt user freedom, and make Android vulnerable to compelled backdoors, Perry argued. ... "Copperhead is also the only Android ROM that supports verified boot, which prevents exploits from modifying the boot, system, recovery, and vendor device partitions," ... "This makes Copperhead an excellent choice for our base system." <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/tor-phone-prototype-google-hostilit…>

1 0

AGM next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 21 Nov '16

21 Nov '16

Hi everyone The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Waikato Linux Users Group Society is coming up next Monday. The agenda - at this stage - is as follows: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Election of 2017 Committee - General business (eg future of WLUG library, wording in the charter with regard to advertising of jobs using the wlug mailing list, etc) - Consumption of pizza Details: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/233952391/ 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/

1 0

Antivirus Firm Kaspersky Launches Its Own Hackproof OS, Based On Microkernel
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

'Kaspersky Lab, a Russian cybersecurity and antivirus company, has announced their new operating system which was in development for the last 14 years. Dubbed as Kaspersky OS, it has made its debut on a Kraftway Layer 3 Switch. Not many details have been revealed by the CEO Eugene Kaspersky in his blog post. The GUI-less OS -- as it appears in the image -- has been designed from scratch and Eugene said it doesn't have "even the slightest smell of Linux." He actually tagged "Kaspersky OS being non-Linux" as one of the three main distinctive features he mentioned. The other two features he briefly described are rather fascinating. The first feature is that the Kaspersky OS is based on microkernel architecture, which basically means using the minimum amount of ingredients to bake your own operating system. The OS can be custom-designed as per requirements by using different modification blocks. The second distinctive feature is the inbuilt security system which can control application behavior and OS modules. It touts Kaspersky OS as practically unhackable, unless a cyber-baddie has a quantum computer -- which will be required to crack the digital signature of the platform -- at his disposal.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/18/2039245 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/

2 1

This $5 Device Can Hack Your Locked Computer In One Minute
by Peter Reutemann 18 Nov '16

18 Nov '16

'Next time you go out for lunch and leave your computer unattended at the office, be careful. A new tool makes it almost trivial for criminals to log onto websites as if they were you, and get access to your network router, allowing them to launch other types of attacks. Hackers and security researchers have long found ways to hack into computers left alone. But the new $5 tool called PoisonTap, created by the well-known hacker and developer Samy Kamkar, can even break into password-protected computers, as long as there’s a browser open in the background.' -- source: http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/read/this-5-device-can-hack-your-locked-c… 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/

1 0

Alternatives To MATLAB
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

In this announcement about the latest release of GNU Octave, which “remains largely compatible with the widely-used MATLAB” <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GNU-Octave-4.2>, one commenter bemoaned the lack of a serious alternative to MATLAB’s Simulink Toolbox. To which another suggested looking at OpenModelica <https://openmodelica.org/>.

1 0

Debian Is Moving To MariaDB
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

I upgraded my main machine, running Debian Unstable, a few days ago, and my time and billing system stopped working. Further investigation revealed that the mysql-server package had somehow disappeared. I am installing it again now, and it looks like it is putting in MariaDB instead of Oracle MySQL. The executables etc still keep the “mysql” name, so it looks like nothing in my code need change...

1 0

Are Antivirus Tools A Useless Box-Ticking Exercise?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Nov '16

17 Nov '16

... many existing tools [are] ineffective "magic" that engineers are forced to install for the sake of compliance but at the expense of real security. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/17/google_hacker_pleads_try_whitelists…>

1 0

Word For The Day: “Serverless”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

When I first came across this term, I assumed it meant something like “distributed peer-to-peer” rather than having dedicated servers. Turns out it means something quite different: instead of paying for the server as a whole, you pay per service request. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/16/forget_razors_and_blades_apis_are_t…>

1 0

The End Of GCJ?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

GCJ, the GNU Compiler for Java, has been languishing for some time, and may be about to be put out of its misery. Unlike the Sun/Oracle compiler, GCJ can compile to native machine code (thanks to the common GCC infrastructure), it is not restricted to some intermediate byte code. It originated before Sun open-sourced Java, and I guess a lot of the need for it went away when OpenJDK appeared. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GCC-Patch-To-Drop-GCJ>

2 2

Disk-Reliability Data From Backblaze
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

Backup service company Backblaze has been migrating en mass from 2TB drives to 8TB ones. The Seagate ones, at least show no difference in failure rate--1.6% per year. They must be getting a special deal on the price, because last time I looked at cost, 4TB was still the sweet spot, same as it was 2 years ago. <http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/8tb-disks-still-looki…>.

1 0

How Toy Story 2 Got Deleted Twice, Once On Accident, Again On Purpose
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Nov '16

16 Nov '16

How a wayward “rm -rf *” almost destroyed Pixar’s “Toy Story 2”, and how it was recovered from a copy that a staffer just happened to have on her home machine <http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/05/21/how-pixars-toy-story-2-was-deleted-t…>.

1 0

Ubuntu Budgie Is Now An Official Ubuntu Flavor
by rowan schischka 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

Cheers for that Peter, budgie looks like an interesting interface. Im going to have to review it. Why is there so much effort going into remixes when you can install the desktop on stock ubuntu? -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

Open Source Pioneer Munich Debates Report That Suggests Abandoning Linux for Windows 10
by Peter Reutemann 10 Nov '16

10 Nov '16

'As an open-source software pioneer, Munich spent years moving away from Windows, but now politicians are debating a report that suggests the city could eventually abandon Linux. A report on TechRepublic adds: If the authority ruling Germany's third largest city backs proposals to make Windows 10 and Microsoft Office available across the council, it would be a significant step away from open-source software for an organization once seen as its champion. Over a nine-year period starting in 2004, the council moved about 15,000 staff from using Windows and Office to LiMux -- a custom version of the Ubuntu desktop OS -- and other open source software. At the time, Munich was one of the largest organizations to reject Windows, and Microsoft took the city's leaving so seriously that then CEO Steve Ballmer flew to Munich to meet the mayor. Now a report commissioned by current mayor Dieter Reiter to help determine the future of IT at the council has outlined a project to make Windows 10 and Microsoft Office available to all departments, and give staff the choice about whether to use Windows or LiMux.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/11/09/212246 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/

2 4

Ubuntu Budgie Is Now An Official Ubuntu Flavor
by Peter Reutemann 09 Nov '16

09 Nov '16

'After two successful major releases, budgie-remix has finally been accepted as an official Ubuntu flavor, earlier today during a meeting where four Canonical technicians voted positive. As such, we're extremely happy to inform our readers that the new Ubuntu flavor is called Ubuntu Budgie. In April this year, when budgie-remix hit the road towards its first major release, versioned 16.04, we reported that David Mohammed was kind enough to inform Softpedia about the fact that he got in touch with Ubuntu MATE leader Martin Wimpress, who urged the developer to target Ubuntu 16.10 for an official status. budgie-remix 16.10 arrived as well this fall shortly after the release of Ubuntu 16.10 (Yakkety Yak), and the dream of becoming an official Ubuntu flavor is now a reality. Re-branding of the official website and the entire distribution is ongoing. "We now move full steam ahead and look forward to working with the Ubuntu Develop Membership Board to examine and work through the technical aspects [...] 17.04 will be our first official release under the new name," said David Mohammed in the announcement.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/11/08/2211257 Cheers, Petr -- 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/

1 0

Signal Looks Secure
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

Signal is an application and secure messaging protocol created by a group led by Moxie Marlinspike. It has also been adopted by some other applications, notably Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Now, an independent security audit by a multinational team <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/08/trust_it_results_of_signals_first_f…> has come to the conclusion that there are no obvious flaws in the protocol (accidental or otherwise)--that it really can deliver on the promise of preserving privacy in communication over an insecure network.

2 1

Web of Trust, Downloaded 140M Times, Pulled From Extension Stores After Revelations That It Sells Users' Data
by Peter Reutemann 08 Nov '16

08 Nov '16

'According to multiple reports, Web of Trust, one of the top privacy and security extensions for web browsers with over 140 million downloads, collects and sells some of the data of its users -- and it does without properly anonymizing it. Upon learning about this, Mozilla, Google and Opera quickly pulled the extension off their respective extension stores. From a report on The Register: A browser extension which was found to be harvesting users' browsing histories and selling them to third parties has had its availability pulled from a number of web browsers' add-on repositories. Last week, an investigative report by journalists at the Hamburg-based German television broadcaster, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR), revealed that Web of Trust Services (WoT) had been harvesting netizens' web browsing histories through its browser add-on and then selling them to third parties. While WoT claimed it anonymised the data that it sold, the journalists were able to identify more than 50 users from the sample data it acquired from an intermediary. NDR quoted the data protection commissioner of Hamburg, Johannes Caspar, criticising WoT for not adequately establishing whether users consented to the tracking and selling of their browsing data. Those consent issues have resulted in the browser add-on being pulled from the add-on repositories of both Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, although those who have already installed the extension in their browsers will need to manually uninstall it to stop their browsing being tracked.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/11/08/1551236 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/

1 0

Two Critical MySQL Bugs Discovered
by Peter Reutemann 05 Nov '16

05 Nov '16

'Two critical privilege escalation vulnerabilities in MySQL, MariaDB, and PerconaDB can help take control of the whole server, which is very bad for shared environments... Administrators need to check their database versions, as attackers can chain two critical vulnerabilities and completely take over the server hosting the database... The first vulnerability, a privilege escalation/race condition flaw, gives elevated privileges to a local system user with access to a database and allows them to execute arbitrary code as the database system user. This gives an attacker access to all of the databases on the affected server... The privilege escalation/race condition flaw can be chained with another critical vulnerability, a root privilege escalation vulnerability, to further elevate the system level user to gain root on the server.' -- source: https://developers.slashdot.org/story/16/11/05/056227 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/

1 0

US Government Launches Open-Source Repository
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

The US Federal Government has just opened code.gov, a “platform designed to improve access to the federal government’s custom-developed software” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/04/code_gov_goes_live/>. You can browse projects by department/agency.

2 1

Google Says Bye-Bye To Eclipse
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Nov '16

04 Nov '16

Google has officially abandoned its Android development plugin for Eclipse, in favour of its Android Studio IDE <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/03/google_knifes_eclipse_android_devel…>. For me, the nice thing about the Android SDK is that it gives you a choice: you can still build things from the command line, which makes it easy to set up custom build procedures. For example, the largest Android project I have dabbled with so far <https://github.com/ldo/ti5x_android> has 11,000 lines of Java code and 3,000 lines of Python, all created with Emacs. I’m not sure any IDE could gracefully build it at all.

2 1

E-Voting Around The World
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Roundup of how various places implement electronic- and online-based voting systems <http://arstechnica.com/features/2016/11/internet-based-and-open-source-how-…>. Brazil: One major flaw [Prof Aranha] found was that the digital votes are randomly shuffled, as a way to provide extra security while in storage. However, the algorithm to provide that randomness is given a non-random seed: the timestamp. Australia, specifically the Australian Capital Territory: Still, despite the success of the open-source e-voting setup, [Electoral Commissioner] Green says its days may be numbered. Even though he has his doubts about the security and openness of Internet-based setups, he believes that it, not open-source e-voting, will "be the way of the future." Estonia: "If you sign something digitally with your Estonian ID card, it universally replaces a paper written signature and this can be applied anywhere—terminating contracts, creating contracts—everywhere. Everywhere you'd need a paper signature you can replace it with an electronic signature" ... And now, that applies to Internet-based voting as well.

1 0

Spark Wants To Abandon Copper?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

“Spark ... [is] not happy with the quality of the copper provided by the wholesale spin-out, Chorus.” Oh, and “The lucky 400 first houses in the trial are in the suburbs of the North Island city of Hamilton.” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/03/cu_later_copper_spark_is_going_to_g…>

4 5

trustworthy computing -- what this?
by Ian Young 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Sorry if this strays off topic, though discussion is fairly eclectic imho ..... I was interested to learn that Microsoft has a senior director of trustworthy computing in this article. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/01/microsoft_google_bug_disclosure_spa… Perhaps comforting news, I usually assume that computing is minimally trustworthy these days. Not so much in terms of the performance of software (eg Linux) but in the extent of spying and covert mass data gathering. Just as well we have these large corporates to take care of us.

1 0

death of copper, 4G coverage fubar
by rowan schischka 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

>As to 4G bwahahaha. When the Skinny mini offshoot offered a 4G deal >earlier this year I had a look. Coverage at that point was confined to >an area round the uni, and for some reason Chartwell. Perhaps it now >covers the entire metropolis of Hamilton? Let me know if I have missed >something there. And the greedies wanted $200 for a 4G modem. Nice one >Spinny. I brought my 4g skinny modem with me from auckland. I had to use it up there because the lease holder of my flat was refusing to upgrade her modem. She reckoned Spark confirmed there was nothing wrong with her modem but after a year I finally got to have a look at it and the arial was broken and there was a large crack through the case; she still refused to accept her modem was damaged and kept dropping connection so I got the 4g. It works very well and now comes in a 100GB plan that is faster than ADSL. Im using the 4g in Rototuna and I haven't been tempted to get fibre because of the lack of ethernet through the house, and my inability to persuade the property manager to allow me to install network ports in the walls. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

death of copper, 4G coverage fubar
by Ian Young 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

Apologies to thread lovers. Yes well. of course our telecom overlords want to get shot of copper. So last century. One annoying aspect of that cable network was that it needed some maintenance. Your modern day utility company doesn't like maintenance costs. And once it is shut down maybe the copper can be pulled out of the ground at some stage. On the shopping block with all those annoying exchange buildings. As to 4G bwahahaha. When the Skinny mini offshoot offered a 4G deal earlier this year I had a look. Coverage at that point was confined to an area round the uni, and for some reason Chartwell. Perhaps it now covers the entire metropolis of Hamilton? Let me know if I have missed something there. And the greedies wanted $200 for a 4G modem. Nice one Spinny. By the way, isn't this article wrong or misguiding in just about every respect? Much of the Register is wryly amusing and even informative on occasion, but this is surely a low point?

1 0

Arch Linux Review
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Nov '16

03 Nov '16

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/02/arch_linux_taster/>: Arch gets very little coverage for a several reasons, not the least of which is that it's somewhat difficult to install and requires you feel comfortable with the command line to get it working. Worse, from the point of view of anyone trying to appeal to mainstream users, that difficulty is by design - nothing keeps the noobs out like a daunting install process. I never knew that about Arch. But my real excuse for mentioning this review is the picture. That looks like a Renault 4. Or rather, 3 of them, cut and joined together in a truly unholy Franken-mess. If you pointed it facing north, it would probably summon Cthulhu...

2 4

When Is JSON Not JSON?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

I thought JSON was a nice, simple, straightforward spec. Turns out different implementations interpret some things just that little bit differently enough to lead to headaches. That means security headaches <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/01/json_parsers_tested/> ...

2 1

Fwd: Domain Name Commission introduces provisional address masking option
by Simon Green 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

Not strictly Linux / Open Source related, but thought I'd share this in relation to making your .nz whois address information private if you are an individual. Most interesting is "Any mail sent to the masked address displayed on the WHOIS will be forwarded to the address on the Register, by DNCL.". This means you could give anyone or a company your masked address if you don't want to give out your real postal address. -- Simon -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Domain Name Commission introduces provisional address masking option Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2016 10:36:51 +1300 Media release – 1 November 2016 The Domain Name Commission (DNCL) has today introduced a free provisional address masking option where any individual (natural person) .nz domain name holder can ask that their contact address be masked from public display in the WHOIS (domain search tool). Just what information should be displayed when a WHOIS search is done on a .nz domain name is the subject of a major review. Throughout the review, DNCL has become aware that some individual registrants are concerned for privacy and personal safety reasons about having their contact address publicly displayed. The provisional address masking option has been introduced to help alleviate these concerns while DNCL carries on with its WHOIS review. Those wanting to take advantage of the option will have his or her contact address masked with a unique reference code and DNCL’s P.O. Box address. Domain Name Commissioner Debbie Monahan says DNCL is currently running a public consultation – asking for the community’s feedback on two policy options for withholding some information in the WHOIS, including contact address information. “In the meantime,” she says, “the address masking option announced today is intended to allay any personal safety concerns around public display of address information while we finish up our review and implement any permanent policy changes – expected to be later in 2017.” With the provisional address masking option, any individual registrant can ask that their contact address is masked from display in the .nz WHOIS. This doesn’t change their contact address information recorded on the .nz Register; it just means that information can’t be seen when someone does a WHOIS search on their domain name. Any mail sent to the masked address displayed on the WHOIS will be forwarded to the address on the Register, by DNCL. Importantly, says Monahan, the masking option is open to any individual registrant who is concerned for whatever reason about having their contact address publicly visible. She encourages all individual registrants to make use of it if they feel the need. The address masking is a straightforward process, but can only be effected by DNCL. It works by having individual registrants email DNCL from their email address on record. The DNCL office will then run some basic verification checks before applying the masking. The option is not available to businesses or organisations. Visit dnc.org.nz/pamo <https://www.dnc.org.nz/pamo> to find out more about DNCL’s provisional address masking option. Information about DNCL’s WHOIS review can be found at https://dnc.org.nz/whois-review. ------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

UDOO
by rowan schischka 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

"It is based on Quad Core 64-bit new-generation x86 processors made by Intel®, designed for the PC domain. Prodigious processors concentrated in 14 nm, with an amount of energy consumption of 5 or 6 Watt." http://www.udoo.org/udoo-x86/ If you're thinking of getting a raspberry pi this month, have a look at UDOO. x86 with a bunch of impressive specs shipping in december. For those of us conscious of using linux in low energy computing its still not as cheap as the m-ITX Asus N3050I-C. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

1 0

Is Lenovo Blocking Linux Installs?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Oct '16

28 Oct '16

You may have heard that the BIOS on Lenovo’s Yoga 900 laptops has not been allowing the installation of non-Windows OSes (like Linux). After being on the receiving end of much opprobrium, Lenovo has finally released a BIOS update to fix this <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/28/lenovo_downward_dogs_with_yoga_bios…>. As usual, there are the suggestions that this was a deliberate deal done with Microsoft to shut out competitors to Windows. But then again, Hanlon’s Razor usually applies: “never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity”. (See the reader comments on the above article for more examples of such stupidity.) Matthew Garrett has some more analysis <http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/44694.html> on the specific issue that was stopping Linux installs: the hard drive controller is locked in “RAID” mode rather than “AHCI” mode. “AHCI” allows normal Linux drivers to work, while “RAID” mode requires special hardware-specific drivers. These special drivers don’t actually have to offer any RAID functionality; think of the “RAID” setting as just a way to block the generic drivers from taking control of the hardware. Garrett’s article has some discussion of why this might even be necessary: in this case, it may have to do with implementing proper power management.

1 0

Quirky 8.1 from Barry Kauler of Puppy who likes R Pi it seems
by Ian Young 26 Oct '16

26 Oct '16

Go Bazza!!! somewhere on the net Quirky Xerus 8.1 All Quirkies prior to 8.1 have been built for x86 and x86_64 PCs. Version 8.1 is the first to be built for the ARM platform, specifically the Raspberry Pi2 and Pi3. Note that Quirky will not work on a Pi1. It is expected a build for the Odroid XU4 is coming soon. The functionality is much as you have come to expect with a Puppy-derivative -- you get "the kitchen sink" in a very small package. That is, an application for just about everything and utilities to setup and configure just about anything. A difference though, with the Raspberry Pi build, is that it includes LibreOffice and Inkscape, whereas Puppy-derivatives usually have light-weight choices, such as Gnumeric, Abiword and InkscapeLite. This decision was made so as to provide the same functionality out-of-the-box as Raspbian, and in fact a whole lot more. This has resulted in a somewhat larger build than usual, a download file of 360MB. However, compare that with Raspbian at 1.3GB, and Quirky is still relatively small. As this is the very first release of Quirky for the Pi, it may have some issues, though we have been testing at the Puppy Forum and have fixed, hopefully, most of them. Some outstanding issues are:

1 0

Another Raspberry ? Contender
by rowan schischka 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

on indiegogo i like the picture half way down of the VoCore2 inside an ethernet wall socket. seems like a perfect disposable spy tool. It wont hurt raspberry pi sales as it does not have video, its just a really small networking toy https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/vocore2-4-coin-sized-linux-computer-with… -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

Another Raspberry π Contender
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

Came across this mention <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20161024/09194835873/daily-deal-vocore2-m…> of the “VoCore2 Mini Linux Computer”. Usually, rivals to the Raspberry π fall down either in price (e.g. anything Intel-based) or in features (e.g. the BBC Micro:Bit). But this seems, at first sight, to hold its own in both areas. And it goes one better than the π in terms of size. Thoughts?

2 2

nexdock
by rowan schischka 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

>NiceGear does sell an uninterruptilble power supply hat for the Pi. The problem with that UPS is its $50, 300mah, and supplies 15minutes of power. I want to run a pi on solar power 24/7. Iv run the pi3, idle, on my 20.000mAh for about two days; which means ill probably need a 10,000mAh battery. I say about two days because i did not run the battery flat, just down to one bar. I can't use the pack I have without re-wiring it because i need to press a physical button to switch it on and it won't supply power while its charging. Do you think a realtime clock would be necessary considering i can get time off a server? I'm also considering repurposing my old phone because it already has a battery, but it doesn't have much ram and is also running a very old unsupported android. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

1 0

pi-top raspberry pi laptop
by rowan schischka 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

here the RS link for the raspberry pi laptop http://nz.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=i/pi-top -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

AGM
by Peter Reutemann 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

Hi everyone The WLUG AGM will be held November 28th. The agenda, as it stands at this stage, is as follows: - President's Report - Treasurer's Report - Election of 2017 Committee - General business (eg future of WLUG library, wording in the charter with regard to advertising of jobs using the wlug mailing list, etc) - Consumption of pizza Details can be found here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/233952391/ 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/

1 0

nexdock
by rowan schischka 24 Oct '16

24 Oct '16

heres the laptop without a CPU that I mentioned last night. the crowd funding is over and you can't buy them anymore. Its not too different to a dock that motorola shipped about five years ago as a phone accessory. I hope more of these to hit the market, they should be good for the raspberry pi and ubuntu phones. RS electronics does sell a lap dock for the reaspberry pi but its expensive. http://nexdock.com http://www.phonearena.com/news/Motorola-Lapdock-100-hands-on_id24191 If anyone knows of a battery bank with passthrough id appreciate if you could pass on the model, it will be really useful for a solar project I want to do over summer. Cheers -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

2 1

android on raspberry pi
by rowan schischka 23 Oct '16

23 Oct '16

So iv been trying for two days to download the raspberry pi android image without success. the best i can achieve is 20/500mb. Can someone else please try? https://github.com/Android-RPi3/android_releases_rpi3/releases -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

2 2

www wobbles
by Ian Young 23 Oct '16

23 Oct '16

Recall the web as once we knew it before the financiers and crims took over? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/21/dyn_dns_ddos_explained/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/21/dns_devastation_as_dyn_dies_under_d… David Gibson, VP of strategy at Varonis, noted: "Like many of our aging technologies, DNS wasn’t built with security in mind… DNS is one of the aging technologies the industry is struggling to update, along with one-factor authentication and unencrypted web connections – the list is very long, and the stakes have never been higher." Craig Young, a security researcher at Tripwire, added to the general concern: "As with most software designs from the 1980s, security was generally not considered when creating DNS. Because the web is so dependent on this system, it becomes a very visible point of failure as is the case today with service provider Dyn."

2 2

meeting monday
by rowan schischka 22 Oct '16

22 Oct '16

Regarding the android pi installation I'm currently downloading android 6 from here https://github.com/Android-RPi3/android_releases_rpi3/releases I noticed that theres also an android 7 build but I don't have enough SD cards. if someone else wants to have a go at getting android 7 running on raspberry pi it needs to be built from source: https://github.com/peyo-hd/device_brcm_rpi3/tree/nougat -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

1 0

Fwd: [NZOSS OpenChat] expanding Europe's Linux Presentation Day to New Zealand
by Peter Reutemann 21 Oct '16

21 Oct '16

Apologies for cross-posting. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Hauke Laging <hauke.laging(a)linux-presentation-day.org> Date: Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 3:01 PM Subject: [NZOSS OpenChat] expanding Europe's Linux Presentation Day to New Zealand To: openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz ― 1 file link ― Hello, in May 2015 Berlin's Linux user group (BeLUG) has started a new type of event which has spread quickly first in Germany and then all over Europe; despite our rather tiny organizational and finacial resources: the Linux Presentation Day (LPD) 2015.1: Berlin only 2015.2: 72 cities in three countries 2016.1: 110 cities in 10 countries 2016.2: 150+ cities in 14 countries (on October, 22nd) I contact you because we intend to expand the LPD beyond Europe next year. The main aim of the LPD is to provide biannual and comprehensive information events about Linux for private users who would like to get a first impression of Linux, i.e. for people who do not plan to install Linux yet because they know too little about it to be concretely interested in giving it a try on their own system. The LPD is not headed at happy Windows users. The other important aim is to make the event so big that the non-IT media cover it regularly so that over time the public becomes more familiar with the idea of Linux being an OS for normal computer users, too. The approach is to have many small and rather simple events which can be easily organized and even without costs. The local organizers decide on their own what their event shall be like; we just make suggestions and offer support. Making hosting an event easy broadens the spectrum of potential hosting organizations and leads to more locations. In Germany most events are hosted by associations (Linux user groups and hackspaces) and adult education centers. But companies, universities, and schools are involved, too. The aim is to have 1,000 locations in Germany in a few years. You can find a longer description of the concept here: http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/idea/ Even more information is on the German web site in case anyone understands German or is willing to try a translation service: http://www.linux-presentation-day.de/ueber/ Currently there are well working national organizers only in Germany (me) and Switzerland. We have contacted nearly all the hosting organizations abroad from Germany. Obviously the effectivity of this approach is limited and it probably would not get better if we tried this with countries on the other side of the world. Thus in your case I first try to get in touch with organizations which might help in setting up the national organizing so that in the best case we do not have to search for event hosts from here. A few questions: 1) Do you already have a similar event? 2) Are you as an organization interested in supporting the LPD? In the best case that would mean that you are willing to do the national organizing. But it could also mean that you are willing to just host an LPD event or that you support other hosting organizations as a sponsor. 3) If not: I assume that you are in contact with many people who might be interested in participating. Would you be willing to ask them whether they want to participate (as local event hosts or on the national level)? 4) Can you point me at other organizations which are well networked within the Linux community and might be helpful for getting the LPD started? CU Hauke -- http://www.linux-presentation-day.org/ International phone contact for the Linux Presentation Day: tel:+49-30-55579620 (13:00–23:00, German and English) XMPP (Chat with OTR): linux-presentation-day(a)jabber.ccc.de OTR: 91626899 1C06F2BD 75EC2441 35C696CE 38F75997 ― 1 file ― 📎 (585b) http://groups.nzoss.org.nz/r/file/xwrEUCtYgg2XWjNlQFN2CqROqlU-9r-2BdOyWU/ ―― View topic http://groups.nzoss.org.nz/r/topic/HpjKQN2I1NhTGxRrASG2L Leave group mailto:openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz?subject=Unsubscribe Start groups https://OnlineGroups.net -- 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/

1 0

“Most serious” Linux privilege-escalation bug ever is under active exploit
by Peter Reutemann 20 Oct '16

20 Oct '16

'A serious vulnerability that has been present for nine years in virtually all versions of the Linux operating system is under active exploit, according to researchers who are advising users to install a patch as soon as possible. While CVE-2016-5195, as the bug is cataloged, amounts to a mere privilege-escalation vulnerability rather than a more serious code-execution vulnerability, there are several reasons many researchers are taking it extremely seriously. For one thing, it's not hard to develop exploits that work reliably. For another, the flaw is located in a section of the Linux kernel that's a part of virtually every distribution of the open-source OS released for almost a decade. What's more, researchers have discovered attack code that indicates the vulnerability is being actively and maliciously exploited in the wild.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/10/most-serious-linux-privilege-escala… 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/

1 0

meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Oct '16

19 Oct '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: "Rowan Schischka will present his Ubuntu M10 tablet and also demonstrate installing/running Android on the Raspberry Pi. The new Raspbian desktop environment PIXEL will be taken for a test drive as well." -- details: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/233762057/ 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/

1 0

KDE’s 20th Birthday Celebrated By Re-Releasing KDE 1
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 17 Oct '16

17 Oct '16

The KDE Restoration Project has managed to (re)build KDE 1.1.2 to run on a more current Linux system. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-20-KDE1-Re-Release>

1 0