- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

“Hacbook”: Refurbished HP EliteBooks
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Aug '16

31 Aug '16

For US$329 <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/30/329_for_a_macbook_well_really_a_hac…>: ““It's optimized to run OS X, but you can install Linux or Windows on it and use it however you want - that's completely up to the user.”

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Cool Linux Command-Line Image Management Hacks
by Peter Reutemann 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

"Feh and the identify command are two of the tools I use for viewing and managing images on Linux. They are fast, flexible, and can be stuffed into scripts for automating operations, which is especially valuable when you work with artists or marketing people who have large image galleries to maintain. For me, they are faster and better for managing large numbers of images than graphical image managers, which tend to require too much clicking and poking through nested menus to find what I want, if they even have it." -- source: https://www.linux.com/learn/cool-linux-command-line-image-management-hacks 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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Maru OS: Marrying the Phone and the PC
by Peter Reutemann 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

"In case you haven't heard of Preetam D’Souza, he is noted in developer circles for exploring how to bring full-blown PC capabilities to smartphones and mobile devices. Maru OS is an operating system that he has created toward that end, and now this interesting platform has gone open source. Have you followed Canonical's efforts to marry computing and smartphone capabilities with its Ubuntu Unity phone OS that can dock into a monitor? Maru OS is in a similar space. Maru marries an Android base on a phone and Debian Linux on the desktop." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/maru-os-marrying-the-phone-and-the-pc Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Android Nougat Arrives on the Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

"As we've noted here before, when it comes to top open source stories of the past couple of years, it's clear that one of the biggest is the proliferation of tiny, inexpensive Linux-based computers at some of the smallest form factors ever seen. The diminutive, credit card-sized Raspberry Pi, which has been priced at only $25 and $35, has grabbed most of the headlines in this space. And, just a few months ago, code repositories started appearing online that showed that the Android operating system would be heading for the Pi. Now, Android 7.0 Nougat has been ported to the Pi, which potentially opens up a whole ecosystem of new apps and applications. Google's latest mobile OS is shown running on the $35 Pi in this YouTube video. " -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/android-nougat-arrives-on-the-raspberry-pi 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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Researching information on local body candidates
by Roderick Aldridge 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

Hi everybody I am researching information on local body election candidates, concentrating on sustainable environmental and social policies. I am particularly interested in the track record of councillors who are standing again. It is proving difficult to extract information from the Waikato Regional Council website, though the Hamilton City Council one is much better. Would anybody like to share their expertise on ferreting information from websites, and for gathering relevant information from public sources on websites, social media and anywhere. Or do you know anybody who ma be willing to share their skills. Any help much appreciated. Rod

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Fedora 24 review: The year’s best Linux distro is puzzlingly hard to recommend
by Peter Reutemann 30 Aug '16

30 Aug '16

"Fedora 24 is very near the best Linux distro release I've used, and certainly the best release I have tested this year. Considering 2016 has welcomed new offerings like Mint 18 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, that says a great deal about the Fedora project's latest work. But like many Fedora releases before it, even Fedora 24 got off to a rocky start." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/fedora-24-review-the-… 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] Researching information on local body candidates
by Wayne Luxton 29 Aug '16

29 Aug '16

I would suggest the way forward is to get the list of key words that would capture the essence of the vision statement and maybe the converse "development" type phrases used in meeting or public announcements and try and list or count them in relation to the participant. This alone is a research project. Maybe government bodies could be encouraged to prepare minutes in ways to enable this? Wayne

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Linus Loves GPL, But Hates GPL Lawsuits
by Peter Reutemann 28 Aug '16

28 Aug '16

'During LinuxCon, Torvalds was full of praise for GNU GPL: "The GPL ensures that nobody is ever going to take advantage of your code. It will remain free and nobody can take that away from you. I think that's a big deal for community management... FSF [Free Software Foundation] and I don't have a loving relationship, but I love GPL v2. I really think the license has been one of the defining factors in the success of Linux because it enforced that you have to give back, which meant that the fragmentation has never been something that has been viable from a technical standpoint." And he thinks the BSD license is bad for everyone: "Over the years, I've become convinced that the BSD license is great for code you don't care about," Torvalds said. But Linus also addressed the issue of enforcing the GPL on the Linux foundation mailing list when someone proposed a discussion of it at Linuxcon. "I think the whole GPL enforcement issue is absolutely something that should be discussed, but it should be discussed with the working title 'Lawyers: poisonous to openness, poisonous to community, poisonous to projects'... quite apart from the risk of loss in a court, the real risk is something that happens whether you win or lose, and in fact whether you go to court or just threaten: the loss of community, and in particular exactly the kind of community that can (and does) help. You lose your friends."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/27/1943246 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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New SWEET32 Crypto Attacks Speed Up Deprecation of 3DES, Blowfish
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

"New attacks revealed today against 64-bit block ciphers push cryptographic ciphers such as Triple-DES (3DES) and Blowfish closer to extinction. The attacks, known as SWEET32, allow for the recovery of authentication cookies from HTTPS traffic protected by 3DES, and BasicAUTH credentials from OpenVPN traffic protected by default by Blowfish. In response, OpenSSL is expected to remove 3DES from its default bulid in 1.1.0, and lower its designation from High to Medium 1.0.2 and 1.0.1. OpenVPN, meanwhile, is expected to release a new version as well with a warning about Blowfish and new configuration advice protecting against the SWEET32 attacks. The researchers behind SWEET32 said this is a practical attack because collisions begin after a relatively short amount of data is introduced. By luring a victim to a malicious site, the attacker can inject JavaScript into the browser that forces the victim to connect over and over to a site they're authenticated to. The attacker can then collect enough of that traffic -- from a connection that is kept alive for a long period of time -- to recover the session cookie." -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/08/27/186213 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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ReactOS 0.4.2 Released: Supports Linux Filesystems, .NET Applications, and Doom 3
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

'Continuing its rapid release cycle, ReactOS has unveiled version 0.4.2 of its free "open-source binary-compatible Windows re-implementation." Slashdot reader jeditobe reports that this new version can now read and write various Linux/Unix file systems like Btrfs and ext (and can read ReiserFS and UFS), and also runs applications like Thunderbird and 7-Zip. ReactOS 0.4.2 also features Cygwin support, .NET 2.0 and 4.0 application support, among other updated packages and revised external dependencies such as Wine and UniATA. The team also worked to improve overall user experience... ReactOS is free. You can boot your desktop or laptop from it. It looks like Windows (a 10-year-old version, anyway), so you already know how to use it. And it'll run some Windows and DOS applications, maybe including DOS games that regular 64-bit Windows can no longer touch.' -- source: https://games.slashdot.org/story/16/08/27/1724217 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 Linux 16.10 'Yakkety Yak' Beta 1 Now Available For Download
by Peter Reutemann 27 Aug '16

27 Aug '16

'Today, the first beta of Ubuntu Linux 16.10 sees release. Once again, a silly animal name is assigned, this time being the letter "Y" for the horned mammal, "Yakkety Yak." This is also a play on the classic song "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters. Please be sure not to "talk back" while testing this beta operating system! "Pre-releases of the Yakkety Yak are not encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavor developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this bos grunniens ready. Beta 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. These images are still under development, so you should expect some bugs," says Set Hallstrom, Ubuntu Studio project lead. He adds: "While these Beta 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve the Yakkety Yak. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Beta 1 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 16.10 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/26/2318219 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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Has Science Become Infected With Microsoft Excel Syndrome?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Aug '16

25 Aug '16

Seems like Microsoft Excel has become an accepted tool for researchers to crunch numbers with, in spite of its obvious pitfalls. I thought it was only economists who fell into this trap <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130417/02263922736/intellectual-bulwark…>. But it turns out other scientists do, too <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/25/excel_hell_messes_up_20_per_cent_of…>. What’s worse is that this is hardly a new observation <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140727/03133828025/using-spreadsheets-b…>. I thought science was a process of learning from experience?

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PowerShell is Microsoft’s latest open source release, coming to Linux, OS X
by Peter Reutemann 23 Aug '16

23 Aug '16

"Microsoft today released its PowerShell scripting language and command-line shell as open source. The project joins .NET and the Chakra JavaScript engine as an MIT-licensed open source project hosted on GitHub." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/08/powershell-is-microso… 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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Systemd Rolls Out Its Own Mount Tool
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"anonymous reader: 'I'm surprised this hasn't surfaced on Slashdot already, but yesterday Phoronix reported that systemd will soon be handling file system mounts, along with all the other stuff that systemd has encompassed. The report generated the usual systemd arguments over on Reddit.com/r/linux with Lennart Poettering, systemd developer and architect, chiming in with a few clarifications.' Lennart argued it will greatly improve the handling of removable media like USB sticks." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/2259219 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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New Linux Trojan Is A DDoS Tool, a Bitcoin Miner, and Web Ransomware
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"A trojan that targeted Drupal sites on Linux servers last May that was incredibly simplistic and laughable in its attempt to install (and fail) web ransomware on compromised websites, has now received a major update and has become a top threat on the malware scene. That trojan, named Rex, has evolved in only three months into an all-around threat that can: (1) compromise servers and devices running platforms like Drupal, WordPress, Magento, Jetspeed, Exarid, AirOS; (2) install cryptocurrency mining in the background; (3) send spam; (4) use a complex P2P structure to manage its botnet; and (5) install a DDoS agent which crooks use to launch DDoS attacks. Worse is that they use their DDoS capabilities to extort companies. The crooks send emails to server owners announcing them of 15-minute DDoS tests, as a forewarning of future attacks unless they pay a ransom. To scare victims, they pose as a known hacking group named Armada Collective. Other groups have used the same tactic, posing as Armada Collective, and extorting companies, according to CloudFlare." -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/0050204 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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KDE Edition Beta Released For Linux Mint 18 'Sarah'
by Peter Reutemann 22 Aug '16

22 Aug '16

"Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' KDE Edition Beta is now available for download and testing. This release is based on the long-term supported Linux 4.4 kernel and KDE Plasma 5.6 desktop environment. The final release of this widely popular distro is expected to arrive in September... Just like MATE, Cinnamon, and Xfce releases, the KDE release is a long term release that will remain supported until 2021. Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' KDE Edition ships with Mozilla Firefox as default web browser and LibreOffice as the default office suite. The Linux distro also features a wide range of popular KDE apps like Kontact, Dolphin, Gwenview, KMail, digiKam, KTorrent, Skanlite, Konversation, K3b, Konsole, Amarok, Ark, Kate, Okular, and Dragon Player." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/21/1622201 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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PowerShell is Microsoft?s latest open source release, coming to Linux, OS X
by rowan schischka 20 Aug '16

20 Aug '16

>Looking at it, I see something that is trying to be both a shell language and a programming language. Bringing scripting powers to .net based applications and plugging in to azure (devops market?) looks like a relaxation of windows desktop market dominance. whatever powershell is trying to be it looks like part of a strategy to move from relying on 90's desktop dominance to becoming a cloud service provider. the conversion to office 356 in nz is over 55% (unofficial word of mouth stat here); so microsoft appears to have done well to migrate office dependant IT systems to the cloud. it maybe in the near future businesses will be able to completely cut the windows umbilical cord? -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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multiboot usb
by rowan schischka 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

I am trying to make a usb flash drive that can hold multiple iso files for various linux distros that i find useful. In the past legacy bios was sweet and easy; there was syslinux. EUFI is a bit of a new PITA. im trying to make a usb drive that contains, kali, ubuntu desktop & server, fedora, LPS (arch-based) and debian; all live cds. This is complicated by the debian 'cant find installation cdrom' bug. I looked for a script and there are a surprising amount of multiboot usb options available now. not all of them support both EUFI and legacy bios; there use to be only one with a french UI, now theres almost a dozen and i dont know which one to choose. i am looking to create a multi-boot usb that can work on my macbook and my notebook that came with windows 8. older hardware i dont care too much about but it would be nice to have a toolbox for both boot types that i can carry around in my pocket. can anyone recommend a way to do this? - my preference is to do this manually; i have already been through the arch wiki and ubuntu wiki. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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meeting on Monday
by Peter Reutemann 19 Aug '16

19 Aug '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting on Monday next week: "An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat, etc) and user interfaces (MATE, Gnome3, KDE, Unity, etc). Advantages and disadvantages to Windows. Presenters: - William Mckee: History - Peter Reutemann: MATE and XFCE - Rowan Schischka: Gnome3 and Unity - Lawrence D'Oliveiro: KDE - John Thompson: Frustrations and delights as a disgruntled Windows 9x user." Details here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/ 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 global jam
by rowan schischka 18 Aug '16

18 Aug '16

This should be an interesting event; fixing bugs in ubuntu at the Ubuntu global jam. Fri, 26 Aug. 2016 01:00 - Sun, 28 Aug. 2016 13:45 UTC I have zero experience in fixing bugs in ubuntu but it would be a great learning experience. Do wlug members want to form a team? http://loco.ubuntu.com/events/global/3418/ -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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next meeting
by rowan schischka 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

>Feel free to bring your devices along and see if there is still time. >Though we could also just schedule a demo of them for the next >meeting? the meeting after the next one would be better so i can get better prepared. What kind of questions should I be prepared to answer? Im a regular gnome3 user and im confident I can show off its features, but im not a regular unity user. Iv just been using unity recently on my new tablet. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

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LibreOffice Merchandise
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Aug '16

15 Aug '16

The Document Foundation (who manage the development of LibreOffice) have put out their annual report for 2015 <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=TDF-2015-Annual-Report>. Just glancing through it, I found that you can buy LibreOffice-themed coffee mugs, T-shirts etc here <https://shop.spreadshirt.de/documentfoundation?version=1471300568494>.

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New FreeBSD 11.0 Release Candidate Tested By Phoronix
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

'"The first release candidate for the upcoming FreeBSD 11.0 is ready for testing," reports Distrowatch, noting various changes. ("A NULL pointer dereference in IPSEC has been fixed; support for SSH protocol 1 has been removed; OpenSSH DSA keys have been disabled by default...") Now an anonymous Slashdot reader writes: Sunday Phoronix performed some early benchmark testing, comparing FreeBSD 10.3 to FreeBSD 11.0 as well as DragonFlyBSD, Ubuntu, Intel Clear Linux and CentOS Linux 7. They reported mixed results -- some wins and some losses for FreeBSD -- using a clean install with the default package/settings on the x86_64/amd64 version for each operating system. FreeBSD 11.0 showed the fastest compile times, and "With the SQLite benchmark, the BSDs came out ahead of Linux [and] trailed slightly behind DragonFlyBSD 4.6 with HAMMER. The 11.0-BETA4 performance does appear to regress slightly for SQLite compared to FreeBSD 10.3... With the BLAKE2 crypto test, all four Linux distributions were faster than DragonFlyBSD and FreeBSD... with the Apache web server benchmark, FreeBSD was able to outperform the Linux distributions..." ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/14/238226 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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next meeting
by Peter Reutemann 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

Hi everyone Just to get the meeting sorted: "An introduction to Linux - features, history, examples of popular flavors (Debian, Ubuntu, Red Hat etc). Advantages and disadvantages to Windows." http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232676239/ William will cover the history, but we need people demoing the various flavors and user interfaces (just a few minutes each). Flavors: Debian - ? Ubuntu - ? Red Hat - ? SuSE - ? User interfaces: MATE - ? KDE - ? Unity - ? Gnome3 - ? XFCE - ? LXDE - ? I'm happy to cover MATE. Ian S., Unity? Lawrence or Chris, KDE? Who wants to cover another one? 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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next meeting
by rowan schischka 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

Ive been playing around with the ubuntu m10 tablet, i can bring that; its actually a pretty good tablet. i havnt played with the wireless screen casting as I dont have a miracast device but i do have a mini hdmi cable. Iv also just received last years intel compute stick if you want to see that running, theyre dirt cheap now and i can bring it if anyone wants to try before they buy. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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next meeting
by rowan schischka 14 Aug '16

14 Aug '16

I can also demonstrate gnome3 & unity -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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thef..k command correction
by Peter Reutemann 13 Aug '16

13 Aug '16

Hi everyone Excuse my Klatchian, but I just came across this interesting application that corrects your misspelled terminal commands: https://github.com/nvbn/thefuck The GIF on the github page is quite interesting to watch. 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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rise and rise of open source in New Zealand?
by rowan schischka 12 Aug '16

12 Aug '16

Looks like more push towards Silverstripe in government. I believe this relates to the common web platform which is an Internal Affairs project? Im not a big fan of php, and I dont really understand the CWP, but i guess nows a good time to get invested in silverstripe experience? https://www.cwp.govt.nz/ -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka +64226719711

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Can Facebook Really Make Ads Unblockable?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Facebook recently announced <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/09/facebook_ad_blockers/> it was going to disable adblockers and, in return, (supposedly) give users more control over their ad preferences. Here <https://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/randomwalker/can-facebook-really-make-ad…> is an analysis of why such an adblocker bypass isn’t really possible. In its favour, Facebook does serve up its own ads, not relying on outside ad networks, which are notorious for being malware-infested <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/29/its_time_for_a_discussion_about_mal…>.

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rise and rise of open source in New Zealand?
by Ian Young 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC1608/S00039/a-policy-win-for-open-source-s…

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Open Source // Open Society Conference August 20-23rd
by Chris McClimans 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

I'm heading down for the hackathon and conf, probably fly in Friday return Wednesday. (I still haven't bought conf or flight tickets) Anyone else want to go or know folks I should connect with or places to stay? http://www.opensourceopensociety.com/programme.html Cheers, Chris

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Security: Leading Edge, Bleeding Edge ...
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Linux has been the first to offer a complete implementation of RFC5961 in its TCP/IP stack, designed to prevent certain kinds of hacking attacks. Now it turns out there’s a flaw in the spec itself, which creates its own vulnerability <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/linux-bug-leaves-usa-today-other-to…>: The problematic RFC 5961 has not yet been fully implemented in Windows or Mac OS X, so those operating systems aren't believed to be vulnerable. By contrast, the Linux operating system kernel, starting with version 3.6 introduced in 2012, has added a largely complete set of functions implementing the standard. Linux kernel maintainers released a fix with version 4.7 almost three weeks ago, but the patch has not yet been applied to most mainstream distributions.

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Finding, viewing, downloading, and saving videos from the web
by rowan schischka 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Use a firefox extension to change the browser user agent string to iphone; right click and save :). I am forced to do this for sites that use flash or other proprietary video players. i find it does not work when a site has its own iphone app and forces you to use those apps such as tvnz and youtube. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Finding, viewing, downloading, and saving videos from the web
by Roderick Aldridge 11 Aug '16

11 Aug '16

Anybody got good tips for this, particularly good sources (as well as Youtube) of free videos on all subjects, not just news, movies and technical subjects. OS independent options for downloading and saving sought - the best downloaders and browser extensions. I have used Firefox extension Video DownloadHelper and William put me on to youtube-dl, but there are lots of others, some possibly better and/or with special uses. This is the topic for the Hamilton Computer Club meeting tomorrow, so any Windows-friendly options welcome, or you could join us to 60A Sare Crescent and show us yourself. Roderick Aldridge

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Microsoft Leaks Its Golden Backdoor Keys
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Aug '16

10 Aug '16

Seems Microsoft has inadvertently published “golden” master keys that will allow installation of third-party OSes on supposedly locked-down devices <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/10/microsoft_secure_boot_ms16_100/>.

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Major Qualcomm chip security flaws expose 900M Android users
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

"Four major security holes in the Qualcomm chips which power modern Android devices have left as many as 900 million users vulnerable to a range of attacks. According to Israel-based security firm Checkpoint, the flaws—dubbed "Quadrooter"—found in the firmware which governs the chips, could allow potential attackers to "trigger privilege escalations for the purpose of gaining root access to a device" using malware which wouldn't require special permissions, allowing it to pass under suspicious users' radars." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/qualcomm-chip-flaws-expose-900-mill… 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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Howdy, Ubuntu on Windows! How Fast Is It?
by Peter Reutemann 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

"My primary laptop is a Lenovo x250, with an Intel i7-5600U CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB Transcend SSD, and a 2TB Samsung SSD. Let’s run some benchmarks on the CPU, Memory, Disk, and Network. We’ll first run each test in Ubuntu running natively on the hardware, and then reboot, and run the same benchmarks on the same machine running Ubuntu on Windows. We’ll use the utilities sysbench, dd and iperf, as well as compile the Linux kernel to do our benchmarking." -- source: https://www.linux.com/learn/howdy-ubuntu-windows-how-fast-it 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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SQLite 3.14 Does CSV
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Aug '16

09 Aug '16

The latest release of SQLite now lets you load a CSV file as a “virtual” database table, and do the usual sorts of queries on it <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=SQLite-3.14-Released>. More details about the new extension here <http://www.sqlite.org/csv.html>.

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Linux Abandoning DocBook For Its Documentation?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Aug '16

08 Aug '16

Just came across this <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/08/linux_48_rc1_lands_with_surface_3_s…>: Torvalds has also pointed out that while progress on v 4.8 is “fairly normal … the patch itself looks somewhat unusual: over 20% of the patch is documentation updates, due to conversion of the drm and media documentation from docbook to the Sphinx doc format. There are other doc updates, but that's the big bulk of it.” DocBook is an open-source implementation of SGML, which is a pretty heavyweight, official-international-standard, 1980s, big-company way of writing documentation. Sphinx, on the other hand, is commonly used for Python documentation, including on python.org itself <https://docs.python.org/3/index.html>. If you were putting together the documentation set for a passenger liner or a chemical factory, you’ll probably use SGML (in fact, there is very likely a legal requirement to do so). But for the rest of us, more lightweight markup systems like Sphinx/ReST and Markdown are much more convenient.

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The Murky (Under)World Of Pay-Per-Install
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Aug '16

07 Aug '16

A research group has released a paper <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/05/payperinstall_study/> studying those “free” software installs that bring along a host of uninvited guests with them. While not actually illegal (yet), they resort to sneaky tactics, like lying low for a few weeks before taking over your browser search bar or injecting ads, to try to obscure their origin. They even actively defeat blocking attempts, by jumping between domain names as often as in a matter of hours.

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Old server hardware
by Daniel Lawson 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

Hi all Endace is getting rid of a lot of old server hardware. Some of it is still in reasonable condition, and I can make it available to WLUG members if they are interested. It's all offered as-is, on a first-come-first-serve basis, and if you say you want it you have to take it away ( we are sending it to an e-waste recycler very soon) There's two types of system, multiple units of each: 1U, non-redundant PSU (SMC 6015X-TB system), Supermicro X7DBX-i motherboard, dual Xeon X5440 (quad-core, 2.5GHz), 16 or 32 GB (depending on unit) DDR2 667MHz FB DIMMs, IPMI controller, dual gige LAN, 3x SATA disk in hotswap drive bays 3U, 2+1 redundant PSU (Chenbro Chassis), Supermicro X7DBE Motherboard, dual Xeon X5540 (quad-core, 2.5GHz), 16 or 32 GB (dependint on unit) DDR2 667MHz FB DIMMs, IPMI controller, dual gige LAN, 2x 3Ware 9650SE-8LPML RAID controllers, 16 x SATA disk in hotswap drive bays In both cases, any disks inside them will need to be scrubbed. If anyone is interested, based on a firm commitment to pick up, please let me know by Friday 5pm. Email to daniel.lawson(a)endace.com or daniel(a)meta.net.nz please Thanks

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FTC Stops Requiring Regular Password Changes
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

Lorrie Cranor, new chief technologist at the US Federal Trade Commission, has managed to persuade them to drop their policy of requiring regular password changes <http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/08/frequent-password-changes-are-the-e…>: Frequent password changes do little to improve security and very possibly make security worse by encouraging the use of passwords that are more susceptible to cracking.

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Beware Of User-Interface Experts
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

The nice thing about GUIs is that there are so many to choose from. And everybody has an opinion about them. Particularly UI experts, who are always ready to point to things that any particular GUI does wrong. Even the platform developers themselves are prone to keep redesigning things from time to time. And then not even following their own rules. There was a famous map of the New York subway, released in 1972 <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/arts/design/the-subway-map-that-rattled-n…>, that represented the network in such a stylized fashion that the city’s residents got mightily confused. Was it the people’s fault? Was the designer’s brilliance simply misunderstood? Sometimes I think UI designers themselves lose track of how users actually do things outside their labs...

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Project Hosting Service Fosshub Compromised, Embedding Malware Inside Hosted Files
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'At least some applications on Fosshub, a free project hosting service appear to have been compromised, according to several reports. (Update: Fosshub has acknowledged the hack.) The software portal, furthermore, is serving malware payloads, reports add. Catalin Cimpanu of Softpedia says that a hacking group which goes by the name of PeggleCrew is responsible for the hack. "In short, a network service with no authentication was exposed to the internet," the hacker told Softpedia in an email. "We were able to grab data from this network service to obtain source code and passwords that led us further into the infrastructure of FOSSHub and eventually gain control of their production machines, backup and mirror locations, and FTP credentials for the caching service they use, as well as the Google Apps-hosted email." The hacker group told the publication that they have compromised the entire website, "including the administrator's email. He also revealed he didn't dump the site's database but claimed that "passwords weren't salted." A user on Reddit, who has since received lots of upvotes, adds: Some popular apps that have links to FossHub that may be infected include: Audacity, WinDirStat, qBittorrent, MKVToolNix, Spybot Search&Destroy, Calibre, SMPlayer, HWiNFO, MyPhoneExplorer, and IrfanView. Another application which has reportedly been compromised is Classic Shell. It is ostensibly overwriting the MBR on users' computers. Many users are upset with the timing of hack, noting that plenty of people were looking for Classic Shell amid the release of Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Update: 08/03 17:30 GMT by M :In a blog post, Audacity said that Fosshub was serving a hacked copy of its audio editing software for three hours. It adds that "no Audacity Team infrastructure was compromised." Fosshub team writes: Last night we had a security incident caused by a group of hackers that allowed them to log-in to FossHub developer *through* an user that was compromised. Shortly after, we noticed two users that were compromised. They simply logged-in using their passwords and this allowed them to escalate. [...] Several hours later, we noticed the attackers were able to gain access through an FTP account and we decided to shut down the main server immediately to prevent any further infection/damage. FossHub.com is down on purpose until we are able to identify the way hackers were able to escalate. Fosshub insists that the hacked copy of Classic Shell was only downloaded 300 times. In the meantime, if you know someone who may have downloaded the compromised copy of Classic Shell, here's what they need to do next.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/1635240 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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Windows 10 Anniversary Update Borks Dual-Boot Partitions
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'Windows 10 Anniversary Update may affect and even delete other partitions on the same disk, OMGUbuntu is reporting, citing several complaints by users. "Broken boot loaders on an update are one thing but losing data, even entire partitions?" asks the author. Microsoft-centric news blog WindowsReport is corroborating on the report, adding that in some cases, the new OS was not able to detect some partitions. It says (edited): Many users are reporting that some of their partitions disappeared after installing the Anniversary Update. Usually, it's the smallest partition that disappears, although we couldn't say for sure whether the partition is deleted or if Windows simply doesn't detect it. Some users are saying that the partition is not allocated, while others can detect it once they install third-party partition management applications. We have reached out to Microsoft for clarification, and will update the post when we hear back from them.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/1614223 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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LibreOffice 5.2 Officially Released
by Peter Reutemann 04 Aug '16

04 Aug '16

'LibreOffice 5.2 is finally here, after it has been in development for the past four months, during which the development team behind one of the best free office suites have managed to implement dozens of new features and improvements to most of the application's components. Key features include more UI refinements to make it flexible for anyone, standards-based document classification, forecasting functions in Calc, the spreadsheet editor, as well as lots of Writer and Impress enhancements. A series of videos are provided to see what landed in the LibreOffice 5.2 office suite, which is now available for download for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/08/03/2022226 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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Security Vulnerabilities In Wireless Keyboards
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

You’d think they’d be encrypted, but apparently most of them are not <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/08/security_vulner_7.html>.

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FCC Demands TP-Link Support Open Source Third-Party Firmware On Its Routers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

You may have heard that the US Federal Communications Commission has been updating its regulations concerning wi-fi routers. Some interpreted the new rules as meaning that companies should lock down their routers to prevent them running third-party open-source firmware. The FCC tried to make it clear that was not its intent, but nevertheless some companies did start to interpret things that way. Now, here is a case where, as part of a settlement against TP-Link for violating the regulations, the FCC has made it an explicit requirement that the company allow the running of third-party firmware <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160802/06073235135/fcc-demands-tp-link-…>.

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Linux Grabs More Than 2% of Desktop Market Share
by rowan schischka 03 Aug '16

03 Aug '16

>is another example of the kind of dubious stats I was referring to. >You?ll notice it has Android well behind IOS, at 17% versus 23%. This >simply does not make sense. i often get access to a customers web analytics or i get employed to set up on behalf. the way this information is presented makes it useless. web analytics is really fun and interesting because you get to see the country of origin, time of day, page click through etc. for example im still seeing large numbers of visits from ie6 on windows xp from china. there are so many variables all i can really add is that The Register is reporting on the number of perceived unique visitors to their web site, not the rise or fall of desktop software brands as they claim. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Chrome 52 for Android Arrives With Smoother Video Playback, Faster Load Times, and Better Battery Life
by Peter Reutemann 02 Aug '16

02 Aug '16

'Following the release of Chrome 52 for desktop two weeks ago, Google last week also launched Chrome 52 for Android. For whatever reason, the company didn't share what's new until today. You can download the new version from Google Play. Chrome 52 for Android makes video playback feel smoother, load faster, and consume less battery. More specifically, video playback has been improved for speed and power efficiency, meaning you should expect smoother playback and faster load times (so videos will start playing sooner, instead of pausing briefly before starting). Your Android device's battery should also last longer if you consume a lot of videos online. Last but not least, video in Chrome for Android also now works with Data Saver Mode. This means a lightweight version of the video will be downloaded and played if you have Data Saver Mode on, saving you as much as 50 percent in data downloads, by Google's estimation.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/08/02/1713202 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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