- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

WLUG Library
by Chris O'Halloran 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hello all, I'm the holder of the WLUG library but as you're aware I haven't brought it along the meeting much. Would anyone care to be the caretaker of it for a while? I can bring it along to next Monday's meeting. Cheers, Chris

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Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jul '16

20 Jul '16

Hi everyone We have a meeting schedule for next Monday: "X11, the most common display server on Linux, is showing its age. Newcomers, like Wayland and Mir are trying to address shortcomings and provide a basis for the future. Let's have a look at what each of the display servers' strengths and weaknesses are." We still need volunteers for presenting the Wayland and Mir? Any takers? More details here: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/232209899/ 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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Fontconfig How-To
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Quite a handy collection of font configuration tips and tricks at the Arch Linux Wiki <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Font_configuration>. I regularly come across ArchWiki links in online forums these days...

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Report On Open-Source Sustainability
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Jul '16

18 Jul '16

Fernando Perez, one of the key developers behind Project Jupyter, has posted a link to a long, detailed report on the workings of Open Source <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/jupyter/SnfWgQ1Hx0E/F5936L-CAgAJ>. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing, there is also an “executive summary” in the form of a series of Twitter postings. Summary summary: getting companies to fund Open-Source projects, even ones that they might depend crucially on, is often a matter of luck.

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Ubuntu Linux Forums Hacked -- IP Address, Username, Email of 2M Accounts Compromised
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

'Canonical announced on Friday that Ubuntu forums have been hacked. The company adds that data such as IP address, username, and email address of over two million users have been compromised. BetaNews reports: Keep in mind, this does not mean that the operating system has experienced a vulnerability or weakness. The only thing affected are the online forums that people use to discuss the OS. Still, such a hack is embarrassing as it happened due to Canonical's failure to install a patch. In a blog post, Jane Silber, Chief Executive Officer, Canonical said, "after some initial investigation, we were able to confirm there had been an exposure of data and shut down the Forums as a precautionary measure. Deeper investigation revealed that there was a known SQL injection vulnerability in the Forumrunner add-on in the Forums which had not yet been patched."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/07/15/1533236 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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Quote Of The Week?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 16 Jul '16

16 Jul '16

“People with older PCs upgraded to Windows 10 and held onto them. Microsoft didn’t expect that number to be so high.” <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/one_in_five_consumers_used_free_win…>

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GNU Nano Fork
by rowan schischka 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

from the very end of the article posted: "It seems the argument came down to licensing rules, because an idea of moving Nano to Github was incompatible with the GNU license." Can someone please explain this statement to me? I am completely out of the loop in understanding this. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Court Says Microsoft Does Not Need To Respond To US Warrant For Overseas Data
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

You may have heard of the ongoing case where the US FBI is demanding Microsoft turn over data held on servers in Ireland. The US Government is claiming that, because the Irish operation is under the control of Microsoft’s headquarters in the US, that it falls under US jurisdiction and so the company can be compelled to turn over the data with nothing more than a warrant issued by a US court. The appeals court has disagreed <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160714/10134734971/huge-win-court-says-…>. The peculiar thing is, there are already international arrangements under which the US can ask the Irish Government to request one of their courts to order the surrender of the data. But they don’t seem to want to do that.

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Microsoft Still “Supporting” Windows RT
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

Microsoft blocks a “security hole” on Windows RT tablets that might have allowed users to run alternative operating systems <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/15/windows_fix_closes_rt_unlock_loopho…>.

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New Skype for Linux client released, built on Web technology
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jul '16

15 Jul '16

'A new Skype for Linux client is now available as an alpha. The Skype client for Linux had been long abandoned—it's stuck on version 4.3, compared to version 7 on Windows—but Microsoft has now belatedly recognized that Skype is at its most desirable when it's available on every platform. To that end, it has created an all-new Skype client. In fact, the new client has two versions. There's a Linux app for users of traditional Linux systems. There's also the Skype Web Client, which is supported in Chrome on Linux and Chromebooks running Chrome OS. Whether using the Web or the standalone app, the core code and capabilities are the same: it's using Chrome's WebRTC support to provide a plugin-free, Web-based Skype client.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/skype-for-linux-is-re… 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] puppy or qubes
by Michelle 14 Jul '16

14 Jul '16

After my last post, either that night or early next morning I realized I should have said a thank you to some folk. So to all those that shared information in an effort to help me.....Thank you. People at this LUG may indeed be right about puppy, I don't know. Here is an article about that policeman and puppy and banking: www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-police-don't-use-windows-for-internet-banking-157767 So going off that article it would seem that any live distro that fits on RAM is safe for banking. Now as for Ian. It is intetesting to at least me. Many/most people don't move away from where they were born/bought up in. wwwpewsocialtrends.org/2008/12/17/who-moves-who-stays-put-wheres-home/ So a person could be getting sh*t from someine online that they babysitted. I find that ironic. No I'm not going off that article but rather family happenings bought me to that article. Anyway .....Ian. After Ian had a go at me last month for no reason: list.Waikato ac.nz/pipermail/wlug/2016-June/014171.html (I hope those two last addresses are correct after the effort it takes to type them on this finicky phone) If a person is bought to court, they never wear a shirt saying 'I am guilty'. Usually the jurry/judge has to go off circumstancial evidence. The most important point with Ian is that he had just had a YELLING RANT. Now when someone finishes a yellining rant, are they most likely to go: 1. Now who can I help or 2. Who will I have a go at next?. So anyway I'm having to type this out on my finicky little phone, because I Haven't had the privilege yet of buying a new computer yet that I know will work. So this isn't his entire post:wlug/2016-June/014171. But you can just go to last month if you're interested. So the next point of interest is that the very next thing that he "says to me' after his attack on me last month was this latest.....um stuff. "NOW WHAT ABOUT TRIMMING THOSE POSTS!!! OTHERWISE I MAY BE FORCED TO DIG OUT SOME ARCHAIC INTERNET ETIQUETTE FAQ AND POST IT IN FULL ALL IN CAPS. Just joshing people. But puhleeze???! A word for Michelle and the quest for perfection. Sometimes in this life there is a dichotomy between what we wish for and what we can actually accomplish. Maybe near enough is good enough. Is there actually such a thing as complete security on the internet? Possibly, but probably not for the average citizen. "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott McNealy, formerly of Sun Microsystems. Sad but probably true" So about me and my quest for perfection: UN my post this month I said: "Well I give up. I have tried for months and invested dozens of hours to get a machine that runs qubes and it hasn't happened..... If nobody is prepared to do that it is more than fine . I will just buy a computer that runs a windows legacy os." Now I'm sorry, perhaps I missed the part there about "my quest for perfection ." Saying to to someone there "quest for perfection" well, whether that is taken taken as condescending or resemble depends on who said it, how they said it and when they said it.Vin this cade is was by a guy who had just insulted me and had just come of an angry rant! U think there were other things I wanted to mention about Ian but I can't remember. If I am amazingly wrong about Ian's intentions this time then so be it be he completely bought it upon his own head. On 2016-07-06 20:21, Peter Reutemann wrote: >> On Wed, Jul 6, 2016 at 4:46 PM, Michelle <michelle400(a)orcon.net.nz> >> wrote: >>> Puppy was recommended by a police officer. I think he was doing >>> banking for >>> the police maybe? >> >> Don't trust the filth. Surprised they even realize what Linux is. > > Please keep it civil! > > [...] > >>> So unless someone is willing to help in a hands on way, I don't want >>> anymore >>> help. Thanks anyway. >> >> Suggested it before, will suggest one last time. Show up to Te Ata on >> a Monday or Friday morning and someone from there will help. >> >> I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help but I really tried. Now to trim. > > If you read Michelle's emails again, you will see that she is not well > enough to travel. Therefore your offer is not an option. > > Cheers, Peter

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Still life in Puppy take two
by Ian Young 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

Oh dear, what an aberrant keystroke will do. Moving on .... While it is probably mandatory to scorn Puppy, and indeed Puppy is but a pale shadow of its former self post the retirement of Barry Kauler, a few steadfast souls continue to produce useful variants Including one called Slacko. http://slacko.eezy.xyz/notes.php http://blog.puppylinux.com/ I am excited to announce the release of Puppy Linux Slacko 6.3.2. It is available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions. This might be called a bugfix release to Slacko 6.3.0 but it is so much more than that! This is the first ever official puppy to support UEFI booting for both for 32 and 64 bit versions and the same ISO image will boot legacy BIOS PCs as well. And there is so much more that is improved, such as the theming, sound detection, firewall, default application management plus our home grown apps such as pMusic. It is still based on upstream 14.1 but has all the latest security and bugfix updates. There is much more going on here than a point release can convey that is why we have given it 2 points! The official release announcement is available for 32 bit and 64 bit. For more information you can visit the release notes page and the download page. I Hope you enjoy using Slacko! Posted on 22 Jun 2016, 21:22 by 01micko

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Still life in Puppy
by Ian Young 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

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Firefox Bringing Rust Code Into Production
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Jul '16

13 Jul '16

<http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Firefox-48-First-Rust-Code> Rust is a programming language that is designed to make it harder to commit the kinds of stuffups that lead to crashes and security bugs. So the proof of the pudding will be whether future versions of Firefox will turn out to be more reliable and secure.

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When man-db goes thug ... help?
by Eric Light 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

Hi guys Never seen this before, need a hand. Fairly fresh Debian 8 install, fully updated, running as root. root(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man opensslroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man -kroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# which man/usr/bin/manroot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# man --helproot(a)ROOTCA:~/ca# ... When I execute man, it doesn't give me anything, and just returns me to the command prompt. Not even man --help will return a response. I've purged and reinstalled man-db, ensured that ncurses-base is installed, even checked the size of man (106912 bytes), and checked dmesg for any segfaults... there's just nothing I can find anywhere. Any ideas? Thanks in advance. E-- Securely sent with Tutanota. It's good, you should try it: https://tutanota.com

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Bye-Bye 32 Bits
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

Seems like nobody wants to offer 32-bit Linux builds any more... <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/05/linux_letting_go_32bit_builds_on_th…>

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MIT Says Their Anonymity Network Is More Secure Than Tor
by Peter Reutemann 12 Jul '16

12 Jul '16

'Following the recent vulnerabilities in Tor, researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have been working on a new anonymity network that they say is more secure than Tor. While the researchers are planning to present their new system, dubbed Riffle, at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium later this month, they did say the system uses existing cryptographic techniques, but in new ways. A series of servers are what make up Riffle, each of which "permutes the order in which it receives messages before passing them on to the next," according to a news release. "For instance, messages from senders Alice, Bob, and Carol reach the first server in the order A, B, C, that server would send them to the second server in a different order -- say C, B, A. The second server would permute them before sending them to the third, and so on." Nobody would know which was which by the time they exited the last server. Both Tor and MIT's anonymity network use onion encryption. Riffle uses a technique called verifiable shuffle in addition to onion encryption to thwart tampering and prevent adversaries from infiltrating servers with their own code. Last but not least, it uses authentication encryption to verify the authenticity of an encrypted message. The researchers say their system provides strong security while using bandwidth much more efficiently than similar solutions.' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/07/11/2041203 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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ODF Versus OOXML
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jul '16

11 Jul '16

A summary of links comparing ODF (the file format native to LibreOffice and OpenOffice) with OOXML (as used in Microsoft’s Office suite): <http://courseweb.ischool.illinois.edu/~stanley8/LIS590DPL/standards/docform…>. Another reason why saving LibreOffice documents in MS Office format may cause formatting trouble (besides the usual inconsistencies that happen with MS Office formatting anyway) is that OOXML cannot actually represent all ODF information correctly.

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GNU Nano Fork
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Jul '16

11 Jul '16

Some ructions over GNU Nano have led to the creation of yet another tiny text editor <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/07/11/in_mourning_for_nano_chap_crafts_1k…>. With regard to this: “Benno also did not want to assign copyright to the FSF for his contributions.” it’s not clear why outfits like the FSF and Ubuntu want you to assign your copyrights to them. The Linux kernel project, for example, doesn’t require it <https://lwn.net/Articles/592503/>.

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HTTPS crypto’s days are numbered. Here’s how Google wants to save it
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '16

09 Jul '16

'Like many forms of encryption in use today, HTTPS protections are on the brink of a collapse that could bring down the world as we know it. Hanging in the balance are most encrypted communications sent over the last several decades. On Thursday, Google unveiled an experiment designed to head off, or at least lessen, the catastrophe. In the coming months, Google servers will add a new, experimental cryptographic algorithm to the more established elliptic curve algorithm it has been using for the past few years to help encrypt HTTPS communications. The algorithm—which goes by the wonky name "Ring Learning With Errors"—is a method of exchanging cryptographic keys that's currently considered one of the great new hopes in the age of quantum computing. Like other forms of public key encryption, it allows two parties who have never met to encrypt their communications, making it ideal for Internet usage.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/https-crypto-is-on-the-brink-of-col… 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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Mesa 12.0 Released With OpenGL 4.3 Support, Intel Vulkan and More
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jul '16

09 Jul '16

'Mesa3D developers have announced the release of Mesa 12.0. Mesa 12 notably adds open-source OpenGL 4.3 drivers for Intel, Radeon, and NVIDIA on Linux, and it also integrates the previously open-sourced Intel Vulkan graphics API driver. From the Phoronix analysis, "Mesa 12.0 is easily one of the biggest updates to this important open-source user-space OpenGL driver stack in quite some time and will offer much better support and features especially for Intel, Radeon, and NVIDIA open-source Linux desktop users/gamers."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/2135213 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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Researchers Discover Over 100 Tor Nodes Designed To Spy On Hidden Services
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'Two researchers have discovered over 100 Tor nodes that are spying on hidden services. Cory Doctorow from Boing Boing reports: "These nodes -- ordinary nodes, not exit nodes -- sorted through all the traffic that passed through them, looking for anything bound for a hidden service, which allowed them to discover hidden services that had not been advertised. These nodes then attacked the hidden services by making connections to them and trying common exploits against the server-software running on them, seeking to compromise and take them over. The researchers used 'honeypot' .onion servers to find the spying computers: these honeypots were .onion sites that the researchers set up in their own lab and then connected to repeatedly over the Tor network, thus seeding many Tor nodes with the information of the honions' existence. They didn't advertise the honions' existence in any other way and there was nothing of interest at these sites, and so when the sites logged new connections, the researchers could infer that they were being contacted by a system that had spied on one of their Tor network circuits. No one knows who is running the spying nodes: they could be run by criminals, governments, private suppliers of 'infowar' weapons to governments, independent researchers, or other scholars (though scholarly research would not normally include attempts to hack the servers once they were discovered)." The Tor project is aware of the attack and is working to redesign its system to try and block it.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/2034209 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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Antivirus Software Is 'Increasingly Useless' and May Make Your Computer Less Safe
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'Is your antivirus protecting your computer or making it more hackable? Internet security experts are warning that anti-malware technology is becoming less and less effective at protecting your data and devices, and there's evidence that security software can sometimes even make your computer more vulnerable to security breaches. This week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) issued a warning about popular antivirus software made by Symantec, some of it under the Norton brand, after security researchers with Google's Project Zero found critical vulnerabilities. "These vulnerabilities are as bad as it gets. They don't require any user interaction, they affect the default configuration, and the software runs at the highest privilege levels possible," wrote Google researcher Tavis Ormandy in a blog post. Symantec said it had verified and addressed the issues in updates that users are advised to install. It's not the only instance of security software potentially making your computer less safe. Concordia University professor Mohammad Mannan and his PhD student Xavier de Carne de Carnavalet recently presented research on antivirus and parental control software packages, including popular brands like AVG, Kaspersky and BitDefender, that bypass some security features built into internet browsers to verify whether sites are safe or not in order to be able to scan encrypted connections for potential threats. In theory, they should make up for it with their own content verification systems. But Mannan's research, presented at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium in California earlier this year, found they didn't do a very good job. "We were surprised at how bad they were," he said in an interview. "Some of them, they did not even make it secure in any sense."' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/07/08/145245 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 KeyStore Encryption Scheme Broken
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jul '16

08 Jul '16

'The default implementation for KeyStore, the system in Android designed to store user credentials and cryptographic keys, is broken, researchers say.>In an academic paper published this week, researchers argue that the particular encryption scheme that KeyStore uses fails to protect the integrity of keys and could be exploited to allow an attacker to modify stored keys through a forgery attack. KeyStore, which performs key-specific actions through the OpenSSL library, allows Android apps to store and generate their own cryptographic keys. By storing keys in a container, KeyStore makes it more difficult to remove them from the device. Mohamed Sabt and Jacques Traore, two researchers with the French telecom Orange Labs, claim the scheme associated with the system is "non-provably secure," and could have "severe consequences." The two point out in their paper "Breaking Into the KeyStore: A Practical Forgery Attack Against Android KeyStore," that it's the hash-then-encrypt (HtE) authenticated encryption (AE) scheme in cipher block chaining mode (CBC) in KeyStore that fails to guarantee the integrity of keys.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/16/07/07/1819233 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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10 million Android phones infected by all-powerful auto-rooting apps
by Peter Reutemann 07 Jul '16

07 Jul '16

"Security experts have documented a disturbing spike in a particularly virulent family of Android malware, with more than 10 million handsets infected and more than 286,000 of them in the US. Researchers from security firm Check Point Software said the malware installs more than 50,000 fraudulent apps each day, displays 20 million malicious advertisements, and generates more than $300,000 per month in revenue. The success is largely the result of the malware's ability to silently root a large percentage of the phones it infects by exploiting vulnerabilities that remain unfixed in older versions of Android. The Check Point researchers have dubbed the malware family "HummingBad," but researchers from mobile security company Lookout say HummingBad is in fact Shedun, a family of auto-rooting malware that came to light last November and had already infected a large number of devices." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/07/virulent-auto-rooting-malware-takes… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The State Of systemd In Debian
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Jul '16

07 Jul '16

Presentation from DebConf, slides and video <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Debian-systemd-Status-2016>.

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Yet Another Next-Generation Filesystem
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

As if btrfs and ZFS aren’t enough, here’s another next-generation filesystem being developed for Linux: <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Bcachefs-Still-Rolling>. It apparently originated from “Bcache”, which was a filesystem developed for use on SSDs.

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32 bit
by Ian Young 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

See also Linux Mint 18 in 32-bit version, and Bodhi complete with Enlightenment. NOW WHAT ABOUT TRIMMING THOSE POSTS!!! OTHERWISE I MAY BE FORCED TO DIG OUT SOME ARCHAIC INTERNET ETIQUETTE FAQ AND POST IT IN FULL ALL IN CAPS. Just joshing people. But puhleeze???! A word for Michelle and the quest for perfection. Sometimes in this life there is a dichotomy between what we wish for and what we can actually accomplish. Maybe near enough is good enough. Is there actually such a thing as complete security on the internet? Possibly, but probably not for the average citizen. "You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it." Scott McNealy, formerly of Sun Microsystems. Sad but probably true.

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puppy or qubes
by Michelle 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Well, I give up. I have tried for months and invested dozens of hours to get a machine that runs qubes and it hasn't happened. So would somebody be willing to go into say pb tech with different live puppy's on stick (or DVD) and finding what computers run it. Puppy was the distro I was wanting to run on my brand new computer I bought last year. I have been told that it is hard to find a new computer that won't rtun puppy. My new computer didn't. Hopefully it is just a freak. So if you are prepared to do that, could you then let me know at least two of those computers that should be able to run qubes according to the hardware specifications at the qubes website. If nobody is prepared to do that it is more than fine. I will just buy a computer that runs a windows legacy os.

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post trimming
by Ian Young 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Oh dear, it's a storm of my making, albeit in a teacup. Much of the time posts on wlug are brief and often evoke no responses. As it happens of late there have been some of greater length which have had replies including the full body of all the foregoing, This has lead to my occasional ire as I scroll on ever downwards through the screeds of text previously seen looking for some gem of wisdom only to finally find the dreaded "Me too" or something equally unmemorable. Call me a grinchy grouch but is this sort of thing effective communication? Lies back on the couch .... Let me tell you about my days on dialup when every word cost 10 cents ... have i mentioned my Scottish ancestry? OMG, apologies to all Scots. If you can't say anything nice then say nothing as my old dad (from Glasgow) was wont to say. ~ ttfn Ian Y

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Why Dotfiles Need To Die
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

“Hidden” files and directories are outnumbering non-hidden ones 6:1 in my home directory: ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | grep -c '^\.' 215 ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | grep -vc '^\.' 35 ldo(a)theon:~> ls -A ~/ | wc -l 250 Quite a few applications are starting to adopt the XDG Base Directory Spec <https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/>, but it just can’t happen fast enough...

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Any Old Machines Going Spare?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jul '16

06 Jul '16

Te Whare O Te Ata (the Fairfield community centre) has a group of four public-access machines that are not getting any younger. Does anybody have any machines they don’t need any more, that they could donate as (slightly) newer replacements? I think all of us who volunteer there are on this list, so I think you might as well respond to the list, at least to begin with. Then we can take it from there. Thanks for any help.

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Linux Mint 18 “Sarah” released!
by Peter Reutemann 05 Jul '16

05 Jul '16

Already happened on June 30th, but here it is anyway... Announcement for MATE: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3052 And for Cinnamon: http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3051 Just installed MATE version, replacing my Ubuntu MATE edition. Gone is my disappearing mouse cursor when suspending, feels much snappier, better touchpad support too. At least 2 thumbs up! ;-) 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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32 bits
by Ian Young 05 Jul '16

05 Jul '16

Arch and Manjaro have 32 bit options. Slackware 14.2 just released is available for 32 bit. Porteus has a fresh release pending for 32. The recent Fedora 24 has 32 bit iso. So it's not over yet. One snag however is hardware limitations on 32 bit machines. It may be possible to run a current browser on less than 2 gigs of RAM but I find it is not enjoyable. So it partly depends on what one wants to do iwth that golden oldie.

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Fwd: [NZOSS OpenChat] GovHack
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '16

04 Jul '16

Apologies for cross-posting, but some people on this mailing list might be interested in this. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: DL Neil <NZOSS(a)etelligence.info> Date: Tue, Jul 5, 2016 at 7:03 AM Subject: [NZOSS OpenChat] GovHack To: NZOSS Open Discussion List <openchat(a)groups.nzoss.org.nz> Noticed this public invitation of likely interest to mash-up artists and OpenData enthusiasts: GovHack is all about bringing together coders, artists, storytellers, observers, communicators and more, from the private, public, NGO and academic sectors. While the group of people is diverse, we’re united in a single purpose – working with government data to innovate and create. What is GovHack, anyway? It’s not about “cracking” government – it’s about bringing together the power of open data and all of us to build a better democracy and a more open government and society. Watch this short video to find out more :) This year, New Zealand’s second (ever) GovHack event will be taking place across the country over the weekend of 29 – 31 July, in: Whangarei Auckland Hamilton Hawke’s Bay Whanganui Wellington Christchurch Queenstown Dunedin. ... http://govhack.org.nz/ -- Regards, =dn ―― View topic http://groups.nzoss.org.nz/r/topic/1mbHiTI4H5e8TQrmYTPFL4 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/

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Linux Mint 18 'Sarah' Released, Supports Generic GTK X-Apps
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '16

03 Jul '16

'The Linux Mint team announced the immediate availability of their latest release, Mint 18 "Sarah," in Cinnamon and MATE flavors. These follow on the heels of their respective beta versions, which have been out for nearly a month. "Linux Mint 18 is a long-term support release which will be supported until 2021," the team announces on MATE's "new features" page, adding they've improved their update manager, included support for the Debian syntax of "apt", and are working on the "X-Apps" project to "produce generic applications for traditional GTK desktop environments...to replace applications which no longer integrate properly outside of a particular environment."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/07/02/2045249 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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Council CIO - suit required
by Ian Young 29 Jun '16

29 Jun '16

I fear no ordinary mortal could hope for a job such as this -- only for people from suitland who can spout the appropriate babble and appear to have a suitable track record in positions of such awesomeness. This is the world of the 'solutions provider' and they always provide a Windows solution. After all, why not go with what you know? And then there is the investment by many IT people in gaining industry qualifications around aspects of Microsoft technology. It would be sad to see that go to waste. It's a mindset thing. And let's not forget that for most people (aside from a minority of Appleheads) Windows is computers, or Windows is always on such computers as they use. Then there are the computer makers who still provide the industry standard, ie Windows. (Behind the scenes MS is still twisting arms there as far as I know). Perhaps this being broken down somewhat in recent times by the advent of tablets & smartphones but I think in large part real work is still done on a Windows box. Hard to see how this can ever change without some as yet unforeseen paradigm shift. So much for the business world and governmental organisations; things are perhaps a bit different in academia especially in fields such as computer science. However the desktop for most users is still always Windows so far as I have seen. Those crazy academics have to be given some choice but IT staff generally prefer to provide a standardised Windows image. Yes, it's a Windows world. Luckily Linux is still around for those who can't get with the programme. Personally I find the latest versions of desktop Windows unusable. If Windows 8 and 10 are the answer it must have been a most peculiar question imho. But I digress. Should HCC ever adopt Linux I will eat my hat - or be astounded at any rate.

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A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

"Adam Leventhal: Apple announced a new file system that will make its way into all of its OS variants (macOS, tvOS, iOS, watchOS) in the coming years. Media coverage to this point has been mostly breathless elongations of Apple's developer documentation. With a dearth of detail I decided to attend the presentation and Q&A with the APFS team at WWDC. Dominic Giampaolo and Eric Tamura, two members of the APFS team, gave an overview to a packed room; along with other members of the team, they patiently answered questions later in the day. With those data points and some first-hand usage I wanted to provide an overview and analysis both as a user of Apple-ecosystem products and as a long-time operating system and file system developer." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-… 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] Hamilton City Council - CIO position
by rowan schischka 28 Jun '16

28 Jun '16

>You can apply for the position via the council web-site<http://%20 https://hamilton.careercentre.net.nz/job/chief-information-officer-cio-/ham…>. It is also advertised on seek< http://www.seek.co.nz/job/31234386?pos=12&type=standard&engineConfig=&userq… >. Im applying but doubt ill get it. whoever gets that contract i'd like to put my hand forward to help. -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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Re: [wlug] wlug Digest, Vol 300, Issue 19
by Wayne Luxton 27 Jun '16

27 Jun '16

On 25/06/16 12:00, wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz wrote: > Send wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of wlug digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone (Ian Young) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 03:12:45 +0000 > From: Ian Young <gnomician(a)gmail.com> > To: wlug <wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz> > Subject: [wlug] a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone > Message-ID: > <CA+e9D2Ev-OSuWxA98heFdjbERzTJYgZbiFRAuiepOVS9FURZNw(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 > > Came upon this today - mentioned on Barry Kauler's blog (the Puppy Linux guy). > > ' have previously posted about MaruOS:" > http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00363 > > > http://maruos.com/#/ > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > wlug mailing list > wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz > https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug > > > End of wlug Digest, Vol 300, Issue 19 > ************************************* > Find this is brilliant news as have nexus 5 and was getting frustrated and scratchy about android and what they keep wanting or advertising. Something to do to keep my Parkinson's brain in action. Would like to compare notes with any other local enthusiast -looking to create an intergrated work system with production of posters. Wayne - thanks you guys I am not very active now days but keeping up with threads helps me check out what I need and widen potential

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Ubuntu-Based Peppermint 7 Released
by Peter Reutemann 26 Jun '16

26 Jun '16

'Softpedia reports on the newest version of Peppermint OS, "a lightweight, stable, elegant, and fast computer operating system based on GNU/Linux and Open Source technologies." An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes their report: It's a bit earlier than expected, but the Peppermint OS 7 GNU/Linux distribution has been officially unveiled...based on the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system [with] a lot of packages from the Ubuntu 16.04 LTS distro, which means that it will also be a long-term support release.... "Along with the shift to the 16.04 (Xenial) code base, Peppermint 7 continues our policy of choosing the best components from other desktop environments, wherever that may be, and integrating them into a cohesive whole with our own software," reads today's announcement. "Team Peppermint" says they're switching to Firefox as their default browser for site-specific browser functionality (similar to Chrome's -app mode) after Google dropped their 32-bit version of Chrome and moved to PPAPI plugins "which effectively ends Flash support in 32-bit Chromium"... But you can also still choose Chrome or Chromium for site-specific browsing (and the OS comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions).' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/06/25/216216 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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a Debian-based OS for Nexus 5 phone
by Ian Young 24 Jun '16

24 Jun '16

Came upon this today - mentioned on Barry Kauler's blog (the Puppy Linux guy). ' have previously posted about MaruOS:" http://barryk.org/news/?viewDetailed=00363 http://maruos.com/#/

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KDE Developers Have Been Working On Improved Windows Support
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

<http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=KDE-Windows-Improvements>: “... they've abandoned the concept of having a single KDE installer for Windows, but work on individual programs (and installers) for Windows has continued. Single application installers are their path forward for shipping KDE programs on Windows...” Also in the reader comments, Krita lead Boudewijn Rempt writes about whether more Windows users leads to more Windows developers contributing <https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/software/desktop-linux/879128-kde-dev…>: “... I've certainly had half a dozen Windows developers come to the #krita irc channel asking how to build Krita on Windows so they could help out hacking. The problem is that setting up a build environment on WIndows is really hard, and in fact, we build the Windows binaries on Linux... So they need extraordinary perseverance to start contributing or use a Linux VM. That's really something we should improve on next, but I have no idea how to make it any eas[i]er anymore.”

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WLUG meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jun '16

22 Jun '16

Hi there We have a meeting next Monday: 'systemd', which has replaced SYSTEMV 'init' in nearly ALL current Linux distributions, seems to go against the fundamental philosophy of Linux/Unix - Doug Mcllroy, the inventor of Unix pipes, summarized the Unix/Linux philosophy as follows: "This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well..." systemd has a 'finger-in-all-pies' approach & seems quite complex. Let's discuss pros and cons of systemd. http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/231330392/ 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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Linux’s RPM/deb split could be replaced by Flatpak vs. snap
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

'Linux developers are going to have more than one choice for building secure, cross-distribution applications. Ubuntu's "snap" applications recently went cross-platform, having been ported to other Linux distros including Debian, Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo. The goal is to simplify packaging of applications. Instead of building a deb package for Ubuntu and an RPM for Fedora, a developer could package the application as a snap and have it installed on just about any Linux distribution. But Linux is always about choice, and snap isn't the only contender to replace traditional packaging systems. Today, the developers of Flatpak (previously called xdg-app) announced general availability for several major Linux distributions, with a pointer to instructions for installing on Arch, Debian, Fedora, Mageia, and Ubuntu.' -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/here-comes-flatpak-a-… 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: Nearly One In Three Azure Virtual Machines Now Are Running Linux
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

"Microsoft's self-professed Linux love is helping the company in the cloud. During his keynote at DockerCon 2016 in Seattle today, Azure Chief Technology Officer Mark Russinovich showed off some of the new and upcoming ways Microsoft is adding more container support to its cloud and server products. He also revealed a couple of new interesting datapoints. In the past year, Russinovich said, Microsoft has gone from one in four of its Azure virtual machines running Linux to nearly one in three. The other two-thirds of Azure customers are running Windows Server in their virtual machines. Russinovich showed off the promised Windows Server support that officials said would be coming at some point to the company's Azure Container Service (ACS). Microsoft made Azure Container Service generally available in April 2016, but for Linux containers only. Last year, company execs said Microsoft also would bring Windows Server support to ACS." -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/06/21/1754243 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 World’s Fastest: 10-Million Core Supercomputer
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 21 Jun '16

21 Jun '16

<http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/10-million-core-super…> Not Intel-compatible, uses a home-grown 64-bit RISC chip architecture. According to this <http://www.nextplatform.com/2016/06/20/look-inside-chinas-chart-topping-new…>, it achieves 3 times the power efficiency of the x86 machines near the current top of the supercomputing league. According to the Ars article, the previous supercomputer king of the hill, “Tianhe-2 had been the world's fastest in six consecutive rankings, which are released twice a year”. So I think the record for staying the longest at the top still remains with the old NEC Earth Simulator, which was number one for maybe two years.

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Unprotected NFC Tags in MacDonald’s NZ & Australia Restaurants
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Jun '16

20 Jun '16

Anybody could store any URL into these tags. Would customers who see these pop up on their phones think it was a legitimate MacDonald’s promotion and go to those sites? <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/20/filetophish_insecure_nfc_tag_relics…>

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New 'Hardened' Tor Browser Protects Users From FBI Hacking
by Peter Reutemann 20 Jun '16

20 Jun '16

'According to a new paper, security researchers are now working closely with the Tor Project to create a "hardened" version of the Tor Browser, implementing new anti-hacking techniques which could dramatically improve the anonymity of users and further frustrate the efforts of law enforcement... "Our solution significantly improves security over standard address space layout randomization (ASLR) techniques currently used by Firefox and other mainstream browsers," the researchers write in their paper, whose findings will be presented in July at the Privacy Enhancing Technologies Symposium in Darmstadt, Germany. The researchers say Tor is currently field-testing their solution for an upcoming "hardened" release, making it harder for agencies like the FBI to crack the browser's security, according to Motherboard. "[W]hile that defensive advantage may not last for too long, it shows that some in the academic research community are still intent on patching the holes that their peers are helping government hackers exploit."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/16/06/19/2249239 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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Under new management, SourceForge moves to put badness in past
by Peter Reutemann 19 Jun '16

19 Jun '16

"It has been six months since the company formerly known as Dice (DHI Group) sold off Slashdot Media—the business unit that runs Slashdot and SourceForge—to BIZX, LLC, a San Diego-based digital media company. Since then, the new management has been moving to erase some of the mistakes made under the previous regime—mistakes that led to the site becoming a bit of a pariah among open source and free software developers." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/06/under-new-management-… 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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