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Linux Foundation Launches ELISA, an Open Source Project For Building Safety-Critical Systems
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

'The Linux Foundation today launched Enabling Linux in Safety Applications (ELISA), an open source project comprising tools intended to help companies build and certify Linux-based systems whose failure could result in loss of human life, significant property damage, or environmental damage. From a report: In partnership with British chip designer Arm, BMW, autonomous platforms company Kuka, Linutronix, and Toyota, ELISA will work with certification and standardization bodies in "multiple industries" to establish ways Linux can form the foundation of safety-critical systems across industries.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/02/21/1559217 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 Psion Palmtop Successor Has Arrived and It Runs Android and Linux
by Peter Reutemann 21 Feb '19

21 Feb '19

'A lot of people probably remember the 1990s palmtop computers made by Psion fondly. The clamshell-design palmtops were pocketable, black and white, but had a working stylus and a fantastic tactile foldout QWERTY keyboard that you could type pretty substantial documents on or even write code with. A different company -- Planet Computers -- has now produced a spiritual successor to the old Psion palmtops called the Gemini PDA that is much like an old Psion but with the latest Android smartphone hardware in it and a virtually identical tactile keyboard. It can also dual boot to Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Sailfish) alongside Android. The technical specs are a MediaTek deca-core processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB storage (plus microSD slot), 4G, 802.11c Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, eSIM support, and 4,220mAh battery. The screen measures in at 5.99-inches with a 2,160 x 1,080 (403ppi) resolution. The only thing missing seems to be the stylus -- but perhaps that would have complicated manufacturing of this niche-device in its first production r' -- source: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/19/02/20/2241216 Yes, it's back! :-) 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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Blu-Ray On The Way Out?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

Samsung has given up developing new Blu-Ray players, and is going to stop selling them in the US altogether <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/02/samsung-says-it-will-stop-making-ne…>. Seems like downloads and streaming are taking over from physical discs, and UHD was never a big part of the latter anyway. One surprising fact is that DVD-Video still accounts for over half of such sales, at least in the US.

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Why Do You Need A 4GHz Quadcore To Run Facebook?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 20 Feb '19

20 Feb '19

An example <https://twitter.com/themikepan/status/1093035372186034176> of how Facebook obfuscates its HTML rendering to defeat ad blockers. (Link found from this article <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/19/cern_browser_reawakened/> on a resurrection of the first Web browser from CERN).

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Linux Subsystem Files To Become Accessible via Windows File Explorer
by Peter Reutemann 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

'One of Windows Subsystem for Linux's more annoying tricks is it's hard to get at your Linux files from Windows. From a report: Oh, you can do it, but you take a real chance of ruining the files. To quote Microsoft, "DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, access, create, and/or modify files in your distro's filesystem using Windows apps, tools, scripts, consoles, etc." In the forthcoming Windows 10 April 2019 Update, aka Windows 10 19H1, this Linux file problem will finally be fixed. According to Craig Loewen, a Microsoft programming manger working on Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), "The next Windows update is coming soon and we're bringing exciting new updates to WSL with it! These include accessing the Linux file system from Windows, and improvements to how you manage and configure your distros in the command line."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/19/02/19/2119226 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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How Not To Build A PC, And How Not To Respond To Those Criticizing You For It
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 19 Feb '19

19 Feb '19

About four months ago, The Verge posted a video on its YouTube channel explaining the basics of building your own PC. Unfortunately, the video was full of mistakes, some small, some potentially more troublesome. Naturally this was pointed out in the comments. Also several other more techie-oriented channels responded with their own critique videos, some quite scathing. Rather than admit its mistake, the company decided to simply block comments for that video, and eventually take it down altogether. (Though not before it had accumulated a few thousand downvotes.) Now, within the last week or so, it has suddenly decided to go after those critique videos, and force them to be taken down on the basis of copyright infringement, because they contain extracts from the original item. Extracts which, under US fair use law, it was perfectly legal for them to include. Naturally, these heavy-handed attempts at censorship provoked a great deal of anger and protest, and the company has had to relent. If it was trying to downplay any lingering evidence of its previous embarrassment, this was absolutely not the way to do it. The phrase “Streisand Effect” immediately comes to mind, where an attempt by the eponymous celebrity to suppress pictures of the outside of her home, taken from public property, only caused them to be spread more widely. <https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+verge+pc+build+takedown> Origin of the Streisand Effect: <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030624/1231228.shtml>

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Inside the DNSpionage hacks that hijack domains at an unprecedented scale
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

'Since the beginning of the year, the US government and private security companies have been warning of a sophisticated wave of attacks that’s hijacking domains belonging to multiple governments and private companies at an unprecedented scale. On Monday, a detailed report provided new details that helped explain how and why the widespread DNS hijackings allowed the attackers to siphon huge numbers of email and other login credentials. The article, published by KrebsOnSecurity reporter Brian Krebs, said that, over the past few months, the attackers behind the so-called DNSpionage campaign have compromised key components of DNS infrastructure for more than 50 Middle Eastern companies and government agencies. Monday’s article goes on to report that the attackers, who are believed to be based in Iran, also took control of domains belonging to two highly influential Western services—the Netnod Internet Exchange in Sweden and the Packet Clearing House in Northern California. With control of the domains, the hackers were able to generate valid TLS certificates that allowed them to launch man-in-the-middle attacks that intercepted sensitive credentials and other data.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/inside-the-dnspionag… 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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SGM next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

Hi society members For those paying/active society members that are not on meetup.com, here is the link to our SGM next week: https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/258276544/ It is just a very short one, before the actual WLUG meeting, to go through some charter stuff. (Apologies, I thought I sent out a reminder last month, but I can't seem to find that email, so probably got lost in work stress) Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Meeting next Monday
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

Hi everyone We have a meeting coming up next Monday: 'Ian Stewart will talk about his experience of attempting to give an old Huawei router a new lease of life using OpenWRT (https://openwrt.org/)' https://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/events/257884258/ 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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Researcher Scans All IP Addresses of Austria, Finds a Ton of Things That Shouldn't Be Online
by Peter Reutemann 18 Feb '19

18 Feb '19

'Christian Haschek scanned the entire Austrian IP space and found IP cameras, printers, and industrial control systems and a range of other devices that should not be online.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/19/02/18/0017246 -- blog: https://blog.haschek.at/2019/i-scanned-austria.html 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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