- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

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

03 Nov '16

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

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

03 Nov '16

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

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

01 Nov '16

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

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

01 Nov '16

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

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UDOO
by rowan schischka 01 Nov '16

01 Nov '16

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

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

28 Oct '16

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

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

26 Oct '16

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

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Another Raspberry ? Contender
by rowan schischka 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

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

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

25 Oct '16

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

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nexdock
by rowan schischka 25 Oct '16

25 Oct '16

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

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