- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Government IT Contract Lock-In?
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Sep '16

29 Sep '16

The UK Government has an IT policy which says that no single contract should be worth more than £100 million. The idea is to try to break up cosy mega-contracts that favour large incumbent companies, in order to allow a wider range of suppliers to get a look in. This article <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/28/government_20bn_it_contract_lock_in…> is a result of a bunch of FOIA requests to different departments, to try to get an idea of how well this policy is being implemented. As you might expect, the results are somewhat mixed. Anybody know anything about the NZ situation?

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Quote Of The Week
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Sep '16

29 Sep '16

>From <http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2986543>: It is almost as if ½bits do not understand that the purpose of a GUI is so you can see all the terminal emulators for a task at the same time, and switch to different virtual desktops when you are doing multiple unrelated tasks.

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Design For Design’s Sake
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 29 Sep '16

29 Sep '16

Nice commentary <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/28/open_source_insider_peak_web/> on what constitutes “good” or “bad” design: ... open source software might be the best designed software in existence. After all, FOSS software is everywhere. ... No one forced anyone to use it for all those things. ... Open source was simply, presumably, the best designed tool for the job. And today every where you turn open source software is there, which is pretty impressive for something that's supposedly very poorly designed. ... On the other hand the world is increasingly awash in software that looks very "modern" and "well designed" but is inevitably a functional step backwards from the previous version. ... I increasingly turn to FOSS software that helps me route around this damage.

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Open-Source Digital Radio On A Raspberry π
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 28 Sep '16

28 Sep '16

It is possible to run a DAB radio station on a Raspberry π with a full open-source software stack <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/27/ofcom_blesses_linuxpowered_open_sou…>. The idea has even received regulatory approval in the UK.

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Geek’s Guide To Britain: Cambridge University
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Sep '16

26 Sep '16

Worth mentioning this installment in the semi-regular series on The Register because of its high computing content: Turing, Sinclair, and of course Acorn <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/26/geeks_guide_to_britain_walking_tour/>. Worth watching is “Micro Men”, a dramatization of the heyday of Sinclair and Acorn, and the rivalry between them. There is one nice sequence where Hermann Hauser, from a wealthy Austrian wine-making family, is asked why he wanted to get into the computing business and invest in Acorn. His reply: “Have you ever tasted Austrian wine?”

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Krebs On Security Back Online
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 26 Sep '16

26 Sep '16

The “Krebs On Security” blog was knocked offline recently by a massive DDoS attack. Akamai stepped in to shield it for awhile, until the malicious traffic grew too much for it to bear. So Brian Krebs had to take his blog offline. But now it is back, courtesy of Google taking over the shield. <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/26/google_shields_krebs/>

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Fwd: [NZLUG] Linux.Conf.Au 2017: Miniconfs announced; Sysadmin Miniconf CFP
by Peter Reutemann 26 Sep '16

26 Sep '16

Apologies for cross-posting, but I thought some of you might be interested in this. Cheers, Peter ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ewen McNeill Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 10:12 AM Subject: [NZLUG] Linux.Conf.Au 2017: Miniconfs announced; Sysadmin Miniconf CFP To: nzlug(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz Linux.Conf.Au 2017, being held in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, in January 2017, has announced the Miniconfs selected for the first two days of the conference: https://linux.conf.au/about/news/announcing-miniconfs/ https://linux.conf.au/schedule/miniconfs/list/ The Systems Administration Miniconf is pleased to have been selected again for LCA2017 -- our eleventh year at Linux.Conf.Au. Our Call for Presentations at the LCA2017 Sysadmin Miniconf is now open: https://sysadmin.miniconf.org/cfp17.html (A copy of the CFP text is included below for your convenience.) Please forward this CFP to your colleagues, peers, social networks, and other relevant mailing lists. Please help by encouraging submissions from people you would like to hear present at this Miniconf. This is our 11th Sysadmin Miniconf at Linux.conf.au. Previous presentations can be found at the website: https://sysadmin.miniconf.org/ -=+ Presentation Topics +=- We welcome talks on best current practice, new developments in Systems Administration, cutting edge techniques and technologies, and ways to better manage Linux environments large and small. Topics for presentations could include (but are not limited to): * Systems Administration Best Practice * Virtualisation and Cloud Computing * Containers and orchestration * Sysadmin Administration in a "serverless" environment (FAAS) * TLS everywhere * Monitoring and metrics: Collection, storage and presentation * Infrastructure/Platform/Software as a Service (IAAS, PAAS, SAAS) * Networkng: IPv6, SDN (Software Defined Networking), performance * DevOps, Configuration Management and provisioning * Bootstrapping systems, Lifecycle Management * Dealing with BYOD * Backups in a virtual/distributed world * Troubleshooting techniques * Buying Decisions * Web and Email management * Keeping legacy systems functioning * War stories from the "Real World" Presentations should be of a technical nature and speakers should assume that members of the audience have at least a couple of years experience in Unix/Linux administration. -=+ Format of Presentations +=- We are now seeking proposals for presentations at the mini-conference. We have openings for: 15-25 minute short presentations 5-10 minute "lightning talks" Please note, due to the single day available (and whole-LCA keynote before morning tea), we expect the majority of available timeslots to be 20 minutes or less, with possibly 1-2 slightly longer talks if there is space in the schdule. We have a general policy of accepting a high proportion of proposals but handing out relatively short timeslots. Please see previous years Miniconf schedules for examples of how the programme is organised. -=+ Submitting talks +=- Please note that in order to give a presentation or attend the Miniconf you must be registered (and paid up by the time the conference happens) for the main linux.conf.au conference. Presenting at the Miniconf does not entitle you to discounted or free registration at the main conference nor to priority with registration. Unfortunately the Miniconf has no budget for sponsorship of speakers. To submit a talk to the LCA2017 Sysadmin Miniconf, create an account on the LCA2017 website: https://linux.conf.au/dashboard create a speaker profile, and then select "New Proposal" and "System Administration Miniconf Presentation", or while logged into the LCA2017 site, go directly to: https://linux.conf.au/proposals/submit/sysadmin-miniconf/ If you have a preferred length of your Short Presentation (15/20/25 minutes) or Lightning Talk (5/10 minutes) please use the Private Abstract field to describe what would work best for your talk. Otherwise we will pick a length that best suits the gaps in the programme as we put the final programme together. In some cases we maybe able to add a few extra minutes to a few Short Presentations if there is any spare time left in the programme. -=+ Dates and Deadlines +=- To encourage early submissions, priority (both of inclusion and scheduling) will be given to presentations submitted by 23:59 UTC on the 23rd of October 2016. If you have a good presentation idea, please let us know early, even if you need time to finalise the presentation abstract. Please indicate if you need an early confirmation to aid you in arranging time off work or travel; we will do our best to assist. 2016-10-23 - Deadline for early submissions 2016-11-01 - Early submissions confirmation 2016-11-21 - Deadline for submissions 2016-11-30 - Confirmation of all presentations 2016-12-07 - Miniconf programme published 2017-01-16 - Sysadmin Miniconf held -=+ Contact and Questions +=- Please see our website at https://sysadmin.miniconf.org for more information on the miniconf, past presentations and presenting at it. If you have any questions please feel free to email the organisers at: lca2017 @ sysadmin.miniconf.org Ewen McNeill and Simon Lyall LCA2017 Sysadmin Miniconf Conveeners _______________________________________________ NZLUG mailing list NZLUG(a)lists.nzoss.org.nz http://lists.nzoss.org.nz/mailman/listinfo/nzlug -- 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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Permanent job in Tokyo, Japan
by James Tobin 25 Sep '16

25 Sep '16

Hello, I’m working with an employer that is looking to hire someone to fulfil a permanent DevOps-type position at their office in Tokyo. Japanese language is not required; only English. Consequently I had hoped that some members of this LUG may like to discuss further; off-list. I can be reached using "JamesBTobin (at) Gmail (dot) Com". Kind regards, James

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free and open internet -- includes politics in the USA
by Ian Young 24 Sep '16

24 Sep '16

I always wanted to be an entity, albeit a tiny one. What about 'We the people'? http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-icann-ted-cruz-20160923-sna… But the federal government hasn’t run IANA for years. Instead, it hired the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to do that, with a minimum of supervision. ICANN was formed to make sure the entities with the largest stakes in the Internet — telecommunications companies, online service providers, researchers, equipment makers and, yes, governments — would jointly have a say in the creation and management of domains.

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SolidRun x86 Braswell MicroSoM Runs Linux and Full
by rowan schischka 24 Sep '16

24 Sep '16

I'm afraid this embedded machine will not be competing with raspberry at a total price of $157 (I'm assuming thats USD). something to compare it to in the x86 space: ASUS N3050I-C Motherboard, Mini-ITX retails for around $100NZD; comes with CPU soldered; does not come with PSU, ram, HDD, case. but altogether much more practical considering you're getting a real computer for the price. power consumption is around 6W. i guess its not as small considering it needs an ATX power supply, http://www.ascent.co.nz/productspecification.aspx?itemID=433649 -- Kind Regards Rowan Schischka

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