- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

The Linux Foundation Offers a Self-Paced SysAdmin Course
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

"The Linux Foundation has announced the launch of its new self-paced Essentials of System Administration course (LFS201), which comes bundled with a Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator exam. The full schedule of all 2015 Linux Foundation training courses is also now available." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/the-linux-foundation-offers-a-self-paced-sysadmin-c… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Major Release LibreOffice 4.4 Announced
by Peter Reutemann 02 Feb '15

02 Feb '15

'The Document Foundation today announced the latest and "most beautiful" LibreOffice ever. LibreOffice 4.4 is the ninth major release for the project and brings with it lots of design and functionality improvements. Redesigned toolbars, menus, status bars, rulers and new theme selector are among the goodies for users. Michael Meeks said today that this release not only improves the visible features but also the foundations underneath.' -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/major-release-libreoffice-4-4-announced Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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OpenSSH Will Feature Key Discovery and Rotation For Easier Switching To Ed25519
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

"OpenSSH developer Damien Miller has posted about a new feature he implemented and committed for the next upcoming 6.8 release of OpenSSH — hostkeys(a)openssh.com — an OpenSSH extension to the SSH protocol for sshd to automatically send all of its public keys to the client, and for the client to automatically replace all keys of such server within ~/.ssh/known_hosts with the fresh copies as supplied (provided the server is trusted in the first place, of course). The protocol extension is simple enough, and is aimed to make it easier to switch over from DSA to the OpenSSL-free Ed25519 public keys. It is also designed in such a way as to support the concept of spare host keys being stored offline, which could then seamlessly replace main active keys should they ever become compromised." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/01/0533208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Dell Continues Shipping Fresh Linux Laptops
by Peter Reutemann 01 Feb '15

01 Feb '15

"In its latest move, Dell will be bringing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS to its top-of-the-line Precision M3800 workstation laptop and the latest model of the Dell XPS 13. Both systems will be running Ubuntu 14.04.1. According to Barton George, Dell's Director of Developer Programs, programmers had been asking for a better, officially-supported Ubuntu developer laptop. This came about from a combination of the efforts of Dell software engineer Jared Dominguez and enthusiastic feedback. Specs of M3800: 15.6" LCD @ 3840x2160, Intel i7 quad core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro GPU, up to 16 GB RAM. The bad news is, as Dominguez explained on his blog, this version of the M3800 doesn't support its built-in Thunderbolt 2 port out of the box. However, thanks to the hardware-enablement stack in Ubuntu, starting with upcoming Ubuntu 14.04.2, you will be able to upgrade your kernel to add some Thunderbolt support." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/31/180203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Everybody’s Gone Flat
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 31 Jan '15

31 Jan '15

A tour through the new standard theme for KDE Plasma 5.2 <https://dot.kde.org/2015/01/27/plasma-52-beautiful-and-featureful>. And you thought it was just Apple and Microsoft and Google doing it: looks like anything resembling depth or gradients or shadows is completely out of fashion nowadays...

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Microsoft Puts Money Into Android
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 30 Jan '15

30 Jan '15

Microsoft is reportedly going to invest in Cyanogen Inc <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/01/microsoft-to-invest-in-cyanogen-hope…>. If you remember, the people behind the well-regarded CyanogenMod custom build of Android decided to become a commercial operation recently. There are even phone makers putting CyanogenMod straight onto their phones at the factory, in preference to official Google Android.

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GParted Live Now Supports Microsoft's New Filesystem, ReFS
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution that has a lot of features and that can be used in operations like creating, reorganizing, and deleting disk partitions on a variety of filesystems. A new stable update has been made available and the operating system is now at version 0.21.0." -- source: http://news.softpedia.com/news/GParted-Live-Now-Supports-MIcrosoft-s-New-Fi… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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FSF-Endorsed Libreboot X200 Laptop Comes With Intel's AMT Removed
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

'"The Free Software Foundation has announced its endorsement of the Libreboot X200, a refurbished Lenovo ThinkPad X200 sold by Gluglug. The laptop ships with 100% free software and firmware, including the FSF's endorsed Trisquel GNU/Linux and Libreboot. One of the biggest challenges overcome in achieving FSF's Respects Your Freedom certification was the complete removal of Intel's ME and AMT firmware. The AMT is a controversial proprietary backdoor technology that allows remote access to a machine even when it is powered off. Quoting from the press release: "The ME and its extension, AMT, are serious security issues on modern Intel hardware and one of the main obstacles preventing most Intel based systems from being liberated by users. On most systems, it is extremely difficult to remove, and nearly impossible to replace. Libreboot X200 is the first system where it has actually been removed, permanently," said Gluglug Founder and CEO, Francis Rowe."' -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/2241214 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Georgia Institute of Technology Researchers Bridge the Airgap
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"Hacked has a piece about Georgia Institute of Technology researchers keylogging from a distance using the electromagnetic radiation of CPUs. They can reportedly do this from up to 6 meters away. In this video, using two Ubuntu laptops, they demonstrate that keystrokes are easily interpreted with the software they have developed. In their white paper they talk about the need for more research in this area so that hardware and software manufacturers will be able to develop more secure devices. For now, Farraday cages don't seem as crazy as they used to, or do they?" -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/141243 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mozilla Dusts Off Old Servers, Lights Up Tor Relays
by Peter Reutemann 29 Jan '15

29 Jan '15

"According to The Register, "Mozilla has given the Tor network a capacity kick with the launch of 14 relays that will help distribute user traffic. Engineers working under the Foundation's Polaris Project inked in November pulled Mozilla's spare and decommissioned hardware out of the cupboard for dedicated use in the Tor network. It included a pair of Juniper EX4200 switches and three HP SL170zG6 (48GB ram, 2*Xeon L5640, 2*1Gbps NIC) servers, along with a dedicated existing IP transit provider (2 X 10Gbps). French Mozilla engineer Arzhel Younsi (@xionoxfr) said its network was designed to fall no lower than half of its network capacity in the event of maintenance or failure. The Polaris initiative was a effort of Mozilla, the Tor Project and the Centre for Democracy and Technology to help build more privacy controls into technology." -- source: http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/15/01/29/192215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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