- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Elementary OS: Why We Make You Type "$0"
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

'Open source software can always be acquired without charge, but can still incur significant development costs. Elementary OS wants to make people aware of this, and have changed their website to suggest donating when downloading, and make users explicitly enter "$0" if they want a free download. This is the same strategy Canonical has used when offering Ubuntu. The Elementary OS blog explains: "Developing software has a huge cost. Some companies offset that cost by charging hundreds of dollars for their software, making manufacturers pay them to license the software, or selling expensive hardware with the OS included. Others offset it by mining user data and charging companies to target ads to their users. [...] If we want to see the world of open source software grow, we should encourage users to pay for its development; otherwise it'll be underfunded or developers will have to resort to backdoor deals and advertising. And nobody wants that future." Currently the only people who have received money for working on Elementary OS have been community members through their bounty program.' -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/15/02/11/1753219 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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libregraphicsworld.org
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 11 Feb '15

11 Feb '15

For those who don’t know about this site, but who make frequent use of open-source graphics software (GIMP, Inkscape, Blender etc), you will find all kinds of informative news articles here. There seems to be a new item about once a week. Some recent items: * Inkscape 0.91 released <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/inkscape-0-91-released> * Blender 2.73 as a 2D animation powerhouse (to add to all the other arrows in its quiver) <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/blender-2-73-grease-pencil> * A follow-up to the item Peter posted a few weeks back about Paris-8 University moving from Photoshop to Krita and other Free Software <http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/the-complete-story-of-paris-8-univ…>

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Stuff seems to run Ubuntu/nginx
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '15

10 Feb '15

What http errors can tell you about a website ;-) Stuff seems to use Ubuntu/nginx as you can see in the attachment. 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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New Multi-Purpose Backdoor Targets Linux Servers
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

'A new multi-purpose Linux Trojan that opens a backdoor on the target machine and can make it participate in DDoS attacks has been discovered and analyzed by Dr. Web researchers, who believe that the Chinese hacker group ChinaZ might be behind it. "First, Linux.BackDoor.Xnote.1 sends information about the infected system to the server. It then goes into standby mode and awaits further instructions. If the command involves carrying out some task, the backdoor creates a separate process that establishes its own connection to the server through which it gets all the necessary configuration data and sends the results of the executed task," the researchers explained.' -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/02/09/1829255 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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Linux Versus Linux
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 09 Feb '15

09 Feb '15

Another long-heralded Android competitor, Tizen, gets a head-to-head comparison gallery here <http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/02/tizen-versus-android-in-pictures/>.

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Xfce Getting a New Version Soon
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

'It looks like the release of Xfce 4.12 is finally about to materialize. It has been about two and half years since the last stable release. There is now a concerted effort underway to ship a new release of this lightweight GTK+2 desktop environment out around the end of February or early March. "As we have discussed the status and progress of core components with many of you individually, we feel confident that the state of Xfce is good enough to polish some final edges and push more translations until then," wrote Simon Steinbeiß on the xfce4-dev mailing list. The official list of showstopper bugs does not look too bad either. However, looking at the long time between releases certainly makes one think if the project could have use for some extra resources.' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/1431250 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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Xenon Flashes Can Make New Raspberry Pi 2 Freeze and Reboot
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

"Unfortunately for Raspberry Pi 2 owners who are trying to photograph their devices, ... the Raspberry Pi 2 has been found to be Xenon flash sensitive. Any camera with a Xenon flash aimed at the device is causing the device to freeze for a few seconds before rebooting." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0643254 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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The First Ubuntu Phone Is Here, With Underwhelming Hardware
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

'A few days ago, Fast Company reviewer Jay Cassano was enthusiastic about Ubuntu's approach to apps for its new phone OS: namely, not relying on them, and instead interfacing seamlessly with existing websites and protocols. Now, new submitter ablutions (4006541) writes with a less than glowing review at The Daily Dot of the actual hardware that the OS is launching on. A sample that conveys the gist: "Let's start with the good stuff: It sports a 4.5-inch multi-touch screen and a respectable 8-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel lens on the front. That's pretty much it. The list of negatives is a bit longer."' -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/02/08/0034236 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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IEEE Computer Society YouTube Channel
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Feb '15

08 Feb '15

A large collection of videos here <https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeComputerSociety/videos>. Some interesting-looking ones (none of which I’ve watched yet): Eben Upton on the (original) Raspberry π <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVU5QBg5l6g> Linus Torvalds, 2014 Computer Pioneer Award <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMmo0Nyleg4> Computing Conversations: Andrew Tanenbaum on MINIX <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_LFeZA7p8>. And no doubt lots more I’ve missed. :)

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Ubuntu smartphone as seen on BBC
by Ian Young 07 Feb '15

07 Feb '15

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31148661 --snip-- An Ubuntu-powered smartphone is coming to the market a year and a half after a previous attempt to launch a model via crowdfunding failed. .... The Ubuntu handset can run apps written in either the HTML5 web programming language or its own native QML code. However, its operating system effectively hides them away. Instead of the traditional smartphone user interface - featuring grids of apps - it uses themed cards that group together different facilities. --unsnip-- Chocolate fish for first person to bring one to a meeting?

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