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Scientists Extract RSA Key From GnuPG Using Sound of CPU
by Peter Reutemann 19 Dec '13

19 Dec '13

"In their research paper titled RSA Key Extraction via Low-Bandwidth Acoustic Cryptanalysis, Daniel Genkin, Adi Shamir and Eran Tromer et al. present a method for extracting decryption keys from the GnuPG security suite using an interesting side-channel attack. By analysing the acoustic sound made by the CPU they were able to extract a 4096-bit RSA key in about an hour (PDF). A modern mobile phone placed next to the computer is sufficient to carry out the attack, but up to four meters have been successfully tested using specially designed microphones." -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/12/18/2122226 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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Fedora 20 Released
by Peter Reutemann 18 Dec '13

18 Dec '13

"The Fedora Project has announced the release of Fedora 20, code named Heisenbug (release notes). Fedora 20 is dedicated to Seth Vidal, the lead developer of Yum and the Fedora update repository, who recently died in a road accident. Gnome is the default DE of Fedora, and so it is for Fedora 20. However unlike Ubuntu (where they had to create different distros for each DE) Fedora comes with KDE, XFCE, LXDE and MATE. You can install the DE of your choice on top of base Fedora." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/17/1614254 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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Munich Open Source Switch 'Completed Successfully'
by Peter Reutemann 13 Dec '13

13 Dec '13

"Munich's switch to open source software has been successfully completed, with the vast majority of the public administration's users now running its own version of Linux, city officials said today. In one of the premier open source software deployments in Europe, the city migrated from Windows NT to LiMux, its own Linux distribution. LiMux incorporates a fully open source desktop infrastructure. The city also decided to use the Open Document Format (ODF) as a standard, instead of proprietary options. Ten years after the decision to switch, the LiMux project will now go into regular operation, the Munich City council said." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/12/1813202 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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Ubuntu Touch OS Finally Finds a Smartphone Partner
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"Canonical has been very bold over the past years about expressing plans to bring Ubuntu to new kinds of devices, ranging from smartphones to TVs to tablets. It also recently went on a widely publicized campaign to get an Ubuntu phone crowdfunded. Now, in what may represent a milestone for the company, Mark Shuttleworth has told CNET that Ubuntu Touch OS has won its first smartphone partner. The partner focused on the Linux-based mobile operating system isn't named, but we will reportedly see high-end phones next year." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/report-ubuntu-touch-os-finally-finds-a-smartphone-p… 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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Canonical Moving Away From GNOME Control Center
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"This announcement comes from the ubuntu-desktop mailing list. Due to GNOME Control Center already being a heavily patched version in Ubuntu, Canonical is planning to found their own fork called Unity Control Center. This would be a fork with a limited lifespan and later on they would move to something called Ubuntu System Settings, an in-house project. For now, a PPA has been set up to test the new fork." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/12/11/1814220 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 Has a New Cipher — Chacha20-poly1305 — from D.J. Bernstein
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '13

11 Dec '13

"Inspired by a recent Google initiative to adopt ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for TLS, OpenSSH developer Damien Miller has added a similar protocol to ssh, chacha20-poly1305(a)openssh.com, which is based on D. J. Bernstein algorithms that are specifically optimised to provide the highest security at the lowest computational cost, and not require any special hardware at doing so. Some further details are in his blog, and at undeadly. The source code of the protocol is remarkably simple — less than 100 lines of code!" -- source: http://it.slashdot.org/story/13/12/11/173213 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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Proprietary Unix Continues to Fall
by Peter Reutemann 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

"Analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) posted a press release Wednesday highlighting the rapid decline of IBM's AIX and P-Series hardware. Along side the drop in proprietary Unix systems is an associated rise in sales of X86 servers running Linux. IBM has clearly identified this as a long term trend, investing $1 billion dollars in Linux development on Power systems. With the reported 20% drop in sales, the writing my finally be on the wall for AIX." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/proprietary-unix-continues-to-fall Did a syadmin course back at uni using AIX (yes, it was way back in the late 90s). The IBM guy running parts of the course mentioned how they'd be investing lots of money in Linux over the next few years. I wonder whether they were already developing an exit strategy back then. 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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WLUG on meetup.com
by Peter Reutemann 10 Dec '13

10 Dec '13

Hi everyone Just to let you know that WLUG is now also on meetup.com: http://www.meetup.com/WaikatoLinuxUsersGroup/ 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 FLOSS 2013 survey
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '13

04 Dec '13

"In 2002, the first FLOSS survey was launched. With over 2500 participants, it was the first large survey of Free/Libre/Open Source developers around the world. This survey had major impact in the community, academia and politics. 10 years later we would like to replicate the survey in order to see how the community has changed." -- source: http://floss2013.libresoft.es/ 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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GNOME 3 Worst Linux Idea Yet
by Peter Reutemann 04 Dec '13

04 Dec '13

"Linux Journal's Readers' Choice Awards 2013 found that GNOME 3 was the Best "Worst" Linux/Open Source Idea to come down the pike. Of course the other categories may be of interest as well. These include Best Distribution, Best Linux Tablet, and Best Linux Server Vendor." -- source: http://ostatic.com/blog/gnome-3-worst-linux-idea-yet 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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