- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Cinnamon 2.0 now officially available
by Peter Reutemann 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

"Prior to version 2.0, and similar to Shell or Unity, Cinnamon was a frontend on top of the GNOME desktop. In version 2.0, and similar to MATE or Xfce, Cinnamon is an entire desktop environment built on GNOME technologies. It still uses toolkits and libraries such as GTK or Clutter and it is still compatible with all GNOME applications, but it no longer requires GNOME itself to be installed. It now communicates directly with its own backend services, libraries and daemons: cinnamon-desktop, cinnamon-session and cinnamon-settings-daemon." -- source: http://www.muktware.com/2013/10/cinnamon-2-0-now-officially-available 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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Python classes?
by Bruce Kingsbury 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

We've had discussions in the past about running classes in python and/or basic Linux know-how. I'm interested in running a weekly python class at the community center either during the day or after 5pm. Facilities available are ten reasonable computers running Debian 6.0 and I can easily install any IDE or libraries required. Uncapped internet is also available. Unfortunately I don't know python beyond having written a few trivial programs so I'd be learning at the same time, hopefully at least a week ahead of what I'm teaching. If anyone else is interested in running classes and already knows Python that would be much better and I'd come along to those instead. So; discussion about who else would like to attend such classes and/or if anyone would be interested in teaching them?

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https://www.writelatex.com/about
by mailinglist 17 Oct '13

17 Oct '13

If you are into Latex, I was amazed at this site! https://www.writelatex.com/about The above reads like a dodgy spam message I know. But seriously if you're looking to use a text/code based document tool, Latex is pretty cool. I'm just amazed at what people have managed to put together. A web based front end for Latex. Probably heaps more. I haven't started exploring it yet. Cheers, Chris

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Oracle Attacks Open Source; Says Community-Developed Code Is Inferior
by Peter Reutemann 15 Oct '13

15 Oct '13

"Oracle has a love-hate relationship with open source technologies. In a whitepaper (PDF) for the Deparment of Defense, Oracle claims that TCO (total cost of ownership) goes up with the use of open source. They're essentially trying to build a case for the use of their own products within the government. 'The skill required to successfully and economically blend source code into a commercially viable product is relatively scarce. It should not be done directly at government expense.' Oracle also attacks the community-based development model, calling it more insecure than company developed products. 'Government-sponsored community development approaches to software creation lack the financial incentives of commercial companies to produce low-defect, well-documented code.'" -- source: http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/10/15/1828211 Funny, considering that they have multiple open-source projects... Oracle Linux, MySQL, ... 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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advanced copy
by Peter Reutemann 13 Oct '13

13 Oct '13

Just came across this article on an "advanced copy" command: http://www.tecmint.com/advanced-copy-command-shows-progress-bar-while-copyi… Wasn't to keen on recompiling from source etc. However, when looking through my Linux Mint's Synaptic, I came across "gcp": "gcp is an advanced command line file copy system with an interface similar to that of cp. It features: - transfer progression indication - continuous copying on error (skip to next file) - copy status logging - name mangling to handle target filesystem limitations - forced copy serialization - transfer lists management" Here is an example output: mymachine:[110]~/media>gcp -r maps/ maps.bak Copying 2.26 GiB 100% |##############################| 148.01 M/s Time: 00:00:16 Quite funky for large copy-operations on the command-line, where you'd like to have some kind of progress indicator. 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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What is a good file manager for Linux?
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

"One of must-have utilities on Linux desktop is file manager (or file browser). A typical file manager can not only handle common file management operations, but also offer advanced functionality that differentiates itself with others. If you are not happy with a default file manager that comes with the Linux desktop you are using, don’t worry. There are plenty of other file managers to choose from. In this post, I will showcase 13 popular file managers available on Linux. For each file manager, I am going to briefly mention its notable features." -- source: http://xmodulo.com/2013/10/good-file-manager-linux.html 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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Chromium To Support Wayland
by Peter Reutemann 08 Oct '13

08 Oct '13

"Chromium developers have started porting Chromium to X11 alternatives such as Wayland. Tiago Vignatti sent a message to the freedesktop mailing list, 'Today we are launching publicly Ozone-Wayland, which is the implementation of Chromium's Ozone for supporting Wayland graphics system. Different projects based on Chromium/Blink like the Chrome browser, ChromeOS, among others can be enabled now using Wayland.'" -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/10/07/2212245 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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Raspberry Pi as PVR
by Peter Reutemann 06 Oct '13

06 Oct '13

Hi there Came across this post regarding the Raspberry Pi as PVR: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=18090 The tutorial is for the "Digital Now TinyUSB2 DVB-T" card. However, further down in that thread, it is also mentioned that the "Hauppauge WinTV MiniStick (DVB-T tuner)" can be used as well: http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/components/componentview.asp?partid=8604 I might look into this at some stage, as recording TV is currently the only feature that I miss from my Raspberry Media Center. :-) 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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Scrambled Code Keeps Software Safe
by mailinglist 04 Oct '13

04 Oct '13

Scrambled Code Keeps Software Safe A new form of encryption could make practically unhackable code http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/scrambled-code-keeps-software-s…

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French Police To Switch 72,000 Desktop PCs To Linux
by Peter Reutemann 03 Oct '13

03 Oct '13

"France's National Gendarmerie — the national law enforcement agency — is now running 37,000 desktop PCs with a custom distribution of Linux, and by summer of 2014, the agency plans to switch over all 72,000 of its desktop machines. The agency claims that the TCO of open source software is about 40 percent less than proprietary software from Microsoft, referring to their article published by EU's Interoperability Solutions for Public Administrations. Initially Gendarmerie has moved to Windows versions of cross-platform OSS applications such as OpenOffice, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Now they are completing the process by changing the OS. This is one of the largest known government deployments of Linux on the desktop." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/10/03/185235 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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