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Boxee bought by Samsung
by Peter Reutemann 04 Jul '13

04 Jul '13

"Changing hands reportedly for the same amount of money that it raised in funding, Boxee, the company that forked XBMC, now belongs to Samsung, which is going to use the company's people to improve its Smart TV experience." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1911256 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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Fwd: Announcing the release of Fedora 19!
by Simon Green 03 Jul '13

03 Jul '13

Fedora 19 has been released over night our time. The original announcement is below. -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Announcing the release of Fedora 19! Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2013 10:01:29 -0400 (EDT) From: Robyn Bergeron <rbergero(a)redhat.com> Reply-To: users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org To: announce(a)lists.fedoraproject.org, test-announce(a)lists.fedoraproject.org, devel-announce <devel-announce(a)lists.fedoraproject.org> The Fedora Project is delighted to announce the release of Fedora 19 ("Schrödinger's Cat"). Open the box and take a look for yourself! Fedora is a leading-edge, free and open source operating system that continues to deliver innovative features to many users, with a new release about every six months. Download it now: http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora Detailed information about this release can be seen in the release notes: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/19/html/Release_Notes/ ** What's New in Fedora 19? ** The Fedora Project takes great pride in being able to show off features for all types of use cases, including traditional desktop users, systems administration, development, the cloud, and many more. But a few new features are guaranteed to be seen by nearly anyone installing Fedora and are improvements that deserve to be called out on their own. A complete list with details of each new feature is available here: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/19/FeatureList == Make new things == Would you like to play? Whether you're a developer, maker, or just starting to learn about open source development, we have what you need to bring your ideas to reality. Here's a peek at some of our new tools: * Developer's Assistant is a tool for new developers that helps you to get started on a code project by offering templates, samples, and toolchains for a variety of languages. And when you're finished, you can publish directly to GitHub! * 3D modelling and printing are supported with OpenSCAD, Skeinforge, SFACT, Printrun, RepetierHost, and other tool options. Get printing without having to download binary blobs or run Python code from git. * OpenShift Origin makes it easy for you to build your own Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) infrastructure, allowing you to enable others to easily develop and deploy software. * node.js is a popular Javascript-based platform for those building scalable network applications or real-time apps across distributed devices. * Ruby 2.0.0 moves into Fedora but keeps source-level backwards compatibility with your Ruby 1.9.3 software. We're also giving you a custom Ruby loader to use to easily switch interpreters. * MariaDB offers a truly open MySQL implementation and is now the default MySQL option in Fedora. == Deploy, Monitor, and Manage == You don't have to work so hard when your machines are doing it for you. Regardless of how many you have, Fedora 19 helps you boot-manage your systems and gives you the tools you need for diagnosis, monitoring, and logging. * systemd Resource Control is one of many systemd enhancements in this release. It lets you modify your service settings without a reboot by dynamically querying and modifying resource control parameters at runtime. * Kerberos administrators no longer need their clients to sync their clocks or to have reverse DNS records carefully setup for services. Fedora 19 also includes Kerberos-enabled, LDAP replicated, two-factor authentication for FreeIPA. * Checkpoint & Restore lets you checkpoint and restore a process. It is useful for issues like process failure or moving a process to another machine for maintenance or load balancing. * OpenLMI is a common infrastructure for the management of Linux systems that makes remote management of machines much simpler. == Desktop Environments and Spins == GNOME 3.8 brings new applications such as clock and improvements to the desktop including privacy and sharing settings, ordered search, frequent applications overview, and additionally provides the ability to enable GNOME Classic ("classic mode") for a user experience similar to GNOME 2 built out of a collection of GNOME Shell extensions. Refer to https://help.gnome.org/misc/release-notes/3.8/ for more details. KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10: A modern, stable desktop environment, KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.10 includes new features for printing and screenlocking, better indexing of files, and improved accessibility features. Refer to http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.10/ for more details. MATE Desktop 1.6 introduces a large number of improvements to this traditional, GNOME 2-like desktop interface. Refer to http://mate-desktop.org/2013/04/02/mate-1-6-released/ for more details. == Spins == Spins are alternate versions of Fedora. In addition to various desktop environments for Fedora, spins are also available as tailored environments for various types of users via hand-picked application sets or customizations. Interest-specific Spins include the Design Suite Spin, the Robotics Spin, and the Security Spin, among others. Other available desktop environments, in addition to the GNOME 3.8 desktop which is shipped in the default version of Fedora 19, as well as those highlighted above, Xfce, Sugar on a Stick, and LXDE. To see all of the Official Fedora 19 Release Spins, visit: http://spins.fedoraproject.org Nightly composes of alternate Spins are available here: http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes *** Downloads, upgrades, documentation, and common bugs *** Start by downloading Fedora 19: http://get.fedoraproject.org/ If you are upgrading from a previous release of Fedora, refer to: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Upgrading Fedora now includes FedUp in order to enable an easy upgrade to Fedora 19. *** Documentation *** Read the full release notes for Fedora 19, guides for several languages, and learn about known bugs and how to report new ones: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/ Because of the number of changes to the installer, we particularly suggest taking a peek at the Installation Guide: http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/19/html/Installation_Guide/index… Fedora 19 common bugs are documented at: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F19_bugs This page includes information on several known bugs in the installer, so we recommend reading it before installing Fedora 19. *** Contributing *** We can't build Fedora inside a box. We need your help! Bug reports are especially helpful--if you encounter any issues, please report them! Fedora is a fantastic, friendly community, and we have many ways in which you can contribute, including documentation, marketing, design, QA, and development. To learn how to help us, visit: http://join.fedoraproject.org/ *** Fedora 20 *** Fedora 20 has been in active development for several months already. We plan to release it in November 2013, though the final schedule is part of the planning process and subject to change: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/20/Schedule *** Contact information *** If you are a journalist or reporter, you can find additional information here: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Press Enjoy! -Robyn Bergeron -- announce mailing list announce(a)lists.fedoraproject.org https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/announce

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A Hacker's Replacement for GMail
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jul '13

03 Jul '13

"I reluctantly switched to GMail about six months ago, after using many so-called “replacements for GMail” (the last of which was Fastmail). ... Over the past several months, I gradually put together a mail system that provides all the required features, as well as the three bonuses (encryption, easy programmatic access, and phone whitelisting). I’m describing it as a “Hacker’s Replacement for GMail” as opposed to just a “Replacement for GMail” because it involves a good deal of familiarity with Unix (or at least, to set up and debug the whole system it did. Perhaps following along is easier)." -- source: http://dbpmail.net/essays/2013-06-29-hackers-replacement-for-gmail.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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wlug meeting tomorrow
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jul '13

01 Jul '13

Hi there We have a WLUG meeting tomorrow night! We will be mainly working on the WLUG website (archived wiki, elgg upgrade, CiviCRM). To make this interesting to other members, work will be done on via projector. You might learn a thing or two. :-) When? Monday, June 24, 7.30pm Where? University of Waikato, MS4.G.02 http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map/?MS4 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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World's First Tizen Tablet
by Peter Reutemann 28 Jun '13

28 Jun '13

"Japanese firm Systena Corp. has announced what appears to be the world's first Tizen-based tablet, and the first Tizen product of any kind. The unnamed Systena Tizen tablet offers high-end features including a 1.4GHz, quad-core Cortex-A9 system-on-chip, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of flash, a 10.1-inch 1920 x 1200-pixel display, 2-megapixel rear-facing and 0.3-megapixel front-facing cameras, and a microSD slot — specs that approach those of the most powerful Android tablets currently on the market. Japanese carrier and major Tizen backer NTT DoCoMo will sell the device, according to a report by TizenExperts. Last month at the Tizen Developers Conference, NTT DoCoMo and Orange promised Tizen smartphone launches in 2013, presumably using upcoming Samsung Tizen phones, but mentioned nothing about tablets." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/13/06/27/2225257 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 To Ship Mir Display Server In Ubuntu 13.10
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

"Canonical has announced today that they intend to ship the Mir Display Server by default in Ubuntu 13.10, rather than Ubuntu 14.04 as originally planned. They moved ahead their Mir adoption since the code is materializing and they want Mir/XMir widely tested prior to the Ubuntu 14.04 Long-Term Support release. Mir in Ubuntu 13.10 will be using the XMir X11 compatibility layer to run the Unity 7 desktop and there will be fallback support for running an X.Org Server if the graphics drivers don't support Mir." -- source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/06/27/1627241 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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Kubuntu plans to steer clear of Mir and switch to Wayland
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

"Kubuntu plans to avoid using Canonical's display server Mir and to instead continue using an X server for KDE on versions 13.10 and 14.04 LTS, after which the plan is to switch to Wayland, according to a blog post by Kubuntu developer Jonathan Riddell, formerly of Canonical." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1897942 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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Knoppix 7.2 brings UEFI support
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

"The latest release of the live distribution introduces kernel improvements, the experimental ability to boot on UEFI systems and a new version of the A.D.R.I.A.N.E. system for visually impaired users." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1901955 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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Better power management for Radeon driver in Linux
by Peter Reutemann 27 Jun '13

27 Jun '13

That might finally fix the overheating problems of my laptop... "An AMD developer has published a patch series that significantly improves support for the runtime power management features in the Linux kernel's Radeon driver. The patches also include support for new GPUs." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1897996 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 KDE screen management tool ready for widespread use
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jun '13

25 Jun '13

"Blue Systems developer Àlex Fiestas has announced that the open source KScreen management tool has seen its first stable release. With version 1.0, the screen management utility is now considered by its developers to be ready for general use and planning for the features of KScreen 1.1 is already under way, according to Fiestas. KScreen is designed to bring next generation screen management to the KDE desktop." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1895373 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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