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HandBrake video transcoder adds official AV1 codec support in latest release
by Peter Reutemann 03 Jan '23

03 Jan '23

'Hardware and software support for the royalty-free AV1 video codec has been steadily building over the last couple years. Hardware-accelerated encoding and decoding is becoming standard in more GPUs, phone SoCs, and other hardware, while streaming video services like YouTube and Netflix have begun serving AV1-encoded video to devices that support it. Open-source software projects are beginning to follow suit, too. The Open Broadcaster Software (OBS) package has been expanding its AV1 capabilities in recent releases, and now the HandBrake video transcoding app has added AV1 support as well. Version 1.6.0, released yesterday, has added support for encoding AV1 video using both CPU-based SVT-AV1 software encoding as well as via Intel's AV1-capable QuickSync video encoder included in its Arc GPUs.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/handbrake-video-transcoder-adds-off… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ellen Ullman: “The Dumbing Down Of Programming”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Dec '22

24 Dec '22

Found this two-part article from Salon magazine of 1998 <https://www.salon.com/1998/05/12/feature_321/>, <https://www.salon.com/1998/05/13/feature_320/>. Choice quotes: My intention had been to buy an upgrade to Windows NT Server, which was a completely sensible thing for me to be doing. ... But somehow I left the store carrying a box of Linux from a company called Slackware. ... In six clicks of a wizard, the Microsoft C++ AppWizard steps me through the creation of an application skeleton. ... Of course, I could look at the code that the Wizard has generated. ... But everything in the environment urges me not to. ... In this programming world, the writing of my code has moved away from being the central task to become a set of appendages to the entire Microsoft system structure. I'm a scrivener here, a filler-in of forms, a setter of properties. ... I once worked on a project in which a software product originally written for UNIX was being redesigned and implemented on Windows NT. Most of the programming team consisted of programmers who had great facility with Windows, Microsoft Visual C++ and the Foundation Classes. In no time at all, it seemed, they had generated many screenfuls of windows and toolbars and dialogs, all with connections to networks and data sources, thousands and thousands of lines of code. But when the inevitable difficulties of debugging came, they seemed at sea. In the face of the usual weird and unexplainable outcomes, they stood a bit agog. It was left to the UNIX-trained programmers to fix things. ... In an ideal world, I would not have to choose between the extreme polarities of dialog box and source code. My dream system interface would allow me to start hesitantly, unschooled. Then, as I used the facility that distinguishes me from the machine -- the still-mysterious capacity to learn, the ability to do something the second time in a way quite different from the first -- I could descend a level to a smarter, quicker kind of "talk." I would want the interface to scale with me, to follow me as my interest deepened or waned.

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Visual Effects Society 2021 Studio Platform Report
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Dec '22

23 Dec '22

Came across this interesting survey report <https://drive.google.com/file/d/15b-4GMTSEE9tyqeQdBfy_LZnxQIdp38Y/view> (Google Drive link to a downloadable PDF file), linked from this opinion piece <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/12/it-might-be-time-for-apple-to-throw…>. The report was released early this year from the Visual Effects Society Technology Committee, and looks at how companies working in the VFX industry are using different computing platforms. Interesting fact: three-fifths of the workstations at these companies run Linux, and this share looks to increase in the future. There is a mix of distros, but the largest share are running CentOS. This seems to be dictated by the vendors of the proprietary apps, who will only support certain distros and not others. And of course this leads to worries like where do they go after the end of CentOS. By the way, the “VFX Reference Platform” is a set of baseline technical specs which gets updated every year <https://vfxplatform.com/>, hence designations like “CY2021”. Some interesting comments are recorded in the report: Windows continues to be seen as “working out of the box”, yet the comments describe many ongoing headaches with managing Windows systems, including technical limitations like “character limits, limitations of Active Directory management”. Sometimes it looks like the users can be part of the problem: All our artists refuse to work with Linux and we chose to keep on Windows for their comfort. But sometimes it's hard to manage. (Not a peep about the famous brand loyalty of Mac users?) Seems like there is a definite long-term preference for greater Linux adoption, with pleas like Support for Enterprise Software (Video and Chat Platforms) on Linux. Support for realtime tech (NVIDIA, Epic) on Linux. and We could have only Linux if it was not for Adobe After Effects and a couple of other Adobe Creative Cloud Apps.

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Microsoft discovers Windows/Linux botnet used in DDoS attacks
by Peter Reutemann 16 Dec '22

16 Dec '22

'Microsoft researchers have discovered a hybrid Windows-Linux botnet that uses a highly efficient technique to take down Minecraft servers and performs distributed denial-of-service attacks on other platforms. Dubbed MCCrash, the botnet infects Windows machines and devices running various distributions of Linux for use in DDoS attacks. Among the commands the botnet software accepts is one called ATTACK_MCCRASH. This command populates the user name in a Minecraft server login page with ${env:random payload of specific size:-a}. The string exhausts the resources of the server and makes it crash. “The usage of the env variable triggers the use of Log4j 2 library, which causes abnormal consumption of system resources (not related to Log4Shell vulnerability), demonstrating a specific and highly efficient DDoS method,” Microsoft researchers wrote. “A wide range of Minecraft server versions can be affected.”' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/microsoft-discovers-… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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AGM next month
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

Hi everyone Our AGM (Annual General Meeting) is scheduled for next month on January 23rd with the following agenda: • President's Report • Treasurer's Report • Election of 2023 Committee • Retirement of WLUG servers • General business • Consumption of pizza (if not online) Details: https://www.meetup.com/waikatolinuxusersgroup/events/290343641/ Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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You Can Hook Your MIDI Keyboard Up To a Website With Firefox 108
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

'A new feature in Firefox version 108 that may please musicians is the improved support for the Web MIDI API. "The MIDI standard is very close to a remarkable 40 years old, and Web MIDI does just what the name implies: it allows web apps to send and receive MIDI signals to and from musical instruments," reports The Register. "In principle this will allow sequencer apps to be implemented in Javascript." From the report: Amusingly, the last time The Reg mentioned Web MIDI, it was because Apple was taking it off Safari users, allegedly because of security concerns. Firefox 108 addresses that with a new security mechanism for preventing, and optionally permitting, apps inside browser tabs to access hardware resources -- in this instance, your MIDI ports. No, this does not mean that you can listen to CANYON.MID directly within Firefox. .MID files are not the same as General MIDI. But if you are nostalgic for that for some reason, help is at hand. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/22/12/14/2133258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Ask Slashdot: What Should Mozilla Do To Boost Firefox's Market Share?
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

'Mozilla's Firefox once commanded a large chunk of the browser market share, but now it stands under a pitiful 5 percent. Google money removes need to compete from a management POV as they'll get paid either way but they're still leaving money on the table. What should Mozilla do to help Firefox regain its lost market share? Not so long ago Internet Explorer was only used to download Firefox when geeks reloaded Windows machines for others. Today, Edge, however pathetic, still outranks Firefox. Were FF not arguably the best available browser for Linux, share would be even less. Were you the king for a day what would you do to make Firefox great again? If you dropped or deprecated Firefox what shooed you off? This is not about Firefox being good or bad but about regaining casually discarded market share. ' -- source: https://ask.slashdot.org/story/22/12/14/1626235 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Z-Wave Alliance Says Z-Wave Source Code Project Is Complete, Now Open And Widely Available To Members
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '22

15 Dec '22

'The Z-Wave Alliance, the Standards Development Organization (SDO) dedicated to advancing the smart home and Z-Wave technology, today announced the completion of the Z-Wave Source Code project, which has been published and made available on GitHub to Alliance members. From a report: The Z-Wave Source Code Project opens development of Z-Wave and enables members to contribute code to shape the future of the protocol under the supervision of the new OS Work Group (OSWG). The goal of the project is to provide a rich development environment that contains the relevant source code and sample applications to those seeking to play a direct role in the advancement of the Z-Wave standard. The quality and interoperability of products utilizing Z-Wave Source Code will also be enforced by a new mandatory Silicon & Stack Certification program. Full Z-Wave certification will continue to test and certify for Z-Wave S2 security, network connectivity, range, battery life, and interoperability including backwards and forwards compatibility. "The Z-Wave Alliance is deeply committed to the global smart home market," said Mitch Klein, Executive Director of the Z-Wave Alliance. "This year the smart home conversations have focused largely on Matter. Shiny and new, and with big brands supporting the initiative, Matter is bringing a lot of attention to the smart home. This makes it easy to overlook Z-Wave as the most established, trusted, and secure smart home protocol, that also happens to have the largest certified interoperable ecosystem in the market. We firmly expect that Z-Wave will play a key role in connecting devices and delivering the experience users really want."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/12/14/1712247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Windows Driver-Signing Doesn’t Work
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 14 Dec '22

14 Dec '22

Having Microsoft verify third-party drivers with a digital signature, so that Windows will block the loading of unsigned drivers, seemed like a good idea when it came in with Windows Vista. Enforcing quality control would remove a big source of crashes, as well as security loopholes. But it seems the execution falls somewhat short <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/10/no-fix-in-sight-for-…>. The system for revoking signatures for old, obsolete drivers that are discovered to have security vulnerabilities in them doesn’t seem to work very well, allowing miscreants to exploit this old code to gain control of Windows systems. This has been dubbed a “Bring Your Own Vulnerable Device/Driver” (BYOVD) attack. Microsoft’s own Vice President of “OS Security and Enterprise” continues to claim that “Windows has everything you need to block” buggy signed drivers. Yet the article’s author was unable to get the mechanism to work. And Microsoft itself appeared to have no interest in helping to fix that. It seems to me, one thing missing from the mechanism is a time limit on signature validity. By contrast, when you get SSL/TLS certs for your website, they are only valid for some fixed interval (e.g. a year for certs from traditional certificate authorities, 90 days for ones from Let’s Encrypt). This means that clients using such certificates do not need to maintain an ever-growing list of revoked ones to check against, since ones that are past their expiry date can be rejected anyway. If the cert for a Windows driver has expired, but the driver itself is still valid, Microsoft should be able to simply renew the certificate. But I guess if Microsoft’s servers are struggling just to distribute certificate revocations, having to push out renewals as well will likely just make things worse.

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Term Of The Week: “Electronic Suppression Software”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 13 Dec '22

13 Dec '22

What is “Electronic Suppression Software” (ESS)? It’s the computer equivalent of the old accounting scam of keeping two sets of books -- the one where you record the real profits of the business, and the one you show to the tax department <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/ird-warns-businesses-of-severe-conseque…>. This software seems to work at retail point-of-sale (tills). There have been some international raids lately on those suspected of supplying or using such tools.

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