Topics

101

Non-Windows Software / Aptik - a system backup and migration tool for Ubuntu-based distro users

« on: February 13, 2014, 11:35 AM »

Aptik is a handy tool that, in keeping with the traditional Unix/Linux philosophy for utilities, does only one thing - but does it extremely well.

I was going to write an article on this very useful tool. But its developer beat me to it with a very nicely done post that goes over all the features - and includes screenshots. So rather than duplicate effort, here's what TeeJee has to say about Aptik:

Introducing Aptik

Aptik is a new tool to simplify re-installation of packages after doing a clean installation of an Ubuntu-based distribution. It can be used while re-installing or upgrading to the next Ubuntu/Linux Mint release.

Upgrading to the next release of an Ubuntu-based distribution can be a painful task.

While most Ubuntu-based distributions provide an option to upgrade your existing installation, it can cause a number of problems.

    It sometimes results in broken packages.
    If proprietary graphic drivers are in use, the system may boot into a black screen after the upgrade.
    The look and feel of the new release is lost since the previous desktop settings are used.

In order to avoid problems most people prefer to do a clean installation. They download the ISO image, format the system partition, and then install the new release.

You get a good feeling when you boot into your shiny new system. Then you realise that you need to re-install all your softwares again and your excitement goes down. Aptik is a new tool that will make your life easier. While it won't eliminate all the work that needs to be done after a fresh installation, it will reduce it greatly.

Read the rest and find installation instructions here.

I've tested it fairly heavily under Linux Mint 16 and I'm happy to report it works like a charm.

Go read about it. Then grab a copy.

102

Non-Windows Software / This is impressive - 1700 PCs rolled out to 1700 students in 2 days

« on: February 13, 2014, 10:05 AM »

Pennsylvania High School Rolls Out 1,700 Linux Laptops to Students
By Libby Clark - February 11, 2014 - 6:00am

A few weeks before Penn Manor High School gave Linux laptops to every student, stacks of the unboxed machines filled a cafeteria. There the Lancaster, Pa. district's IT staff, high school apprentices and volunteers spent winter break configuring and testing all 1,725 laptops in assembly-line fashion, in preparation for the start of the second semester.

Penn Manor students unboxing laptopsWhen they were done, every student, grades 9-12, came away with an Acer TravelMate laptop pre-loaded with Ubuntu 13.10. Then after a roughly 5-minute orientation, students were let loose with sudo access and a mission to tinker, study, and create to their hearts' delight.

“We encourage our students to install software and lift the hood of the system to better understand what makes it tick,” said Charlie Reisinger, the district's technology director. “I hope our students run local webservers, toy with Python or simply explore graphics programs such as GIMP. Linux offers so many opportunities to explore computing, programming, and the arts.”
Switching to Open Source

Linux has been the backbone of the Penn Manor School District's IT infrastructure for a decade – powering servers and providing the platform for its websites, storage, and learning management systems. So when the district set out to give every student a laptop, installing Linux was a natural choice for the IT staff.

Reisinger also did some personal soul-searching on the role of technology in the classroom, he says, and realized that many of the “fad” devices embraced by other schools didn't align with his educational goals for computing. (See his full rationale in his recent blog post on OpenSource.com.)

“It concerns me that we tend to chase the new silver tech bullet without thinking philosophically about what we want our students doing, or the freedom we want to give them with the device,” he said. “My fear is we're losing the art of computing. Then we lose a generation of engineers.”

Linux allows a level of exploration and control that other closed devices don't, he said. The cost savings in switching to all open source software is an added benefit. Reisinger estimates the district will save at least $360,000 in licensing fees on the high school's 1:1 laptop program alone.

Three years ago, the district set out to replace all of its classroom Windows and Mac machines with Linux and open source software. Elementary and middle school computer labs and classroom computers were the first to run Linux. And this month marked the end of the transition with the launch of the high school's 1:1 laptop program.   <more>

What's even more impressive is that the unboxing, inventorying, and configuration of all 1725 of these machines was accomplished in "a two-day setup marathon" with a 13-20 person crew comprised of the school's IT staff, community volunteers, and student help desk apprentices using a system cloning tool developed (in true "think global act local" style) by local high school senior Andrew Lobos. (More on that story here.)

That's a pretty impressive achievement, whether you're looking at it from an administrative, political, technical or philosophical viewpoint.



So much for Microzaftig-FUD and those who say  this can't (or shouldn't) be done!

103

Living Room / Satya Nadella becomes Microsoft's new CEO - will things change?

« on: February 05, 2014, 09:21 AM »

Food for thought as the new StarFleet captain arrives on the bridge

Lessons From Ballmer's Microsoft
As a new CEO takes charge, a look back at Ballmer’s era provides key tech management lessons.
February 4, 2014 - By Rob Enderle   


Now that Satya Nadella has been announced as Steve Ballmer’s replacement, many of us are focused on both retrospectives and outlooks based on Ballmer’s reign and Satya’s skillset.  But focus appears to be more on the events – not on the foundations for them, so the lessons tend to be lost in the rhetoric of blame, particularly for the failures.  

However, the causes for things like Zune and Windows Vista had little to do with Steve and a lot to do with the organizational structure of Microsoft, particularly the loss of key human assets like Bill Gates, Brad Chase, and Brad Silverberg.  They also had to do with an early decision by Steve Ballmer to stop being Microsoft’s cheerleader and instead become kind of a Stepford CEO.  

Let’s talk about the “why” behind Microsoft’s decade slide...

Read the full article here.

104

General Software Discussion / Fixing a "MVSCR80.dll missing" error following a recent iTunes (v11.1.4) update.

« on: February 03, 2014, 02:13 PM »

Ran into an annoying error last night with my GF's Win7 laptop following a failed update of iTunes v11.1.4. Once it happened, you could not reinstall iTunes, and a message similar to this one kept popping up:



A quick Google shows we weren't alone experiencing this problem.

As it turns out, this is fairly easy to fix. You have to manually remove  iTunes and its related helper apps, then reinstall a fresh copy running as Administrator. Full instructions are here.


Notes:

1) Some of the info on the web says you may need to do this in Safe Mode if you can't boot normally. We didn't run into that problem.

2) Pay attention to the uninstall sequence for Apple's components. They need to be removed in the order specified.

2) I couldn't get iTunes to download normally from the Apple website. To get around that, I went to www.ninite.com and had it generate an installer for iTunes. Running that as Administrator worked the charm.

 

105

Living Room / AT&T/FCC - and the move to put all OUR eggs in one basket.

« on: January 30, 2014, 07:53 AM »

At last! The perfect plan to make all telecommunications more easy to spy on - AND - remove any system redundancy or fallback in the event of a cyberattack or other disaster.

This from the If It Ain't Broke - Break It!" Department:

AT&T plan to shut off Public Switched Telephone Network moves ahead at FCC
FCC to greenlight IP phone trials, but won't completely deregulate AT&T.


On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to take its first major step toward letting AT&T and other carriers replace the country's traditional phone system with one that works entirely over Internet Protocol networks...

Here's a question:

In return for being allowed to move the entire US phone system (which "just works" under extremely adverse conditions and whose infrastructure is already paid for) over to a more high tech system (that is intrinsically more fragile and open to abuse and vandalism)...may we expect significant price reductions for AT&T customers considering Ma Bell will soon be saving large amounts of money by going over to a virtual system?

And especially since the savings realized on servicing FISA court orders alone should be huge once the transition is made?

 

Note: the plan is to end public wired service. You can be sure Uncle Sam and his ilk will be in no rush to completely abandon their wired systems.

106

Non-Windows Software / Mint: Temper, temper Mr. Clement Lefebvre

« on: January 29, 2014, 12:04 PM »

It seems the powers that be over at Linux Mint have yanked a very useful Mint-specific remastering tool from their repositories - and then went on to delete all references to it on their website. The tool in question is called mintconstructor.

Remastering is the process of taking a well-supported version of an OS and customizing it to your own specifications. Similar to 'slipstreaming' in the Windows world, Linux remastering is far more flexible and extensive.

The Wikipedia definition

Software remastering is the process of customizing a software or operating system distribution for personal or "off-label" usage. It is particularly associated with some Linux distributions, since most Linux distributions started as a remastered version of another distribution, notably Slackware from SLS Linux; Yellow Dog Linux, Mandriva, and TurboLinux from Red Hat Linux and Linux Mint from Ubuntu, which itself is a remaster of Debian. Microsoft Windows has also been modified and remastered, and various utility applications exist that combine Windows updates and device drivers with the original Windows CD/DVD installation media, a process known as slipstreaming. Many video games have also been modified (or modded) and upgraded, with additional content, levels, or game features. Notably Counter-Strike, has been created in this manner and went on to be marketed as a commercial product.

The term remastering is taken from the audio production process, and was popularized by Klaus Knopper, creator of the Knoppix live distro, which has traditionally encouraged its users to hack the distribution in this manner to suit their needs; appropriately, Knoppix itself is a remaster of Debian.

Many major Linux distros have a remastering tool. And so did Mint. Or at least did until this week...  

The official story is that mintconstructor was removed from Mint's repositories in response to some people doing new Linux distros based on Mint (i.e. StudioEdition and Dewdrop) that used Mint's trademark and branding without permission. Mint founder Clement Lefebvre had this to say when asked:

Monsta Says:
November 14th, 2013 at 6:06 am

And not a single word about why mintConstructor has been silently removed from the repositories and github (and its tutorial deleted from the community website).

Edit by Clem: Hi Monsta. I might write about it on Segfault after the stable release and if you catch me on IRC in the meantime I’ll be happy to explain what happened. To give you a quick answer: The reason we no longer distribute it is because it’s hurting our project much more than it’s helping a few people in our community remaster Mint for their personal needs. The reason it happened overnight was because, apparently, we released two editions we never worked on (Studio Edition and Dewdrop). Some people used our name, logos and identity to promote their own products, and in some cases to our own community. Branding issues and policies are sensitive topics on which we need a discussion. We’ve seen great remasters over the years and we know people also use the tool for personal use. That’s something we need to think about long term. What had to be done quickly though was to contact the so-called “Linux Mint” maintainers and to politely ask them to stop using our identity (hopefully they replied by now and I’ll read their email post Mint 16), and to discontinue the tool they were using which made it all possible for them to do so in the first place.

This is an example of what Clem allegedly got his knickers all in a twist about:



Zapping the tool from the repository with no warning might have been surprising enough. But then Clement went on to have the mintconstructor tutorial removed from the Mint community website as well. (Can you say: WTF?)

Clem's answer plus the scorched earth response that followed over at Mint seems to be more than a little extreme to me and smacks more of a snit than a measured response to an out-of-control problem. Ken Starks (Blog of Helios/Reglue) weighed in on all of this with an essay posted on FossForce that fairly looks at both sides of the equation. And he ends up shaking his head much like I did over what happened along with the reasons given for it.

(Read what Ken has to say here.)

Seriously people...when it comes to things Linux, sometimes we're our own worst enemies.

107

Non-Windows Software / Steam: now has working beta of in-home streaming capability for games and apps

« on: January 28, 2014, 10:28 AM »

In beta and by invitation - but working quite well: Steam In-Home Streaming.

Welcome to Steam In-Home Streaming

Steam In-Home Streaming a way for people with good home networks to seamlessly play their Steam games between two computers anywhere in the house.

This feature will be available for early feedback in an upcoming beta test. Beta participants will be randomly selected from members of this group, so join, have fun, and stay tuned for more details!

Linux to Linux...Windows to Windows...Windows to Linux and vice versa? Ok, this is seriously cool:

Q & A
November 20, 2013 - slouken   

Q: Is this like other game streaming services I've heard about?
A: No, you are in complete control over the hardware on both ends and the network between them. There is no data center, no subscription, and it's completely free!

Q: Will this be fast enough for me to enjoy my favorite game?
A: This depends on your hardware, networking configuration and how fast you want it to be. It's free, so try it out and see!

Q: Can I use this to stream games across the Internet?
A: The feature is optimized for home streaming and Internet streaming is currently not supported.

Q: Can someone use my computer while I’m streaming a game from it?
A: No, your computer is dedicated to running the game and input is coming from both the remote client and the local system. It would be very confusing if someone were trying to use the computer at the same time.

Q: How do I get selected to participate in the beta?
A: We will be randomly selecting beta test participants from community members who have joined the Steam In-Home Streaming group

The Linux Action Show did a live demo of it in this episode. Fast forward to the 30:30 mark to skip the earlier show segments if you're not a Linux person.

Or watch via YouTube here:

 

108

Living Room / Think that secure e-mail account is secure? Think again.

« on: January 27, 2014, 10:59 AM »

From the folks at Wired comes this story.

While investigating a hosting company known for sheltering child porn last year the FBI incidentally seized the entire e-mail database of a popular anonymous webmail service called TorMail.

Now the FBI is tapping that vast trove of e-mail in unrelated investigations.

.
.
.

The tactic suggests the FBI is adapting to the age of big-data with an NSA-style collect-everything approach, gathering information into a virtual lock box, and leaving it there until it can obtain specific authority to tap it later. There’s no indication that the FBI searched the trove for incriminating evidence before getting a warrant. But now that it has a copy of TorMail’s servers, the bureau can execute endless search warrants on a mail service that once boasted of being immune to spying.

And even without a specific warrant, many of the service's users have also been 'de-anonymized' after a bit of malware was introduced to the service site's webpage:

According to the new document, the FBI obtained the data belonging to Freedom Hosting’s customers through a Mutual Legal Assistance request to France – where the company leased its servers – between July 22, 2013 and August 2 of last year.

That’s two days before all the sites hosted by Freedom Hosting , including TorMail, began serving an error message with hidden code embedded in the page, on August 4.

Security researchers dissected the code and found it exploited a security hole in Firefox to de-anonymize users with slightly outdated versions of Tor Browser Bundle, reporting back to a mysterious server in Northern Virginia. Though the FBI hasn’t commented (and declined to speak for this story), the malware’s behavior was consistent with the FBI’s spyware deployments, now known as a “Network Investigative Technique.”

No mass deployment of the FBI’s malware had ever before been spotted in the wild.

Gee, what a surprise, huh?

109

Non-Windows Software / SteamOS : a quick review - plus setting up a virtual environment for testing

« on: January 23, 2014, 07:32 AM »

A couple of helpful articles courtesy of the Dedoimedo blog regarding SteamOS - Valve's latest bid for world domination.



First up is the review which can be found here.

SteamOS review - Lovely jubbly!

Updated: December 28, 2013

Normally, my game-related content goes into the dedicated Gaming section. But this is a special moment. SteamOS is not just a game. It's a complete, Debian-based distro, and so it merits its own review, right here, alongside all other flavors and editions I've tested in the past. Moreover, some of the stuff will get technical, in the upcoming sequel articles, which makes the Software category the best candidate for this.

Anyhow, SteamOS. Linux based. A dream come true. Now, it's not just a gaming platform, it's a complete operating system, and it may soon land in your living room. The moment we have all been waiting for. But before that happens, let me give you a brief taste of what SteamOS can really do.

Next, and even more interesting, is a step-by-step guide for setting up a SteamOS test environment runnning under VirtualBox. This can be a major PITA if you struggled through it earlier (like I did) on your own. Much easier to follow the steps Igor Ljubuncic so thoughtfully provided. Find them here.

How to setup and test SteamOS as a virtual machine

Updated: January 11, 2014

Note: SteamOS is in continuous development; instructions shown below may change or become outdated or irrelevant. I will follow up with update articles as necessary.

You've just read my SteamOS review. You like it. But you are dismayed by the horrible system requirements. Yup, you need a powerful machine with a modern processor, you need a heap of RAM, a ton of hard disk, and one of the leading graphics cards. Well, not really.

How about we kind of work around all these requirements? This is what I'm going to show you today. How you can install and test SteamOS as a virtual machine, using very limited resources and with zero risk to your physical setup. We will do that using the SteamOS installer archive and VirtualBox. Sounds good. Now follow me...

Great pair of articles!

110

Living Room / NSA restraints? Yes we can! (not)

« on: January 19, 2014, 07:55 AM »

SUMMARY: When all was said and done...very little was said, and virtually nothing was done.

From OS News:

Obama's changes to government surveillance
posted by Thom Holwerda   on Fri 17th Jan 2014 23:38 UTC


President Obama announced on Friday that he will place new limits on intelligence agencies' bulk collection of phone call records. But he rejected some other recommendations to rein in surveillance made by a panel of outside advisers.

The NYT lists the changes. It's insubstantial.

Oh well...we can always get this mess straightened out after the "next election" right?



Yeah right! No worries.

111

Living Room / Why George Orwell wrote 1984

« on: January 09, 2014, 01:25 PM »

From our friends over at OpenCulture.com comes this sobering and cautionary post by Colin Marshall about some of what was on George Orwell's mind in the years leading up to his writing the now seemingly prophetic novel 1984.

George Orwell Explains in a Revealing 1944 Letter Why He’d Write 1984
Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:45 AM PST



Most of the twentieth century’s notable men of letters — i.e., writers of books, of essays, of reportage — seem also to have, literally, written a great deal of letters. Sometimes their correspondence reflects and shapes their “real” written work; sometimes it appears collected in book form itself. Both hold true in the case of George Orwell, a volume of whose letters, edited by Peter Davison, came out last year. In it we find this missive, also published in full at The Daily Beast, sent in 1944 to one Noel Willmett, who had asked “whether totalitarianism, leader-worship etc. are really on the up-grade” given “that they are not apparently growing in [England] and the USA”:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    "I must say I believe, or fear, that taking the world as a whole these things are on the increase. Hitler, no doubt, will soon disappear, but only at the expense of strengthening (a) Stalin, (b) the Anglo-American millionaires and (c) all sorts of petty fuhrers of the type of de Gaulle. All the national movements everywhere, even those that originate in resistance to German domination, seem to take non-democratic forms, to group themselves round some superhuman fuhrer (Hitler, Stalin, Salazar, Franco, Gandhi, De Valera are all varying examples) and to adopt the theory that the end justifies the means. Everywhere the world movement seems to be in the direction of centralised economies which can be made to ‘work’ in an economic sense but which are not democratically organised and which tend to establish a caste system. With this go the horrors of emotional nationalism and a tendency to disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer. Already history has in a sense ceased to exist, ie. there is no such thing as a history of our own times which could be universally accepted, and the exact sciences are endangered as soon as military necessity ceases to keep people up to the mark. Hitler can say that the Jews started the war, and if he survives that will become official history. He can’t say that two and two are five, because for the purposes of, say, ballistics they have to make four. But if the sort of world that I am afraid of arrives, a world of two or three great superstates which are unable to conquer one another, two and two could become five if the fuhrer wished it. That, so far as I can see, is the direction in which we are actually moving, though, of course, the process is reversible.

    As to the comparative immunity of Britain and the USA. Whatever the pacifists etc. may say, we have not gone totalitarian yet and this is a very hopeful symptom. I believe very deeply, as I explained in my book The Lion and the Unicorn, in the English people and in their capacity to centralise their economy without destroying freedom in doing so. But one must remember that Britain and the USA haven’t been really tried, they haven’t known defeat or severe suffering, and there are some bad symptoms to balance the good ones. To begin with there is the general indifference to the decay of democracy. Do you realise, for instance, that no one in England under 26 now has a vote and that so far as one can see the great mass of people of that age don’t give a damn for this? Secondly there is the fact that the intellectuals are more totalitarian in outlook than the common people. On the whole the English intelligentsia have opposed Hitler, but only at the price of accepting Stalin. Most of them are perfectly ready for dictatorial methods, secret police, systematic falsification of history etc. so long as they feel that it is on ‘our’ side. Indeed the statement that we haven’t a Fascist movement in England largely means that the young, at this moment, look for their fuhrer elsewhere. One can’t be sure that that won’t change, nor can one be sure that the common people won’t think ten years hence as the intellectuals do now. I hope they won’t, I even trust they won’t, but if so it will be at the cost of a struggle. If one simply proclaims that all is for the best and doesn’t point to the sinister symptoms, one is merely helping to bring totalitarianism nearer.

    You also ask, if I think the world tendency is towards Fascism, why do I support the war. It is a choice of evils—I fancy nearly every war is that. I know enough of British imperialism not to like it, but I would support it against Nazism or Japanese imperialism, as the lesser evil. Similarly I would support the USSR against Germany because I think the USSR cannot altogether escape its past and retains enough of the original ideas of the Revolution to make it a more hopeful phenomenon than Nazi Germany. I think, and have thought ever since the war began, in 1936 or thereabouts, that our cause is the better, but we have to keep on making it the better, which involves constant criticism."

    Yours sincerely,
    Geo. Orwell

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three years later, Orwell would write 1984. Two years after that, it would see publication and go on to generations of attention as perhaps the most eloquent fictional statement against a world reduced to superstates, saturated with “emotional nationalism,” acquiescent to “dictatorial methods, secret police,” and the systematic falsification of history,” and shot through by the willingness to “disbelieve in the existence of objective truth because all the facts have to fit in with the words and prophecies of some infallible fuhrer.” Now that you feel like reading the novel again, or even for the first time, do browse our collection of 1984-related resources, which includes the eBook, the audio book, reviews, and even radio drama and comic book adaptations of Orwell’s work.

==================================================================================
Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on cities, Asia, film, literature, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on his brand new Facebook page

==================================================================================

James Madison summed it up even more succinctly in 1787:

"In time of actual war, great discretionary powers are constantly given to the Executive Magistrate. Constant apprehension of War, has the same tendency to render the head too large for the body. A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people."

and again in 1788:

"Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents."

and yet again in 1795:

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

Things to think about as we enter a new year.

112

Non-Windows Software / OMG - Somebody wants to rewrite parts of the Linux kernal - in Perl???

« on: January 05, 2014, 05:52 PM »

Found this over on the Phoronix website. Article link here.

Latest Trolling? The Linux Kernel In Perl
Posted by Michael Larabel in Linux Kernel on 05 January 2014 04:02 AM EST

For those in need of some light reading this weekend, the latest comical proposal hitting the Linux kernel mailing list is to have a new project writing portions of the kernel in the Perl programming language.

An alleged university student is interested in writing code for the Linux kernel in Perl over the commonly-used C or even Assembly. The thread author, Antti Heikkinen, wants to explore writing an operating system in Perl as he's taken a beginner course into the language and he likes the language a lot. He notes, "Very impressive ability to make many thing work, interpret or can compile also."

According to his classmates and professors, "they say LINUX kernel is too big and bloat, run poor with too many developer. And too much quick decision from leader with ego is too big and bloat too, kekeke."

This beginner Perl programmer doesn't want the whole Linux kernel written in the language, just certain portions. Those wanting to continue this read can head over to the Indiana kernel mailing list.

A kernel in Perl is rather silly given it's a high-level and interpreted language, etc. At least it makes for some light-hearted weekend reading just past the holidays and entertaining yet technical discussions within the forums. Then again, we've seen Lua scripting added to the NetBSD kernel. Lua in NetBSD is mostly being used for debugging and the prototyping of new features.

Here's the mailing list post by Antti Heikkinen proposing the project:

Propose for LINUX kernel and PERL
From: Antti Heikkinen
Date: Sun Jan 05 2014 - 00:46:28 EST

To Dear Perl and LINUX kernel development community:

My propose to you at your list: is possible to write operate system in
PERL? I am student in university, looked for interest project to
conclude my study on LINUX kernel.

This semester, I take beginner PERL course and learn power of
procedural language. I automate many daily task with use of it. Very
impressive ability to make many thing work, interpret or can compile
also.

Also about LINUX, I talk to much fellow students and professors, and
take a operate system course use FreeBSD and LINUX. FreeBSD okay, but
they say LINUX kernel is too big and bloat, run poor with too many
developer. And too much quick decision from leader with ego is too big
and bloat too, kekeke.

LINUX kernel can perform more good if written in not C and C++ but
Perl? Just certain portion of LINUX kernel to rewrite? For instant,
schedule or support of multithread? If so, should use Perl5 or Perl6,
focus to x86 or x86-64? Can you want to join me this my project? But
to hear your expertise.

Am excited to learn and begin study project. Can you want to join this
my project? Please direct reply of email to myself.

Much thank to you,
Antti Heikkinen
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This has got to be a hoax, right? (Right?? )

 

113

Living Room / You're a sly one. Mr.........Disney?

« on: December 18, 2013, 05:53 AM »

First it was Orwell's 1984. Now it's a Christmas movie?

You Don't Own What You 'Bought': Disney And Amazon Play The Role Of The Grinch In Taking Back Purchased Film
from the ownership...-wazzat? dept

We've discussed many times before how, in the digital age, you no longer really seem to own what you've "bought." Instead, you're getting a temporary license, and at times that means that the copyright holder and partners can remove it. In a story making the rounds this week, it appears that Amazon pulled the film Prep and Landing 2 just in time for Christmas! The issue came up when Bill Jackson settled down to watch the video -- which he "bought" last year -- with his two kids, aged two and eight. It didn't work and he contacted Amazon to find out what was up. Despite the fact that when he paid the $3, he was told it was to allow him to "watch and re-watch as often as you like" Amazon told him that Disney had asked them to pull it, and they did so:

   Amazon has explained to me that Disney can pull their content at any time and 'at this time they've pulled that show for exclusivity on their own channel.' In other words, Amazon sold me a Christmas special my kids can't watch during the run up to Christmas. It'll be available in July though!"

Amazon did give him a $25 credit as an apology, and then when the story started making news, Amazon changed its story claiming it was something else:

    Amazon blamed the removal on "a temporary issue with some of our catalog data" which it says has been fixed, adding that "customers should never lose access to their Amazon Instant Video purchases."

"Should" never lose access is quite different from "will" never lose access. Just the fact that Amazon has the power to take back what you've bought should be a pretty big concern for those who think that they're actually buying what they've been told. As some have noted, Amazon's terms of service appear to give it the right to do exactly what the original version described:

    Availability of Purchased Digital Content. Purchased Digital Content will generally continue to be available to you for download or streaming from the Service, as applicable, but may become unavailable due to potential content provider licensing restrictions and for other reasons, and Amazon will not be liable to you if Purchased Digital Content becomes unavailable for further download or streaming.

While it is true that buyers can download copies and this only impacted the streaming versions, it still seems rather troubling that people who thought they were buying something found out that they weren't. This is one of the many reasons why people are so concerned about these kinds of offerings. They know that you're no longer really "buying" anything, but getting a (very) limited license.

I don't know which part is more annoying, the evolving and contradictory "explanation" of why it happened, or the fact it happened at all.

And Amazon's 'terms' appear to have more weasels than a mink farm.

So...anybody still think digital downloads from Amazon are the way to go?

114

DC Gamer Club / Question regarding the "VR" game Ingress

« on: December 14, 2013, 11:58 AM »

Just a simple question: is there anybody here at DoCo who was a player in the Ingress invite-only Operation #13MAGNUS event?

And if there is/are, would you care to share your impressions and opinions?

Thankee!

If you don't know what Ingress is  ;-)

How to play Ingress plus some scenery, oh my!)

115

Non-Windows Software / The real barrier to Linux for new users

« on: December 13, 2013, 11:45 AM »

From Ken Stark (founder/operator of the Reglue Project) and his The Blog of Helios comes this observation:

New User Barrier To Linux - I Think I Found The Problem....

This is nothing new.  I talked about this during my Keynote at Texas Linux Fest in 2010.

It's one of those things we all know but we really can't do anything about it.  It's time we did.

In the realm of Open Source software development the adage "good enough" is  often interpreted as this software is good enough for general use.

It should read "good enough for me", speaking only from the software author's perspective.
.
.
.
<read rest of article>

Yup. Sounds about right to me...

---------------------------------------

116

Non-Windows Software / *NIX: ownCloud v6.0.0 released - now has realtime document collaboration

« on: December 11, 2013, 08:50 PM »

This is pretty interesting. Seems the latest release of ownCloud is now provisioned for document collaboration in realtime. They're calling it ownCloud Documents. Pretty impressive IMO. (Too bad they couldn't come up with a better name for it.)

Check out the video:

There's a bunch of other improvements. More info, docs and downloads available from here. Download page is here.

117

Living Room / Elitists of the World - UNITE!

« on: December 05, 2013, 09:05 AM »

Now you can save the universe, cure all human woe, design the ultimate future, have fun - AND look absolutely fabulous while doing so!

Is it me, or does something like this just make you want to scream FUBAR at the top of your lungs?

All Aboard for a Sun-Filled, Intellectually Stimulating Week at Sea!
You Won’t Want to Miss Fixing the World: Reason Seminar Cruise 2014!

Dec. 5, 2013 9:10 am

Register today at xxxx

Spend a week with author, columnist and speaker Virginia Postrel, whose fascinating work runs the gamut from science to fashion. Virginia is the former Editor in Chief of Reason magazine, and is the author of the soon-to-be-released Power of Glamour.

Other speakers on this year’s cruise include “skeptical environmentalist” Bjorn Lomborg, author and historian Johan Norberg, Reason Editor in Chief Matt Welch, Reason TV Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie, Reason Science Correspondent Ron Bailey, and Reason Senior Editor Jacob Sullum.

We’ll be traveling in style on the Celebrity Silhouette, and all-inclusive accommodations start at just $1,650 per person (and range up to deluxe cabins with incredible ocean views and private verandas)...

Her "fascinating work runs the gamut from science to fashion"?????

All that? Great Cthulhu protect us! Let's get her in here...I'd like to take a group photo - of her.

 

118

Non-Windows Software / SECURITY: Article on specifics of covert acoustic mesh networks published by JoC

« on: December 05, 2013, 07:31 AM »

No longer any need to speculate or wonder!   Here's the paper by researchers Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz on engineering a transmission vector that can bridge the air gap. It's been published by The Journal of Communications:

On Covert Acoustical Mesh Networks in Air

Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz
Fraunhofer FKIE, Wachtberg, Germany

Abstract—Covert channels can be used to circumvent system and network policies by establishing communications that have not been considered in the design of the computing system. We construct a covert channel between different computing systems that utilizes audio modulation/demodulation to exchange data between the computing systems over the air medium. The underlying network stack is based on a communication system that was originally designed for robust underwater communication. We adapt the communication system to implement covert and stealthy communications by utilizing the near ultrasonic frequency range. We further demonstrate how the scenario of covert acoustical communication over the air medium can be extended to multi-hop communications and even to wireless mesh networks. A covert acoustical mesh network can be conceived as a botnet or malnet that is accessible via nearfield audio communications. Different applications of covert acoustical mesh networks are presented, including the use for remote keylogging over multiple hops. It is shown that the concept of a covert acoustical mesh network renders many conventional security concepts useless, as acoustical communications are usually not considered. Finally, countermeasures against covert acoustical mesh networks are discussed, including the use of lowpass filtering in computing systems and a host-based intrusion detection system for analyzing audio input and output in order to detect any irregularities.

Index Terms—malware, network covert channels, wireless mesh networks, ultrasonic communication

Cite: Michael Hanspach and Michael Goetz, "On Covert Acoustical Mesh Networks in Air," Journal of Communications, vol. 8, no. 11, pp. 758-767, 2013. doi: 10.12720/jcm.8.11.758-767

Links:

Journal of Communications abstract page here.

Article (PDF) direct link here.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly) Linux already has some very powerful resources to deal with this new type of threat. From the paper:

If audio input and output devices cannot be switched off, implementation of audio filtering options may be an alternative approach to counter maliciously triggered participation in covert networks. In Linux-based operating systems, a software-defined audio filter can be implemented with ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) in conjunction with the LADSPA (Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plugin API) ...

Add in the relative ease of developing solutions, plus the large community of contributors, and it looks like Linux may be in better shape than most to resist this cyber-siren's call. Especially since so many in the Linux community see things like this not only as an affront, but also as a challenge.

Tux and his team sez: Bring it on!



 

119

Non-Windows Software / *NIX: Interesting article on why gamers may become so important for Linux

« on: December 04, 2013, 02:30 PM »

From the folks over at FOSS Force:

.

... Let’s deviate briefly into the world of super-computers. You take a bunch of discrete systems, with their state-of-the-art hardware, and you create a super-entity that exceeds the individual components by several orders of mangitude. And you use a super kind of glue to bind all of them together. Apparently, that glue is called Linux, or at least, in some 480 odd cases out of 500, it will be called that.

The simple reason why Linux is used in this crazy world of clusters and grids is in the sheer extensibility, flexibility and inherent openness of the operating system that allows subverting the finest hardware to your will, well beyond the original intentions and capabilities of the their vendors, y’know, the market leaders really.

Now, try to project this reality onto the gaming industry. What can possibly happen if you gain the ability to super-glue the graphics hardware with Linux? Not just any one single server or any one overclocked and SLI-ed desktop gaming rig. What happens when you achieve control, connectivity and usability on the scale of thousands and millions?

What could your games of the future be like, if you can bunch the best hardware with the best operating system, or let’s say, the most potential-worthy operating system? What happens if you enhance the closed-source architecture of your best graphics card with a kind of supervisor technology based on Linux?

The gaming industry seems like the best candidate for this kind of experiment. It sure might happen and the first attempts by the Valve Corporation at creating SteamOS is a good indication of a possible future trend. Linux itself may or may not be the right answer for this pseudo-philosophical challenge, but it surely is your easiest bet. It’s not about what the future gaming console might look like. It’s not about how good the drivers will be. It’s about creating the next level of technology that will spearhead future innovation. All for the sake of entertainment...

Read the full article here.

120

Living Room / badBIOS revisited - it is possible to bridge the airgap after all

« on: December 03, 2013, 02:07 PM »

This topic came up in an earlier DoCo post started by Renegade here.



It's a far cry from being a viable vector for in-the-wild malware. But researchers in Germany have apparently developed a 'proof of concept' piece of malware that can bridge the "air gap" between unconnected PCs at distances up to 65 feet using the internal speakers and microphone found in most modern laptops - with longer distances possible using an acoustic mesh network made up of previously infected machines.

Full ArsTechnica write-up here.

Scientist-developed malware covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound
Malware communicates at a distance of 65 feet using built-in mics and speakers.

by Dan Goodin - Dec 2 2013, 2:29pm EST

Computer scientists have developed a malware prototype that uses inaudible audio signals to communicate, a capability that allows the malware to covertly transmit keystrokes and other sensitive data even when infected machines have no network connection.

The proof-of-concept software—or malicious trojans that adopt the same high-frequency communication methods—could prove especially adept in penetrating highly sensitive environments that routinely place an "air gap" between computers and the outside world. Using nothing more than the built-in microphones and speakers of standard computers, the researchers were able to transmit passwords and other small amounts of data from distances of almost 65 feet. The software can transfer data at much greater distances by employing an acoustical mesh network made up of attacker-controlled devices that repeat the audio signals.

Interesting reading. Especially some of the more knowledgeable comments attached to the main article.

Check it out!

121

Non-Windows Software / *NIX: Watch Netflix with Linux (for beginners)

« on: December 02, 2013, 11:36 AM »

Note: Netflix is a paid subscription movie service. This set of instructions will allow a Netflix streaming account member to watch Netflix on a browser running under Linux. It will not allow you to watch Netflix hosted movies if you don't already have a user account.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There are a variety of ways to get Netflix to work with Linux. But Jeff Hoogland's recent post on his Thoughts on Technology blog is probably the easiest way to do it.

I pointed a friend to it recently. Unfortunately, my friend is a complete Linux neophyte - and the directions are for Bohdi Linux - and she had a little trouble extrapolating them to work with Linux Mint. So (for her) I put together a set of instructions based in Jeff's article which I thought might also be helpful to other new Linux users here at DoCo.

This is the more generalized set of directions I sent my pal for how to get around Netflix's arbitrary decision to exclude Linux as a qualifying platform for viewing their streaming service:

Step 1 - Check for (or install) a qualifying browser.

     There are only two: Chrome and Firefox. If you don't have one or the other, install one with your distro's package manager. Since I have a purely personal snit going with Google over Chrome (don't ask), the rest of these instructions will assume you're using Mozilla Firefox.

Step 2 - Install Pipelight.

     Netflix uses Microsoft's proprietary Silverlight technology to stream movies. Microsoft does not offer a version of Silverlight that runs on Linux. Fortunately, a duo called the FDS-Team have created a clever bit of software wizardry that gets around that limitation. It's called Pipelight. This is what it's about:

Pipelight: using Silverlight in Linux browsers
16 Aug 2013 21:23 CEST  written by FDS-Team


Today we want to present you our latest project Pipelight, which allows to run your favorite Silverlight application directly inside your Linux browser. The project combines the effort by Erich E. Hoover with a new browser plugin that embeds Silverlight directly in any Linux browser supporting the Netscape Plugin API. He worked on a set of Wine patches to get Playready DRM protected content working inside Wine and afterwards created an Ubuntu package called Netflix Desktop. This package allows one to use Silverlight inside a Windows version of Firefox, which works as a temporary solution but is not really user-friendly and moreover requires Wine to translate all API calls of the browser. To solve this problem we created Pipelight.

Pipelight consists out of two parts: A Linux library which is loaded into the browser and a Windows program started in Wine. The Windows program, called pluginloader.exe, simply simulates a browser and loads the Silverlight DLLs. When you open a page with a Silverlight application the library will send all commands from the browser through a pipe to the Windows process and act like a bridge between your browser and Silverlight. The used pipes do not have any big impact on the speed of the rendered video since all the video and audio data is not send through the pipe. Only the initialization parameters and (sometimes) the network traffic is send through them. As a user you will not notice anything from that "magic" and you can simply use Silverlight the same way as on Windows,...

     Installation isn't difficult - but the exact steps vary depending upon which Linux distro you're using. Fortunately (again!) the FDS-Team has a very complete and clear set of instructions for several Linux distros which can be found here. The majors are all supported.

     Since my friend's PC is running Linux Mint, the instructions for Ubuntu installation work just fine. These instructions will set up a Ubuntu ppa which will allow you to install Pipelight as if it were a part of the regular Linux Mint repositories.

     To do this, open a terminal window and enter (or just copy and paste) the following commands, one line at a time, followed by the enter key.

      sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ehoover/compholio
     sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mqchael/pipelight
     sudo apt-get update

Once the above two ppas have been installed, it's a simple matter to add Pipelight and the necessary components needed to watch Netflix.

First you need to install Pipelight and its dependencies. Enter or paste the following command in the terminal window and hit enter:

     sudo apt-get install pipelight-multi

This can take a while depending upon how many required bits of software are already installed on your PC. (On my friend's machine it took about 5 minutes using a fairly slow DSL connection.) Note: if the Microsoft TrueType core fonts aren't already installed on your machine, Pipelight will install them. But you'll be required to agree to a Microsoft license notice (don't worry, it's completely legal) before the installation takes place.

Once Pipelight has installed, you need to enable it to run Silverlight. To do that enter or paste the following command in the terminal window and hit enter:

     sudo pipelight-plugin --enable silverlight

That's it for the 'hard' part!

Step 3 - Install an agent switcher in your browser to make Netflix think it's talking to a Windows PC.

     Your browser is ratting you out every time it connects to something. It informs the site what OS and browser you're using along with several other things. Netflix refuses to run on Linux due to Linux not making the required obeisances to the dark gods of DRM. An agent switcher gets you around that by lying to the website, and reporting it's using the browser and running under the OS you tell it to.

     Pipelight works with some (but not all) agent switchers. So it's important to select a compatible one. There's more info about that on the Pipelight installation page. If you'd rather just get on with it and not worry about the details, a Firefox add-on called User Agent Override works perfectly. Install it under Firefox and you're set to go.

     Once it's installed, restart your browser and select Firefox 2x/Windows from the dropdown menu button like so:




And that's it! Web on over to Netflix, log in with your account credentials, and watch a movie.
 

122

Non-Windows Software / LINUX: Linux Mint 16 "Petra" just released

« on: December 01, 2013, 07:32 AM »

I've been waiting for this because I wanted to see what they did with the newest version of Cinnamon. This release has version 2.0.



 Detailed release announcement from the dev team can be found here.

Downloaded and ran the live 64-bit version for about an hour last night and it looks to be very solid.

You can read more about Linux Mint and find download links here.

123

General Software Discussion / Is Microsoft heading towards a non-Windows future

« on: November 25, 2013, 01:34 PM »

Interesting article over at The Register. Does Microsoft's future business plans no longer include Windows as we know it? Are they moving towards a hardware/software combination like Apple has done? And is Windows running on a general purpose PC going to become a thing of the past as the corporate focus shifts towards WindowsPhone OS and Windows-RT on the ARM platform? And possibly a version of Windows that is more "locked-down" to use Julie Larson-Green of Microsoft's words...hmm...

Microsoft's hardware chief has given the strongest indication yet that Microsoft has too many operating systems.

"We have the Windows Phone OS. We have Windows RT and we have full Windows. We're not going to have three," Julie Larson-Green told the audience at a UBS investor event. Larson-Green looks after the "Devices and Studios Engineering Group", the part of Redmond where the Surface hardware and the Xbox games console is built.

It's been suggested, rumored and bandied about in several places before. Might this be the first clear signal this is where Redmond is going?

And she kept on tellin' me, kept on tellin' me, kept on tellin' me...
I want you
I need you
But there ain't no way I'm ever gonna love you
Now don't be sad
'Cause two out of three ain't bad

The Register article is here.

124

Living Room / Your tax dollars at work: Now FDA proposes to ban a brand of cookie?

« on: November 24, 2013, 08:42 AM »

Seem that having only limited success in addressing real health issues such as critical drug shortages, the FDA is now moving to ban a brand of cookie (made using a recipe virtually unchanged since 1830) because of the presence of artificial trans fats in  the product.

Apparently a 184-year plus untold millions of units field test isn't sufficient for the FDA when  it's looking for a soft target to claim a meaningless victory over.

Amazing. You can't make this stuff up! And remember folks: This is for YOUR protection.

Article here.

125

Non-Windows Software / Question for coders: What do you think of this idea?

« on: November 24, 2013, 07:50 AM »

I was involved in a 'ale & blues'-fueled discussion last night with some of my fellow FOSS cronies when this article posted on the Tux Machines website came up:

Open Sourcity article

Open Sourcity is a place where great ideas inspire talented programmers
Posted 22 Nov 2013 by Beaux Walton
open source ideas


How often have you thought of a way to improve a piece of software or hardware? How many times have you wondered why companies invest millions of dollars to produce a product that is obviously lacking from the moment it launches? Have you ever wished you were in a position, or had the skills, to change that?

Chances are if you've typed 'open source' into your search engine then you've heard about SourceForge and OpenHatch. If you're not familiar with these sites, I'd absolutely recommend checking them out. They present an amazing platform where you can get involved with a variety of high-quality, open source projects.

But, what if you're not a programmer? If you look around Opensource.com, you'll find an article by Doug McKean titled: How non-programmers can contribute to open source projects. As he mentions, there are heaps of ways for non-programmers to help. There's always beta testing, documenting, translation, evangelizing, and donating.
The problem

What if you have an idea, just not the skills to see it come to fruition? An Austrian friend and I faced that very dilemma. We came up with an amazing application to change the way mechanics service or repair vehicles they're not familiar with. The only problem was to develop such an idea was going to cost us upwards of $40,000. We wanted to get involved with an open source team, not to beta test or evangelize, but we wanted people to help us make our software a reality. We wanted to get together with like-minded, passionate people, and we wanted to see our dreams become reality. Just because we can't code, doesn't mean an amazing idea should never see the light of day, does it? Programmers and developers are always trying to come up with good ideas, what if that idea is a non-programmer's head, and they're happy to share it and help develop it?
Our vision

It's time to change the game. Ideas for software programs should no longer be left in the hands of people with just technical skills. People with good ideas should be able to inspire and work alongside open source programmers to create amazing software, regardless of their computing background. Open Sourcity will be the community platform where great ideas inspire talented programmers to help create software that matters most to people. Idea and skills sharing will see developments that we've only ever imagined, but never thought would see the light of day due to lack of support.
Let's get started

We're looking to work with passionate people to make this community a reality. If you're a web designer, graphics designer, marketing expert, SEO expert, or just someone with a really good idea, get in touch now. Anyone with a desire to further the open source message can take part in this project. Together we can create the future we want.

Join our Google Group, check out opensourcity.com, or send an email to: [email protected].

It proposes starting yet another community that actively brings non-coders and coders together with the intent of providing coders with ideas and inspiration for new projects...

Some of the opinions expressed in our group (which includes coders and non-coders) were interesting to say the least. Truth is, it even got a little heated at times. And the sides in the discussion didn't break down neatly between those who were able code and those who can't. (Which surprised me!)

I'd be interested in hearing from some of the folks at DC who do programming to see what their opinion is on something like what is being proposed for www.opensourcity.com

So OK DC coders...what say you?

(I'll chime in later with what went down in my group about it. I'd like to get some independent opinions here first.)