- wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

Intel's 'Clear Linux' Distro Beats Ubuntu and Windows 10 -- on an AMD Laptop
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

'Intel's Clear Linux distribution looks like it could be the best operating system to run on cheap AMD hardware, with benchmarks showing it outperforms Windows 10 and Ubuntu on a $199 laptop with a budget AMD Ryzen 3200U processor. The Phoronix website ran a series of benchmarks on a super-cheap AMD laptop from Walmart, and found that Intel Clear Linux beat popular Linux distros Fedora and Ubuntu for 78% of the tests. Not only is it remarkable that a relatively unknown Linux distro is so easily outperforming established operating systems, the fact that Intel is the company behind the distro is particularly ironic. As you can imagine, Clear Linux is optimized for Intel processors, but it seems like it works brilliantly on AMD hardware as well.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/1849207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Almost Every Website You Visit Records Exactly How Your Mouse Moves
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '20

08 Feb '20

'Medium's technology blog OneZero reports that many websites today use a service that collects all of your mouse movements, enabling "replays" of every move. "What surprised me was that the software even recorded when I shook my mouse around while deciding what to click on. It felt like observing digital body language." Session replay services have been around for over a decade and are widely used. One service, called FullStory, lists popular sites like Zillow, TeeSpring, and Jane as clients on its website. Another, called LogRocket, boasts Airbnb, Reddit, and CarFax, and a third called Inspectlet lists Shopify, ABC, and eBay among its users. They bill themselves as tools for designing sites that are easy to use and increase desired user behavior, such as buying an item. If many users add items to their cart, but then abandon the purchase at a certain rough part of the checkout process, for instance, the service helps site owners figure out how to change the site's design to nudge users over the checkout line... FullStory even has a feature that tracks what it calls "rage clicks." This is when a user gets frustrated with a site and starts angrily clicking over and over. In a semi-related story, a reporter for The Markup also recently discovered Amazon had apparently collected 90,000 rows of timestamped data about every tap they'd made on their Kindle.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/002242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Elementary OS Wants to Crowdfund a Better Distro-Independent 'AppCenter for Everyone'
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '20

08 Feb '20

'In 2017 Elementary OS built a pay-what-you-want app store -- funded with $10,000 raised on IndieGogo. Now they're trying to raise another $10,000 for a one-week, in-person sprint in Denver, Colorado, Forbes reports, to upgrade the store while bringing an even grander concept to reality: That concept comprises 4 main goals: - Enable open source developers to monetize their apps on every other Linux distribution - Empower developers to ship apps with cutting-edge technologies - Improve privacy, security, and stability - Streamline the payments process On the technical side of things, the team plans to rebuild AppCenter's backend from the ground up to enable newer technologies developers are asking for, and they're rallying behind the Flatpak packaging format to get it done. They've already been collaborating with the FlatHub team, and plan to bring in developers from Endless and GNOME to ensure that "our solution can be reused and improved by other Flatpak stores and the greater open source desktop ecosystem." For a donation of $10, "you'll have your name immortalized in the AppCenter code on GitHub," explains a promotional video. (There's already 70 backers who have claimed this perk.) In fact, "Less than 8 hours ago we launched #AppCenterForEveryone, and we're 50% funded," announced an update Friday on Twitter. The campaign's web page shared this note of appreciation. "With your support, we'll be able to accelerate the timeline on adopting cutting edge technology and making an even more competitive Open Source operating system and a compelling foundation for all Flatpak stores."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/1813251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Security In 2020: Revisited
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Feb '20

08 Feb '20

Security guru Bruce Schneier revisits <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/02/security_in_202_1.html> an essay he wrote 10 years ago, looking ahead in security-related computing trends. If you can stomach the neologisms: Trend over the decade up to 2010: * deperimeterization -- the realization that securing the boundary isn’t enough, you have to have defence in depth. Also known as “submarine warfare”. Trends already becoming apparent in 2010: * consumerization -- the idea that computing needs in workplaces will be following the trends in consumer devices, not leading them * decentralization -- or rather, recentralization in the cloud Trends he forecast in 2010: * deconcentration -- the replacement of general-purpose computers with special-purpose devices. But he also includes special-purpose apps installed on more general-purpose devices like smartphones. * decustomerization -- the idea that we get more of our IT functionality without any business relationship. But beware the maxim: “if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product”. Also this has been tried with hardware before without success, but he thinks it’s something that will be tried again. * depersonization -- software agents taking decisions on your behalf. Gadgets in your house (and your car) won’t even need you to manage them.

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Google Fixes No-User-Interaction Bug In Android's Bluetooth Component
by Peter Reutemann 07 Feb '20

07 Feb '20

'Google has patched this week a critical security flaw in Android's Bluetooth component. If left unpatched, the vulnerability can be exploited without any user interaction and can even be used to create self-spreading Bluetooth worms. Researchers said that exploiting the bug requires no user interaction. All that is required is that the user has Bluetooth enabled on his device. However, while this requirement would have limited the attack surface in past years, it does not today since modern Android OS versions ship with Bluetooth enabled by default and many Android users use Bluetooth-based headphones meaning the Bluetooth service is likely to be enabled on many handsets. The bug can lead to remote code execution and the hijacking of a device. Fixes for the bug are available via the Android February 2020 Security Bulletin, which has been available for download starting this week. Android 9 and earlier are impacted.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/02/07/0220203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Testing Disk Performance With fio
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Feb '20

06 Feb '20

Intro to a tool I hadn’t heard of before <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/how-fast-are-your-disks-find-out-th…>, but for which standard packages are available for Debian and derivatives. Lets you do all kinds of performance tests on your persistent storage (disks, SSDs), including hammering them with multiple concurrent I/O requests. Also I see Debian has “gfio”, which is a GUI front end based on GTK. (Just a quick *sigh* to see someone else use the old cliché of referring to magnetic media as “rust”. FYI, rust isn’t magnetic.)

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Google Does Badly
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 04 Feb '20

04 Feb '20

Kind of fun to read this report <https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/alphabet-shares-fall-google-misses-sales…>, saying Google’s parent company Alphabet had its “worst fourth-quarter revenue growth since 2015”. Then you look at the numbers, showing ad revenue was up about 17% year-on-year, and while costs also went up: That left profit of $10.67bn, or $15.35 per share, compared with the analysts' average estimate of $8.787bn, or $12.53 per share. That’s right, Google was substantially *more* profitable than analysts were expecting. And yet its share price still apparently fell 3% after the news came out. That’s Wall Street for you...

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A Reminder Of Why Removable Disk Packs Went Out Of Fashion
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Feb '20

03 Feb '20

Tricky things, removeable storage devices. Requiring fine tolerances between medium and drive is just asking for trouble. Here <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/who_me/> is a story of how a crash in one removeable 1960s-era unit ended up destroying a whole string of disk drives. I can remember also reading, in an old Computer Centre bulletin from an Australian university archived on Bitsavers, an item on their policy on removeable drive cartridges: you could only use cartridges allocated by them, you were not allowed to bring in cartridges from elsewhere. A similar thing happened to me, when the Zip drive in my 1998-vintage PowerMac G3 developed the infamous “click of death”, I only killed a couple of cartridges before I realized I should never use that drive again. Nowadays we have SD cards and hot-pluggable USB drives, which are a bit more robust against such failure modes. Or are they ... ?

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Google Maps Hacks, Or, A Traffic Jam In A Cart
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 03 Feb '20

03 Feb '20

A German artist named Simon Weckert has tricked Google Maps into thinking a major traffic jam was going on, simply by pulling a cart full of old mobile phones around Berlin <https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/google_maps_hack_cartful_phones/>.

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Cringely Predicts IBM 'Disappears Into Red Hat'
by Peter Reutemann 03 Feb '20

03 Feb '20

'Tech pundit Robert X. Cringely has been sharing technology predictions every January for over two decades -- and he made another big one on Friday: IBM has three divisions — Global Technology Services (GTS), Global Business Services (GBS), and Red Hat. GTS is the legacy IT business, GBS is the professional services business invented by Lou Gerstner to save IBM the last time it was in huge trouble, and Red Hat is Linux. GTS — that part of IBM most of us still think of as IBM — will probably be sold by summer. Either it will go to private equity (depends on the total debt load) or it will be sold to HPE or maybe to Oracle. Either way, it's not a likely success story, but [current CEO Ginni] Rometty has no real choice. IBM is, at this point, smoke, mirrors, and buybacks. The GTS windfall will land in Ginni's final quarter, juicing her payout, which might be the major point of the deal... IBM's new CEO is Arvind Krishna, formerly head of the Cognitive Computing unit — IBM's cloud guy. Except Cognitive Computing was never really cloud. Cognitive has been a mishmash of cloud, supported by revenue streams that are anything but cloud. It's cloud in name only and will be the part that goes next summer, possibly with Mr. Krishna still at its head. The next chairman of IBM after Rometty will be current Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst. If Whitehurst is as smart as I think he is, he started yesterday looking for a new job. It's not that he really intends to leave, but as the next savior of IBM, Ginni et al will pay anything to keep him. Cut your new deal now, Jim, while demand is greatest....Whitehurst will turn IBM into Red Hat, which will take HQ to North Carolina and mean most of the remaining GBS staff will be gone in a year... It still won't save IBM. They'll go down in the coming year or two along with the rest of the industry we used to call IT... Let's just say that IBM's loss is AWS's gain.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/02/0448233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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