- wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

New Unit Of Time: The “Flick”
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

Oculus is proposing a new unit for measuring time for audio/video/VR purposes: it is 1/705,600,000 of a second. This denominator was chosen to have sufficient integer factors to allow it to exactly represent various common frame/sample rates as whole numbers of flicks (which cannot be done with the usual SI divisions). And also, from the looks of it, possible future higher multiples of those rates. <https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/01/oculus-creates-a-new-open-source-uni…>

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Chrome 64 Released With Stronger Popup Blocker, Spectre Mitigations
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

'Google on Thursday pushed an update to its marquee Web browser Chrome, now at v64, which offers a handful of new features including an improved ad blocker. From a report: Most of the new features included with Chrome 64 are meant to improve the browser's support for the ever-changing web standards that drive the modern Internet. For example, Chrome 64 is choke full of support for new browser APIs, new CSS properties, new JavaScript (ECMAScript) features, and changes to Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine. [...] Other big changes that shipped with Chrome 64 are on the browser's security side. For starters, Chrome 64 includes mitigations against the web-exploitable Spectre flaw. Further, Chrome 64 also comes with a bolstered popup blocker that can now block tab-under behavior, being much more efficient at blocking malvertising redirects.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/01/25/1717226 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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Dell and HP Advise All Their Customers To Not Install Spectre BIOS Updates
by Peter Reutemann 25 Jan '18

25 Jan '18

'The Spectre and Meltdown mess continues with Dell now recommending their customers to not install the BIOS updates that are supposed to resolve the Spectre (Variant 2) vulnerabilities. These updates have been causing numerous problems for users including performance issues, boot issues, reboot issues, and general system stability. Due to this, Dell EMC has updated its knowledgebase article with a statement advising customers to not install the BIOS update and to potentially rollback to the previous BIOS if their computers are exhibiting "unpredictable system behavior". ZDNet reports that HP too has issued a similar advisory. The computer manufacturer pulled its softpaqs BIOS updates with Intel's patches from its website, and said it would be releasing a BIOS update with a previous version of Intel's microcode on Thursday.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/01/24/1312241 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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The Death Of Moore’s Law
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 24 Jan '18

24 Jan '18

From <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/24/death_notice_for_moores_law/>: The computer science behind microprocessor design has therefore found itself making a rapid U-turn as it learns that its optimisation techniques can be weaponised. ... Hammered by the finance of physics and the weaponisation of optimisation, Moore’s Law has hit the wall, bounced off - and reversed direction. We’re driving backwards now: all things IT will become slower, harder and more expensive. Actually economics probably had more to do with it than physics, as PC sales have been slowing over the past decade.

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City of Barcelona Dumps Windows For Linux and Open Source Software
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

'The City of Barcelona is migrating its computer systems away from the Windows platform, reports the Spanish newspaper El País. The City's strategy is first to replace all user applications with open-source alternatives, until the underlying Windows operating system is the only proprietary software remaining. In a final step, the operating system will be replaced with Linux... According to Francesca Bria, the Commissioner of Technology and Digital Innovation at the City Council, the transition will be completed before the current administration's mandate ends in spring 2019. For starters, the Outlook mail client and Exchange Server will be replaced with Open-Xchange. In a similar fashion, Internet Explorer and Office will be replaced with Firefox and LibreOffice, respectively. The Linux distribution eventually used will probably be Ubuntu, since the City of Barcelona is already running 1,000 Ubuntu-based desktops as part of a pilot... Barcelona is the first municipality to have joined the European campaign 'Public Money, Public Code'. This campaign is an initiative of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and revolves around an open letter advocating that publicly funded software should be free. Currently, this call to public agencies is supported by more than 100 organisations and almost 15,000 individuals. With the new open-source strategy, Barcelona's City Council aims to avoid spending large amounts of money on licence-based software and to reduce its dependence on proprietary suppliers through contracts that in some cases have been closed for decades.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/01/15/0415219 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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Firefox 58 Gets Graphics Speed Boost, Web App Abilities
by Peter Reutemann 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

'Mozilla released on Tuesday a new version of its Firefox Quantum browser, boosting its graphics speed and improving a couple of new technologies designed to make the web more powerful. From a report: The browser, version 58, is the first major update since Mozilla's recovery plan hit full stride in November with the debut of Firefox Quantum. Speed is of the essence in Mozilla's recovery plan, and Firefox 58 does better than its predecessor in some graphics tasks by splitting work better across the multiple processor cores that computer chips have these days. The result should be scrolling that's smooth, uninterrupted by the stuttering that in computing circles goes by the disparaging term "jank." [...] Firefox 58 helps with two new web technologies. One, called WebAssembly, provides for dramatically faster web apps. Firefox 58 can get WebAssembly software running faster so you don't have to twiddle your thumbs waiting as long after clicking a link. Another is progressive web apps (PWAs), an initiative that came out of Google to help make the web a better match for the apps we all drop on our phones.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/01/23/150206 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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New Malware Hijacks Cryptocurrency Mining
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

One parasite feeding off another, or “Human Technology Recapitulates Biology, Volume 323”. <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/01/new_malware_hij.html>

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Fake Ads Redirecting To Malicious Software Installers
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Jan '18

23 Jan '18

Seems a consortium of fake ad companies has been built up, cultivating relationships with legitimate ad platforms, and then carefully inserting forced redirects in a proportion of the ads they serve, to trick unwitting viewers into installing malware on their machines. Various checks are first applied, to try to ensure that the machines being redirected don’t happen to be run by security researchers, for example. Each member of the consortium is activated for serving this malware in turn; then when it is exposed, it is abandoned and the operators move on to the next one. <https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/01/malvertising-factory…>

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Linux 4.15 Becomes Slowest Release Since 2011
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

'Linus Torvalds has decided that Linux 4.15 needs a ninth release candidate, making it the first kernel release to need that much work since 2011. Torvalds flagged up the possibility of an extra release candidate last week, with the caveat that "it obviously requires this upcoming week to not come with any huge surprises" after "all the Meltdown and Spectre hoopla" made his job rather more complicated in recent weeks. Fast-forward another week and Torvalds has announced "I really really wanted to just release 4.15 today, but things haven't calmed down enough for me to feel comfy about it."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/18/01/22/2035228 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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Ex-NSA Hacker Runs Christmas Lights With Raspberry πs And Dodgy NZ-Made Radio Kit
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 22 Jan '18

22 Jan '18

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/22/rob_joyce_hacking/>: Joyce uses a couple of Raspberry Pis to control the light show and a slightly dodgy FM transmitter to broadcast the soundtrack to visiting folks. The transmitter, bought as a kit from New Zealand, has the capability to broadcast illegally on FM frequencies, so is sold without the power supply attached to get around regulations, but Joyce said he keeps it low power and within FCC regulations because "I'm very legal."

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