- wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

Hybrid graphics support in NVIDIA's Linux driver
by Peter Reutemann 04 Sep '12

04 Sep '12

"NVIDIA is working on a new version of its proprietary Linux graphics driver that will add support for its Optimus switching technology, which is usually found used in laptops. The company's plans were revealed in an email from NVIDIA's Aaron Plattner, in which he asks open source developers for advice on some implementation details." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1697756 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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No software patents (again)
by Ronnie Collinson 04 Sep '12

04 Sep '12

So if you haven't heard some members of the government have recently met with reps of some big international software giants, such as IBM and Microsoft. Which has resulted is some possible changes to patent law here. The exclusion for software that many members of the NZ software communities (both commercial and open source), a couple years back, which was accepted, is looking to have a new clause 10A, which would exclude embedded systems (which for things like home routers and cellphones, are an absolute mine field of patents) from the software exclusion. The other unusual aspect for a democratic country, is that this clause is being added without going to select committee and therefore is unlikely to receive public submissions. If you haven't all ready, please sign this. http://no.softwarepatents.org.nz Ronnie

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Xen-Based Secure OS Qubes Hits 1.0
by Peter Reutemann 03 Sep '12

03 Sep '12

"Joanna Rutkowska, CEO of Invisible Things Lab, today released version 1.0 of Qubes, a stable and reasonably secure desktop OS. It is the most secure option among the existing desktop operating systems — even more secure than Apple's iOS, which puts each application into its own sandbox and does not count on the user to make security decisions. Qubes will offer users the option of using disposable virtual machines for executing tasks they believe could harm their computer. These VMs will be lightweight, easily and extremely speedily created and booted, and would be just as easy to discard." --source: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/09/03/2147217/xen-based-secure-os-qubes-h… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- !!!WLUG Workshop Meet up at the university, usual meeting room for Monday meetings: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 10am to 4pm Agenda: Apart from the usual workshop (e.g., if you have a Linux problem or question) we will also prepare material (posters, flyers, etc) for SoftwareFreedomDay. We'll have internet access (48Mbit/s). Entry is free for visitors and club members. However, if you, as a visitor, wish to connect your computer to the internet for more than a few minutes, a fee of $4 dollars to cover internet costs would be appreciated. We will accept membership applications on the day ($20). There are no kitchen facilities within the room. Toilets will be available around the campus, a couple of bakeries not far from campus.

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Diaspora* Announces It Is Now a "Community Project"
by Peter Reutemann 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

"Decentralised social network startup Diaspora* announced on their blog today that they will become a 'community project' with the intention of making it an entirely community-driven, community-run project. Whether this is a sign of the project losing impetus, or whether this will provide the push needed to challenge commercially run social networks, remains to be seen." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/08/28/0117226/diaspora-announces-it-is-no… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GNOMEbuntu Set To Arrive In October
by Peter Reutemann 31 Aug '12

31 Aug '12

"Good News Everyone! Thanks to the Ubuntu Gnome Community and Jeremy Bicha, it seems that the popular distribution will ship a flavor with a relatively pure GNOME experience in the next release cycle, on October 18. At this point the effort is community based, but hopefully GNOMEbuntu will make it as an official Canonical spin, similar to Kubuntu, Xubuntu, et cetera, in the 13.04 release. This is the story: At the Ubuntu Developer Summit in May, some discussions took place on the need for a Gnome spin. On August 13, Jeremy Bicha posted on Gnome mailing lists about looking a name for the new Ubuntu derivative. After that, I had no news till Stinger gave us a thread in Ubuntu Forums. On there, Jeremy talks about working on an Alpha version! So I contacted him and he verified that GNOMEbuntu will be released together with Ubuntu 12.10." -- source: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/12/08/30/175221/gnomebuntu-set-to-arrive-in… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Ubuntu to drop alternate installer
by Peter Reutemann 29 Aug '12

29 Aug '12

Bummer... "The alternate installer, required when users want to configure cryptsetup, Logical Volume Manager (LVM) or software-based RAID arrays during installation, may disappear from Ubuntu as early as version 12.10." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1676906 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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KDE 4.10 KWin To Properly Support AMD Catalyst
by Peter Reutemann 28 Aug '12

28 Aug '12

"KWin, KDE's compositing window manager, will better play with the AMD Catalyst binary blob in the KDE 4.10 release by enabling direct rendering and the OpenGL 2.x back-end for those using the latest Catalyst driver. " -- source: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTE2OTI Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting tonight!
by Meeting Reminder Bot 26 Aug '12

26 Aug '12

There's a WLUG meeting tonight: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * ReneBartosh will give a short demo of the Raspberry Pi running the RaspBMC and Raspian distributions and will include a chance to get hands on and have a tinker with the Pi

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REMINDER: WLUG meeting is on Monday
by Meeting Reminder Bot 23 Aug '12

23 Aug '12

There's a Waikato Linux Users Group meeting on Monday: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Meet up at the university: MS4.G.02 (http://www.waikato.ac.nz/contacts/map?MS4) Time: 7:30pm onwards Topics * ReneBartosh will give a short demo of the Raspberry Pi running the RaspBMC and Raspian distributions and will include a chance to get hands on and have a tinker with the Pi

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