September 2016 - wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

GCJ, the GNU Compiler for Java, has been languishing for some time, and may be about to be put out of its misery. Unlike the Sun/Oracle compiler, GCJ can compile to native machine code (thanks to the common GCC infrastructure), it is not restricted to some intermediate byte code. It originated before Sun open-sourced Java, and I guess a lot of the need for it went away when OpenJDK appeared. <http://phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GCC-Patch-To-Drop-GCJ>

4 years, 2 months

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Asian Penguins turn program into a Linux success

by Peter Reutemann

"The Community School of Excellence (CSE) Asian Penguins are the world's first and only Linux user group based in a Hmong charter school. A failed Windows laptop program at the school was turned by the Asian Penguins into a Linux success." -- source: https://opensource.com/education/16/9/asian-penguins-convert-minnesota-scho… 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/

4 years, 3 months

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Chromification Continues: Firefox May Use Chrome's PDF and Flash Plugins

by Peter Reutemann

'Mozilla announced today Project Mortar, an initiative to explore the possibility of deploying alternative technologies in Firefox to replace its internal implementations. The project's first two goals are to test two Chrome plugins within the Firefox codebase. These are PDFium, the Chrome plugin for viewing PDF files, and Pepper Flash, Google's custom implementation of Adobe Flash. The decision comes as Mozilla is trying to cut down development costs, after Firefox took a nose dive in market share this year. "In order to enable stronger focus on advancing the Web and to reduce the complexity and long term maintenance cost of Firefox, and as part of our strategy to remove generic plugin support, we are launching Project Mortar," said Johnny Stenback, Senior Director Of Engineering at Mozilla Corporation. "Project Mortar seeks to reduce the time Mozilla spends on technologies that are required to provide a complete web browsing experience, but are not a core piece of the Web platform," Stenback adds. "We will be looking for opportunities to replace such technologies with other existing alternatives, including implementations by other browser vendors."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/09/30/1524238 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/

4 years, 3 months

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Raspberry Pi Foundation Unveils New LXDE-Based Desktop For Raspbian Called PIXEL

by Peter Reutemann

'Until today, Raspbian shipped with the well-known and lightweight LXDE desktop environment, which looks pretty much the same as on any other Linux-based distribution out there that is built around LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment). But Simon Long, a UX engineer working for Raspberry Pi Foundation, was hired to make it better, transform it into something that's more appealing to users. So after two years of work, he managed to create a whole new desktop environment for Raspbian, the flagship operating system for Raspberry Pi single-board computers developed and distributed by Raspberry Pi Foundation. Called PIXEL, the new Raspbian desktop offers a more eye-candy design with the panel on top (not on the bottom like on a default LXDE setup), new icons, new Applications Menu, and new theme. "It's actually surprisingly easy to hack about with the LXDE desktop once you get your head around what all the bits do, and since then I've been slowly chipping away at the bits that I felt would most benefit from tweaking," reveals Simon Long. "Stuff has slowly been becoming more and more like my original concept for the desktop; with the latest changes, I think the desktop has reached the point where it's a complete product in its own right and should have its own name."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/09/29/1640251 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/

4 years, 3 months

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starving journalists strike back

by Ian Young

As seen on theinquirer.net. While trying to read an article up came a message. 'Incisive Media publications, including INQ, are now blocking ad-blockers' One or two paragraphs are visible, the rest blurred. First time I've seen this. They want to be whitelisted.

4 years, 4 months

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Government IT Contract Lock-In?

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

The UK Government has an IT policy which says that no single contract should be worth more than £100 million. The idea is to try to break up cosy mega-contracts that favour large incumbent companies, in order to allow a wider range of suppliers to get a look in. This article <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/28/government_20bn_it_contract_lock_in…> is a result of a bunch of FOIA requests to different departments, to try to get an idea of how well this policy is being implemented. As you might expect, the results are somewhat mixed. Anybody know anything about the NZ situation?

4 years, 4 months

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Quote Of The Week

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

From <http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/2986543>: It is almost as if ½bits do not understand that the purpose of a GUI is so you can see all the terminal emulators for a task at the same time, and switch to different virtual desktops when you are doing multiple unrelated tasks.

4 years, 4 months

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Design For Design’s Sake

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Nice commentary <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/28/open_source_insider_peak_web/> on what constitutes “good” or “bad” design: ... open source software might be the best designed software in existence. After all, FOSS software is everywhere. ... No one forced anyone to use it for all those things. ... Open source was simply, presumably, the best designed tool for the job. And today every where you turn open source software is there, which is pretty impressive for something that's supposedly very poorly designed. ... On the other hand the world is increasingly awash in software that looks very "modern" and "well designed" but is inevitably a functional step backwards from the previous version. ... I increasingly turn to FOSS software that helps me route around this damage.

4 years, 4 months

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Open-Source Digital Radio On A Raspberry π

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

It is possible to run a DAB radio station on a Raspberry π with a full open-source software stack <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/27/ofcom_blesses_linuxpowered_open_sou…>. The idea has even received regulatory approval in the UK.

4 years, 4 months

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Geek’s Guide To Britain: Cambridge University

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Worth mentioning this installment in the semi-regular series on The Register because of its high computing content: Turing, Sinclair, and of course Acorn <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/09/26/geeks_guide_to_britain_walking_tour/>. Worth watching is “Micro Men”, a dramatization of the heyday of Sinclair and Acorn, and the rivalry between them. There is one nice sequence where Hermann Hauser, from a wealthy Austrian wine-making family, is asked why he wanted to get into the computing business and invest in Acorn. His reply: “Have you ever tasted Austrian wine?”

4 years, 4 months

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wlug September 2016