February 2018 - wlug - University of Waikato Mail Lists

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

For quite a while now, I’ve been annoyed by the system notification volume going to 100% on my Debian systems, regardless of my attempts to set it to a lower level. For example, when I open the KDE System Settings app, change something, then try to close the window, the sound that accompanies the save/discard/cancel alert is always startlingly loud. I think I have finally found a fix: in your /etc/pulse/daemon.conf, put in a line saying flat-volumes = no (You should find an existing comment “; flat-volumes = yes” that indicates the default.) You can make this new setting take effect in the current session immediately without having to logout or reboot, by executing the following as the currently-logged-in user: pulseaudio -k (This kills and restarts the PulseAudio daemon for your user session.) There are several discussions of the pros and cons of this issue online, going back some years. For example, here <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1265267>. Also a mention about the “flat-volumes” setting in the ever-reliable Arch Linux Wiki here <https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PulseAudio>.

1 week

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Does Wi-Fi Security Really Matter?

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Seems the Wi-Fi Alliance is having yet another crack at coming up with a really secure protocol, this time to be called WPA3 <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/01/09/wi_fi_wpa3/>. Does anybody care? Remember that on the Internet, security is implemented between the endpoints, the protocols are designed not to care that everything in-between might be pawed through by eavesdroppers, or even active attackers trying to inject fake data.

1 year, 9 months

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Aussie Law >> Maths

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

"The laws of Australia prevail in Australia, I can assure you of that," [Malcolm Turnbull] said on Friday. "The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia." <https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170714/10385237789/aussie-prime-ministe…>

2 years, 3 months

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Re: [wlug] FreeBSD's New Code of Conduct

by William Mckee

virtual contact! none of that. more sjw bs. cheers, william. On 21/02/2018 7:08 pm, "Lawrence D'Oliveiro" <ldo(a)geek-central.gen.nz> wrote: On Sun, 18 Feb 2018 11:25:31 +1300, Peter Reutemann quoted: > '> Physical contact and simulated physical contact (e.g., textual > descriptions like "hug" or "backrub") without consent or after a > request to stop.' From <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/02/21/freebsd_code_of_ conduct_controversy/>: OpenSUSE board member and YouTuber Bryan Lunduke has used his YouTube channel <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxNdQJSlg54> to ask if FreeBSD also wants to regulate virtual high fives or fist bumps. Lunduke's video is a rather more polite expression of comments found in corners of the Internet where gender politics is derided and debate is sometimes infamously uncivil. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: https://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

2 years, 11 months

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Mozilla Removes Individual Cookie Management in Firefox 60

by Peter Reutemann

'The most recent version of Firefox Nightly, currently at version 60, comes with changes to Firefox's cookie management. Mozilla merged cookie settings with site data in the web browser which impacts how you configure and manage cookie options. If you run Firefox 59 or earlier, you can load about:preferences#privacy to manage privacy related settings in Firefox. If you set the history to "use custom settings for history" or "remember history", you get an option manage cookie settings and to remove individual cookies from Firefox. A click on the link or button opens a new browser window in which all set cookies are listed. You can use it to find set cookies, look up information, remove selected or all cookies. Mozilla engineers changed this in recent versions of Firefox 60 (currently on the Nightly channel).' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/18/02/26/1853203 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/

2 years, 11 months

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Firefox - turning off processes per tab

by Peter Reutemann

Hi everyone In case you don't like Firefox's new feature of separating tabs into separate processes (far more resource hungry), change the following setting in "about:config" to "false": browser.tabs.remote.auto 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/

2 years, 11 months

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OpenBSD Releases Meltdown Patch

by Peter Reutemann

'OpenBSD's Meltdown patch has landed, in the form of a Version 11 code update that separates user memory pages from the kernel's -- pretty much the same approach as was taken in the Linux kernel. From a report: A few days after the Meltdown/Spectre bugs emerged in January, OpenBSD's Phillip Guenther responded to user concerns with a post saying the operating system's developers were working out what to do. Now he's revealed the approach used to fix the free OS: "When a syscall, trap, or interrupt takes a CPU from userspace to kernel the trampoline code switches page tables, switches stacks to the thread's real kernel stack, then copies over the necessary bits from the trampoline stack. On return to userspace the opposite occurs: recreate the iretq frame on the trampoline stack, switch stack, switch page tables, and return to userspace." That explanation is somewhat obscure to non-developers, but there's a more readable discussion of what the project's developers had in mind from January, here.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/02/23/1519245 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/

2 years, 11 months

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Botched npm Update Crashes Linux Systems, Forces Users to Reinstall

by Peter Reutemann

'A bug in npm (Node Package Manager), the most widely used JavaScript package manager, will change ownership of crucial Linux system folders, such as /etc, /usr, /boot. Changing ownership of these files either crashes the system, various local apps, or prevents the system from booting, according to reports from users who installed npm v5.7.0. -- the buggy npm update. Users who installed this update -- mostly developers and software engineers -- will likely have to reinstall their system from scratch or restore from a previous system image.' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/18/02/22/2034213 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/

2 years, 11 months

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Ricoh MP C3003 or similar wanted

by Gregory Machin

Hi, This is very off topic. I'm working on script (currently powershell, my port to python)to manage (backup and restore) the addess book on Ricoh printers. The idea is to be able to manage large number of printers address books. I'm looking for a printer I can use for my dev work. It I don't care if the printer or scanner are faulty just need to brains to be functional. If anyone has such I could have or loan for a couple of months, that would be great. If not all good. Many thanks G

2 years, 11 months

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Google To Cease “Offshoring” Local Revenue

by Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Wonder of wonders <http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11999548>: Government moves to crack down on tax avoidance by multinational firms are already bearing fruit, with Google telling Parliament it will no longer funnel New Zealand revenues via low-tax jurisdictions such as Singapore. ... The practice saw Google's New Zealand subsidiary provide only services as part of the sales process - paying just $356,000 in tax on only $12.2m in revenue. Estimates of Google's sales revenue from New Zealand range in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

2 years, 11 months

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wlug February 2018