ddr2 ram
by john
Some years ago, Windows Vista offered users who plugged in a USB flash
drive the option of using the device as extra ram. I never actually
tried this due to large amount of doubt about the functional ability of
the claim. However I now have a number of Linux machines with DDR2 that
I am unable to increase the physical memory of and wonder if this is a
feasible option for these machines.
Cheers John
2 weeks, 2 days
Inkscape Approaches Version 1.0
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro
Inkscape v1.0 is tentatively due to be released on May 1st. Here
<https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/14/16_years_inkscape_v1/> is a
backgrounder on how development has been progressing. There seems to be
this assumption that Apple users are important:
Mac support is hugely important, thanks to the wide use of Macs in
the artistic and designer community.
while on the other hand,
They know that macOS usage has been very small.
The new version is using GTK+3, and the UI is more customizable than
before. The command shell has also been improved. Finally:
Is the open-source business model, or lack of it, holding back
Inkscape? "We would advance much faster with even one or two
full-time people," said Jeanmougin. "That has been some frustration
because we only rely on donations. We get much less than what we
would need to hire people."
3 weeks, 3 days
Distro Showdown May
by tom butz
I have just checked microphone/camera on my Toshiba laptop running
Mint 19.3: they're both ok for a remote meeting. What I could do is
talk about the various Linuxes I have used, starting witn Tiny Linux,
then Arch-Linux, then OpenBSD, then FreeBSD and finally Mint as well
as Ubuntu14 as well as Sparky Linux. Maybe also a bit about my trials
with GhostBSD.
Why am I using more than 1? Mint 19.3 is the workhorse, Sparky does
movies using conventional openshot as well as avidemux and Ubuntu 14
supports USB-tethering out of the box.
USB-tethering is way faster than the alternatives and also very secure
(as long as no-one nicks your phone).
Tom Butz.
1 month
Google Play has been spreading advanced Android malware for years
by Peter Reutemann
'Hackers have been using Google Play for years to distribute an
unusually advanced backdoor capable of stealing a wide range of
sensitive data, researchers said on Tuesday.
Researchers from security firm Kaspersky Lab have recovered at least
eight Google Play apps that date back to 2018, a Kaspersky Lab
representative said, but based on archive searches and other methods,
the researchers believe malicious apps from the same advanced group
seeded Google’s official market since at least 2016.
Google removed recent versions of the malware shortly after the
researchers from Kaspersky, and earlier fellow security firm Dr. Web,
reported them. Apps from earlier were already removed, and it’s not
clear what prompted the move. Third-party markets have also hosted the
backdoored apps, and many of them remain available.
Command-and-control domains were registered as early as 2015, raising
the possibility the operation goes back earlier than 2016. Code in the
malware and command servers it connects to contain several overlaps
with a known hacking group dubbed OceanLotus (aka APT32, APT-C-00, and
SeaLotus), leading researchers to believe the apps are the work of
that advanced group.'
-- source: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/04/sophisticated-andr...
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/
1 month
Fairphone 3 Now Available With 'de-Googled' Android /e/OS
by Peter Reutemann
'Fairphone, the European manufacturer of mobile phones with a reduced
environmental impact, has announced a partnership to offer /e/OS, the
most "de-Googled" and pro-privacy Android OS, on their latest model
Fairphone 3. An interesting move that reminds me of the recent
introduction of the Google-free Huawei Mate 30.
A pithy explainer of its "privacy by design ecosystem" -- and the
point of "Android without Google" -- further notes: "We have removed
many pieces of code that send your personal data to remote servers
without your consent. We don't scan your data in your phone or in your
cloud space, and we don't track your location a hundred times a day or
collect what you're doing with your apps."
According to TechCrunch, the e/OS variant of the Firephone 3 ships
from May 6, priced at just under 480 euros -- "a 30 euro premium on
the Googley flavor of Android you get on the standard Fairphone 3."
The report adds that existing owners of the Fairphone 3 can manually
install /e/OS gratis via an installer on its website.'
-- source: https://mobile.slashdot.org/story/20/04/29/2131230
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/
1 month
Predictive Text Patent Troll Tries To Shake Down Wikipedia
by Peter Reutemann
'WordLogic (patent troll) claims it has the rights of the concept of
predictive text writing and went after the Wikimedia foundation.
WordLogic offered a "discounted, lump sum fee of $30,000 in exchange
for a paid-up one-time license," an easy win they thought, but
Wikimedia fought back. "Wikimedia notes that (1) WordLogic's patents
are invalid due to prior art, (2) that they are invalid for not
covering patentable subject matter, and (3) that anyway, it doesn't
even infringe on the patents if they were valid," reports Techdirt.
Now we are waiting to see what will happen. Will the patent troll
desist, or will it push forward?'
-- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/04/29/216210
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/
1 month
A bit of light relief!!
by john
A plain computer illiterate guy rings tech support to report that
his computer is faulty.
Tech: What’s the problem?
User: There is smoke coming out of the power supply.
Tech: (keep quite)
Tech: You’ll need a new power supply.
User: No, I don’t! I just need to change the startup files.
Tech: Sir, the power supply is faulty. You’ll need to replace it.
User: No way! Someone told me that I just needed to change the startup
and it will fix the
problem! All I need is for you to tell me the command.
Tech support::
10 minutes later, the User is still adamant that he is right. The tech
is frustrated and fed up.
Tech support:: (hush hush)
Tech: Sorry, Sir. We don’t normally tell our customers this, but there
is an undocumented DOS
command that will fix the problem.
User: I knew it!
Tech : Just add the line LOAD NOSMOKE.COM at
the end of the CONFIG.SYS. Let me know how it goes.
10 minutes later.
User : It didn’t work. The power supply is still smoking.
Tech : Well, what version of DOS are you using?
User : MS-DOS 6.22 .
Tech : That’s your problem there. That version of DOS didn’t come with
NOSMOKE. Contact Microsoft and ask them for a patch that will give you
the file. Let me know how it goes.
1 hour later.
User : I need a new power supply.
Tech support : How did you come to that conclusion?
Tech support : (hush hush)
User : Well, I rang Microsoft and told him about what you said, and he
started asking questions about the make of power supply.
Tech: Then what did he say?
User: He told me that my power supply isn’t compatible with NOSMOKE.
Cheers John..
1 month
