And right on cue...
A malicious NPM package has been identified and removed. Again.
The Backpage
Articles, stories and opinion pieces on open source that do not necessarily reflect the official position of the NZOSS.
All opinions are the authors own.
Open Source software continues to infect everything...
Colour me gobsmacked. I've not heard anything like that since Microsoft's "Linux is a cancer" days nearly 20 years ago but no, here I am at a presentation by a security specialist and there it is writ large on the screen... well we can't let that go unchallenged can we :-)
Just Say No...
I know, I know, it's difficult to do sometimes with peer pressure or FOMO being such relentless forces in our lives today... but that in itself is part of the problem and manifests itself in some truly fringe thinking being accepted as mainstream... Food for thought comes in the form of two articles, one about the US DoJ AntiTrust case against Google and the other an opinion piece in The Register about preventing the abuses the web giants of today partake in.
Need a new computer for homeschooling?
Hold my beer, as some might say... especially those that work at The Register. There is a nice piece written by Matthew Hughes in their 'Personal Tech' section on how to get started with a refurbished laptop of some sort or another running our favourite OS.
LibreOffice 7 - Even more betterer!
One of the things that has always mystified me is the mad rush to 'the cloud' for Microsoft Office products... they are pretty large cyber attack vectors when they are running on your PC and there is no reason to think they won't continue to be when they are in 'the cloud'... except you will no longer have control over them at all!
NZ Software Patent Exclusion vs. TPPA
In the past New Zealand has shown great foresight and leadership in the world by staying true to its national ethos, even at the cost of breaking from international conventions. From recognising a woman's right to vote and denying US nuclear powered warships the right to transit, NZ has shown the willingness to make a principled stand, even if doing so was seen by many as risky. These decisions have proven to be some of our best moments, and have helped to shape our national pride and culture. New Zealand again has an opportunity to make a principled stand.
AGM 2011 Apologies
Apologies received to date:
Ewen McNeill
Please post any further apologies as comments.
LCA Biggest Open Source Conference in the Southern Hemisphere
Many members of the NZOSS have snapped up early bird tickets for Linux.conf.au which is being held in Wellington, New Zealand in January 2010.
As an indication of interest in this event, early bird tickets sold out nearly *two* weeks before the close off dates. Registrations for normal tickets remain open until Dec 24th, but it is worth getting in quick.
Mailing Lists Outage
Due to a hardware failure the NZOSS mailing lists were offline for about 2 days.
(The website is hosted seperately and is unaffected.)
In the interim we've set up a 'manual distribution system' which will redistribute posts to all 'subscribers' but without all the typical listserv features - there's no web archive, and no automated subscribe/unsubscribe process.
[New mailing lists are coming - now sooner rather than later - so subscribers should stay tuned]
If you wish to join the NZOSS OpenChat List; Remove yourself from it; or have any questions, please email sysadmin{at}nzoss.org.nz and i'll address it as I can [manually]. Again, apologies for the inconvenience.
I should make subscribers aware, however, that in the current state of the 'list', any 'bounces' generated through problems with 'subscribers' email addresses will go back to the original poster. This is a potential privacy issue and for this reason I draw peoples attention to this. If you have an issue with this behavior, I can remove you from the distribution list - please drop me an email to the above address.
Cheers
Mark Foster
NZOSS Admin team.