Shhhh.... Not in Front of the Kids TV

Fortunately, my Samsung TV is not that smart, but it makes you think!

News this week that Samsung smart TV sends data about your livingroom utterances to every man and his dog is yet another example that we have surrendered our privacy to consumerism. Once your privacy is gone, you'll never get it back.

Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition."

Sources & References:

• The Register: Your Samsung smart telly: WATCH IT, it's watching you watch it

Ubuntu Phone - Too Little, Too Late?

So, the Ubuntu Phone is finally coming, although it's not all that we thought it might be. According to first reports, the handset will no longer act as an extension to your Ubuntu pc and some pretty fundamental applications will not be ported in the early releases of the smartphone.

"Unlike the original proposal, the handset does not become a desktop PC when plugged into a monitor. Source: BBC Technology

For instance, Leo Kelion is reporting that both Whatsapp & Skype will be absent from the first handsets.

Whilst I realize that this is a new (and very exciting) smartphone concept, these omissions seem to me to be problematic for Canonical. Even the mighty Microsoft has struggled to break the Android stranglehold on the mobile phone market and the Ubuntu OS will have to compete with Google, Microsoft, & Apple for market share: the minimum requirement for market entry is to match (if not, surpass) the current offer and, if Canonical is not hasty, by the time the Ubuntu phone catches up with the market, it's competitors will have moved on.

Of course, existing operating systems are not the only concern for Canonical in an all ready crowded market: in January, Samsung released the Z1 running its Tizen operating system: the significance of this event should not be underestimated, in 2013, Samsung was by far the largest producer of handsets in the world (although the iPhone (all variants) was the largest selling handset (same link)).

But, even if you are desperate to own the new Aquaris E4.5 (not a terribly catchy name), you can't just wander down to your local mobile provider and pick up your new handset: you have to wait for a flash sale to pick up your new toy, so Ubuntu's entry into the mobile arena is limited to say the least.

Ultimately, only time will tell if Canonical has got this right or missed its opportunity. However, the €170 price tag is undoubtedly attractive and it may be that the phone will find a niche. I for one hope that this venture is successful for Canonical and the Ubuntu operating system continues to find new fans.

Sources & References:

• BBC Technology: Ubuntu smartphone offers alternative to apps (Leo Kelion)
• Ubuntu: Ubuntu On Phones
• BQ: Aquaris E4.5
• The Register: Samsung's first Tizen smartphone is HERE ... by which we mean India

Happy Birthday Ubuntu

Happy birthday to Ubuntu: ten years old today!

I for one am grateful for the adventure.

Sources & References:

• Ubuntu Discourse: Today Ubuntu turns 10 years old!

CQ60 - Reminted

It wasn't long before the new Presario CQ60 ran into problems: despite managing to achieve stable graphics using Mint 17 Mate, I couldn't seem to maintain a persistent WiFi link. Often, the hardware button wouldn't work and, even when it did, it rarely made a difference as to whether or not the laptop connected to my network. Issuing the terminal command:

rfkill list

would show the hardware blocked and the command:

rfkill ublock all

had no effect. It was sometime before I realized that this is by design! It was clear that I had to find a way to make the hardware switch work if I wanted this laptop to be more than a vanity project.

Having read some comment online that Lubuntu had a more reliable wireless platform, I installed the latest version (14.04 LTS) of the Ubuntu derivative to see if it made any difference: it did, effectively ruling out hardware as the source of the problem. Had I merely wanted a functioning laptop I could easily have left the lightweight operating system in place but, whilst this is undoubtedly a viable solution, the truth is that I'm not terribly keen on Lubuntu and I really love Mint Cinnamon. There are also some practical networking reasons for preferring Mint over Lubuntu (specifically, native SSH support) and I want to migrate from SAMBA to manage my network, so the research effort began!

This problem with the Presario is not entirely unknown and it seems that there is no single solution. Nonetheless, there does seem to be an online consensus that replacing the ath5k driver for the Atheros chipset for the ath9k driver is the most successful fix and I resolved to give it a try. However, fate intervened to scupper my plans.

At some time on Wednesday of this week I lost my WAN connection: this makes testing a WiFi connection problematic! It was twenty-four hours before the restoration of my connection and I didn't get around to reinstalling Mint until late yesterday afternoon. I decided to go for Mint 17 Cinnamon and, as always, the WiFi connection was flawless on the live disk but, more importantly, it was also flawless after installation to the ssd and I have no idea why! This condition has persisted beyond the initial (307MB) software updates and countless reboots (both restarts & cold boots), so I'm assuming that the problem is resolved. I can only identify two candidate processes that may have influenced this change in fortune:

1. I didn't format the /home partition during installation but used the existing partition that I set up when I installed Lubuntu.
2. I had to reset my hybrid router yesterday in order to re-establish a link to the WAN when my connection came back up.

It's not clear if either or both of these changes had the desired effect, but I remain connected a day after installation!

Having also had some unpleasant experiences with the graphics drivers during previous implementations of Mint, I decided to install the nvidia-304 legacy driver right off the bat and it has proved to be a good decision. Sure, the boot sequence isn't as pretty as it would be using the default nouveau driver, but, with the improved boot time delivered by the new ssd, who cares? Moreover, there is absolutely no flicker or distortion during operation and I now have a stable (as well as, connected) Mint 17 Cinnamon installation.

Mint 17 on the Presario CQ60 - It can be done!

This little laptop has exceeded expectations although it has proved to be quite a challenge to get it running the Mint OS. The irony is that, despite learning a great deal about networing drivers in Ubuntu, I can offer no explanation as to why the problem has been rectified but I'm thrilled that they have been.

Sources & Reference:

• Ubuntu Manual Pages: rfkill (see ublock)
• Lubuntu: Home

Compaq Presario C60 - Minted

Well, this is my first post from the Compaq Presario CQ60 found in a dumpster a week ago! It's been an interesting repair project and one that has had me scratching my head a couple of times: but I think I finally know why the previous owner abandoned this cracking little machine: dust!

OK, first the low-down on the specs (and I use the word loosely). This is no speedball (even when it was new): it was originally designed to run Microsoft Vista and one wonders how well it managed that! The processor is an AMD Sempron SI-42 - so no records broken there even with 3GB of memory! That said, the previous owner loved this machine and there is very little damage. Moreover, the 15.6" screen is superb.

System Specs

My daughter Lozzy installed the new hard drive; a 60GB Corsair ssd that I picked up for less than £40. The battery was as cheap as I could find (around £12) and I really don't expect it to last very long. So, all ready to install an operating system. This is where the problems started: this laptop hated Mint Cinnamon and the graphics stack crashed on every boot regardless of the driver I installed - on to Plan B.

Compaq Presario CQ60

We had much more success with Mint Mate and, after loading the legacy NVidia driver, even the graphics stack behaved. Now, if we could only solve the problem of the system running hot (and I do mean hot!) we'd have a nice little system. The heat problem was a real issue with bottom of the case almost too hot to touch just a few minutes after booting. There's no fine fan control in the bios and eventually I was forced to strip the machine to clean the cooling system. I've seen worse but there was quite a build up of dust and lint and cleaning it has resulted in an almost silent case fan: that's better for battery life and performance.

The new battery is giving surprising performance with a couple of hours per charge and the ssd gives a boot time of less that 50 seconds. It's not a stunning performance, but it 's not bad for £50.

Sources & References:

• None

Rotten Apple - Your Data & The Cloud

Something for nothing is good right? Well, not always. Apple's recent decision to interfere with users' cloud accounts without permission has caused a little controversy: notwithstanding the Company's dreadful taste in music, foisting music on customers who didn't ask for (and who don't want) it demonstrates utter disregard for customers' privacy (not to mention the associated security implications).

Following the public outcry, Apple has subsequently released a way to delete the offending album, but the affair highlights a bigger issue: if you give your data to a third-party to look after, you no longer control you data! Hand it over at your peril.

Sources & References:

• The Register: Not pro Bono: Apple's audio junk mail made spammers' lives easier
• The Register: Apple gives fanbois The Sweetest Thing: A delete button for that U2 album

Another Careless Owner!

Last year I reported on finding an old Compaq C700 in the recycling skip: well, I've just found another in the same skip! This one's a Compaq Presario CQ60 & I managed to recover a working charger at the same time.

Compaq Presario CQ60 Found in a Dumpster

My first thought was that this would be suffering from a shot screen (all too common with Compaq laptops), but it's not and I can find absolutely nothing wrong with this little beauty. Apart from needing a new battery (I couldn't find the original) and hard drive (sensibly removed by the original owner), this laptop is perfectly operational right down to the webcam. There's no damage to the case aside from the marks and scuffs associated with normal wear & tear. That is, if you ignore the missing rubber bumper on the bottom of the case!

I've gone for a cheap battery (I don't expect it to last more than twelve months) but a 60GB solid state hard drive - I really do want to see how much of a performance improvement an ssd will deliver and I have no need for a massive hard drive. Total repair costs are circa £50.00 and it's a project for my daughter, Lozzy to cut her teeth on!

We won't be restoring the original operating system (Microsoft Vista) and the AMD Sempron processor probably isn't man enough to run Win7, so we'll run Mint 17 and keep this as a play thing.

Sources & References:

• None

NAS Woes

Some years ago I made the mistake of buying a Western Digital network drive - there's a reason that they're cheap! Anyway, this week the hard drive failed (or so I thought) and this morning I took the enclosure apart only to find that it was the capacitors that had given up the ghost.

What's All that Goo?

Because the drive uses hardware encryption, the data is unreachable: I can't even mount the drive to attempt a recovery. Assuming that the drive is still healthy (smartctl -H results in an access denied error message), I'm faced with several options:

• Try to recover the data by finding a replacement enclosure with the same model number (yeah, good luck with that!)
• Try to recover the data by repairing the pcb (replace the burned capacitors)
• Sacrifice the data and reuse the drive building my own NAS

Most (but not all) of the data is already safely on my file server. I've lost some video but everything else is either duplicated or replaceable so, option 3 is looking favourite! I'm toying with the idea of a low-powered box running FreeNAS or perhaps even a Intel's NUC. I even looked into using a Raspberry Pi!

I've accepted that the data is gone and that I should probably format the drive, but I really can't decide on (or afford) a replacement. I'll mull it over but, in the meanwhile, my advice is to avoid Western Digital drives if you value your data.

Sources & References:

• None

Munich To Reverse Decision On Linux?

The Register is reporting that Munich, the city that adopted Linux for its municipal operations, is considering returning to Windows.

The reasons are not entirely clear but El Reg seems to believe that it is the lack of an integrated personal information manager à la Microsoft Outlook. If this is, indeed, the reason, it seems more likely that this is an implementation issue rather than a shortcoming in any given Linux distro: Thunderbird gives me integrated email, contacts, and calendar (albeit by installing plugins) & I can even sync with my Google Calendar (so that those nice people at the NSA can see what I'm up to!). Thunderbird is not the only option when it comes to PIM on Linux.

I think it would be a shame if this ten-year project were abandoned on a political whim. Whilst I've no beef with Microsoft, politicians have a duty to be parsimonious with tax payers' monies & paying huge sums to private corporations when there are free alternatives is outrageously extravagant.

As an illustration of the sort of money that Microsoft can earn from bulk licensing, consider Cardiff Councils response to a freedom of information request: in 2011, the Council acknowledged having nearly eleven thousand MS Office licences at a cost (to the taxpayer) of £2,158,696. If one extrapolates this cost over the 27 county councils in the UK, that's a staggering £58,284,792 & there are another 400 principal authorities in the UK! Given that the implementation costs of OpenOffice would be broadly similar to MS Office (& hence, irrelevant to our calculations), abandoning only Office in only the county councils would save every man, woman, & child in the UK, £1!

Sources & References:

• The Register: Munich considers dumping Linux for ... GULP ... Windows!

Mint 17 Cinnamon & The DELL DIMENSION 8400

This month (August), my DELL Dimension 8400 is ten years old & it's getting a birthday present - a new operating system!

"I'm constantly amazed at how well Ubuntu runs on older equipment."

I had been running Mint 16 on the old box, but as this is no longer supported, it's time to see how well Mint 17 will run.

Installation was, as always, painless, although I can't install from a DVD on this box (it has to be a USB). I've also taken the opportunity to encrypt the /home directory & change my password. Now I've got to:

• Install Samba & Winbind
• Enable UFW
• Install my Photosmart 7600 (yes, a 7600!) local printer & my Photosmart C6280 network printer
• Install Chromium
• Install Bluefish
• Install Cairo-Dock

...well, you get the idea!

Sources & References:

• None

Going, Going....

...not quite gone

But, time is running out to retrieve your files from Ubuntu One.

This is the FINAL reminder to make sure you have retrieved all your data from Ubuntu One filesync, as we will be deleting all the content permanently on 31st July 2014. After that date, we will no longer be able to retrieve any of your files.

In order to make it easy for you to retrieve all of your content, we have released a new feature that lets you download all your content at once. Our website (https://one.ubuntu.com/) has been updated with instructions on how to conveniently download all your files.

In addition, you still can use Mover.io's offer to transfer your data to another cloud provider for free. The Ubuntu One web interface is available for you to download individual files as well.

All of us in the Ubuntu One team would like to thank you for your support over the years.

The Ubuntu One team

Sources & References:

• None

If I'm A Suspect...

...Go to court, get a warrant and tap my communications - it's that easy!

I'm not a [insert religious/political preference here] terrorist, I'm not a paedophile, and I am not a convicted criminal - so why should my data be intercepted & retained by my own (and other) government for no better reason than the just-in-case justification? Passing emergency legislation in an attempt to ignore a court judgement is an outrageous abuse of political power!

"We are told this is a paedophile and jihadi 'emergency', but the court judgment they seek to ignore was handed down over three months ago and this isn't snooping on suspects but on everyone." Shami Chakrabarti

Oh, that's right, I also live in one of the most watched countries in the world. So much for living in a democratic nation! I wonder if Canada will have me...

Sources & References:

• BBC News Politics: Emergency phone and internet data laws to be passed

He's Behind You: NSA & Tails

It seems that my posts about Tails may well have brought me to the attention of the NSA. Several news outlets are reporting on the NSA's use of a data slurping tool called XKeyScore. The scope and capabilities of this program are disputed (I suppose that's a necessary consequence of it being secret), but it's clearly designed to invade the privacy of non-American citizens.

"It's hard to tell how extensive this is. It's possible that anyone who clicked on this link -- with the embedded torproject.org URL above -- is currently being monitored by the NSA. It's possible that this only will happen to people who receive the link in e-mail, which will mean every Crypto-Gram subscriber in a couple of weeks."
Bruce Schneier

Whilst I'm not an American citizen, it's nice to know that the NSA should be interested in me :) Nonetheless, insofar as I am aware, I have not been accused of any crime and I believe that I am granted the right of privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (Liberty's interpretation of Article 8 & see also the UK's 1998 legislation) so it's not entirely clear why my own government would not only condone this invasion of privacy but also to participate in the wholesale data collection effort spearheaded by my American cousins.

I can feel a strongly worded protest to me MP coming on!

Sources & References:

• Schneier On Security: NSA Targets the Privacy-Conscious for Surveillance
• BBC News (Technology): NSA 'targets' Tor dark web servers and users
• Liberty: Privacy

The Passing Of Ubuntu One

Today marks the passing of Ubuntu One.

"We are sorry to notify you that we will be shutting down the Ubuntu One file services, effective 1 June 2014.

It is no longer possible to purchase storage or music from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services apps in the Ubuntu, Google, and Apple stores have been removed."

The website goes on to warn users to recover their data before the service is finally deprecated on 31st July 2014: after that date all content will be deleted.

I'm sad but not surprised to see the demise of Canonical's cloud storage offer. However, the reality is that hosting everybody's data for free is an expensive business and Canonical just didn't generate enough revenue to make the service commercially viable.

That said, I've a healthy distrust of cloud computing in general and the proclivity of corporations to collect personal data on their customers in particular, so the recent news that ebay had been hacked did nothing to assuage my fears about our headlong rush to disseminate our personal details and store them online.

I carry a (relatively) recent encrypted backup of all my data wherever I go. All I need to access it is a pc running Linux and encfs installed. At a push, I could even access it using a Live Disk and a Windows PC! Our data is our responsibility: if we hand it over every time a website demands that we do, it's no use whinging when they loose it.

Sources & References:

• Ubuntu One: shutdown
• Canonical Blog: Shutting Down Ubuntu One File Services
• The Register: EBay, you keep using the word 'SECURITY'. I do not think it means what you think it means

If You Don't Kill It, It Won't Die

Microsoft included XP users in its IE security update this week - this despite the (second) end-of-life date having passed.

"We made this exception based on the proximity to the end of support for Windows XP."

Notwithstanding Adrienne Hall's claims to the contrary, the real reason for this decision is more pragmatic: XP still accounts for the majority of Windows users in the wild. The fact that its customers refuse to abandon this defunct product must be utterly terrifying for the Redmond giant.

Anyway, I'm going a little further than CERT or ENISA and recommending that users abandon Windows altogether - Ubuntu 14.04 runs beautifully on machines designed and built for XP and Canonical has delivered a viable alternative. Surely the possibility of a genuinely secure operating system that costs nothing to install on existing hardware must be worthy of consideration.

Sources & References:

• The Register: Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer - advice from US, UK, EU
• BBC News/Technology: Microsoft includes XP users in Internet Explorer fix
• MaximumPC: Windows XP Market Share Outnumbers Windows 8/8.1 and Vista Combined

Good Grief - It's Life Jim...

It's early days, but after a shaky start (no sound and corrupt video), I've got 14.04 running nicely on the DELL Dimension 8400. That's a ten year-old machine!

The fact is, I haven't been this psyched about an operating system since Karmic.

More to follow...

Sources & References:

• None

Canonical Passes $7,000,000

I've just checked Canonical's progress in its campaign to raise $32,000,000 to develop the Edge. At 12:30 BST, the total pledges amounted to over $7,000,000 with 24 days left.

That's amazing!

Sources & References:

• Indiegogo: Ubuntu-edge

Small & Perfectly Formed?

It seems that everyone's at it; making PCs smaller is the order of the day and in August, Compulab will start taking orders for its new micro-computer - the Utilite.

Designed to run Linux & Android operating systems, this isn't a bad looking piece of kit: sadly, it'll probably end up fixed to the rear of a flat panel monitor with some sort of VESA mount! OK, I'm being cynical, but it makes you wonder why they don't just put all this inside the monitor and be done with it: if you want a PC so small that it's all but invisible, you might as well hide it to begin with.

Utilite - coming to the back of a monitor near you soon!

The technical specs aren't too shabby though: top-end, the Utilite boasts a quad core Cortex-A9 MPCore and up to 4GB of DDR3 although the headline price of $99 will only snag you a Freescale i.MX6 single core processor and (I'm guessing) less memory. Ports galore and a low-energy supply it looks versatile and capable of saving the planet from all those 500W electricity guzzlers out there.

Ironically, for such a small product, the market in micro-computers is remarkably crowded and users are almost spoiled for choice. Take your pick from the Raspberry Pi, Intel's NUC, Gigabyte's BRIX, or a thousand handsets running Android, IOS, Windows, and (hopefully) Ubuntu.

Sources & References:

• Utilite: Home
• Engadget: Meet Utilite, a $99 quad-core ARM-based PC running Ubuntu

Oh, That's All Right Then

It seems that the Ubuntu Forums hacker has broken cover to assuage users over fears that their passwords are on the market to the highest bidder. However, this promise doesn't appear to be some charitable act on behalf of a benign Mitnick wannabe: apparently, cracking 1.8 million passwords would just take too long!

The Register is reporting that someone claiming to be the hacker made his/her promise on TwitLonger. So, no harm, no foul? I don't think so, perhaps Sputn1k_ should get a job.

Sources & References:

• The Register: Ubuntuforums.org cracker promises no password release

I'd Love to Help....

...but I don't have a spare $600.

Canonical has turned to crowdfunding to get its new handset off the ground: I hope it works because I'd love to see Ubuntu Edge on general release. Sadly, I'm not in a position to fork out the cash and, even if I were, $600 is a reasonable mid-range PC!

It'll be interesting to see if Canonical hits its target of $32,000,000 and I, for one, will be keeping my fingers crossed.

Sources & References:

• BBC News Business: Ubuntu Edge smartphone seeks $32m of crowdfunded cash