• A world without Linux – episode 3: no social connections

    Steve WoodsLinux, Media, Open Source, Social Media, Tech

    Although you may not realise it, Linux is the world’s largest collaborative project in the history of computing. It runs most of the world’s technology infrastructure and is supported by more developers and companies than any other operating system. In addition, it’s ubiquitous; it can be found in your phone, car and office. Besides that, it also powers the internet, the cloud, stock exchanges, supercomputers, embedded devices and more.

    The latest episode of the series tries to show us how hard it is to have social connections is a universe without Linux.

    Three more episodes of this Linux Foundation series are planned, with the final video featuring Linux kernel creator Linus Torvalds himself, according to Softpedia.

  • Greenwash Capital – how serious is Bristol about tackling fly-tipping?

    Steve WoodsBristol, Politics

    I am indebted to my friend Julien Weston for the images below of yesterday’s fly-tipping on Jane Street, a notorious fly-tipping hotspot just off Church Road in the Redfield area of Bristol (posts passim).

    Jane Street fly-tipping photo 1

    Jane Street fly-tipping photo 2

    After 18 months of the Tidy BS5 campaign (both formally with UP Our Street and informally with residents acting on their own initiative. Ed.) to tackle litter and fly-tipping in Bristol’s Easton and Lawrence Hill wards, the cleanliness of the city’s streets doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Indeed it seems to be getting worse.

    Furthermore, statistics released by central government recently reveal that Bristol is the filthiest of the West Country local authorities when it comes to fly-tipping. Fly-tipping reported to the four unitary authorities that comprise the former Avon County Council area during the 2014-15 financial year are as follows:

    • B&NES – 530;
    • South Gloucestershire – 1,359;
    • North Somerset – 2,343;
    • Bristol – 9,709.

    Jane Street and the rest of Easton and Lawrence Hill wards are part of the Ashley, Easton & Lawrence Hill Neighbourhood Partnership. According to the city council’s website the Neighbourhood Partnership (NP) has the following purpose:

    The Neighbourhood Partnership (NP) is about residents working with the Council to influence decisions. Its aim is to use local knowledge to make better decisions about what needs doing. It also has a small budget to spend on local improvements.

    At the last NP meeting on Monday, 5th October 2015, the report of the Neighbourhood Partnership Co-ordinator promised the following change in the Area Action Plan in respect of Lawrence Hill/Church Road corridor where Jane Street is situated:

    Increase responses to the ongoing problems of fly-tipping in Lawrence Hill, mainly Jane Street, Morton Street, Thomas Street, Ducie Road Car Park and Lawrence Hill.

    The evidence of one’s eyes reveals that if there has been any increase in the local authority’s response, it must be starting from a very low, if not to say, almost non-existent base.

    The fact that Bristol City Council allows this level of filth during its year as European Green Capital – and is seemingly helpless or hapless in tackling it – is an eloquent indictment of its treatment of its less prosperous wards like Lawrence Hill and Easton.

    According to the European Green Capital website, the justification behind the establishment of the European Green Capital award is that:

    Urban areas concentrate most of the environmental challenges facing our society but also bring together commitment and innovation to resolve them. The European Green Capital Award has been conceived to promote and reward these efforts.

    If Bristol is prepared continually to tolerate the “environmental challenge” of high levels of persistent fly-tipping in its less prosperous districts, as well as lacking the commitment and innovation to resolve them, then I believe the city was awarded the European Green Capital accolade on false pretences.

    Litter and fly-tipping are not only unpleasant to look at and live with day after day, they’re a hazard to health – both physical and mental.

    Come on Bristol City Council, get your finger out and let’s not just have a tidy BS5, but a tidy city generally! Let’s see if you’re really prepared to deal with this serious level of environmental crime or are just going to carry on making placatory noises to angry residents who despair at your inability and inaction.

    Footnote: my opinion of Bristol City Council’s ability and motivation to get to grips with environmental crime in Lawrence Hill and Easton has not been improved by the fact that I have reported 16 instances of fly-tipping – matching my highest daily count to date – to the local authority today. Help lighten my load by reporting fly-tipping too!

  • Two little words

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language

    A couple of weeks ago, on Thursday 15th October, Up Our Street held its AGM and the annual Thank You Awards (posts passim) at Trinity and once again Telling Tales Films were there to record proceedings.

    The awards themselves were presented for the second year in a row by the local MP, who, following May’s election, is now Labour’s Thangam Debbonaire.

    Below is a video entitled Two Little Words, which was recorded at the event and documents the importance of recognising achievement.

  • Courts still having trouble obtaining interpreters

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media

    In the last year of so, the prominence of the courts interpreting contract fiasco has diminished, even though the actual problem itself has never gone away.

    For instance, Wednesday’s Ilford Recorder reports that a new court date has had to be set for a man charged in connection with a stabbing in Ilford “because there were no interpreters available to translate for the defendant”.

    Marcel Criahan, of Hickling Road, Ilford, appeared at Snaresbrook Crown Court via a video link yesterday after being arrested on 17th October in connection with an incident in which police found 49 year-old Florin Onea with a stab wound. After Onea died last Monday, police launched a murder investigation.

    34-year-old Criahan was charged with GBH with intent on 18th October and appeared at Barkingside Magistrates Court the following day.

  • Turnip tops = clitoris; Google Translate strikes again!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities, Tech

    Today’s Guardian reports that organisers of the “Feira do grelo” food festival in As Pontes in Galicia were shocked when their event celebrating the culinary delights of turnips tops, a traditional staple turned out to be celebrating a rude part of the female anatomy.

    To quote The Guardian’s piece:

    But for the past few months, the small town was marketing a very different kind of festival after it used Google Translate to put the Galician word grelo into Castilian Spanish, ending up with it inviting people to take part in a “clitoris festival”.

    And quoting yet again:

    It meant the town’s “Feria [sic] do grelo” or rapini festival – held every February with tastings and awards for the best grelos – became “Feria clítoris” in Spanish.

    image of rapini or turnip tops
    Clitoris? Yes, according to Google Translate!
    Furthermore, The Independent adds that the error was not discovered until Castilian-speaking rapini fans visited the site to read about the upcoming festival and found themselves reading about a local clitoris festival instead of the benefits of the local vegetable.

    The humorous consequences were fully reported in The Local.

    The Castilian Spanish version of the town council’s website’s content about the festival included such howlers as “The clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine,” and “Since 1981, the festival has made the clitoris one of the star products of the local gastronomy.”

    The reason for this embarrassing howler is that Google Translate mistakes the Galician grelo for the Portuguese word grelo – which is both the word for the vegetable as well archaic slang for clitoris.

    “It’s a very serious error on the part of Google and we are thinking about making an official complaint for Google to properly recognise the Galician language so this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” said town hall spokeswoman Montserrat Garcia.

    Along with Spanish, Galician is an official language in Spain’s north-western region of Galicia, where over 2.4 million people speak the regional tongue.

    Hat tip: ashleyrpz.

  • LibreOffice 5.0.3 “fresh” and LibreOffice 4.4.6 “still” released

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    Away from the world of alpha versions and bug hunting sessions (posts passim), The Document Foundation yesterday announced the arrival of LibreOffice 5.0.3 “fresh”, the 4th release of the LibreOffice 5.0 family, and LibreOffice 4.4.6, the 7th release of the LibreOffice 4.4 family. Based on feedback from both users and the media, the LibreOffice 5.0 family is the most popular version of this free and open source office suite to date.

    LibreOffice 5.0.3 is more feature-rich and as such is aimed at power users and tech enthusiasts, whilst LibreOffice 4.4.6 is targeted to more conservative users and enterprise deployments as it has been in widespread use for a longer time and as such offers a better experience for document production.

    For security reasons it is recommended that all LibreOffice users update their software at least to LibreOffice 4.4.6.

    Both software packages include many fixes introduced since the previous versions which can be viewed here for 5.0.3 RC1 and 5.0.3 RC2 respectively and here for 4.4.6 RC1 and 4.4.6 RC3.

    Libreoffice download graphic

    Download LibreOffice

    Both new versions can be downloaded via the following links:

    Support

    When deploying LibreOffice in large organisations and for enterprise use, The Document Foundation strongly recommends the use of professional support by certified individuals.

  • LibreOffice 5.1 will be the fastest ever

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    LibreOffice 5.1, the next release of the popular open source office suite, has officially entered the final stage of development with the release of the Alpha version, which has been released in time for the first Bug Hunting Session due to take place from Friday, 30th October to Sunday, 1st November (posts passim).

    LibreOffice 5.1 starts twice as fast as the previous version and, as well as the usual incremental interoperability improvements with MS Office file formats (including MS Office 2016), incorporates some useful new features, such as the Chart Sidebar to change settings in a more intuitive way, easier workflow with Google Drive, OneDrive and SharePoint, plus a Style Menu in Writer.

    LibreOffice 5

    The first LibreOffice 5.1 release candidate (RC) will be available in mid December, followed by second and third RCs in January 2016, with the release version becoming available in early February, just after FOSDEM 2016 (where LibreOffice developers will provide all the technical details about the new and improved software features).

    Over the last 12 months, around 300 developers have hacked the LibreOffice source code, providing over 19,000 commits, representing a weekly average of 375 commits.

    Download LibreOffice

    LibreOffice is available in 2 versions codenamed “fresh” and “still” for production use*.

    LibreOffice 5.0.2, the current “fresh” version, is available for download, whilst LibreOffice 4.4.5, the current “still” version, is likewise available for download.

    * Alpha and pre-release versions should only be used by technology experts or enthusiasts who don’t mind getting their fingers cut by bleeding edge software! Ed. 🙂

  • Leaping salmon

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities

    Wikipedia informs us that the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is found in the northern Atlantic Ocean and in rivers that flow into the north Atlantic.

    The salmon’s journey through life from fresh to salt water and back to fresh is not just an aquatic journey, but a terminological one too, as shall be shown.

    The salmon spend their early life in fresh water, when the immature salmon are known firstly as alevin, then as fry and finally as parr, this final stage being when the juvenile salmon prepare to migrate to salt water.

    When the parr develop into smolt, they begin their trip to the ocean; this occurs mainly between March and June. The length of time that young salmon take before journeying from sweet to salt water can vary between one year and eight years.

    Once large enough, Atlantic salmon change into the grilse phase, when they become ready to breed and return to the same freshwater tributary from which they departed as smolts. It is believed that the salmon’s navigation for this journey involves a combination of magnetoception and the fish’s sense of smell as it nears its destination.

    This return from salt to fresh water occurs from September to November, the time of the salmon run. After spawning most Atlantic salmon die and the salmon life cycle starts over again.

    Many obstacles – some natural, some artificial – face salmon as they migrate upstream to their spawning grounds. One of these is formed by Shrewsbury Weir on the River Severn, the UK’s longest river.

    This year jettybox.com was on hand to record the salmon run over the weir; and do so in slow motion, which adds a poignant beauty to this annual spectacle.

  • NTP updated to counter attacks

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Open Standards, Tech

    NTP graphicIt’s that time of year again when summer daylight saving time has just ended in Europe and the developers of the NTP time synchronisation service are responding to a series of new attacks with an update, German IT news site heise reports. With these attacks communication between servers and clients can be manipulated so that the clients receive the incorrect time or no time at all.

    The reference implementation of the NTP time server service is now version 4.2.8p4, with which the developers have closed 13 security holes, including a series of vulnerabilities which four Boston University researchers describe in detail in a research paper (PDF). The researchers succeeded in finding several ways of attacking the time service, including preventing clients of the service from using it, also known as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack and providing them with the wrong time under certain circumstances.

    NTP is used to synchronise the local clocks of all kinds of computers via the network. Various providers make different servers available which a client can query for the current clock time. Nearly all modern operating systems adjust this unnoticed in the background. Nevertheless, there have been attacks in the past on software implementations of this system and on the NTP protocol itself.

    Kiss of death

    Two of the new attacks are characterised mainly by the fact that the attacker does not need to hook up to the connection between client and server as a “man in the middle“. Both kinds of DoS attack take advantage of the so-called “Kiss o’ Death” (KoD) packet to cripple communication between the client and server. The KoD packet tricks the client into thinking that a NTP server is very busy or overloaded and the client should send fewer queries.

    Attackers can now fake packets for all services which a client normally queries for its time; and do so in such a way that the client doesn’t update its internal clock for months or even years on end. The elegant thing about this hack is that the attacker only needs to send very few packets. In the second attack possibility described by the researchers the attacker must fake many client requests and thus force the server to silence the client with KoD packets. This also results in the client no longer updating its clock.

    Both holes (CVE-2015-7704 and CVE-2015-7705) have been plugged in the new version of NTP.

    Time shift

    With 2 further attack methods the researchers succeeded in foisting incorrect clock times on clients. Clients should normally ignore times which differ by more than 1,000 seconds from their system time – the so-called “Panic Threshold“. However, in many configurations this does not apply to NTP queries sent immediately after a reboot of the client. Their system times can therefore be manipulated almost at will if they can be forced to reboot. Cryptography operations can be gerrymandered or DoS attacks conducted on the software running on the client with such a manipulation.

    The intentional fragmentation of IPv4 packets can also be abused to confound a client’s time queries and foist an incorrect time on it. However, this method is very fiddly and the researchers did not want to test in the the wild since it uses the techniques of the decades-old Teardrop attacks and can crash old operating systems. This problem with overlapping TCP/IP packets is not a specific error of the NTP protocol, but of the underlying operating systems.

    Admins should patch NTP

    The Boston University researchers discovered the security holes on 20th August. Their paper has only been published now to give the NTP developers time to plug the holes. The researchers are recommending that admins running NTP servers update them as quickly as possible to version 4.3.8p4.

    Reposted from Bristol Wireless.

  • Translator tampered with meeting minutes

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Media, Oddities, Social Media

    image of a footballIt’s been an open secret for many years that FIFA – the international governing body for football – has been as reliable as a nine pound note.

    Following the departure from its HQ building by disgraced president Sepp Blatter, further details of malpractice in FIFA’s governance are now coming to light.

    Yesterday’s Daily Mail reported some of this fall-out under the headline “FIFA translator: I was told several times to doctor records of ExCo meetings“.

    According to the Mail, FIFA are investigating claims that a junior member of staff was told to falsify official records of FIFA’s meetings of its Executive Committee (ExCo) between 2001 and 2010.

    Former FIFA employee Scott Burnett first worked as a translator and then as an assistant to FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke, who like Blatter, is currently suspended.

    Mr Burnett dropped his bombshell via 3 tweets, as follows.

    Tweet no. 1:

    I wrote the minutes of FIFA ExCo meetings from 2001 to 2010. During that period, I was instructed several times to misrepresent discussions.

    Tweet no. 2:

    The instructions to misrepresent meetings came from the President’s office among others.

    Tweet no. 3:

    I did not share this information before because I was concerned about the repercussions and I did not know who to trust within FIFA circles.

    We linguists – irrespective of whether we work as translators or interpreters or both – deal regularly with privileged and confidential information. This is why I rarely discuss the content of my work in public. As such, I have great sympathy for Mr Burnett since being told to falsify records must clearly have conflicted with that inbuilt sense of integrity which all linguists need to do their jobs.

    Mr Burnett is no longer employed by FIFA and currently volunteers to support grassroots football.

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