Monthly Archives: March 2014

  • South Tyrol region to save €1 mn. with free software

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Politics

    Südtirol coat of armsThe government of Italy’s Autonomous Province of South Tyrol wants to save &euro 1 mn. per year by using free software, according to a press release issued last week.

    Public sector organisations took the first step towards the use of free software nearly one year ago with the change to the LibreOffice productivity suite (news passim). On 11th March 2014 the regional government decided to continue to pursue this route and to resort to the use of open source where possible. “We are expecting savings of one million Euro per year through free software,” declares governor Arno Kompatscher.

    “The use of proprietary or free software has in the meantime degenerated into almost a religious war, not only in the public sector, but also in private businesses,” Kompatscher continued, speaking after a regional government meeting.

    During the preceding legislature period the region and regional government had already made a decision in principle to opt for the use of free software. In June last year the first major step towards free software was made with the change from MS Office to LibreOffice. The regional government alone migrated 7,000 to the open source office suite.

    Governor Kompatscher stressed that it was not a matter of using free software exclusively, but to find the best solution as regards citizens: “We’re standing by using free software. However, it’s not a matter of deciding between free and proprietary software, but between requirements.” Free software, according to Kompatscher, is not always suitable, but: “Citizens must always have access to public sector documents without having to resort to paid-for software as well. That is the key issue”.

    The city of Munich is acting as an example for the use of free software in government. “For example, Munich’s city council is using free software; in spite of this ten per cent of its computers are still running proprietary programs. We’re aligning ourselves with this. There will be no either or; the principal objective is friendliness towards citizens,” Kompatscher emphasises.

    The governor also refers to the potential savings arising from free software: “A very, very large amount of money is involved. The target is savings of one million euro per year.” Just from its first major step, switching to LibreOffice should save the regional government paying Microsoft some €600,000 in licence fees in the next few years.

  • Thee’s got’n where thee cassn’t back’n hassn’t?

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language

    As with elsewhere in the country, the Bristolian dialect is not as strong as it once was, mainly due to the influence of mass media and the spread of received pronunciation.

    Here from a few years ago is a fine example of the local dialect delivered in song by Adge Cutler & the Wurzels many years ago at the Webbington Country Club, Loxton, Somerset.

    Adge was born in Long Ashton, just outside Bristol.

    Hat tip: Patrick Wise.

  • Bloggers under attack as pingback abused

    Steve WoodsLinux, Media, Open Source, Tech

    WordPress logoWordPress’ pingback function can be abused to mount a denial of service (DoS) attack on blogs without their owners noticing, Germany’s Heise IT website reports. It is unlikely that the problem will be remedied with an update.

    Security company Sucuri reports on an attack on one WordPress installation in which more than 162,000 other WordPress sites were misused as a DDoS platform. In this instance the attacker used the software’s pingback function in order to cripple the target website. With a pingback, one WordPress site can notify another that it has quoted its blog post.

    The attack works in such a manner that an attacker searches for a legitimate blog which has pingback activated (currently the default configuration for new WordPress installations) and then simulate a pingback from the victim’s site. The victim’s blog then queries the victim for the post which was quoted in the faked pingback. If the attacker does this with many sites, the flood of traffic is difficult for the target site to black as the queries look completely legitimate and originate from trustworthy sources.

    In the attack observed by Sucuri randomly generated URLs were quoted in the fake pingbacks for the victim’s ostensible posts. This results in WordPress’ caching mechanism does not take effect and the web server is so overloaded since the database must attempt to deliver the supposed posts for each request. Of course, in reality the server just serves up 404 error pages, since there are no pages for the random URLs. Nevertheless, if there are many such requests, this is sufficient to cripple the WordPress installation’s database. On Unix and Linux systems such an attack can be launched very simply by using the curl command on the command line.

    As the attack is misusing the ordinary working of the pingback function, it cannot be assumed that WordPress developers are going to do something about the problem. Site owners can prevent their blog being miused in this way by deactivating their installation’s pingback functions. Sucuri itself is proposing source code for a WordPress plug-in which should block the attacks, as follows:

    add_filter( ‘xmlrpc_methods’, function( $methods ) {
    unset( $methods[‘pingback.ping’] );
    return $methods;
    } );

    Use Sicuri’s WordPress DDoS Scanner to check if your site is being used for launching such attacks on other websites.

  • OmegaT, the basics

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Open Source, Tech

    OmegaT is a free and open source translation memory application written in Java. It’s a tool intended for professional translators.

    OmegaT has the following features:

    • Fuzzy matching
    • Match propagation
    • Simultaneous processing of multiple-file projects
    • Simultaneous use of multiple translation memories
    • User glossaries with recognition of inflected forms
    • Document file formats include:
      Open Document Format (the native format of the LibreOffice, OpenOffice and Calligra office suites)
      Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx)
      XHTML and HTML
      MediaWiki (Wikipedia)
      Plain text
      …plus about 30 other file formats
    • Unicode (UTF-8) support: can be used with non-Latin alphabets
    • Support for right-to-left languages
    • Integral spelling checker
    • Compatible with other translation memory applications (TMX, TTX, TXML, XLIFF, SDLXLIFF)

    OmegaT is cross-platform: it will run on any system on which the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) has been or can be installed.

    Over on YouTube, user weasel75 has produced a short (10 minutes) tutorial on the basics of OmegaT. Hopefully you’ll find it as useful as I did.

  • 2 weeks to Document Freedom Day

    Steve WoodsOpen Standards, Tech

    logo for Document Freedom Day 2014Document Freedom Day is a day for celebrating and raising awareness of open standards and formats; it takes place on the last Wednesday in March each year. On this day people who believe in fair access to communications technology teach, perform and demonstrate.

    Document freedom means documents that are free can be used in any way that the author intends. They can be read, transmitted, edited, and transformed using a variety of tools. Documents that aren’t free – like Microsoft Office’s .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc. – are locked to some particular software or company. Their author cannot choose how to use them because they are controlled by technical restrictions. This is akin to having a racehorse and never letting get above a trot.

    However, document freedom is about more than spreadsheets, presentations and word processing documents. Document freedom embraces all forms of data, including artwork, sheet and recorded music, emails and statistics. These can all be stored in ways which empower users, but they can also be stored in formats which constrain and manipulate us at enormous cost.

    Open standards are formats which everybody can use free of charge and restriction. They come with compatibility “built-in” – the way they work is shared publicly and any organisation can use them in their products and services without asking for permission. Open Standards are the foundation of cooperation and modern society. Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the world wide web – a vital resource that relies on open standards to work. Read more on open standards.

    You can get involved in Document Freedom Day by organising local activities, distributing fliers, adding a banner on your blog, donating money, and much more. See the Document Freedom Day site for more ideas and information.

  • Applications open for new round of Gnome OPW internships

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    OPW logoThe Gnome Outreach Program* for Women (OPW) helps women get involved in free and open source software and has just announced the opening of a new round of internship applications. Women can apply for an internship to contribute to an open source project from May to August; and OPW is not just asking for applications from programmers.

    Successful applicants can obtain a Gnome Foundation internship from 19th May until 18th August 2014 under the aegis of the OPW. The outreach programme is intended to increase the proportion of women in open source projects and twice a year promotes the contribution of women to projects such as Gnome, Wikimedia and OpenStack. The deadline for applications for the next round is 19th May 2014.

    As previously stated, the programme is not restricted to women with programming skills; those with design, documentation or marketing skills can also apply. All participants will be supported by a mentor in the participating organisations. Details on how to apply are on the Gnome Foundation’s dedicated OPW site.

    * = It’s an American institution, hence the US spelling.

  • Parking meters arrive in Easton

    Steve WoodsBristol, Language, Media, Politics

    On 1st April – April Fool’s Day – Bristol City Council’s Easton & St Philips Residents’ Parking Scheme comes into operation. (Some would consider the choice of date most apposite. Ed.)

    road sign announcing works for Easton RPZ
    Does Easton have one resident? Do you proof-read your signs, Bristol City Council?
    This is just one of many Residents’ parking schemes being introduced by the council at the instigation of the autocratic elected Mayor, George Ferguson, the man in red trousers (posts passim).

    Needless to say, the schemes haven’t exactly received universal support from the residents of a city with a high level of car ownership and an abysmal level of public transport provision. Overall, it’s been condemned by residents as a ‘parking tax’ as residents will have to acquire permits, both for their own vehicles, as well as for visitors arriving by motor vehicle.

    There has been consultation, of course. However, as is usual with Bristol City Council, consultation is a portmanteau word, a crafty elision of ‘confidence trick’ and ‘insult’. With a city council consultation, the stress is always firmly on the first syllable. When something goes out to consultation, what the council wants to do is usually a fait accompli.

    There have been howls of protest about the Residents’ Parking Schemes in the local press, particularly the car-loving Bristol Post, which has even enlisted the odd high-profile petrolhead to trash the Mayor’s plans.

    image of parking meter on Stapleton Road
    A new parking meter on Stapleton Road
    As this post is being written, the streets of Easton are being prepared for the arrival of the new parking regime. New double yellow lines and parking bays marked on the streets. In addition, there’ll be parking charges for visitors and parking meters have started to make their appearance both on main thoroughfares like Stapleton Road and the backstreets.

    Bristol’s residents’ parking schemes programme is very flawed.

    One of the justifications for implementing them is to dissuade the thousands of daily commuters from outside the local authority area clogging up residential roads by parking there all day. As the scheme doesn’t cover the whole city, the thousands of commuting motorists will just park a bit further out in districts not covered by residents’ parking schemes, such as the area where your ‘umble scribe happens to live.

    Where I live, it’s the residents that are guilty of problem parking; the streets are Victorian, narrow and were intended for use by horse and cart, not 21st century motor vehicles. Pavement parking is rife in the backstreets, making pavements impassable to wheelchair users and parents with children in prams and pushchairs. There’s minimal enforcement to combat such anti-social parking. Indeed, the police often contribute to the problem themselves (posts passim).

    If Mayor Ferguson really wanted to stop Bristol being choked by out of town commuting motorists, his counterpart in London came up with an alternative that was introduced 11 years ago. It’s called the London Congestion Charge Zone.

  • Powerful virus targets Ukraine

    Steve WoodsPolitics, Tech

    malware symbolFrance’s Le Monde reports that a very powerful computer virus has infected computers in Ukraine, where 22 instances of infection has been recorded since 2013, the year that country’s political crisis started, according to a report from BAE Systems.

    This virus, baptised Snake, but also known as Ouroboros after the serpent in Greek mythology, is “one of the most sophisticated and persistent threats that we track,” states BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, in a report published on Friday, 7th March.

    Although it appeared as early as 2006, Snake appears to have been deployed more aggressively since 2013, according to the same source: of the 56 instances identified since 2010 throughout the world, 44 have been recorded since last year. Ukraine is the main target with 22 instances since 2013, of which 14 alone have been confirmed since the start of 2014 when that country’s political crisis accelerated with the fall of its pro-Russian president at the end of February.

    Lithuania, Britain and Georgia are amongst the other countries where Snake has also shown up.

    Snake’s operators act on weekdays and operate mainly from a time zone corresponding to Moscow, BAE Systems states. “Our report shows that a technically sophisticated and well-organised group has been developing and using these tools for the last eight years,” said David Garfield, the managing director of cyber security at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence.

    “There is some evidence that links these tools to previous breaches connected to Russian threat actors but it is not possible to say exactly who is behind this campaign.”

    Snake’s controllers can access all of the computer systems they have infiltrated, in addition to which the virus’ capacity to hibernate by remaining completely inactive for many days makes its detection complex.

    According to Saturday’s Financial Times (paywall), the virus has in particular infiltrated the Kiev government’s computer systems and those of major Ukrainian organisations.

  • Sausages!

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Oddities

    pack shot of sausagesToday for breakfast I indulged in some sausages; not just any sausages, but Sainbury’s Outdoor Bred Pork Sausages. They were delicious and disappeared off the plate in double-quick time.

    However, there was one thing that stuck in my throat: the product name.

    Can inanimate objects – even ones made of once living matter – breed?

    If so, I should congratulate Sainbury’s on this fine achievement in the field of al fresco coitus? If not, should I condemn their marketing department for coming up with an idiotic product name that’s a complete physical impossibility?

    Digging further into this term, it is apparent that Sainsbury’s are not the only sinners here, as a quick image search for “outdoor bred” sausages will reveal. Moreover, if I had my way, Tesco, Waitrose, Rankin, Morrison’s, Marks & Spencer, Asda and many more suppliers should all be standing in the corner of the room with Sainsbury’s trying on the dunce’s hat for size. 🙂

    Nevertheless, my suggesting that all these corporate grocers are a bunch of illiterates is perhaps being a bit hasty and an over-reaction. Time for some final research.

    Consulting the Good Housekeeping Institute’s site, I find that outdoor bred actually has a specific meaning in food labelling terms, as follows:

    As with Outdoor Reared, this tends to apply to pork and means the pigs are born outside. However, after a few weeks they’re brought inside for fattening.

    So, outdoor bred is a proper food labelling term, although I do wish people would think more clearly about the connotations of naming products.

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