Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Debian GNU/Linux 8.8 "Jessie" Officially Released

Submitted by prisoninmate
prisoninmate writes: Those of you using the Debian Stable a.k.a. Debian "Jessie" operating system series will be glad to learn that the eighth point release was just launched today, Debian GNU/Linux 8.8, with more than 150 bug fixes and security updates. The Debian Project announced today Debian GNU/Linux 8.8, the most advanced stable version of the Jessie series, which brings corrections for numerous packages and various of the security flaw discovered and patched since the release of the Debian GNU/Linux 8.7 maintenance update back in mid-January 2017.

"This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available," reads the official announcement. Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 8 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old "jessie" CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated.

Comment Re:That's not a plan, Stan (Score 1) 237

by a_n_d_e_r_s (#53802419) Attached to: Sweden Pledges To Cut All Greenhouse Gas Emissions By 2045

Its a goal with defined plan how to get there. The prime minister each year write a paper outlining how far off Sweden is from reaching the goal and whats happend in the last year and present it to the parlament. Also in it outline new legislation that will make sure the goal is reached by the end date.

The parlament then can accept of reject the proposals for further changes to make sure Sweden can reach the final goal.

So its not a farfetched goal and its not a very detailed plan but rather a method how to reach the goal by constant improvements on the mechanism how the goal is achieved by a yearly refinement of the plans. Also it involves a clear report of how close or far away from reaching the goal Sweden is each year. .

Comment Windows share in 2015 was 11.7 % (Score 1) 280

and had declined for 4 years. Everything points towards continued decline for Windows sales for 2016. So 2016 will probably be fifth year with declining sales for Windows.

As for Windows - they stopped selling Windows 7 and 8 in 2016 so well of course Windows 10 will continue to increase. Customer can't get anything else in the future.

Android had 54% in 2015. So looks like mobile is the way to go.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Comment Reviewers has not played the game for 100 hours (Score 1) 145

Most reviewers has played the game for a couple of hours. They have not really learned to play the game and get good at it. They do not know, if its has a lasting playability, or if its contains many hidden bugs thats not visible from just trying out the game. The less they play the game, the faster they can send out a review to their subscribers. Cause in this world, it's all about being first to get the views.

So most reviews is about the first few parts of the game. The initial visual effects and how you are introduced to the game. Maybe as long as the first 3rd of the game.

The goal of the publisher/developers of the game is to create hype. So that so many as possible buy the game from start. So they can get back the investments into the game asap. For that, they need good game reviews. Alot of hype to build up press coverage. The game nees to bee mentioned in the press so more people hear about the game.

Many follow the hype. Wants to be the first among their friends who has the new cool game. So they buy into the game and are the first to play it. This does not have to be AAA games from AAA developers, it can also be indie games like "No Mans Sky". Who might be a good and innovative game, but in the end is not maybe all what it was said it should be. That is also true for alot of AAA games. But they sell more since its a big publisher behind it.

Those wanting to be first to review the game or play the game is actually like the people posting "First post" on message forums. They seek to be notorious but noone really likes them for it. What people really want is good review who give a good understanding of the game and its underlaying mechanics. At least if you are a serious gamer who is in it for playing the game and not someone who does it to be in the incrowd and be cool among your friends.

Well, the game makers who take their money for it, love them. Then they go back to the drawin board to make the next AAA title. Actually most developers of games does it for the love of games. For the fun of playing games and making them. It's just so they need the money to pay the bills for the next big game.

Many game don't stand the test of time. Other do. Its hard to know which ones who will unless you play the game for a longer period of time.
Power

Smart Electricity Meters Can Be Dangerously Insecure, Warns Expert (theguardian.com) 163

Posted by BeauHD from the consider-this-a-warning dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Smart electricity meters, of which there are more than 100 million installed around the world, are frequently "dangerously insecure," a security expert has said. The lack of security in the smart utilities raises the prospect of a single line of malicious code cutting power to a home or even causing a catastrophic overload leading to exploding meters or house fires, according to Netanel Rubin, co-founder of the security firm Vaultra. If a hacker took control of a smart meter they would be able to know "exactly when and how much electricity you're using," Rubin told the 33rd Chaos Communications Congress in Hamburg. An attacker could also see whether a home had any expensive electronics. "He can do billing fraud, setting your bill to whatever he likes [...] The scary thing is if you think about the power they have over your electricity. He will have power over all of your smart devices connected to the electricity. This will have more severe consequences: imagine you woke up to find you'd been robbed by a burglar who didn't have to break in. "But even if you don't have smart devices, you are still at risk. An attacker who controls the meter also controls the meter's software, allowing him to cause it to literally explode." The problems at the heart of the insecurity stem from outdated protocols, half-hearted implementations and weak design principles. To communicate with the utility company, most smart meters use GSM, the 2G mobile standard. That has a fairly well-known weakness whereby an attacker with a fake mobile tower can cause devices to "hand over" to the fake version from the real tower, simply by providing a strong signal. In GSM, devices have to authenticate with towers, but not the other way round, allowing the fake mast to send its own commands to the meter. Worse still, said Rubin, all the meters from one utility used the same hardcoded credentials. "If an attacker gains access to one meter, it gains access to them all. It is the one key to rule them all."
Microsoft

Microsoft Is No Longer Selling Any Lumia Windows Phones On Its US Store (neowin.net) 85

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-the-road dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Neowin: It seems that Lumia has reached the end of the line, as the Microsoft Store is no longer selling any of the company's Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile handsets in the U.S. The first signs that the end was approaching for Lumia came back in February, when Microsoft launched the Lumia 650, which was said to be the last in the company's Lumia line. In August, Microsoft removed all mention of Windows handsets from its U.S. store homepage, relegating 'Windows phone' to a dropdown menu instead. This week, just one Lumia handset remained on sale: the ATT-locked Lumia 950, available only in white. Now, that model has sold out too, leaving none of the company's Lumia handsets available to buy on its store. The Windows phones page on the Microsoft Store lists thirteen products, but eight of these are out of stock. When more stock is expected on a temporarily sold-out product, Microsoft typically replaces the 'Add to cart' button with one that says 'Email me when available'. Instead, each of these products now has a grayed-out button, stating "Out of stock."
Businesses

The Loyalty To AMD's GPU Product Among AMD CPU Buyers Is Decreasing (parsec.tv) 157

Posted by msmash from the what's-happening dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Data from the builds on PCPartPicker show an interesting trend among the buyers of AMD CPUs. Of the 25,780 builds on PCPartPicker from the last 31 months with a price point between $450âS - $5,000, 19% included an AMD CPU. This is in-line with the Steam Hardware Surveys, but things have changed recently. Builds with AMD CPUs tend to be much less expensive than those with Intel CPUs. The builds with an AMD CPU were $967 on average versus the Intel CPU builds, which were on average $1,570. In the last 31 months, brand loyalty to AMD seemed to push AMD CPU builders to choose AMD graphics cards at a much higher rate than Intel CPU builders. 55% of machines with an AMD CPU also had an AMD GPU; whereas, only 19% of builds with an Intel CPU included an AMD GPU. In the last six months, AMD has started to lose even more ground to Intel and to Nvidia. On the CPU builds, only 10% of gamers building on PCPartPicker were opting to buy an AMD CPU. Among these, the percentage that decided to pair their AMD CPU with an AMD GPU dropped to 51%. The challenges that AMD is seeing in the overall GPU market are being felt even amongst their loyal supporters.

Slashdot Top Deals

Good day to avoid cops. Crawl to work.

Close