Microsoft had its Windows 11 unveiling last night. The leaked screenshots were legit and that's what we saw in the live stream. The only other "big" feautre besides the reheated interface and the usual faster/bigger/small tweaks that come with a major OS update is the Microsoft Store supporting Android apps. Some things people may not like about the Windows 11 update is that it'll be mandatory for Home edition users to create and sign-in with a Microsoft account (it's been optional in Windows 10) and that to upgrade to Windows 11, your PC needs a TPM 2.0 module - a feature not many custom built or slightly older PCs have. Windows 11 will be a "free upgrade for eligible Windows 10 PCs and on new PCs beginning this holiday" (aka December/Jan). The full "2021 Microsoft Windows Event" is on YouTube and the official Windows blog has a detailed post.
Western Digital's MyBook Live ethernet connected HDD/NAS units are deleting all their data and WD doesn't know why. It appears to be some sort of internet worm, taking advantage of a flaw in the MyBook Live's firmware, finding devices accessible via the internet and wiping the disk clean for laughs. WD's fix for this problem is to unplug the drive from any networks while they figure out what's happening. For what it's worth, the MyBook Live hasn't received any updates since 2015 - which is probably why someone is able to fuck with it. RIP to those who didn't have backups of that data.
The Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (International Production Orders) Bill passed both houses of Parliament quietly last night. This law will allow US law enforcement (and other countries in the future should we let them) to directly access Australian communications data and vice versa. The law is designed the FBI, for example, could demand an Australian company, say, Fastmail, hand over data it has on a US citizen, without the red tape. It also allows Australian cops to ask US companies like Google perhaps, for data they have on an Australian citizen currently under investigation. Over 500 amendments were made to the law before it was presented to Parliament, but it was voted on by the Liberals and ALP with no debate. That's a huge law with a massive amount of changes previously unseen by anyone except a few spooks.
HiFiBerryOS is a minimal Linux distro designed for audio playback. Chuck it on a Raspberry Pi, plug some speakers into it (either via the 3.5mm output, HDMI output or a USB sound device like a DAC) and HiFiBerryOS turns that computer into a digital jukebox. Stream to it over AirPlay or Bluetooth, make it a Spotify playback device or log in to its web interface to play back local files stored on the Pi itself. There's even a rather fancy DSP built-in to tweak your speaker setup. Impressive piece of software.
📻 WAXIT - Dennis Cometti
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