Ubuntu, Apache, PCLinuxOS, and More

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 20, 2023

• Ubuntu Blog: Unravelling complexity in software-defined vehicles

  Software-defined: an industry U-turn

  With the advent of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), cars are rapidly evolving to become more connected, autonomous, shared, and electric. These four features have eventually become so prominent that everyone in the industry can recognise them as the popular acronym CASE. 

  Constantly growing customer expectations also drive the SDV concept and impose challenges both on automotive hardware and software. To accommodate CASE trends and consumer needs, traditional vehicle architectures need revisiting and redesigning. Along with many other requirements, the new architecture must ensure upgradability, performance, and security.

• The long life of Apache httpd 2.4

  This isn't entirely new in the Apache (httpd) project, since the initial releases of 2.2 and 2.4 were almost seven years apart, but it still feels like we've been using Apache 2.4 forever and are going to keep on using it for the foreseeable future. This isn't particularly a bad thing; for example, I've certainly got a lot of use over the years out of Apache 2.4 expertise. But it does feel a little bit peculiar that such a core part of the web has stayed so stable for so long (I know that Apache is no longer the trendy web server, but we love it and I think it's still reasonably commonly used).

• [PCLinuxOS] Screenshot Showcase

• [PCLinuxOS] From The Chief Editor's Desk...

  I've discussed my son, Ryan, before in this magazine. In my article in November 2020, I laid out the challenges he faces. He continues to improve in all aspects of his "challenges." Just get him talking about Transformers, Minecraft, or Sonic the Hedgehog, and he'll talk your ears off. You'll probably learn WAY more than you ever thought possible and more than you probably wanted to know about any of those topics. His reading is coming along fantastically, although we are now focused on improving reading comprehension. Math remains his favorite school subject. His new favorite reading material involves the graphic novel adventures of Dog Man and Cat Kid.

• Prompt Injection: An AI-Targeted Attack

  For a brief window of time in the mid-2010s, a fairly common joke was to send voice commands to Alexa or other assistant devices over video. Late-night hosts and others would purposefully attempt to activate voice assistants like these en masse and get them to do ridiculous things. This isn’t quite as common of a gag anymore and was relatively harmless unless the voice assistant was set up to do something like automatically place Amazon orders, but now that much more powerful AI tools are coming online we’re seeing that joke taken to its logical conclusion: prompt-injection attacks.