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   5   <title>Petter Reinholdtsen</title>
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  12  <div class="title">
  13   <h1>
  14        <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16   </h1>
  17
  18  </div>
  19
  20
  21
  22  <div class="entry">
  23   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/St__tte_for_forskjellige_kamera_ikoner_p___overv__kningskamerakartet.html">Støtte for forskjellige kamera-ikoner på overvåkningskamerakartet</a></div>
  24   <div class="date">2011-01-02 11:05</div>
  25   <div class="body">
  26 <p>I dag har jeg justert litt på kartet over overvåkningskamera, og
  27 laget støtte for å gi fotobokser (automatisk trafikk-kontroll) og
  28 andre overvåkningskamera forskjellige symboler på kartet, slik at det
  29 er enklere å se forskjell på kamera som vegvesenet kontrollerer og
  30 andre kamera.  Resultatet er lagt ut på
  31 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/surveillance-norway/">kartet
  32 over overvåkningskamera i Norge</a>.  Det er nå 93 fotobokser og 80
  33 andre kamera på kartet, totalt 173 kamera.  Takk til de 26 stykkene
  34 som har bidratt til kamerainformasjonen så langt.</p>
  35 </div>
  36   <div class="tags">
  37
  38
  39
  40    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
  41
  42   </div>
  43  </div>
  44  <div class="padding"></div>
  45
  46  <div class="entry">
  47   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a></div>
  48   <div class="date">2010-12-30 23:15</div>
  49   <div class="body">
  50 <p>After trying to
  51 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
  52 Ogg Theora</a> to
  53 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
  54 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
  55 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
  56 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
  57 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
  58 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
  59 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
  60
  61 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
  62 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
  63 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
  64 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
  65 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
  66 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
  67 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
  68
  69 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
  70 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
  71 </div>
  72   <div class="tags">
  73
  74
  75
  76    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
  77
  78   </div>
  79  </div>
  80  <div class="padding"></div>
  81
  82  <div class="entry">
  83   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a></div>
  84   <div class="date">2010-12-27 14:45</div>
  85   <div class="body">
  86 <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
  87 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
  88 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
  89 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
  90 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
  91 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
  92 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
  93 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
  94
  95 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
  96 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
  97 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
  98 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
  99 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
 100 page</a>.</p>
 101
 102 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
 103 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
 104 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
 105 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
 106 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
 107 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
 108 specification on equal terms.</p>
 109
 110 <blockquote>
 111
 112 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
 113 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
 114 open standard:</p>
 115
 116 <ul>
 117
 118 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
 119 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
 120 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
 121 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
 122
 123 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
 124 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
 125 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
 126 nominal fee.</li>
 127
 128 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
 129 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
 130 free basis.</li>
 131
 132 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
 133
 134 </ul>
 135 </blockquote>
 136
 137 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
 138 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
 139 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
 140 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
 141 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
 142 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
 143 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
 144
 145 <blockquote>
 146
 147 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
 148
 149 <ol>
 150
 151 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
 152 tilgængelig.</li>
 153
 154 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
 155 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
 156
 157 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
 158 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
 159
 160 </ol>
 161
 162 </blockquote>
 163
 164 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
 165 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
 166
 167 <blockquote>
 168
 169 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
 170
 171 <ol>
 172
 173 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
 174 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
 175
 176 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
 177 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
 178 Standard themselves;</li>
 179
 180 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
 181 any party or in any business model;</li>
 182
 183 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
 184 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
 185 parties;</li>
 186
 187 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
 188 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
 189 parties.</li>
 190
 191 </ol>
 192
 193 </blockquote>
 194
 195 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
 196 its
 197 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
 198 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
 199
 200 <blockquote>
 201 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
 202
 203 <ul>
 204
 205 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
 206   democratic:
 207
 208          <ul>
 209
 210          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
 211             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
 212             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
 213             and managed.</li>
 214
 215          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
 216             method, can be changed through input from all
 217             participants.</li>
 218
 219          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
 220             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
 221
 222          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
 223             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
 224
 225          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
 226             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
 227             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
 228
 229          </ul>
 230
 231 </li>
 232
 233 </ul>
 234
 235 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
 236 <ul>
 237
 238 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
 239   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
 240   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
 241   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
 242   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
 243
 244 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
 245   a technical or economic barriers</li>
 246
 247 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
 248   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
 249   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
 250   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
 251   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
 252   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
 253   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
 254   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
 255   intended to function.</li>
 256
 257 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
 258   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
 259   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
 260
 261 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
 262   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
 263   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
 264   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
 265   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
 266   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
 267   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
 268   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
 269
 270       <ul>
 271
 272       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
 273         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
 274         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
 275
 276       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
 277         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
 278         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
 279         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
 280
 281       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
 282         licensor</li>
 283
 284       </ul>
 285 </li>
 286
 287 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
 288   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
 289   or restricted licensing terms</li>
 290
 291 </ul>
 292
 293 </blockquote>
 294
 295 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
 296 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
 297 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
 298 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
 299 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
 300 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
 301 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
 302 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
 303 Standards.</p>
 304 </div>
 305   <div class="tags">
 306
 307
 308
 309    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 310
 311   </div>
 312  </div>
 313  <div class="padding"></div>
 314
 315  <div class="entry">
 316   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a></div>
 317   <div class="date">2010-12-25 20:25</div>
 318   <div class="body">
 319 <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
 320 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
 321
 322 <blockquote>
 323
 324 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
 325 as follows:</p>
 326
 327 <ol>
 328
 329 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
 330 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
 331 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
 332
 333 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
 334 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
 335 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
 336 parties.</li>
 337
 338 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
 339 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
 340 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
 341
 342 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
 343 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
 344
 345 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
 346
 347 </ol>
 348
 349 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
 350 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
 351 products based on the standard.</p>
 352 </blockquote>
 353
 354 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
 355 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
 356 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
 357 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
 358 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
 359 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
 360 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
 361 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
 362
 363 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
 364
 365 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
 366 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
 367 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
 368 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
 369 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
 370 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
 371 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
 372 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
 373 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
 374 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
 375 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
 376 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
 377 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
 378 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
 379
 380 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
 381
 382 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
 383 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
 384 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
 385 documentation indicating this.</p>
 386
 387 <p>According to
 388 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
 389 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
 390 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
 391 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
 392 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
 393 report is correct.</p>
 394
 395 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
 396
 397 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
 398 container format</a> and both the
 399 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
 400 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
 401 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
 402
 403 <blockquote>
 404
 405 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
 406 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
 407 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
 408 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
 409 specification compliance.
 410
 411 </blockquote>
 412
 413 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
 414 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
 415 this is the term:<p>
 416
 417 <blockquote>
 418
 419 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
 420 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
 421 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
 422 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
 423 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
 424 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
 425 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
 426 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
 427 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
 428 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
 429 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
 430 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
 431
 432 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
 433 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
 434 </blockquote>
 435
 436 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
 437 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
 438 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
 439 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
 440 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
 441
 442 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
 443
 444 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
 445 Theora format.
 446 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
 447 and
 448 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
 449 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
 450 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
 451 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
 452 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
 453 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
 454 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
 455 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
 456
 457 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
 458
 459 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
 460
 461 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
 462
 463 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
 464 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
 465 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
 466 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
 467 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
 468 this.</p>
 469
 470 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
 471 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
 472 </div>
 473   <div class="tags">
 474
 475
 476
 477    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
 478
 479   </div>
 480  </div>
 481  <div class="padding"></div>
 482
 483  <div class="entry">
 484   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a></div>
 485   <div class="date">2010-12-25 10:50</div>
 486   <div class="body">
 487 <p>A few days ago
 488 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
 489 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
 490 2.0 of
 491 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
 492 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
 493 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
 494 Nothing very surprising there, given
 495 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
 496 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
 497 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
 498 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
 499 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
 500 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
 501 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
 502 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
 503 standard definition from its content.</p>
 504
 505 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
 506 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
 507 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
 508 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
 509 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
 510 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
 511 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
 512 background information about that story is available in
 513 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
 514 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
 515
 516 <blockquote>
 517 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
 518 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
 519 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
 520
 521 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
 522
 523 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
 524
 525 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
 526
 527 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
 528
 529 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
 530
 531 <p>
 532 <ul>
 533 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
 534 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
 535 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
 536 </ul>
 537 </p>
 538
 539 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
 540
 541 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
 542
 543 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
 544
 545 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
 546
 547 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
 548
 549
 550 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
 551 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
 552 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
 553 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
 554 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
 555 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
 556
 557 </p>
 558
 559 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
 560
 561 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
 562
 563 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
 564
 565 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
 566
 567 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
 568
 569 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
 570
 571 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
 572
 573 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
 574
 575 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
 576
 577 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
 578
 579 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
 580
 581 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
 582
 583 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
 584
 585 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
 586
 587 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
 588
 589 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
 590
 591 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
 592
 593 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
 594
 595 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
 596
 597 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
 598
 599 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
 600
 601 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
 602
 603 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
 604
 605 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
 606
 607 <p>On security:</p>
 608
 609 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
 610
 611 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
 612
 613 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
 614
 615 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
 616
 617 A<p>s you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
 618
 619 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
 620
 621 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
 622
 623 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
 624
 625 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
 626
 627 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
 628
 629 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
 630
 631 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
 632
 633 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
 634
 635 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
 636
 637 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
 638
 639 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
 640
 641 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
 642
 643 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
 644
 645 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
 646
 647 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
 648
 649 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
 650
 651 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
 652
 653 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
 654
 655 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
 656
 657 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
 658
 659 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
 660
 661 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
 662
 663 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
 664
 665 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
 666
 667 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
 668
 669 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
 670
 671 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
 672
 673 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
 674
 675 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
 676
 677 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
 678
 679 <p>Cordially,<br>
 680 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
 681 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
 682 </blockquote>
 683 </div>
 684   <div class="tags">
 685
 686
 687
 688    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 689
 690   </div>
 691  </div>
 692  <div class="padding"></div>
 693
 694  <div class="entry">
 695   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a></div>
 696   <div class="date">2010-12-25 09:40</div>
 697   <div class="body">
 698 <p>Half a year ago I
 699 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
 700 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
 701 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
 702 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
 703
 704 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
 705 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
 706 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
 707 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
 708 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
 709 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
 710 got such a great test tool available.</p>
 711 </div>
 712   <div class="tags">
 713
 714
 715
 716    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 717
 718   </div>
 719  </div>
 720  <div class="padding"></div>
 721
 722  <div class="entry">
 723   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv__kningskamera_registert_s___langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html">165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</a></div>
 724   <div class="date">2010-12-24 11:20</div>
 725   <div class="body">
 726 <p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
 727 tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
 728 overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
 729 i Norge som
 730 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
 731 laget</a> for snart to år siden.  Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
 732 man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
 733 med highway=speed_camera.  Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
 734 fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
 735
 736 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
 737 er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
 738 legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
 739 <a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
 740 Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
 741 kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
 742 </div>
 743   <div class="tags">
 744
 745
 746
 747    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
 748
 749   </div>
 750  </div>
 751  <div class="padding"></div>
 752
 753  <div class="entry">
 754   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a></div>
 755   <div class="date">2010-12-22 14:55</div>
 756   <div class="body">
 757 <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
 758 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of oslo</a> testing if the new
 759 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
 760 years the university have organized shared bid of a few thousand
 761 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
 762 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
 763 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
 764 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
 765 university.</p>
 766
 767 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
 768 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
 769 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
 770 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
 771 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
 772 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
 773 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
 774 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
 775
 776 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
 777 I perform on a new model.</p>
 778
 779 <ul>
 780
 781 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
 782 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
 783 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
 784
 785 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
 786 installation, X.org is working.</li>
 787
 788 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
 789 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
 790 reported by the program.</li>
 791
 792 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
 793 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
 794 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
 795 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
 796 normally test this by playing
 797 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
 798 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
 799
 800 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
 801 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
 802
 803 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
 804 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
 805
 806 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
 807 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
 808
 809 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
 810 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
 811 few.</li>
 812
 813 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
 814 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
 815 notice this.</li>
 816
 817 <li>For laptops, is suspecd/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
 818 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
 819 resume.</li>
 820
 821 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
 822 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
 823 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
 824 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
 825 not.</li>
 826
 827 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
 828 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
 829 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
 830 existence.</li>
 831
 832 </ul>
 833
 834 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
 835 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
 836 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
 837 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
 838 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
 839 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
 840 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the framerate than
 841 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
 842 </div>
 843   <div class="tags">
 844
 845
 846
 847    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 848
 849   </div>
 850  </div>
 851  <div class="padding"></div>
 852
 853  <div class="entry">
 854   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a></div>
 855   <div class="date">2010-12-11 15:10</div>
 856   <div class="body">
 857 <p>As I continue to explore
 858 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
 859 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
 860 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
 861
 862 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
 863 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
 864 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
 865 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
 866 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
 867 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
 868 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
 869 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
 870 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
 871 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
 872 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
 873 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
 874 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
 875 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
 876 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
 877 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
 878 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
 879 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
 880 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
 881 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
 882
 883 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
 884 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
 885 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
 886 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
 887 If the Skolelinux foundation
 888 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
 889 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
 890 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
 891 Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
 892 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
 893 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
 894 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
 895 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
 896
 897 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
 898 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
 899 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
 900 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
 901 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
 902 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
 903 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
 904 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
 905 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
 906 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
 907 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
 908 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
 909 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
 910 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
 911 currencies.</p>
 912
 913 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
 914 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
 915 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
 916 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
 917 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
 918 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
 919 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
 920 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
 921 BitCoins.  Check out
 922 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
 923 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
 924 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
 925 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
 926 yet.</p>
 927
 928 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
 929 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
 930 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
 931 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
 932 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
 933 </div>
 934   <div class="tags">
 935
 936
 937
 938    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 939
 940   </div>
 941  </div>
 942  <div class="padding"></div>
 943
 944  <div class="entry">
 945   <div class="title"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html">Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</a></div>
 946   <div class="date">2010-12-11 10:45</div>
 947   <div class="body">
 948 <p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
 949 blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
 950 <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
 951 artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
 952 det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
 953 med tittelen
 954 "<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
 955 evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
 956 characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
 957 <a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
 958 som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
 959 produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre.  Kort
 960 sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten.  Reisende må altså la ansatte på
 961 flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
 962 nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn.  Jeg vil
 963 fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
 964 de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
 965 kan.</p>
 966 </div>
 967   <div class="tags">
 968
 969
 970
 971    Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
 972
 973   </div>
 974  </div>
 975  <div class="padding"></div>
 976
 977  <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="index.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS feed" width="36" height="14"></a></p>
 978
 979 <div id="sidebar">
 980
 981
 982
 983
 984
 985 <h2>Archive</h2>
 986 <ul>
 987
 988 <li>2011
 989 <ul>
 990
 991 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (1)</a></li>
 992
 993 </ul></li>
 994
 995 <li>2010
 996 <ul>
 997
 998 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 999
1000 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
1001
1002 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
1003
1004 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
1005
1006 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1007
1008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
1009
1010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
1011
1012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
1013
1014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
1015
1016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
1017
1018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
1019
1020 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
1021
1022 </ul></li>
1023
1024 <li>2009
1025 <ul>
1026
1027 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
1028
1029 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
1030
1031 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
1032
1033 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
1034
1035 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1036
1037 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
1038
1039 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
1040
1041 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
1042
1043 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
1044
1045 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1046
1047 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1048
1049 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
1050
1051 </ul></li>
1052
1053 <li>2008
1054 <ul>
1055
1056 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
1057
1058 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
1059
1060 </ul></li>
1061
1062 </ul>
1063
1064
1065
1066 <h2>Tags</h2>
1067 <ul>
1068
1069  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
1070
1071  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
1072
1073  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
1074
1075  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
1076
1077  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (10)</a></li>
1078
1079  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (46)</a></li>
1080
1081  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (53)</a></li>
1082
1083  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (82)</a></li>
1084
1085  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (1)</a></li>
1086
1087  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (11)</a></li>
1088
1089  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (5)</a></li>
1090
1091  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
1092
1093  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
1094
1095  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
1096
1097  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (11)</a></li>
1098
1099  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (95)</a></li>
1100
1101  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (114)</a></li>
1102
1103  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (18)</a></li>
1104
1105  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (32)</a></li>
1106
1107  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
1108
1109  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
1110
1111  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
1112
1113  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (22)</a></li>
1114
1115  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (3)</a></li>
1116
1117  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (21)</a></li>
1118
1119  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
1120
1121  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (17)</a></li>
1122
1123  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
1124
1125  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (14)</a></li>
1126
1127 </ul>
1128
1129 </div>
1130
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