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+ <item>
+ <title>Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</title>
+ <link>Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 2 May 2009 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
+quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
+do not yet know them.</p>
+
+<p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
+tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
+It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
+and it will report any problems on stdout. It is even better if the
+program include debug information. With debug information, it is able
+to report the source file name and line number where the problem
+occurs. It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
+X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
+'using uninitialised value in control logic'. This tool has made it
+trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
+reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
+
+<p>The second one is
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
+a source code checker. It is able to process the source of a program
+and find problems in the logic without running the program. It
+started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
+used to find bugs in the Linux kernel. It is now a commercial tool
+and the company behind it is running
+<a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
+free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
+their source checked for free. Several thousand defects have been
+found and fixed so far. It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
+X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
+Y lines O to P can never be executed'. The projects included in the
+community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
+reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
+
+<p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
+errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
+make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
+surrounded by today.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>No patch is not better than a useless patch</title>
+ <link>No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Julien Blache
+<a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
+patch is better than a useless patch</a>. I completely disagree, as a
+patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
+prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
+time on fixing it. No patch do not provide any of these positive
+properties.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>EU-parlamentet raner fellesskapet for musikk</title>
+ <link>EU_parlamentet_raner_fellesskapet_for_musikk.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">EU_parlamentet_raner_fellesskapet_for_musikk.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sun, 26 Apr 2009 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Slashdot melder at EU-parlamentet har vedtatt
+<a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/058-54192-111-04-17-909-20090422IPR54191-21-04-2009-2009-false/default_en.htm">å
+øke vernetiden for musikkopptak fra 50 til 70 år</a>, og dermed rane
+fellesskapet for 20 år med musikk som ville vært tilgjengelig uten
+bruksbegresninger. Mon tro hvor mye musikk som vil gå tapt pga. at
+ingen tar vare på den (opphavsrettsinnehaver er forsvunnet), mens
+ingen andre har lov til å kopiere og distribuere den. Mon tro hvor
+mange musikkstykker som ikke kan brukes uten bruksbegresninger av
+folket, som skulle falt i det fri men som i stedet forblir under
+rettighetshavers monopol. Opphavsrettslovgivingen blir mer og mer
+urimelig. Tenke seg til at vernetiden startet i USA med 7 år og
+mulighet for forlengelse med 7 år. Nå er den 95 år der, og en stor
+mengde verk blir foreldreløse og umulig å få tak i. Har ikke lykkes
+med å finne ut hvor lang opphavsretten var i utgangspunktet i Norge.
+I dag er den 70 år.</p>
+
+<p>Jeg er glad det finnes <a href="http://www.jamendo.com/">så mye
+musikk tilgjengelig uten bruksbegresninger</a> at en kan klare seg
+uten musikk med bruksbegresninger.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Hvor flyter Microsofts penger?</title>
+ <link>Hvor_flyter_Microsofts_penger_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">Hvor_flyter_Microsofts_penger_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description>
+<p>Dagens nyhet er at omsetningen til Microsoft for første gang er
+synkende. Ikke spesielt uventet med den generelle nedgangen i
+økonomien som vi ser verden over. Det fikk meg dog til å tenke på en
+ting fra noen år tilbake.</p>
+
+<p>Da jeg besøkte en kamerat i Beijing sommeren 2000, ble jeg fortalt
+at påstanden til Microsoft om at de brakte inn enorme pengesummer til
+USA nok var litt overdrevet, da de fleste inntektene fra lisenssalg
+rundt om i verden ble kanalisert inn til skatteparadiset
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands">Cayman
+Island</a>. Jeg har aldri lykkes med å få bekreftet dette påstanden,
+men tok i dag en titt på hvilke selskaper som eier de norske delene av
+Microsoft som jeg kjenner til, dvs.
+<a href="http://www.proff.no/proff/search/companyRoles.c?freeText=microsoft&bc=0&c=Z001YP4Y&org=957485030">Microsoft
+Norge AS</a> og
+<a href="http://www.proff.no/proff/search/companyRoles.c?freeText=fast&bc=348&c=Z0HR5KDT&org=979158831">FAST,
+A Microsoft Subsidiary</a> (tidligere FAST Search & Transfer ASA).</p>
+
+<p>Førstnevnte er eid av "Microsoft International Holdings Spain
+S.R.L.", mens sistnevnte i følge Wikipedia nå eies av
+Microsoft-underselskapet "MACS Holdings Limited". Jeg har ikke klart
+å finne mer informasjon om noen av disse. Mon tro om noen av dem
+sender pengene til Cayman Island? Finner det jeg tror er
+<a href="http://www.informacion-empresas.com/Empresa_MICROSOFT-INTERNATIONAL-HOLDINGS-SPAIN.html">informasjon
+om spaniaselskapet på spansk</a>, men jeg kan ikke lese spansk. :(</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Hvorfor jeg ikke bruker eFaktura</title>
<link>Hvorfor_jeg_ikke_bruker_eFaktura.html</link>
digitalt tilgjengelig fra nasjonalbiblioteket mot at Kopinor får 56
øre for hver side som legges ut. Utvalget er litt merkelig: 1790-,
1890- og 1990-tallet. Jeg synes det er absurd hvis det er slik at
-Kopinor skal ha betalt for utlegging av bøker som ikke legger er
+Kopinor skal ha betalt for utlegging av bøker som ikke lenger er
beskyttet av opphavsretten. Jeg antar her at det er mer enn 90 år
siden forfatterne av bøker som ble publisert 1790-1799 døde, slik at
disse bøkene er falt i det fri og enhver kan kopiere så mye de vil fra
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>Recording video from cron using VLC</title>
- <link>Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sun, 5 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
-run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net. The
-task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
-of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
-vlc. I finally found a way to do it today. I spent an hour or so
-searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation. The
-hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
-dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
-SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
-DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
- --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
- --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
-duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
-dummy interface. The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
-sure no X interface is needed.</p>
-
-<p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
-and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
-the vlc process with SIGTERM. Here is a complete script
-<tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
-set -e
-URL="$1"
-SAVEFILE="$2"
-DURATION="$3"
-DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
- --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
- --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
-pid=$!
-sleep $DURATION
-kill $pid
-wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</title>
- <link>Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
-very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure. It is the
-simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
-open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
-Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
-thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
-avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
-application.</p>
-
-<p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
-independently of the server applications. One can even allow users to
-use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
-protocol and format. In the normal case, only one client application
-is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
-application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
-blocked from doing so.</p>
-
-<p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
-users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
-best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
-requirements change.</p>
-
-<p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
-open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
-application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</title>
- <link>Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
-Edu/Skolelinux development gathering. I got a bit done tuning the
-desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
-implementation avahi. It look like it could be useful for us. Almost
-30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
-get to know the Skolelinux system. Walter Bender, involved in the
-development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
-also helped me improve my OLPC installation. He also showed me that
-his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
-agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian. As a
-standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu. We also
-tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
-proved to be too hard for us. The application seem to need more work
-before it is ready for me. I look forward to getting home and relax
-now. :)</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Time for new LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</title>
- <link>Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
-optimal. There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
-LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
-some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory. The RFC
-specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
-not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
-
-<p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
-we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
-filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
-and LTSP configuration in LDAP. These objects have a lot in common,
-but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
-object per entity. For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
-objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
-DNS information and another with DHCP information. The schemas
-provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
-object. In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
-netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
-It just do not scale. I believe it is time for a few RFC
-specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
-
-<p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
-the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
-(mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
-It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
-
-<p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
-computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
-
-<p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
-in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up. Time to start a
-new IETF work group?</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
</channel>
</rss>
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