</div>
<div class="padding"></div>
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 1st June 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>A few years ago I wrote
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
+to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers. Recently
+I have learned from colleges here at the
+<a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
+made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service. Given
+the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
+readable information about the support status. This perl code
+demonstrate how to do it:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+use SOAP::Lite;
+use Data::Dumper;
+my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
+my $App = 'test';
+my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
+my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
+my $s = SOAP::Lite
+ -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
+ -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
+ -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
+ ;
+my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
+ SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
+ SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
+ SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
+);
+print Dumper($a -> result) ;
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>The output can look like this:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+$VAR1 = {
+ 'Asset' => {
+ 'Entitlements' => {
+ 'EntitlementData' => [
+ {
+ 'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+ 'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'Provider' => '',
+ 'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'DaysLeft' => '0'
+ },
+ {
+ 'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+ 'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'Provider' => '',
+ 'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'DaysLeft' => '0'
+ },
+ {
+ 'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
+ 'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'Provider' => '',
+ 'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
+ 'DaysLeft' => '0'
+ }
+ ]
+ },
+ 'AssetHeaderData' => {
+ 'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
+ 'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
+ 'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
+ 'Buid' => '2323',
+ 'Region' => 'Europe',
+ 'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
+ 'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
+ }
+ }
+ };
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
+service outside the
+<a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
+documentation</a>, and according to
+<a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
+comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
+scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
+
+<p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service. If
+you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 2nd June 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
+<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
+mailing list. He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
+thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
+<a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
+Squeeze</a> version.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
+Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
+(Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
+by Angela).</p>
+
+<p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
+and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
+touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
+the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
+becoming an osteopath.</p>
+
+<p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
+have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
+introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
+"IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
+skills with communication skills.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
+"IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
+reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
+people said. From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
+distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
+
+<p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
+commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
+Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
+went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
+and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
+got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
+attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
+the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
+
+<p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
+people. People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
+protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
+
+<p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
+
+<p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
+bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
+by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
+whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
+IT solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
+customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
+possible. In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
+standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
+degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
+locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
+all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
+for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
+has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
+of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
+tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
+
+<p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
+defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
+Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
+equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
+teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
+spare time.</p>
+
+<p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
+networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
+here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
+teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
+non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
+
+<p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
+class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
+avoidance do exist.</p>
+
+<p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
+social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
+for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
+several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
+they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
+at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
+and probably a gain for all.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
+any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
+the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
+workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
+project communication, honest communication within the group of
+developers, etc.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
+
+<p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
+#311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
+client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
+should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
+about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
+several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
+contribute).</p>
+
+<p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
+find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
+Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
+promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
+there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
+these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
+all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
+meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
+there being rather disconnected from the development department of
+Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
+
+<p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
+serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
+more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
+
+<p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
+development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
+PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
+is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
+
+<p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
+as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
+I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
+the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
+whiteboard.</p>
+
+<p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
+enrol people.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kommentar_til_artikkel_i_Adresseavisa_som_omtaler_FiksGataMi.html">Kommentar til artikkel i Adresseavisa som omtaler FiksGataMi</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 2nd June 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Jeg oppdaget nylig en
+<a href="http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/trondheim/article1831198.ece">artikkel
+i Adresseavisa</a> i Trondheim som nevner FiksGataMi, og der Trondheim
+kommune ser ut til å fortelle at de ikke følger forvaltningslovens
+krav ved mottak av meldinger sendt inn via FiksGataMi. La derfor
+nettopp inn denne kommentaren til artikkelen:<p>
+
+<p><blockquote>
+
+<p>Her er en liten faktaoppdatering om FiksGataMi-tjenesten, da noen
+ser ut til å ha misforstått hvordan den fungerer.</p>
+
+<p>FiksGataMi er et privat initiativ opprettet og drevet av
+medlemsforeningen NUUG. FiksGataMi tar imot meldinger om feil i
+offentlig infrastruktur, og sender meldingen skriftlig videre på vegne
+av innmelder til aktuell aktør i det offentlige, det være seg kommune,
+fylke eller vegvesenregion. Offentlig etat blir valgt ut fra
+geografisk plassering og kategori valgt av innsender. Offentlige
+etater er i følge forvaltningsloven pliktig å følge opp og besvare
+skriftlige henvendelser, og hvis noen av mottakerne ikke gjør dette
+kan en klage på lovbrudd i det offentlige. FiksGataMi fungerer dermed
+som en slags epostklient for innbyggerne der kopi av innsendte
+meldinger gjøres tilgjengelig og knyttes til kartplassering for enkel
+gjenfinning. Å sende inn nye problemrapporter via FiksGataMi er
+dermed ikke avhengig av at kommunen aktivt må følge med på meldinger
+hos FiksGataMi, da de får dem tilsendt på sine offisielle
+epostmottakspunkter. Hvorvidt noe blir fikset og om innbyggerne er
+opp til mottaker av meldingene. For Trondheim kommune er
+mottaksadressen bydrift.vegdrift@trondheim.kommune.no, en adresse jeg
+inntil jeg leste denne artikkelen trodde ble håndtert i henhold til
+forvaltningslovens krav.</p>
+
+<p>Kan ellers fortelle at 57 kommuner lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine
+nettsider, og at 37 % (4182 av 11266 ) av problemrapportene sendt inn
+via FiksGataMi er markert som løst i løsningen. Trondheim kommune har
+fått tilbud om å få rapportene levert på datamaskinlesbart format i
+stedet for epost, men har ikke takket ja så langt.</p>
+
+<p>Vennlig hilsen Petter Reinholdtsen, en av NUUG-folkene bak FiksGataMi.no</p>
+
+</blockquote></p>
+
+<p>Det høres for meg ut som om innbyggerne i Trondheim burde klage på
+kommunens potensielle lovbrudd.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html">Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 6th June 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>A few days ago
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
+reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
+unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
+<a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
+by Daniel De Marco in february</a>. Combined with my web scraping
+code for HP, Dell and IBM
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
+2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
+<a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
+web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
+support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
+
+<p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
+output:
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+% GET <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1">https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1</a>
+supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
+%
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
+support for other vendors. The python source is available on
+Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
+ <div class="entry">
+ <div class="title">
+ <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</a>
+ </div>
+ <div class="date">
+ 9th June 2012
+ </div>
+ <div class="body">
+ <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
+<a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year">TV
+with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
+me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
+recognition on the TV image itself. It could let the viewer know who
+is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
+company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
+evaluate what is being said and done. That would be a feature I would
+be willing to pay for.</p>
+
+<p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
+household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
+It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
+<a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
+Orwell</a>.</p>
+
+ </div>
+ <div class="tags">
+
+
+ Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
+
+
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <div class="padding"></div>
+
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="06.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
<div id="sidebar">
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
-<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (1)</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (6)</a></li>
</ul></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (54)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (102)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (103)</a></li>
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+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (134)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (15)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (16)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (26)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (27)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (16)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (16)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (168)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (169)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (127)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (129)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
- <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (9)</a></li>
+ <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (10)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (6)</a></li>
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