<item>
- <title>Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
-student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
-Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
-get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
-work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
-offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
-the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
-forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
-picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
-last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
-operational.</p>
-
-<p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
-and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
-forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
-<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>. I even got
-some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
-the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
-very cool 3D scanner.</p>
+ <title>What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>After trying to
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
+Ogg Theora</a> to
+<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
+definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
+to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
+this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
+the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
+JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
+reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
+
+<p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
+<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
+wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
+to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
+place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
+NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
+of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
+
+<p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
+scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b__nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b__nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 21:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/">Martin Bekkelund</a> ved
-<a href="http://www.friprog.no/">friprog-senteret</a> har skrevet
-følgende
-<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/">korte
-oppsummering</a> rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
-her.</p>
+ <title>The many definitions of a open standard</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
+"<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
+Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
+the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard" has
+become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
+about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
+one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
+de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
+
+<p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
+standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
+complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
+complete survey. More definitions are available on the
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
+page</a>.</p>
+
+<p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
+Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
+and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
+framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
+their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
+include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
+specification on equal terms.</p>
-<p><blockquote><strong>Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
-innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (<acronym
-title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>) i norsk rett. Kanskje
-har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
-tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.</strong></p>
+<blockquote>
-<p>Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
-<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> ikke bør
-innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
-er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
-store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
-hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.</p>
+<p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
+and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
+open standard:</p>
<ul>
-<li><a href="http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/">EU-ekspertene sier</a> at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf">Juristene påpeker</a> at direktivet er i strid med EMK</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/">Datatilsynet sier</a> direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld">Teknologene sier</a> at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser</li>
-<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf">Pressen sier</a> nei av hensyn til kildevernet</li>
-<li>Det er store <a href="http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html">interne</a> <a href="http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/">stridigheter</a> i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov</li>
-<li>Alle de store <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/">operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei</a>, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker</li>
-</ul>
-<p>Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
-rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
-for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
-lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
-mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
-atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.</p>
+<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
+organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
+open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
+(consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
-<p><strong>Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
-<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>.</strong></p>
+<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
+document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
+permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
+nominal fee.</li>
-<p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/">Ta kontakt med meg</a>
-hvis du har spørsmål om <acronym
-title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>, uansett hva det måtte
-gjelde.</p>
+<li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
+(parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
+free basis.</li>
-<p class="info">Denne teksten er å anse som <a
-href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/"><em>Public
-Domain</em></a>. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
-den!</p>
-</blockquote></p>
+<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
-<p>Siste <a href="http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece">melding
-fra Nettavisen</a> er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
-til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
-fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi
-får snart se om det stemmer.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>With this weeks lawless
-<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
-attacks</a> on Wikileak and
-<a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
-speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
-not be trusted to handle money transactions.
-A blog post from
-<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
-Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
-mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
-involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
-some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
-some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
-for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
+</ul>
+</blockquote>
-<p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
-crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
-networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
-control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
-and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
-source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
-for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
-line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
-<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
-Debian</a> soon.</p>
+<p>Another one originates from my friends over at
+<a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
+support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
+definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
+<a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
+definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
+the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
-<p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
-There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
-bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
-currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
-are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
-want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
-you can even get
-<a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
-bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
-<a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
-on the current exchange rates.</p>
+<blockquote>
-<p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
-machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
-donations to the address
-<b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
-blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
-<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
-artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
-det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
-med tittelen
-"<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
-evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
-characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
-<a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
-som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
-produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort
-sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på
-flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
-nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn. Jeg vil
-fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
-de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
-kan.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>As I continue to explore
-<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
-what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
-and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
+<p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
-<p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
-verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
-is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
-published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
-possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
-that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
-all transactions. There I can see that my address
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
-have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
-address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
-<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
-of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
-every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
-fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
-address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
-generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
-there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
-organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
-themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
+<ol>
-<p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
-regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
-without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
-laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
-If the Skolelinux foundation
-(<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
-Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
-normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
-Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
-not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
-should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
-income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
-BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
+<li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
+tilgængelig.</li>
-<p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
-accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
-the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
-easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
-access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
-a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
-so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
-would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
-and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
-if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
-to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
-will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
-probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
-believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
-currencies.</p>
+<li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
+begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
-<p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
-CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
-competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
-to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
-BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
-join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
-by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
-and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
-BitCoins. Check out
-<a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
-if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
-machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
-own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
-yet.</p>
+<li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
+"standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
-<p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
-href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
-criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
-it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
-equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
-href="http://www.uio.no/">University of oslo</a> testing if the new
-batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
-years the university have organized shared bid of a few thousand
-computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
-five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
-group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
-and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
-university.</p>
+</ol>
-<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
-perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
-install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
-a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
-something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
-on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
-vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
-have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
+</blockquote>
-<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
-I perform on a new model.</p>
+<p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
+definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
-<ul>
+<blockquote>
-<li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
-and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
-RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
+<p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
-<li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
-installation, X.org is working.</li>
+<ol>
-<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
-package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
-reported by the program.</li>
+<li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
+manner equally available to all parties;</li>
-<li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
-logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
-are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
-the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
-normally test this by playing
-<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
-video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
+<li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
+formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
+Standard themselves;</li>
-<li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
-memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+<li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
+any party or in any business model;</li>
-<li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
-I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
+<li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
+in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
+parties;</li>
-<li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
-picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
+<li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
+vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
+parties.</li>
-<li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
-any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
-few.</li>
+</ol>
-<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
-memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
-notice this.</li>
+</blockquote>
-<li>For laptops, is suspecd/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
-special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
-resume.</li>
+<p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
+its
+<a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
+Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
-<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
-adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
-switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
-laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
-not.</li>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
-<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
-acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
-to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
-existence.</li>
+<ul>
+
+<li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
+ democratic:
+
+ <ul>
+
+ <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
+ participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
+ imposed by the organization under which it is developed
+ and managed.</li>
+
+ <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
+ method, can be changed through input from all
+ participants.</li>
+
+ <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
+ the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
+
+ <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
+ and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
+
+ <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
+ public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
+ comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
+
+ </ul>
+
+</li>
</ul>
-<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
-for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
-the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
-fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
-and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
-can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
-observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the framerate than
-RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
- <item>
- <title>165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv__kningskamera_registert_s___langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv__kningskamera_registert_s___langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
-tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
-overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
-i Norge som
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
-laget</a> for snart to år siden. Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
-man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
-med highway=speed_camera. Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
-fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
+<p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
+<ul>
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
-er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
-legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
-<a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
-Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
-kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
+<li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
+ and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
+ implementations to the interface described in the standard without
+ undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
+ protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
+
+<li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
+ a technical or economic barriers</li>
+
+<li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
+ interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
+ program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
+ programs and mutually to use the information which has been
+ exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
+ file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
+ conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
+ computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
+ intended to function.</li>
+
+<li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
+ standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
+ must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
+
+<li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
+ fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
+ perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
+ sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
+ terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
+ outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
+ patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
+ only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
+
+ <ul>
+
+ <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
+ licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
+ (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
+
+ <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
+ or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
+ essential to practice that standard (also known as a
+ "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
+
+ <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
+ licensor</li>
+
+ </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
+ implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
+ or restricted licensing terms</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
+there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
+open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
+common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
+standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
+possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
+competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
+can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
+Standards.</p>
</description>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Officeshots still going strong</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>Half a year ago I
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
-a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
-a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
-the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
+ <title>Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
+Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
-<p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
-Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
-different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
-to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
-LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
-for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
-got such a great test tool available.</p>
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
+as follows:</p>
+
+<ol>
+
+<li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
+in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
+freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
+
+<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
+organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
+open decision-making procedure available to all interested
+parties.</li>
+
+<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
+document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
+distribute, and use it freely.</li>
+
+<li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
+irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
+
+<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
+
+</ol>
+
+<p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
+measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
+products based on the standard.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
+and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
+writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
+topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
+<a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
+July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
+According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
+the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
+Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
+given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
+making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
+obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
+foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
+control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
+been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
+seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
+where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
+external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
+it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
+specification. But it seem unlikely.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
+claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
+controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
+documentation indicating this.</p>
+
+<p>According to
+<a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
+prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
+government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
+the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
+Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
+report is correct.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
+container format</a> and both the
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
+<a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
+the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
+
+<blockquote>
+
+Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
+specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
+capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
+the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
+specification compliance.
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
+<a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
+this is the term:<p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+<p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
+others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
+or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
+distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
+provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
+included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
+document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
+the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
+Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
+Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
+in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
+translate it into languages other than English.</p>
+
+<p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
+revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
+this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
+missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
+thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
+requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
+
+<p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
+Theora format.
+<a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
+and
+<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
+Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
+patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
+them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
+this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
+without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
+Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
+than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
+
+<p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
+
+<p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
+depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
+background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
+safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
+would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
+this.</p>
+
+<p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
+see if they are free and open standards.</p>
</description>
</item>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html</link>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html</guid>
<pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p>A few days ago
+ <description><p>A few days ago
<a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
2.0 of
<p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
-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>
+<p>As 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>
<p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
</item>
<item>
- <title>Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description>
-<p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
-Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
+ <title>Officeshots still going strong</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Half a year ago I
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
+a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
+a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
+the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
-<blockquote>
+<p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
+Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
+different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
+to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
+LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
+for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
+got such a great test tool available.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv_kningskamera_registert_s__langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv_kningskamera_registert_s__langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 24 Dec 2010 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
+tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
+overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
+i Norge som
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
+laget</a> for snart to år siden. Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
+man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
+med highway=speed_camera. Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
+fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
-<p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
-as follows:</p>
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
+er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
+legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
+<a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
+Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
+kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
+href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
+batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
+years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
+computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
+five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
+group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
+and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
+university.</p>
-<ol>
+<p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
+perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
+install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
+a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
+something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
+on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
+vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
+have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
-<li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
-in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
-freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
+<p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
+I perform on a new model.</p>
-<li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
-organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
-open decision-making procedure available to all interested
-parties.</li>
+<ul>
-<li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
-document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
-distribute, and use it freely.</li>
+<li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
+and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
+RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
-<li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
-irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
+<li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
+installation, X.org is working.</li>
-<li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
+<li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
+package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
+reported by the program.</li>
-</ol>
+<li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
+logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
+are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
+the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
+normally test this by playing
+<a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
+video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
-<p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
-measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
-products based on the standard.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
+memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
-<p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
-and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
-writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
-topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
-<a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
-July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
-According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
-the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
+<li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
+I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
-<p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
+<li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
+picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
-<p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
-Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
-given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
-making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
-obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
-foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
-control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
-been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
-seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
-where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
-external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
-it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
-specification. But it seem unlikely.</p>
+<li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
+any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
+few.</li>
-<p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
+<li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
+memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
+notice this.</li>
-<p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
-claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
-controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
-documentation indicating this.</p>
+<li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
+special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
+resume.</li>
-<p>According to
-<ahref="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
-prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
-government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
-the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
-Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
-report is correct.</p>
+<li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
+adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
+switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
+laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
+not.</li>
-<p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
+<li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
+acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
+to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
+existence.</li>
-<p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
-container format</a> and both the
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
-<a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
-the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
+</ul>
-<blockquote>
+<p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
+for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
+the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
+fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
+and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
+can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
+observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
+RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>As I continue to explore
+<a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
+what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
+and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
-Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
-specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
-capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
-the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
-specification compliance.
+<p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
+verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
+is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
+published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
+possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
+that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
+all transactions. There I can see that my address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
+have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
+address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
+<a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
+of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
+every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
+fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
+address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
+generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
+there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
+organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
+themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
+regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
+without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
+laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
+If the Skolelinux foundation
+(<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
+Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
+normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
+Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
+not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
+should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
+income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
+BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
-<p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
-<a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
-this is the term:<p>
+<p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
+accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
+the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
+easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
+access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
+a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
+so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
+would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
+and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
+if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
+to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
+will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
+probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
+believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
+currencies.</p>
-<blockquote>
+<p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
+CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
+competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
+to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
+BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
+join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
+by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
+and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
+BitCoins. Check out
+<a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
+if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
+machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
+own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
+yet.</p>
-<p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
-others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
-or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
-distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
-provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
-included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
-document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
-the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
-Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
-Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
-in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
-translate it into languages other than English.</p>
+<p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
+href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
+criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
+it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
+equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p__flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p__flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
+blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
+<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
+artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
+det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
+med tittelen
+"<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
+evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
+characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
+<a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
+som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
+produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort
+sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på
+flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
+nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn. Jeg vil
+fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
+de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
+kan.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>With this weeks lawless
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
+attacks</a> on Wikileak and
+<a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
+speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
+not be trusted to handle money transactions.
+A blog post from
+<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
+Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
+mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
+involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
+some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
+some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
+for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
-<p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
-revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
-</blockquote>
+<p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
+crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
+networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
+control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
+and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
+source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
+for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
+line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
+<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
+Debian</a> soon.</p>
-<p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
-this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
-missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
-thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
-requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
+<p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
+There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
+bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
+currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
+are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
+want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
+you can even get
+<a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
+bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
+<a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
+on the current exchange rates.</p>
-<p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
+<p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
+machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
+donations to the address
+<b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b_nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b_nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 21:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/">Martin Bekkelund</a> ved
+<a href="http://www.friprog.no/">friprog-senteret</a> har skrevet
+følgende
+<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/">korte
+oppsummering</a> rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
+her.</p>
-<p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
-Theora format.
-<a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
-and
-<a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
-Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
-patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
-them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
-this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
-without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
-Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
-than any real problem with Ogg Theora.
+<p><blockquote><strong>Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
+innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (<acronym
+title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>) i norsk rett. Kanskje
+har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
+tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.</strong></p>
-<p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
+<p>Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
+<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> ikke bør
+innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
+er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
+store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
+hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.</p>
-<p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
+<ul>
+<li><a href="http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/">EU-ekspertene sier</a> at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf">Juristene påpeker</a> at direktivet er i strid med EMK</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/">Datatilsynet sier</a> direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld">Teknologene sier</a> at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser</li>
+<li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf">Pressen sier</a> nei av hensyn til kildevernet</li>
+<li>Det er store <a href="http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html">interne</a> <a href="http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/">stridigheter</a> i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov</li>
+<li>Alle de store <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/">operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei</a>, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker</li>
+</ul>
-<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
+<p>Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
+rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
+for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
+lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
+mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
+atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.</p>
-<p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
-depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
-background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
-safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
-would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
-this.</p>
+<p><strong>Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
+<acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>.</strong></p>
-<p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
-see if they are free and open standards.</p>
+<p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/">Ta kontakt med meg</a>
+hvis du har spørsmål om <acronym
+title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>, uansett hva det måtte
+gjelde.</p>
+
+<p class="info">Denne teksten er å anse som <a
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/"><em>Public
+Domain</em></a>. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
+den!</p>
+</blockquote></p>
+
+<p>Siste <a href="http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece">melding
+fra Nettavisen</a> er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
+til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
+fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi
+får snart se om det stemmer.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
+student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
+Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
+get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
+work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
+offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
+the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
+forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
+picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
+last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
+operational.</p>
+
+<p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
+and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
+forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
+<a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>. I even got
+some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
+the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
+very cool 3D scanner.</p>
</description>
</item>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff