- <title>Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description><p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
-
-<p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
-during the night and wake up when it is morning. I mean, when I
-believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier. In our household we
-have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
-sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day. They have adapted
-quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
-up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
-the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
-And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
-some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
-after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
-
-<p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem. It
-involve home automation. A few years ago I bought a
-<a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
-switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
-Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
-gadgets using my Linux server. When I moved from the old flat to a
-small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
-the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
-the gadgets I had. But recently I bought a
-<a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
-Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
-sockets. I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
-to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding. The default
-setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
-which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
-ones own
-<a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
-with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
-company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
-code. I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
-important. But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
-the kids came to me yesterday. We can set up a night light controlled
-by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00. The kids can
-then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
-get up or not. They joined me in setting everything up, and I
-repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
-remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
-
-<p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
-after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
-"morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
-arrived. So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
-this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
-all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
-
-<p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
-to tell the kids to get up. We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
-can also delay it if we want to.</p>
+ <title>Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
+Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
+globe. And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
+<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
+#debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
+worked. We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
+help us with translations. And today I managed to get an interview
+with him, to learn more about him.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
+which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
+party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
+friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
+country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
+community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
+began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
+constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
+field.</p>
+
+<p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
+provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
+activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
+of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
+software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
+the only one we have in our country.</p>
+
+<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+project?</strong></p>
+
+<p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
+even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
+it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
+educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
+love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
+technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
+ways to contribute.</p>
+
+<p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
+configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
+haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
+areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
+software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
+one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
+environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
+for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
+from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
+have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
+maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
+took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
+Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
+time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
+with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
+out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
+it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
+availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
+scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
+only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
+lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
+project.</p>
+
+<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
+Edu?</strong></p>
+
+<p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
+disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
+project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
+a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story. I'd like to see
+Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
+ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
+lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
+opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
+to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
+
+<p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
+with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
+to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
+on.</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
+
+<p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
+daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
+am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
+Enlightenment project a lot!),
+<a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
+use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
+<a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
+get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
+stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
+
+<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
+get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
+
+<p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
+now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
+that:</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
+
+<li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
+ experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
+ of teenagers more?</li>
+
+<li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
+ be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
+ other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
+ them!)</li>
+
+<li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
+ lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
+ person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
+example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
+it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
+people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
+very hard to convert against their will.</p>
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