-<p>This is a
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
-on my
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
-work</a> on
-<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
-all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
-
-<p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
-LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
-and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server. The two
-implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
-
-To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
-dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
-on a Debian Edu main-server. Here is a summary.
-
-<p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
-
-<a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
-on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
-the web.
-
-<p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
-One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
-using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
-reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
-based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
-2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
-
-<p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
-base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
-"dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
-"(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
-"dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
-"(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry. For
-forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
-nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
-txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
-srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
-ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
-spfrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entries it is looking for
-the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
-ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
-locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. The equivalent
-ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-ldapsearch -h ldap \
- -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
- -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
- cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
- rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
- nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
- rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
-
-ldapsearch -h ldap \
- -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
- -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
- dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
- hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
- srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
-ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
-example LDAP objects used there. In addition to these objects, the
-parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-also exist.</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-objectclass: top
-objectclass: dnsdomain
-objectclass: domainrelatedobject
-dc: tjener
-arecord: 10.0.2.2
-associateddomain: tjener.intern
-
-dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-objectclass: top
-objectclass: dnsdomain2
-objectclass: domainrelatedobject
-dc: 2
-ptrrecord: tjener.intern
-associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently. When looking for
-forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
-same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
-"(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
-arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
-mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
-naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entires it also do a
-subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
-and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
-modifytimestamp. In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
-go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
-instead.</p>
-
-<p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
-like this:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
- '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
- cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
- rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
- nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
- rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
-
-ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
- '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
-search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
-reverse lookups.</p>
-
-<p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
-specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
-need to generate a DNS reply. This make it able to work with any
-objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
-
-<p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
-dnsdomain2 schemas. The latter is used for reverse entries like
-ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
-
-<p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
-dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
-attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain). The use
-of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
-classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
-
-<p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
-dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
-attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
-this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
-(zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
-
-<p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
-mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
-dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
-with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
-defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
-dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
- SUP top
- AUXILIARY
- MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
- DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
- TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
- NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
- A6Record $ DNAMERecord
- ))
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
-the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
-all the attributes PowerDNS wants. I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
-developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
-interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
-message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
-
-<p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
-
-<p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
-the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want. This
-make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
-thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
-what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
-
-<p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
-search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
-stored. These are the relevant entries from
-/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
-ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
-configuration it need. The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
-base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))". The
-search result is this entry:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-cn: dhcp
-objectClass: top
-objectClass: dhcpServer
-dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
-subtree with DHCP configuration. The DHCP configuration subtree base
-is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
-Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
-"(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
-The search result is this entry:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-cn: DHCP Config
-objectClass: top
-objectClass: dhcpService
-objectClass: dhcpOptions
-dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
-dhcpStatements: authoritative
-dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
-dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
-dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time. When
-all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
-The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
-top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
-top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost. These provide options
-and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc. Leaving out the
-details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
-investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
-related computer objects.</p>
-
-<p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
-of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
-scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
-the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
-00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter. This is what a host object look
-like:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-cn: hostname
-objectClass: top
-objectClass: dhcpHost
-dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
-dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
-The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
-need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure. On the
-positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
-the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries. The latter should make
-it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
-configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
-DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
-structural object class.
-
-<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
-
-<p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
-to which LDAP schemas to use. While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
-come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
-allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
-in the configuration.</p>
-
-<p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
-regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
-I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
-objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
-really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
-structure.</p>
-
-<p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
-this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-ou=services
- cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
- cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
- cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
- cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
- cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
- cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
- cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
- cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
- ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
- cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-<P>This is not tested yet. If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
-entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
-there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
-would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
-
-<p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
-like this:</p>
-
-<blockquote><pre>
-dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
-dc: hostname
-objectClass: top
-objectClass: dhcpHost
-objectclass: domainrelatedobject
-objectclass: dnsDomainAux
-associateddomain: hostname.intern
-arecord: 10.11.12.13
-dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
-dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
-</pre></blockquote>
-
-</p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
-machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
-auxiliary object class.</p>
+<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>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>
+
+<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>
+
+<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>
+
+<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>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>