<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
+ <item>
+ <title>Det er jo makta som er mest sårbar ved massiv overvåkning av Internett</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Det_er_jo_makta_som_er_mest_s_rbar_ved_massiv_overv_kning_av_Internett.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 26 Oct 2013 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>De siste måneders eksponering av
+<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Her-er-Edvard-Snowdens-mest-omtalte-avsloringer-7351734.html">den
+totale overvåkningen som foregår i den vestlige verden dokumenterer
+hvor sårbare vi er</a>. Men det slår meg at de som er mest sårbare
+for dette, myndighetspersoner på alle nivåer, neppe har innsett at de
+selv er de mest interessante personene å lage profiler på, for å kunne
+påvirke dem.</p>
+
+<p>For å ta et lite eksempel: Stortingets nettsted,
+<a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">www.stortinget.no</a> (og
+forsåvidt også
+<a href="http://data.stortinget.no/">data.stortinget.no</a>),
+inneholder informasjon om det som foregår på Stortinget, og jeg antar
+de største brukerne av informasjonen der er representanter og
+rådgivere på Stortinget. Intet overraskende med det. Det som derimot
+er mer skjult er at Stortingets nettsted bruker
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics">Google
+Analytics</a>, hvilket gjør at enhver som besøker nettsidene der også
+rapporterer om besøket via Internett-linjer som passerer Sverige,
+England og videre til USA. Det betyr at informasjon om ethvert besøk
+på stortingets nettsider kan snappes opp av svensk, britisk og USAs
+etterretningsvesen. De kan dermed holde et øye med hvilke
+Stortingssaker stortingsrepresentantene synes er interessante å sjekke
+ut, og hvilke sider rådgivere og andre på stortinget synes er
+interessant å besøke, når de gjør det og hvilke andre representanter
+som sjekker de samme sidene omtrent samtidig. Stortingets bruk av
+Google Analytics gjør det dermed enkelt for utenlands etteretning å
+spore representantenes aktivitet og interesse. Hvis noen av
+representantene bruker Google Mail eller noen andre tjenestene som
+krever innlogging, så vil det være enda enklere å finne ut nøyaktig
+hvilke personer som bruker hvilke nettlesere og dermed knytte
+informasjonen opp til enkeltpersoner på Stortinget.</p>
+
+<p>Og jo flere nettsteder som bruker Google Analytics, jo bedre
+oversikt over stortingsrepresentantenes lesevaner og interesse blir
+tilgjengelig for svensk, britisk og USAs etterretning. Hva de kan
+bruke den informasjonen til overlater jeg til leseren å undres
+over.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>A Raspberry Pi based batman-adv Mesh network node</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 21 Oct 2013 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The last few days I have been experimenting with
+<a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki">the
+batman-adv mesh technology</a>. I want to gain some experience to see
+if it will fit <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the
+Freedombox project</a>, and together with my neighbors try to build a
+mesh network around the park where I live. Batman-adv is a layer 2
+mesh system ("ethernet" in other words), where the mesh network appear
+as if all the mesh clients are connected to the same switch.</p>
+
+<p>My hardware of choice was the Linksys WRT54GL routers I had lying
+around, but I've been unable to get them working with batman-adv. So
+instead, I started playing with a
+<a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org/">Raspberry Pi</a>, and tried to
+get it working as a mesh node. My idea is to use it to create a mesh
+node which function as a switch port, where everything connected to
+the Raspberry Pi ethernet plug is connected (bridged) to the mesh
+network. This allow me to hook a wifi base station like the Linksys
+WRT54GL to the mesh by plugging it into a Raspberry Pi, and allow
+non-mesh clients to hook up to the mesh. This in turn is useful for
+Android phones using <a href="http://servalproject.org/">the Serval
+Project</a> voip client, allowing every one around the playground to
+phone and message each other for free. The reason is that Android
+phones do not see ad-hoc wifi networks (they are filtered away from
+the GUI view), and can not join the mesh without being rooted. But if
+they are connected using a normal wifi base station, they can talk to
+every client on the local network.</p>
+
+<p>To get this working, I've created a debian package
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node">meshfx-node</a>
+and a script
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/blob/master/build-rpi-mesh-node">build-rpi-mesh-node</a>
+to create the Raspberry Pi boot image. I'm using Debian Jessie (and
+not Raspbian), to get more control over the packages available.
+Unfortunately a huge binary blob need to be inserted into the boot
+image to get it booting, but I'll ignore that for now. Also, as
+Debian lack support for the CPU features available in the Raspberry
+Pi, the system do not use the hardware floating point unit. I hope
+the routing performance isn't affected by the lack of hardware FPU
+support.</p>
+
+<p>To create an image, run the following with a sudo enabled user
+after inserting the target SD card into the build machine:</p>
+
+<p><pre>
+% wget -O build-rpi-mesh-node \
+ https://raw.github.com/petterreinholdtsen/meshfx-node/master/build-rpi-mesh-node
+% sudo bash -x ./build-rpi-mesh-node > build.log 2>&1
+% dd if=/root/rpi/rpi_basic_jessie_$(date +%Y%m%d).img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M
+%
+</pre></p>
+
+<p>Booting with the resulting SD card on a Raspberry PI with a USB
+wifi card inserted should give you a mesh node. At least it does for
+me with a the wifi card I am using. The default mesh settings are the
+ones used by the Oslo mesh project at Hackeriet, as I mentioned in
+<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">an
+earlier blog post about this mesh testing</a>.</p>
+
+<p>The mesh node was not horribly expensive either. I bought
+everything over the counter in shops nearby. If I had ordered online
+from the lowest bidder, the price should be significantly lower:</p>
+
+<p><table>
+
+<tr><th>Supplier</th><th>Model</th><th>NOK</th></tr>
+<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi model B</td><td>349.90</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Teknikkmagasinet</td><td>Raspberry Pi type B case</td><td>99.90</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lefdal</td><td>Jensen Air:Link 25150</td><td>295.-</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Clas Ohlson</td><td>Kingston 16 GB SD card</td><td>199.-</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Total cost</td><td></td><td>943.80</td></tr>
+
+</table></p>
+
+<p>Now my mesh network at home consist of one laptop in the basement
+connected to my production network, one Raspberry Pi node on the 1th
+floor that can be seen by my neighbor across the park, and one
+play-node I use to develop the image building script. And some times
+I hook up my work horse laptop to the mesh to test it. I look forward
+to figuring out what kind of latency the batman-adv setup will give,
+and how much packet loss we will experience around the park. :)</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to
+<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee">the Spykee robot</a>
+(with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my
+web page. Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is
+easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github. If
+you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out
+<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl">the
+libspykee-perl github repository</a>.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
+ <item>
+ <title>Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
+ <description><p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
+wider attention. I recommend signing and donating to each one of
+these. :)</p>
+
+<p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
+Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
+Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
+more women involved in free software. One debian sponsor has offered
+to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
+earmarked</a> for this initiative. I donated a few minutes ago, and
+hope you will to. :)</p>
+
+<p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
+create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
+documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
+take place these days, and their need to fund the work. I've already
+donated. Are you next?</p>
+
+<p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
+Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
+statement under the heading
+<a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
+Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
+Norwegian government. So far 499 signatures. I hope you will sign it
+too.</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html</link>
figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
-completely different setup, and thus this have decided to focus on
+completely different setup, and thus I have decided to focus on
batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool
<a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
based community mesh networks.</p>
-</p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
+<p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
(as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project. These are
the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
-<table>
+<p><table>
<tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
<tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
<tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
<td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
<td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
-</table>
+</table></p>
<p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from
to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would
be interested in a cooperation?</p>
+
+<p><strong>Update 2013-10-12</strong>: I was just
+<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2013-October/005900.html">told
+by the Serval project developers</a> that they no longer use
+batman-adv (but are compatible with it), but their own crypto based
+mesh system.</p>
</description>
</item>
projects / homepage.git / blobdiff