X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/004cfa264e05f97817c893c63e34700812f9317f..47d68fecf3b10472c3afbc2a3341c3ed207bdebe:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 0786661236..bdf390a54a 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,22 +6,121 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html + Tue, 30 Aug 2016 10:10:00 +0200 + <p>In April we +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started +to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on +how to set up and administrate a Debian system. Today I am happy to +report that the first draft is now publicly available. You can find +it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian +Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages). The first +eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on +proofreading the content. If you want to help out, please start +contributing using +<a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the +hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using +<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the +translators mailing list</a>. Please also check out +<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for +contributors</a>. A good way to contribute is to proofread the text +and update weblate if you find errors.</p> + +<p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as +electronic form.</p> + + + + + Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html + Thu, 11 Aug 2016 12:00:00 +0200 + <p>This summer, I read a great article +"<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz: +This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about +how to profile multi-threaded programs. It presented a system for +profiling software by running experiences in the running program, +testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of +the code to various degrees compared to a normal run. It does this by +slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running +and measure how this affect processing time. The processing time is +measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress +counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END). It +can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program +runtime and running the program several times instead.</p> + +<p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to +get the system into Debian. I +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created +a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the +system ready for Debian by sending patches. The build process need to +be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and +to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected +profiling information included in the source package. +But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p> + +<p>The way the system work is fairly simple. To run an coz experiment +on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this: + +<p><blockquote><pre> +coz run --- program-to-run +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation +information. To show what part of the code affect the performance +most, use a web browser and either point it to +<a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a> +or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch). Check out this web +site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like. To make the +profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the +COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the +code, rebuild and run the profiler. This allow coz to do more +targeted experiments.</p> + +<p>A video published by ACM +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the +Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube. There is also a paper +from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available +titled +<a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz: +finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p> + +<p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a> +for Coz is available from github. It will only build with clang +because it uses a +<a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++ +feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted +<a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve +it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p> + +<p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece +of software in Debian. I would very much like some help with the +packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package +C++ libraries.</p> + + + Sales number for the Free Culture translation, first half of 2016 http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sales_number_for_the_Free_Culture_translation__first_half_of_2016.html http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sales_number_for_the_Free_Culture_translation__first_half_of_2016.html Fri, 5 Aug 2016 22:45:00 +0200 - <p>As my regular readers probably remember, I published a French and -Norwegian translation of the classic Free Culture book by the founder -of the Creative Commons movement, Lawrence Lessig, the last year. A -bit less known is the fact that due to the way I created the -translations, using docbook and po4a, and also recreated the English -original. And because I already had created a new the PDF edition, I -published it too. The revenue from the book is sent to the Creative -Commons Corporation. So I do not earn any money from the project, I -just earn the warm fuzzy feeling that the text is available for a -wider audience and more people can learn why the Creative Commons is -needed.</p> + <p>As my regular readers probably remember, the last year I published +a French and Norwegian translation of the classic +<a href="http://www.free-culture.cc/">Free Culture book</a> by the +founder of the Creative Commons movement, Lawrence Lessig. A bit less +known is the fact that due to the way I created the translations, +using docbook and po4a, I also recreated the English original. And +because I already had created a new the PDF edition, I published it +too. The revenue from the books are sent to the Creative Commons +Corporation. In other words, I do not earn any money from this +project, I just earn the warm fuzzy feeling that the text is available +for a wider audience and more people can learn why the Creative +Commons is needed.</p> <p>Today, just for fun, I had a look at the sales number over at Lulu.com, which take care of payment, printing and shipping. Much to @@ -32,21 +131,22 @@ books was sold for USD $19.99 between 2016-01-01 and 2016-07-31:</p> <table border="0"> <tr><th>Title / language</th><th>Quantity</th></tr> -<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">Culture Libre / French</a></td><td>3</td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Fri kultur / Norwegian</a></td><td>7</td></tr> -<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">Free Culture / English</a></td><td>14</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html">Culture Libre / French</a></td><td align="right">3</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Fri kultur / Norwegian</a></td><td align="right">7</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html">Free Culture / English</a></td><td align="right">14</td></tr> </table> <p>The books are available both from Lulu.com and from large book stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Most revenue, around $10 per book, is sent to the Creative Commons project when the book is sold -directly by Lulu.com. The summary from Lulu tell me 10 books was sold -via the Amazon channel, 10 via Ingram (what is this?) and 4 directly -by Lulu. And Lulu.com tells me that the revenue sent so far this year -is USD $101.42. No idea what kind of sales numbers to expect, so I do -not know if that is a good amount of sales for a 10 year old book or -not. But it make me happy that the buyers find the book, and I hope -they enjoy reading it as much as I did.</p> +directly by Lulu.com. The other channels give less revenue. The +summary from Lulu tell me 10 books was sold via the Amazon channel, 10 +via Ingram (what is this?) and 4 directly by Lulu. And Lulu.com tells +me that the revenue sent so far this year is USD $101.42. No idea +what kind of sales numbers to expect, so I do not know if that is a +good amount of sales for a 10 year old book or not. But it make me +happy that the buyers find the book, and I hope they enjoy reading it +as much as I did.</p> <p>The ebook edition is available for free from <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Github</a>.</p> @@ -515,124 +615,5 @@ want to help the military in USA (and everyone else), use Tor. :)</p> - - Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html - Wed, 25 May 2016 10:20:00 +0200 - <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram -system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware -related packages. The idea is to have a database of mappings between -hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to -install the packages to use a given hardware dongle. Some use cases -are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software -needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it -proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader; -and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to -install the driver for it. The system work well, and even have a few -command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the -hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p> - -<p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found -good documentation and example code on how to use it. But aptdaemon -is going away and is generally being replaced by -<a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>, -so Isenkram needed a rewrite. And today, thanks to the great patch -from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the -rewrite finally took place. I've just uploaded a new version of -Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default -for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit. To check it out, -install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle -and see if it is recognised.</p> - -<p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for -the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup -program. This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p> - -<p><blockquote><pre> -% isenkram-lookup -bluez -cheese -fprintd -fprintd-demo -gkrellm-thinkbat -hdapsd -libpam-fprintd -pidgin-blinklight -thinkfan -tleds -tp-smapi-dkms -tp-smapi-source -tpb -%p -</pre></blockquote></p> - -<p>The hardware mappings come from several places. The preferred way -is for packages to announce their hardware support using -<a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the -cross distribution appstream system</a>. -See -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous -blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p> - - - - - Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html - Mon, 23 May 2016 09:35:00 +0200 - <p>Yesterday I updated the -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats -package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and -enterprising users. There were some nice user and visible changes. -First of all, both desktop menu entries now work. A design flaw in -one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was -dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available. -The script worked when called from the command line, but not when -called from the desktop menu. I changed this to look for a DISPLAY -variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the -graph window pop up as expected.</p> - -<p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the -graphs (the one showing the last few hours). New is also the user of -colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red. The percentages -of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design -capacity.</p> - -<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p> - -<p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery -statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to -visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time. The red -line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent: - -<p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p> - -<p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80 -percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is -shrinking. :(</p> - -<p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle -more hardware models. On some hardware, Linux power supply -information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the -collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/. Now -both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the -machine.</p> - -<p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please -check out the -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a> -in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on -Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a -href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>. -Patches are very welcome.</p> - -<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - - -