X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/2c26dc6650a8ec37b3c0d5fbba8992f82c5b63ab..72b7de9d890aa2be6e8be760bf15434cb76a9c22:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index e89c56e1b4..974070f194 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,6 +6,51 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + GnuCOBOL, a free platform to learn and use COBOL - nice free software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/GnuCOBOL__a_free_platform_to_learn_and_use_COBOL___nice_free_software.html + Wed, 29 Apr 2020 13:10:00 +0200 + <p>The curiosity got the better of me when +<a href="https://developers.slashdot.org/story/20/04/06/1424246/new-jersey-desperately-needs-cobol-programmers">Slashdot +reported</a> that New Jersey was desperately looking for +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBOL">COBOL</a> programmers, +and a few days later it was reported that +<a href="https://onezero.medium.com/ibm-rallies-cobol-engineers-to-save-overloaded-unemployment-systems-eeadf13eddce">IBM +tried to locate COBOL programmers</a>.</p> + +<p>I thus decided to have a look at free software alternatives to +learn COBOL, and had the pleasure to find +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/open-cobol/">GnuCOBOL</a> was +already <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gnucobol">in +Debian</a>. It used to be called Open Cobol, and is a "compiler" +transforming COBOL code to C or C++ before giving it to GCC or Visual +Studio to build binaries.</p> + +<p>I managed to get in touch with upstream, and was impressed with the +quick response, and also was happy to see a new Debian maintainer +taking over when the original one recently asked to be replaced. A +new Debian upload was done as recently as yesterday.</p> + +<p>Using the Debian package, I was able to follow a simple COBOL +introduction and make and run simple COBOL programs. It was fun to +learn a new programming language. If you want to test for yourself, +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnuCOBOL">the GnuCOBOL Wikipedia +page</a> have a few simple examples to get you startet.</p> + +<p>As I do not have much experience with COBOL, I do not know how +standard compliant it is, but it claim to pass most tests from COBOL +test suite, which sound good to me. It is nice to know it is possible +to learn COBOL using software without any usage restrictions, and I am +very happy such nice free software project as this is available. If +you as me is curious about COBOL, check it out.</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> + + + Totalovervåkning av innbyggernes bevegelser - nei takk! http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Totaloverv_kning_av_innbyggernes_bevegelser___nei_takk_.html @@ -18,9 +63,9 @@ regjeringen om konsekvenser hvis befolkningen ikke tar den i bruk. Rekker ikke skrive noe fyldig om temaet, men det er klart for meg at den utraderer retten til privatliv samt utgjør en personlig sikkerhetsrisiko for alle som tar den i bruk. Bare det er nok til at -det fremstår som en svert dårlig ide å bli med på denne "dugnaden". +det fremstår som en svært dårlig ide å bli med på denne "dugnaden". Det finnes andre og bedre tilnærminger enn den valgt av FHI. Har de -valgt den for å sikre seg nok et datasett i den fremtidige +valgt sin tilnærming for å sikre seg nok et datasett i den fremtidige ehelse-portalen? Potensialet for misbruk av informasjon samlet inn av appen er for stort, effekten på neste krise for klar og gevinsten for liten.</p> @@ -190,8 +235,8 @@ start working, but you can have a look at the LaTeX originals here.</p> <p>The first article is "<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-02-25-rmj-iot-record-keeping.pdf">A record-keeping approach to managing IoT-data for government -agencies</a>" (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0056">DOI -10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0056</a>) by Thomas Sødring, Petter Reinholdtsen +agencies</a>" (<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0050">DOI +10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0050<a/>) by Thomas Sødring, Petter Reinholdtsen and David Massey, and sketches some approaches for storing measurement data (aka Internet of Things sensor data) in a archive, thus providing a well defined mechanism for screening and deletion of the information </p> @@ -199,8 +244,8 @@ a well defined mechanism for screening and deletion of the information </p> <p>The second article is "<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2020-02-25-rmj-block-chain-record-keeping.pdf">Publishing and using record-keeping structural information in a blockchain</a>" -(<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0050">DOI -10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0050<a/>) by Thomas Sødring, Petter Reinholdtsen +(<a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0056">DOI +10.1108/RMJ-09-2019-0056</a>) by Thomas Sødring, Petter Reinholdtsen and Svein Ølnes, where we describe a way for third parties to validate authenticity and thus improve trust in the records kept in a archive.</p> @@ -208,6 +253,9 @@ archive.</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> + +<p><strong>Update 2020-04-26</strong>: Initially managed to swap the +DOI numbers. Fixed it.</p> @@ -408,61 +456,5 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address - - What would it cost to store all 2018 phone calls in Norway? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_would_it_cost_to_store_all_2018_phone_calls_in_Norway_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_would_it_cost_to_store_all_2018_phone_calls_in_Norway_.html - Mon, 25 Nov 2019 20:15:00 +0100 - <p>Four years ago, I did a back of the envelope calculation on -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_would_it_cost_to_store_all_phone_calls_in_Norway_.html">how -much it would cost to store audio recordings of all the phone calls in -Norway</a>, and came up with NOK 2.1 million / EUR 250 000 for the -year 2013. It is time to repeat the calculation using updated -numbers. The calculation is based on how much data storage is needed -for each minute of audio, how many minutes all the calls in Norway -sums up to, multiplied by the cost of data storage.</p> - -<p>The number of phone call minutes for 2018 was fetched from -<a href="https://ekomstatistikken.nkom.no/">the NKOM statistics -site</a>, and for 2018, land line calls are listed as 434 238 000 -minutes, while mobile phone calls are listed with 7 542 006 000 -minutes. The total number of minutes is thus 7 976 244 000. For -simplicity, I decided to ignore any advantages in audio compression the -last four years, and continue to assume 60 Kbytes/min as the last -time.</p> - -<p>Storage prices still varies a lot, but as last time, I decide to -take a reasonable big and cheap hard drive, and double its price to -include the surrounding costs into account. A 10 TB disk cost less -than 4500 NOK / 450 EUR these days, and doubling it give 9000 NOK per -10 TB.</p> - -<p>So, with the parameters in place, lets update the old table -estimating cost for calls in a given year:</p> - -<table border="1"> -<tr><th>Year</th><th>Call minutes</th><th>Size</th><th>Price in NOK / EUR</th></tr> -<tr><td>2005</td><td align="right">24 000 000 000</td><td align="right">1.3 PiB</td><td align="right">1 170 000 / 117 000</td></tr> - -<tr><td>2012</td><td align="right">18 000 000 000</td><td align="right">1.0 PiB</td><td align="right">900 000 / 90 000</td></tr> - -<tr><td>2013</td><td align="right">17 000 000 000</td><td align="right">950 TiB</td><td align="right">855 000 / 85 500</td></tr> - -<tr><td>2018</td><td align="right">7 976 244 000</td><td align="right">445 TiB</td><td align="right">401 100 / 40 110</td></tr> -</table> - -<p>Both the cost of storage and the number of phone call minutes have -dropped since the last time, bringing the cost down to a level where I -guess even small organizations can afford to store the audio recording -from every phone call taken in a year in Norway. Of course, this is -just the cost of buying the storage equipment. Maintenance, need to -be included as well, but the volume of a single year is about a single -rack of hard drives, so it is not much more than I could fit in my own -home. Wonder how much the electricity bill would raise if I had that -kind of storage? I doubt it would be more than a few tens of thousand -NOK per year.</p> - - -