X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/2f06645637306cff305ace1a0875d3189c106ebc..6827c20a65667b2d54f665b5c49539dd75f228c0:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index dce5ab280d..4408d5a52e 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,38 +20,46 @@
-
TISA - nok en problematisk og hemmelig handelsavtale
-
5th November 2015
-

Norge er aktiv i Trade in Services Agreement-forhandlingene, og -regjeringen forteller at -«TISA -vil sikre norske tjenesteeksportører forutsigbar og -ikke-diskriminerende adgang til utenlandske tjenestemarkeder». -Det er mulig at det stemmer. Men den gjør mye mer enn det. Avtalen -forhandles i hemmelighet, og kun takket være -Wikileaks er -utkast og biter kjent i offentligheten. Det som er blitt kjent er -for eksempel at TISA kan -blokkere -myndigheter fra å kreve bruk av fri programvare i mange -situasjoner, hvilket vil fjerne muligheten vår til å ha kontroll -over egne datasystemer i slike tilfeller. Den kan også -blokkere -Norges mulighet til å holde kontroll med overføring av -personinformasjon ut av landet, hvilket Snowden-bekreftelsene har -dokumentert er svært problematisk. - -

Jeg ble derfor veldig glad da jeg i dag ble tipset i dag om at det -allerede finnes en aktiv organisasjon, -Folkeaksjonen mot -TISA, som jobber for å hindre at Norge signerer på TISA-avtalen. -Her må alle gode krefter jobbe sammen. Jeg skal sende dem litt -penger, og se om jeg har kapasitet til å bidra med mer.

+
The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?
+
6th June 2016
+

When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out +which +multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats / +MIME types, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types +the various players claimed support for. The range was from 55 to 130 +MIME types. I suspect most media formats are supported by all +players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in +their desktop files. There are probably also some bogus MIME types +listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.

+ +

Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of +the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files, +and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my +favorite media player VLC. The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable +yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the +Multimedia +player MIME type support status Debian wiki page.

+ +

The new "best" multimedia player in Debian? It is VLC, followed by +totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and +kmplayer. I am sure some of the other players desktop files support +several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc, +toten and parole.

+ +

A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as +supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their +desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl, +audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg, +video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska, +video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo. Personally I find +it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media +players in Debian. As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both +formats.

- Tags: norsk, opphavsrett, personvern. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video.
@@ -59,121 +67,118 @@ penger, og se om jeg har kapasitet til å bidra med mer.

-
Is Pentagon deciding the Norwegian negotiating position on Internet governance?
-
3rd November 2015
-

In Norway, all government offices are required by law to keep a -list of every document or letter arriving and leaving their offices. -Internal notes should also be documented. The document list (called a mail -journal - "postjournal" in Norwegian) is public information and thanks -to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) the mail -journal is available for everyone. Most offices even publish the mail -journal on their web pages, as PDFs or tables in web pages. The state-level offices even have a shared web based search service (called -Offentlig Elektronisk Postjournal - -OEP) to make it possible to search the entries in the list. Not -all journal entries show up on OEP, and the search service is hard to -use, but OEP does make it easier to find at least some interesting -journal entries .

- -

In 2012 I came across a document in the mail journal for the -Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications on OEP that -piqued my interest. The title of the document was -"Internet -Governance and how it affects national security" (Norwegian: -"Internet Governance og påvirkning på nasjonal sikkerhet"). The -document date was 2012-05-22, and it was said to be sent from the -"Permanent Mission of Norway to the United Nations". I asked for a -copy, but my request was rejected with a reference to a legal clause said to authorize them to reject it -(offentleglova § 20, -letter c) and an explanation that the document was exempt because -of foreign policy interests as it contained information related to the -Norwegian negotiating position, negotiating strategies or similar. I -was told the information in the document related to the ongoing -negotiation in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). The -explanation made sense to me in early January 2013, as a ITU -conference in Dubay discussing Internet Governance -(World -Conference on International Telecommunications - WCIT-12) had just -ended, -reportedly -in chaos when USA walked out of the negotiations and 25 countries -including Norway refused to sign the new treaty. It seemed -reasonable to believe talks were still going on a few weeks later. -Norway was represented at the ITU meeting by two authorities, the -Norwegian Communications Authority -and the Ministry of -Transport and Communications. This might be the reason the letter -was sent to the ministry. As I was unable to find the document in the -mail journal of any Norwegian UN mission, I asked the ministry who had -sent the document to the ministry, and was told that it was the Deputy -Permanent Representative with the Permanent Mission of Norway in -Geneva.

- -

Three years later, I was still curious about the content of that -document, and again asked for a copy, believing the negotiation was -over now. This time -I -asked both the Ministry of Transport and Communications as the -receiver and -asked -the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva as the sender for a -copy, to see if they both agreed that it should be withheld from the -public. The ministry upheld its rejection quoting the same law -reference as before, while the permanent mission rejected it quoting a -different clause -(offentleglova § 20 -letter b), claiming that they were required to keep the -content of the document from the public because it contained -information given to Norway with the expressed or implied expectation -that the information should not be made public. I asked the permanent -mission for an explanation, and was told that the document contained -an account from a meeting held in the Pentagon for a limited group of NATO -nations where the organiser of the meeting did not intend the content -of the meeting to be publicly known. They explained that giving me a -copy might cause Norway to not get access to similar information in -the future and thus hurt the future foreign interests of Norway. They -also explained that the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva was not -the author of the document, they only got a copy of it, and because of -this had not listed it in their mail journal.

- -

Armed with this -knowledge I asked the Ministry to reconsider and asked who was the -author of the document, now realising that it was not same as the -"sender" according to Ministry of Transport and Communications. The -ministry upheld its rejection but told me the name of the author of -the document. According to -a -government report the author was with the Permanent Mission of -Norway in New York a bit more than a year later (2014-09-22), so I -guessed that might be the office responsible for writing and sending -the report initially and -asked -them for a copy but I was obviously wrong as I was told that the -document was unknown to them and that the author did not work there -when the document was written. Next, I asked the Permanent Mission of -Norway in Geneva and the Foreign Ministry to reconsider and at least -tell me who sent the document to Deputy Permanent Representative with -the Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva. The Foreign Ministry also -upheld its rejection, but told me that the person sending the document -to Permanent Mission of Norway in Geneva was the defence attaché with -the Norwegian Embassy in Washington. I do not know if this is the -same person as the author of the document.

- -

If I understand the situation correctly, someone capable of -inviting selected NATO nations to a meeting in Pentagon organised a -meeting where someone representing the Norwegian defence attaché in -Washington attended, and the account from this meeting is interpreted -by the Ministry of Transport and Communications to expose Norways -negotiating position, negotiating strategies and similar regarding the -ITU negotiations on Internet Governance. It is truly amazing what can -be derived from mere meta-data.

- -

I wonder which NATO countries besides Norway attended this meeting? -And what exactly was said and done at the meeting? Anyone know?

+
A program should be able to open its own files on Linux
+
5th June 2016
+

Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I +decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a +talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine. I +wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed +the day before I would give the talk. The next day I took a plane to +the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I +started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover +that kpresenter refused to load its own data file. I cursed a bit and +started making the slides again from memory, to have something to +present when I arrived. I tested that the saved files could be +loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued. I continued to polish the +slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer +be loaded into kpresenter. In the end I had to rewrite the slides +three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and +shorter. After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem – +kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand. +Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great +program to make slides. The point I'm trying to make is that we +expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is +embarrassing to its developers if it can't.

+ +

Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data +files from the desktop file browser? It is not a uncommon problem. A +while back I discovered that the screencast recorder +gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file +browser would refuse to open. No video player claimed to understand +such file. I tracked down the cause being file --mime-type +returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had +installed listed as a MIME type they would understand. I asked for +file to change its +behavour and use the MIME type video/ogg instead. I also asked +several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give +the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files. After a +while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the +output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.

+ +

But history repeats itself. A few days ago I tested the music +system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file +browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files +(*.rg). I've reported the +rosegarden problem to BTS and a fix is commited to git and will be +included in the next upload. To increase the chance of me remembering +how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files +from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.

+ +

The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types. +There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file. The output from +file --mime-type mentioned above, and the content of the +shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/). The file MIME +type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this +information is collected from +the +desktop files available in /usr/share/applications/. If there is +one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is +activated when asking to open a given file. If there are more, one +can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and +selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar. In general +this work well. But it depend on each program picking a good MIME +type (preferably +a +MIME type registered with IANA), file and/or the shared MIME +registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME +type in its list of supported MIME types.

+ +

The /usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml entry for +the +Shared MIME database look like this:

+ +

+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
+  <mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden">
+    <sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/>
+    <comment>Rosegarden project file</comment>
+    <glob pattern="*.rg"/>
+  </mime-type>
+</mime-info>
+

+ +

This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip +(it is a gzipped XML file). Note, it is much better to use an +official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own +unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.

+ +

The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list +audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the +file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:

+ +

+% grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
+MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
+X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
+%
+

+ +

The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the +MimeType= line.

+ +

If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when +selected from the file browser, please check out the output from +file --mime-type for the file, ensure the file ending and +MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check +that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming +support for this MIME type. If not, please report a bug to have it +fixed. :)

- Tags: english, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett, personvern. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -181,56 +186,36 @@ And what exactly was said and done at the meeting? Anyone know?

-
New book, "Fri kultur" by @lessig, a Norwegian Bokmål translation of "Free Culture" from 2004
-
31st October 2015
-

People keep asking me where to get the various forms of the book I -published last week, the Norwegian Bokmål edition of Lawrence Lessigs -book Free Culture. It was -published on paper via lulu.com, and is also available in PDF, ePub -and MOBI format. I currently sell the paper edition for self cost -from lulu.com, but might extend the distribution to book stores like -Amazon and Barnes & Noble later. This will double the price and force -me to make a profit from selling the book. Anyway, here are links to -get the book in different formats:

- - - -

Note that the MOBI version have problems with the table of content, -at least with the viewers I have been able to test. And the ePub file -have several problems according to -epubcheck, but seem -to display fine in the viewers I have tested. All the files needed to -create the book in various forms are available from -the -github project page.

- -

The project got press coverage from the Norwegian IT news site -digi.no. Check out the article -"Vil -åpne politikernes øyne for Creative Commons". - -

I've blogged -about the project as it moved along. The blogs document the translation -progress and insights I had along the way.

+
Tor - from its creators mouth 11 years ago
+
28th May 2016
+

A little more than 11 years ago, one of the creators of Tor, and +the current President of the Tor +project, Roger Dingledine, gave a talk for the members of the +Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG). A +video of the talk was recorded, and today, thanks to the great help +from David Noble, I finally was able to publish the video of the talk +on Frikanalen, the Norwegian open channel TV station where NUUG +currently publishes its talks. You can +watch the live stream using a web +browser with WebM support, or check out the recording on the video +on demand page for the talk +"Tor: Anonymous +communication for the US Department of Defence...and you.".

+ +

Here is the video included for those of you using browsers with +HTML video and Ogg Theora support:

+ +

+ +

I guess the gist of the talk can be summarised quite simply: If you +want to help the military in USA (and everyone else), use Tor. :)

- Tags: english, freeculture. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
@@ -238,90 +223,67 @@ progress and insights I had along the way.

-
Gavebok overlevert Stortinget i dag
-
29th October 2015
-

Like før kl. 11 i dag leverte jeg fem esker med gaveinnpakkede -bøker til Stortinget, for utdeling til alle stortingsrepresentanter. -Det ble etterfulgt av følgende pressemelding. Stor takk til NUUG for -lån av epostliste for å sende ut pressemeldingen.

- -
- -

Er opphavsretten for streng, spør ny bok

- -

I dag kommer boken «Fri -kultur» av Lawrence Lessig ut på norsk. Boken handler om -utviklingen og utvidelsene opphavsretten har hatt de siste 40 årene. -Boken er i dag gitt i gave til alle stortingsrepresentantene. -Oversetter og utgiver Petter Reinholdtsen håper Stortinget vil tenke -seg om to ganger neste gang det er snakk om utvidelse av -opphavsretten.

- -

Boken forteller om hvordan store medieaktører ved hjelp av -opphavsretten bruker teknologi til å begrense kulturen og kontrollere -kreativiteten. Den er skrevet av stifteren av -Creative Commons, professor -Lawrence Lessig, som for tiden er med i kampen om å bli Demokratenes -presidentkandidat i USA sitt -presidentvalg i 2016. Lessig ble sist omtalt i norske medier da -NRK i høst viste dokumentaren «Kampen for et demokratisk internett» -som også er -tilgjengelig -fra The Internet Archive.

- -

Boken beskriver hvordan opphavsrettens makt i USA har blitt -betydelig utvidet etter 1974 langs fem kritiske akser: varighet (fra -32 til 95 år), omfang (fra utgivere til alle), rekkevidde (gjelder nå -enhver fremvisning via datamaskin), kontroll (avledede verk er -definert så bredt at i praksis alle nye åndsverk risikerer søksmål fra -en opphavsrettsinnehaver) og til sist maktkonsentrasjon og integrering -av mediebransjen. Den dokumenterer også hvordan medieindustrien har -lyktes med å bruke rettsvesenet til å begrense konkurranse, og i -praksis har skaffet seg vetorett over teknologiske nyvinninger. -Nedlasting av fritt, lovlig og i utgangspunktet gratis materiale -stoppes med tekniske sperrer og lobbyert lovvern av sperrene.

- -

Utvidelsene illustreres i boken med ulike eksempler. For eksempel -en demonstrasjon av at Walt Disney ville ha blitt ansett som en -opphavsrettspirat dersom han gjorde i dag det han gjorde på -1930-tallet. Boken beskriver hvordan vern av åndsverk er bra, men at -mer vern ikke nødvendigvis er bedre. - -

Petter Reinholdtsen, som sammen med flere frivillige har oversatt -boken på fritiden de siste 3 årene, håper at boken vil gjøre en -forskjell. «Når en vet hvordan opphavsrettens varighet i Norge, uten -opposisjon på Stortinget, ble utvidet nok en gang i mai i fjor, og -hvordan Norges handelspartner USA gjennom de nye handelsavtalene -Trans-Pacific Partnership og Transatlantic Trade and Investment -Partnership -ønsker -å utvide opphavsrettens makt også i andre land, håper jeg at flere -vil spørre: Er det virkelig fornuftig å gjøre de samme utvidelsene i -Norge?», spør han. «Jeg håper boken kan bidra til kunnskap og -forståelse, og kan gi Stortinget et bedre grunnlag til å ta riktige -beslutninger som ivaretar befolkningens og samfunnets interesser i -Norge.»

- -

Petter Reinholdtsen er en mangeårig fri programvareutvikler som har -vært med på å lage systemer som operativsystemet Debian, IT-løsningen -Skolelinux, borgerportalen FiksGataMi og innsynstjenesten Mimes brønn. -Han forteller han selv har opplevd problemene utvidet varighet, -omfang, rekkevidde og kontroll i opphavsretten medfører og at boken -var en oppvekker. «Jeg håper andre finner boken like interessant som -jeg gjorde. Boken kan -lastes -gratis ned fra github eller -kjøpes -på papir fra lulu.com,» avslutter Reinholdtsen.

- -
- -

Så får vi se om det har noen positiv effekt. :)

+
Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable
+
25th May 2016
+

The isenkram +system 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).

+ +

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 +PackageKit, +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 isenkram package and insert some hardware dongle +and see if it is recognised.

+ +

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:

+ +

+% isenkram-lookup 
+bluez
+cheese
+fprintd
+fprintd-demo
+gkrellm-thinkbat
+hdapsd
+libpam-fprintd
+pidgin-blinklight
+thinkfan
+tleds
+tp-smapi-dkms
+tp-smapi-source
+tpb
+%p
+

+ +

The hardware mappings come from several places. The preferred way +is for packages to announce their hardware support using +the +cross distribution appstream system. +See +previous +blog posts about isenkram to learn how to do that.

- Tags: freeculture, norsk. + Tags: debian, english, isenkram.
@@ -329,65 +291,62 @@ på papir fra lulu.com,» avslutter Reinholdtsen.

-
"Fri kultur" av @lessig - norsk utgave av "Free Culture" tilgjengelig på papir, PDF og ePub
-
28th October 2015
-

Klikk her for å kjøpe boken.

- -

I 2004, mens Creative -Commons-bevegelsen vokste frem, skrev bevegelsens stifter Lawrence -Lessig boken -Free -Culture for å forklare problemene med økene åndsverksregulering og -for å foreslå noen løsninger. Jeg leste boken den gangen, og den både -inspirerte meg og endret på hvordan jeg så på opphavsrettslovigving. -Jeg skulle ønske flere folk leste denne boken. Den gir en god -gjennomgang av hvordan økende åndsverksregulering skader både -nyskapning og kulturlivet, og skisserer hvordan både lovgivere og oss -vanlige borgere kan bidra for å få slutt på dette.

- -

Derfor bestemte jeg meg sommeren 2012 for å oversette den til norsk -bokmål og gjøre den tilgjengelig for de blant mine venner og familie -som foretrekker å lese bøker på norsk. Jeg oversatte boken ved hjelp -av docbook og en gettext PO-fil, og endte opp med to utgaver, en på -norsk og en på engelsk. Den engelske publiserte jeg i forrige uke, og -den norske utgaven på papir -er -nå klar for salg. Jeg fikk heldigvis hjelp med oversetting og -korrekturlesing av den norske utgaven fra en rekke frivillige. Se -side 245 for en komplett liste. Slik ser omslaget ut: - -

- -

I tillegg til den norske og engelske utgaven holder vi på med en -fransk utgave. Den koordineres av dblatex-utvikleren Benoît Guillon, -og oversettelsen var komplett denne uka men må korrekturleses før den -kan gis ut. Flere frivillige trengs her, så ta kontakt med Benoît -hvis du vil bidra.

- -

Boken er også tilgjengelig i PDF, ePub og MOBI-format fra -min -github-prosjektside. Merk at ePub og MOBI-utgavene har noen -formatteringsproblemer som jeg tror kommer av feil i docbook-verktøyet -dbtoepub (Debian BTS-rapporter -#795842 -og -#796871), -men jeg har ikke tatt meg tid til å undersøke problemene. For de som -vil ha elektronisk kopi anbefaler jeg å bruke PDF- og ePub-utgaven i -denne omgang, da de ser ut til å hånderes bra av de fremviserne jeg -har tilgjengelig.

- -

Etter at oversettelsen til bokmål var ferdig klarte jeg å overtale -NUUG Foundation til å -sponse trykking av boken. Det er årsaken til at stiftelsens logo er -på baksiden av omslaget. Jeg er svært takknemlig for dette, og bruker -bidraget til å gi en kopi av den norske utgaven til alle -Stortingsrepresentanter og andre beslutningstakere her i Norge.

+
Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian
+
23rd May 2016
+

Yesterday I updated the +battery-stats +package in Debian 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.

+ +

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.

+ +

+ +

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: + +

+ +

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. :(

+ +

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.

+ +

If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please +check out the +battery-stats +in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on +Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from github. +Patches are very welcome.

+ +

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- Tags: docbook, freeculture, norsk. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -395,60 +354,29 @@ Stortingsrepresentanter og andre beslutningstakere her i Norge.

-
"Free Culture" by @lessig - The background story for Creative Commons - new edition available
-
23rd October 2015
-

Click -here to buy the book.

- -

In 2004, as the Creative Commons -movement gained momentum, its creator Lawrence Lessig wrote the -book Free -Culture to explain the problems with increasing copyright -regulation and suggest some solutions. I read the book back then and -was very moved by it. Reading the book inspired me and changed the -way I looked on copyright law, and I would love it if more people -would read it too.

- -

Because of this, I decided in the summer of 2012 to translate it to -Norwegian Bokmål and publish it for those of my friends and family -that prefer to read books in Norwegian. I translated the book using -docbook and a gettext PO file, and a byproduct of this process is a -new edition of the English original. I've been in touch with the -author during by work, and he said it was fine with him if I also -published an English version. So I decided to do so. Today, I made -this edition -available -for sale on Lulu.com, for those interested in a paper book. This -is the cover: - -

- -

The Norwegian Bokmål version will be available for purchase in a -few days. I also plan to publish a French version in a few weeks or -months, depending on the amount of people with knowledge of French to -join the translation project. So far there is only one active -person, but the French book is almost completely translated but -need some proof reading.

- -

The book is also available in PDF, ePub and MOBI formats from -my -github project page. Note the ePub and MOBI versions have some -formatting problems I believe is due to bugs in the docbook tool -dbtoepub (Debian BTS issues -#795842 -and -#796871), -but I have not taken the time to investigate. I recommend the PDF and -ePub version for now, as they seem to show up fine in the viewers I -have available.

- -

After the translation to Norwegian Bokmål was complete, I was able -to secure some sponsoring from -the NUUG Foundation to -print the book. This is the reason their logo is located on the back -cover. I am very grateful for their contribution, and will use it to -give a copy of the Norwegian edition to members of the Norwegian -Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.

+
French edition of Lawrence Lessigs book Cultura Libre on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
+
21st May 2016
+

A few weeks ago the French paperback edition of Lawrence Lessigs +2004 book Cultura Libre was published. Today I noticed that the book +is now available from book stores. You can now buy it from +Amazon +($19.99), +Barnes +& Noble ($?) and as always from +Lulu.com +($19.99). The revenue is donated to the Creative Commons project. If +you buy from Lulu.com, they currently get $10.59, while if you buy +from one of the book stores most of the revenue go to the book store +and the Creative Commons project get much (not sure how much +less).

+ +

I was a bit surprised to discover that there is a kindle edition +sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC on Amazon. Not quite sure how +that edition was created, but if you want to download a electronic +edition (PDF, EPUB, Mobi) generated from the same files used to create +the paperback edition, they are +available +from github.

@@ -461,35 +389,67 @@ Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.

-
EU-domstolen konkluderer motsatt av Skatteetaten når det gjelder Bitcoin
-
22nd October 2015
-

Bitcoin er i litt vinden i Norge for tiden, med -kronikk -om bitcoin-overføringer på tvers av landegrensene hos NRK Ytring -for to dager siden og -dokumentar -om bitcoin på NRK 2 i forgårs og i går. I den sammenhengen er det -spesielt hyggelig med en gladnyhet fra EU om Bitcoin.

- -

I dag konkluderte EU-domstolen at -Bitcoin-kjøp -fra Bitcoin-børser ikke er MVA-pliktig (sak C‑264/14). Fant -nyheten -først hos Reuters, etter tips fra innehaveren av -Bitmynt. EU-domstolens avgjørelse -er stikk i strid med -annonseringen -fra Skatteetaten i 2013, der de konkluderte med at bitcoin er et -«formuesobjekter» som det skulle betales mva på ved kjøp og salg. -Dermed la Skatteetaten opp til dobbel MVA-betaling hvis en kjøpte noe -med Bitcoin fra Norge (først mva på kjøp av Bitcoin, deretter mva på -det en kjøper med Bitcoin). Jeg lurer på om denne avgjørelsen får -Skatteetaten til å bytte mening. Gleder meg til fortsettelsen.

+
I want the courts to be involved before the police can hijack a news site DNS domain (#domstolkontroll)
+
19th May 2016
+

I just donated to the +NUUG defence +"fond" to fund the effort in Norway to get the seizure of the news +site popcorn-time.no tested in court. I hope everyone that agree with +me will do the same.

+ +

Would you be worried if you knew the police in your country could +hijack DNS domains of news sites covering free software system without +talking to a judge first? I am. What if the free software system +combined search engine lookups, bittorrent downloads and video playout +and was called Popcorn Time? Would that affect your view? It still +make me worried.

+ +

In March 2016, the Norwegian police seized (as in forced NORID to +change the IP address pointed to by it to one controlled by the +police) the DNS domain popcorn-time.no, without any supervision from +the courts. I did not know about the web site back then, and assumed +the courts had been involved, and was very surprised when I discovered +that the police had hijacked the DNS domain without asking a judge for +permission first. I was even more surprised when I had a look at +the web +site content on the Internet Archive, and only found news coverage +about Popcorn Time, not any material published without the right +holders permissions.

+ +

The seizure was widely covered in the Norwegian press (see for +example Hegnar Online and +ITavisen +and +NRK), +at first due to the press release sent out by Økokrim, but then based +on +protests +from the law professor Olav Torvund and +lawyer +Jon Wessel-Aas. It even got some +coverage +on TorrentFreak.

+ +

I + +wrote about the case a month ago, when the +Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG), +where I am an active member, decided to ask the courts to test this seizure. +The request was denied, but NUUG and its co-requestor EFN have not +given up, and now they are rallying for support to get the seizure +legally challenged. They accept both bank and Bitcoin transfer for +those that want to support the request.

+ +

If you as me believe news sites about free software should not be +censored, even if the free software have both legal and illegal +applications, and that DNS hijacking should be tested by the courts, I +suggest you show +your support by donating to NUUG.

- Tags: bitcoin, norsk. + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett.
@@ -497,34 +457,25 @@ Skatteetaten til å bytte mening. Gleder meg til fortsettelsen.

-
Lawrence Lessig interviewed Edward Snowden a year ago
-
19th October 2015
-

Last year, US president candidate -in the Democratic Party Lawrence interviewed Edward Snowden. The -one hour interview was -published by -Harvard Law School 2014-10-23 on Youtube, and the meeting took -place 2014-10-20.

- -

The questions are very good, and there is lots of useful -information to be learned and very interesting issues to think about -being raised. Please check it out.

- - - -

I find it especially interesting to hear again that Snowden did try -to bring up his reservations through the official channels without any -luck. It is in sharp contrast to the answers made 2013-11-06 by the -Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to the Norwegian Parliament, -claiming -Snowden is no Whistle-Blower because he should have taken up his -concerns internally and using official channels. It make me sad -that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.

+
Debian now with ZFS on Linux included
+
12th May 2016
+

Today, after many years of hard work from many people, +ZFS for Linux finally entered +Debian. The package status can be seen on +the package tracker +for zfs-linux. and +the +team status page. If you want to help out, please join us. +The +source code is available via git on Alioth. It would also be +great if you could help out with +the dkms package, as +it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.

- Tags: english, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -532,30 +483,49 @@ that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.

-
The Story of Aaron Swartz - Let us all weep!
-
8th October 2015
-

The movie "The -Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz" is both inspiring -and depressing at the same time. The work of Aaron Swartz has -inspired me in my work, and I am grateful of all the improvements he -was able to initiate or complete. I wish I am able to do as much good -in my life as he did in his. Every minute of this 1:45 long movie is -inspiring in documenting how much impact a single person can have on -improving the society and this world. And it is depressing in -documenting how the law enforcement of USA (and other countries) is -corrupted to a point where they can push a bright kid to his death for -downloading too many scientific articles. Aaron is dead. Let us all -weep.

- -

The movie is also available on -Youtube. I -wish there were Norwegian subtitles available, so I could show it to -my parents.

+
What is the best multimedia player in Debian?
+
8th May 2016
+

Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in +Debian claim support for most file formats.

+ +

A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser +plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian +Edu. I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types +for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser +plugin supported most file formats / media types. +The +result can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have +not been updated for a while. But browser plugins are less relevant +these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone +players.

+ +

A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable +player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National +Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why. The cause is a +missing MIME type in the VLC +desktop file. In the process I wrote a script to compare the set +of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin, +only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the +two for VLC. This discovery made me dig up the script I used to +compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files +instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian +support most file formats.

+ +

The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as +a +table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included +in the table, with the package supporting most MIME types being +listed first in the table.

+ +

The best multimedia player in Debian? It is totem, followed by +parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and +kmplayer. Time for the other players to update their announced MIME +support?

- Tags: english, opphavsrett. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video.
@@ -563,68 +533,29 @@ my parents.

-
Alle Stortingets mobiltelefoner kontrolleres fra USA...
-
7th October 2015
-

Jeg lot meg fascinere av -en -artikkel i Aftenposten der det fortelles at «over 600 telefoner som -benyttes av stortingsrepresentanter, rådgivere og ansatte på -Stortinget, kan «fjernstyres» ved hjelp av -programvaren -Airwatch, et såkalte MDM-program (Mobile Device Managment)». Det -hele bagatelliseres av Stortingets IT-stab, men det er i hovedsak på -grunn av at journalisten ikke stiller de relevante spørsmålene. For -meg er det relevante spørsmålet hvem som har lovlig tilgang (i henhold -til lokal lovgiving, dvs. i hvert fall i Norge, Sverige, UK og USA) -til informasjon om og på telefonene, og hvor enkelt det er å skaffe -seg tilgang til hvor mobilene befinner seg og informasjon som befinner -seg på telefonene ved hjelp av utro tjenere, trusler, innbrudd og -andre ulovlige metoder.

- -

Bruken av AirWatch betyr i realiteten at USAs etteretning og -politimyndigheter har full tilgang til stortingets mobiltelefoner, -inkludert posisjon og innhold, takket være -FISAAA-loven -og -"National -Security Letters" og det enkle faktum at selskapet -AirWatch er kontrollert av et -selskap i USA. I tillegg er det kjent at flere lands -etterretningstjenester kan lytte på trafikken når den passerer -landegrensene.

- -

Jeg har bedt om mer informasjon -fra -Stortinget om bruken av AirWatch via Mimes brønn så får vi se hva -de har å fortelle om saken. Fant ingenting om 'airwatch' i -postjournalen til Stortinget, så jeg trenger hjelp før jeg kan be om -innsyn i konkrete dokumenter.

- -

Oppdatering 2015-10-07: Jeg er blitt spurt hvorfor jeg antar at -AirWatch-agenten rapporterer til USA og ikke direkte til Stortingets -egen infrastruktur. Det stemmer at det er teknisk mulig å sette -opp mobiltelefonene til å rapportere til datamaskiner som eies av -Stortinget. Jeg antar det rapporteres til AirWatch sine sentrale -tjenester basert på det jeg leste fra beskrivelsen av -Mobile -Device Management på AirWatch sine egne nettsider, koblet med at -det brukes en standard app som kan hentes fra "app-butikkene" for å få -tilgang. Enten må app-en settes opp individuelt hos Stortinget, eller -så får den beskjed fra AirWatch i USA om hvor den skal koble seg opp. -I det første tilfellet vil den ikke rapportere direkte til USA, men -til programvare utviklet av AirWatch som kjører på en maskin under -Stortingets kontroll. Det er litt bedre, men fortsatt vil det være -umulig for Stortinget å være sikker på hva programvaren som tar imot -forbindelser gjør. Jeg ser fra beskrivelsen av -Enterprice -Integration hos AirWatch at det er mulig å ha lokal installasjon, -og håper innsynsforespørsler mot Stortinget kan fortelle mer om -hvordan ting konkret fungerer der.

+
The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled
+
4th May 2016
+
A friend of mine made me aware of +The Pyra, a +handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled. I +would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)

+ +

The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB +plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5" +LCD touch screen. The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole +day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests +confirming this. The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the +last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before +production started.

+ +

As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with +Debian. Please let me know if you know of any others. Is it the +first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?

- Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn, personvern, sikkerhet, stortinget, surveillance. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -639,6 +570,23 @@ hvordan ting konkret fungerer der.

Archive