X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/31e78b216f079bfa709d1aa5fa4a5d91da9f46bd..ae5db6d19f3d85fdd5e7bd4c12be28fa3f15fc43:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 317085e027..96c2134fd9 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,60 +20,69 @@
-
Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian
-
23rd March 2016
-

Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an -extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for -later processing and graphing. The original collector store the -battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new -collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design -full level, last full level and current battery level. This make it -possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise -the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.

- -

The new tools are available in /usr/share/battery-stats/ -in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable. Get the new battery level graph -and lifetime prediction by running: - -

-/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
-

- -

Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.

- -

The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu -entry yet):

- -

-/usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
-

- -

I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least -when there are few data points. The graphs look a bit better with a -few years of data.

- -

A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats -collector broke in Debian. The scripts in -/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/ were no longer executed. I -suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not -know. The issue is reported as bug #818649 against pm-utils. I -managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call the collector -script every time the power connector is connected and disconnected. -With this fix in place it was finally time to make a new release of -the package, and get it into Debian.

- -

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. -As always, patches are very welcome.

+
Aktivitetsbånd som beskytter privatsfæren
+
3rd November 2016
+

Jeg ble så imponert over +dagens +gladnyhet på NRK, om at Forbrukerrådet klager inn vilkårene for +bruk av aktivitetsbånd fra Fitbit, Garmin, Jawbone og Mio til +Datatilsynet og forbrukerombudet, at jeg sendte følgende brev til +forbrukerrådet for å uttrykke min støtte: + +

+ +

Jeg ble veldig glad over å lese at Forbrukerrådet +klager +inn flere aktivitetsbånd til Datatilsynet for dårlige vilkår. Jeg +har ønsket meg et aktivitetsbånd som kan måle puls, bevegelse og +gjerne også andre helserelaterte indikatorer en stund nå. De eneste +jeg har funnet i salg gjør, som dere også har oppdaget, graverende +inngrep i privatsfæren og sender informasjonen ut av huset til folk og +organisasjoner jeg ikke ønsker å dele aktivitets- og helseinformasjon +med. Jeg ønsker et alternativ som _ikke_ sender informasjon til +skyen, men derimot bruker +en +fritt og åpent standardisert protokoll (eller i det minste en +dokumentert protokoll uten patent- og opphavsrettslige +bruksbegrensinger) til å kommunisere med datautstyr jeg kontrollerer. +Er jo ikke interessert i å betale noen for å tilrøve seg +personopplysninger fra meg. Desverre har jeg ikke funnet noe +alternativ så langt.

+ +

Det holder ikke å endre på bruksvilkårene for enhetene, slik +Datatilsynet ofte legger opp til i sin behandling, når de gjør slik +f.eks. Fitbit (den jeg har sett mest på). Fitbit krypterer +informasjonen på enheten og sender den kryptert til leverandøren. Det +gjør det i praksis umulig både å sjekke hva slags informasjon som +sendes over, og umulig å ta imot informasjonen selv i stedet for +Fitbit. Uansett hva slags historie som forteller i bruksvilkårene er +en jo både prisgitt leverandørens godvilje og at de ikke tvinges av +sitt lands myndigheter til å lyve til sine kunder om hvorvidt +personopplysninger spres ut over det bruksvilkårene sier. Det er +veldokumentert hvordan f.eks. USA tvinger selskaper vha. såkalte +National security letters til å utlevere personopplysninger samtidig +som de ikke får lov til å fortelle dette til kundene sine.

+ +

Stå på, jeg er veldig glade for at dere har sett på saken. Vet +dere om aktivitetsbånd i salg i dag som ikke tvinger en til å utlevere +aktivitets- og helseopplysninger med leverandøren?

+ +
+ +

Jeg håper en konkurrent som respekterer kundenes privatliv klarer å +nå opp i markedet, slik at det finnes et reelt alternativ for oss som +har full tillit til at skyleverandører vil prioritere egen inntjening +og myndighetspålegg langt over kundenes rett til privatliv. Jeg har +ingen tiltro til at Datatilsynet vil kreve noe mer enn at vilkårene +endres slik at de forklarer eksplisitt i hvor stor grad bruk av +produktene utraderer privatsfæren til kundene. Det vil nok gjøre de +innklagede armbåndene "lovlige", men fortsatt tvinge kundene til å +dele sine personopplysninger med leverandøren.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance.
@@ -81,109 +90,189 @@ As always, patches are very welcome.

-
UsingQR - "Electronic" paper invoices using JSON and QR codes
-
19th March 2016
-

Back in 2013 I proposed -a -way to make paper and PDF invoices easier to process electronically by -adding a QR code with the key information about the invoice. I -suggested using vCard field definition, to get some standard format -for name and address, but any format would work. I did not do -anything about the proposal, but hoped someone one day would make -something like it. It would make it possible to efficiently send -machine readable invoices directly between seller and buyer.

- -

This was the background when I came across a proposal and -specification from the web based accounting and invoicing supplier -Visma in Sweden called -UsingQR. Their PDF invoices contain -a QR code with the key information of the invoice in JSON format. -This is the typical content of a QR code following the UsingQR -specification (based on a real world example, some numbers replaced to -get a more bogus entry). I've reformatted the JSON to make it easier -to read. Normally this is all on one long line:

- -

-{
- "vh":500.00,
- "vm":0,
- "vl":0,
- "uqr":1,
- "tp":1,
- "nme":"Din Leverandør",
- "cc":"NO",
- "cid":"997912345 MVA",
- "iref":"12300001",
- "idt":"20151022",
- "ddt":"20151105",
- "due":2500.0000,
- "cur":"NOK",
- "pt":"BBAN",
- "acc":"17202612345",
- "bc":"BIENNOK1",
- "adr":"0313 OSLO"
-}
-

+
Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone
+
10th October 2016
+

In July +I +wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working without +the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone). It is +time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.

+ +

The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use +it regularly to chat with my loved ones. I had a major snag at the +end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my +setup, identity and keys. The reason behind this major mess was +running out of disk space. To avoid that ever happening again I have +started storing everything in userdata/ in git, to be able to +roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake. I +had to use it once after introducing the git backup. When rolling +back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option +in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the +problem. I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the +protocol to detect rollback attacks. The git repository is rather big +(674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the +content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare +time.

+ +

I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this +make it impossible to send messages using Signal. I could still +receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send. +I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to +upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no +protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and +thus try to keep the number of support requests down.

+ +

Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly, +making the old patch fail to apply cleanly. Below is an updated +patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal. The +original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console +and call a function from there. I got help from a friend with more +JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI +button instead. This mean that to get started you just need to run +the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going +now. I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days +in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.

+ +

So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:

+ +
    + +
  1. First, install required packages to get the source code and the +browser you need. Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I +know, so you need to install it. + +
    +apt install git tor chromium
+git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
+
    2. + +
  2. Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch +block below.
    3. + +
  3. Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using +`pwd`/run-signal-app). + +
  4. Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone +number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the +verification code and enter it into the form field and press +'Register'. Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal +username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.
    5. + +
  5. You can now use Signal to contact others. Note, new contacts do +not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is +no way to assign names to Contacts. There is also no way to create or +update chat groups. I suspect this is because the web app do not have +a associated contact database.
    6. + +
+ +

I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its +main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major +corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and +Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon). See for +example +the +LibreSignal issue tracker for a thread documenting the authors +view on these issues. But the network effect is strong in this case, +and several of the people I want to communicate with already use +Signal. Perhaps we can all move to Ring +once it work on my +laptop? It already work on Windows and Android, and is included +in Debian and +Ubuntu, but not +working on Debian Stable.

+ +

Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it +working. It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout, +make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:

+ +
+cd Signal-Desktop; cat <<EOF | patch -p1
+diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
+index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
+--- a/js/background.js
++++ b/js/background.js
+@@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
+         });
+     });
+ 
+-    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
++    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
+     var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
+-    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
++    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
+     var messageReceiver;
+     window.getSocketStatus = function() {
+         if (messageReceiver) {
+diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
+index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
+--- a/js/expire.js
++++ b/js/expire.js
+@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+ ;(function() {
+     'use strict';
+-    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
++    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
+ 
+     window.extension = window.extension || {};
+ 
+diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
+index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
+--- a/js/views/install_view.js
++++ b/js/views/install_view.js
+@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
+             return {
+                 'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
+                 'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
+-                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
++                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
++                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
+             };
+         },
+         clearQR: function() {
+diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
+index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
+--- a/options.html
++++ b/options.html
+@@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
+         <div class='nav'>
+           <h1>{{ installWelcome }}</h1>
+           <p>{{ installTagline }}</p>
+-          <div> <a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}</a> </div>
++          <div> <a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}</a>
++	    <br> <a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone</a>
++
++	  </div>
+           <span class='dot step1 selected'></span>
+           <span class='dot step2'></span>
+           <span class='dot step3'></span>
+--- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
++++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
+@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
++#!/bin/sh
++set -e
++cd $(dirname $0)
++mkdir -p userdata
++userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
++if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
++    (cd $userdata && git init)
++fi
++(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
++exec chromium \
++  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
++  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
+EOF
+chmod a+rx run-signal-app
+
-

The interpretation of the fields can be found in the -format -specification (revision 2 from june 2014). The format seem to -have most of the information needed to handle accounting and payment -of invoices, at least the fields I have needed so far here in -Norway.

- -

Unfortunately, the site and document do not mention anything about -the patent, trademark and copyright status of the format and the -specification. Because of this, I asked the people behind it back in -November to clarify. Ann-Christine Savlid (ann-christine.savlid (at) -visma.com) replied that Visma had not applied for patent or trademark -protection for this format, and that there were no copyright based -usage limitations for the format. I urged her to make sure this was -explicitly written on the web pages and in the specification, but -unfortunately this has not happened yet. So I guess if there is -submarine patents, hidden trademarks or a will to sue for copyright -infringements, those starting to use the UsingQR format might be at -risk, but if this happen there is some legal defense in the fact that -the people behind the format claimed it was safe to do so. At least -with patents, there is always -a -chance of getting sued...

- -

I also asked if they planned to maintain the format in an -independent standard organization to give others more confidence that -they would participate in the standardization process on equal terms -with Visma, but they had no immediate plans for this. Their plan was -to work with banks to try to get more users of the format, and -evaluate the way forward if the format proved to be popular. I hope -they conclude that using an open standard organisation like -IETF is the correct place to -maintain such specification.

- -

Update 2016-03-20: Via Twitter I became aware of -some comments -about this blog post that had several useful links and references to -similar systems. In the Czech republic, the Czech Banking Association -standard #26, with short name SPAYD, uses QR codes with payment -information. More information is available from the Wikipedia page on -Short -Payment Descriptor. And in Germany, there is a system named -BezahlCode, -(specification -v1.8 2013-12-05 available as PDF), which uses QR codes with -URL-like formatting using "bank:" as the URI schema/protocol to -provide the payment information. There is also the -ZUGFeRD -file format that perhaps could be transfered using QR codes, but I am -not sure if it is done already. Last, in Bolivia there are reports -that tax information since november 2014 need to be printed in QR -format on invoices. I have not been able to track down a -specification for this format, because of my limited language skill -sets.

+

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

- Tags: english, standard. + Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet, surveillance.
@@ -191,57 +280,129 @@ sets.

-
Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian
-
15th March 2016
-

Back in September, I blogged about -the -system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery, and -how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced). I -created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing, -but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already -a battery-stats -package in Debian that should do the same thing, and I did not see -a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be -fixed instead. I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and -hoped someone would step in and fix it. But no-one did.

- -

I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own -hands. The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of -battery stats (available from github) and part of the team maintaining -battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally -able to collect battery status using the /sys/class/power_supply/ -information provided by the Linux kernel. If you install the -battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a -graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the -status of the battery. The source package build and work just fine in -Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not -tested). The default graph you get for that system look like this:

- -

- -

My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the -battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details -about the battery. The scripts are merged into the upstream -battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work -yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way. Will have to test a -bit more before I make a new release.

- -

I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I -suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it -impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing -and graphing.

- -

If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop -battery, check out the battery-stats package in -Debian and -on -github. -I would love some help to improve the system further.

+
NRKs kildevern når NRK-epost deles med utenlands etterretning?
+
8th October 2016
+

NRK +lanserte +for noen uker siden en ny +varslerportal som bruker +SecureDrop til å ta imot tips der det er vesentlig at ingen +utenforstående får vite at NRK er tipset. Det er et langt steg +fremover for NRK, og når en leser bloggposten om hva de har tenkt på +og hvordan løsningen er satt opp virker det som om de har gjort en +grundig jobb der. Men det er ganske mye ekstra jobb å motta tips via +SecureDrop, så varslersiden skriver "Nyhetstips som ikke krever denne +typen ekstra vern vil vi gjerne ha på nrk.no/03030", og 03030-siden +foreslår i tillegg til et webskjema å bruke epost, SMS, telefon, +personlig oppmøte og brevpost. Denne artikkelen handler disse andre +metodene.

+ +

Når en sender epost til en @nrk.no-adresse så vil eposten sendes ut +av landet til datamaskiner kontrollert av Microsoft. En kan sjekke +dette selv ved å slå opp epostleveringsadresse (MX) i DNS. For NRK er +dette i dag "nrk-no.mail.protection.outlook.com". NRK har som en ser +valgt å sette bort epostmottaket sitt til de som står bak outlook.com, +dvs. Microsoft. En kan sjekke hvor nettverkstrafikken tar veien +gjennom Internett til epostmottaket vha. programmet +traceroute, og finne ut hvem som eier en Internett-adresse +vha. whois-systemet. Når en gjør dette for epost-trafikk til @nrk.no +ser en at trafikken fra Norge mot nrk-no.mail.protection.outlook.com +går via Sverige mot enten Irland eller Tyskland (det varierer fra gang +til gang og kan endre seg over tid).

+ +

Vi vet fra +introduksjonen av +FRA-loven at IP-trafikk som passerer grensen til Sverige avlyttes +av Försvarets radioanstalt (FRA). Vi vet videre takket være +Snowden-bekreftelsene at trafikk som passerer grensen til +Storbritannia avlyttes av Government Communications Headquarters +(GCHQ). I tillegg er er det nettopp lansert et forslag i Norge om at +forsvarets E-tjeneste skal få avlytte trafikk som krysser grensen til +Norge. Jeg er ikke kjent med dokumentasjon på at Irland og Tyskland +gjør det samme. Poenget er uansett at utenlandsk etterretning har +mulighet til å snappe opp trafikken når en sender epost til @nrk.no. +I tillegg er det selvsagt tilgjengelig for Microsoft som er underlagt USAs +jurisdiksjon og +samarbeider +med USAs etterretning på flere områder. De som tipser NRK om +nyheter via epost kan dermed gå ut fra at det blir kjent for mange +andre enn NRK at det er gjort.

+ +

Bruk av SMS og telefon registreres av blant annet telefonselskapene +og er tilgjengelig i følge lov og forskrift for blant annet Politi, +NAV og Finanstilsynet, i tillegg til IT-folkene hos telefonselskapene +og deres overordnede. Hvis innringer eller mottaker bruker +smarttelefon vil slik kontakt også gjøres tilgjengelig for ulike +app-leverandører og de som lytter på trafikken mellom telefon og +app-leverandør, alt etter hva som er installert på telefonene som +brukes.

+ +

Brevpost kan virke trygt, og jeg vet ikke hvor mye som registreres +og lagres av postens datastyrte postsorteringssentraler. Det vil ikke +overraske meg om det lagres hvor i landet hver konvolutt kommer fra og +hvor den er adressert, i hvert fall for en kortere periode. Jeg vet +heller ikke hvem slik informasjon gjøres tilgjengelig for. Det kan +være nok til å ringe inn potensielle kilder når det krysses med hvem +som kjente til aktuell informasjon og hvor de befant seg (tilgjengelig +f.eks. hvis de bærer mobiltelefon eller bor i nærheten).

+ +

Personlig oppmøte hos en NRK-journalist er antagelig det tryggeste, +men en bør passe seg for å bruke NRK-kantina. Der bryter de nemlig +Sentralbanklovens +paragraf 14 og nekter folk å betale med kontanter. I stedet +krever de at en varsle sin bankkortutsteder om hvor en befinner seg +ved å bruke bankkort. Banktransaksjoner er tilgjengelig for +bankkortutsteder (det være seg VISA, Mastercard, Nets og/eller en +bank) i tillegg til politiet og i hvert fall tidligere med Se & Hør +(via utro tjenere, slik det ble avslørt etter utgivelsen av boken +«Livet, det forbannede» av Ken B. Rasmussen). Men hvor mange kjenner +en NRK-journalist personlig? Besøk på NRK på Marienlyst krever at en +registrerer sin ankost elektronisk i besøkssystemet. Jeg vet ikke hva +som skjer med det datasettet, men har grunn til å tro at det sendes ut +SMS til den en skal besøke med navnet som er oppgitt. Kanskje greit å +oppgi falskt navn.

+ +

Når så tipset er kommet frem til NRK skal det behandles +redaksjonelt i NRK. Der vet jeg via ulike kilder at de fleste +journalistene bruker lokalt installert programvare, men noen bruker +Google Docs og andre skytjenester i strid med interne retningslinjer +når de skriver. Hvordan vet en hvem det gjelder? Ikke vet jeg, men +det kan være greit å spørre for å sjekke at journalisten har tenkt på +problemstillingen, før en gir et tips. Og hvis tipset omtales internt +på epost, er det jo grunn til å tro at også intern eposten vil deles +med Microsoft og utenlands etterretning, slik tidligere nevnt, men det +kan hende at det holdes internt i NRKs interne MS Exchange-løsning. +Men Microsoft ønsker å få alle Exchange-kunder over "i skyen" (eller +andre folks datamaskiner, som det jo innebærer), så jeg vet ikke hvor +lenge det i så fall vil vare.

+ +

I tillegg vet en jo at +NRK +har valgt å gi nasjonal sikkerhetsmyndighet (NSM) tilgang til å se på +intern og ekstern Internett-trafikk hos NRK ved oppsett av såkalte +VDI-noder, på tross av +protester +fra NRKs journalistlag. Jeg vet ikke om den vil kunne snappe opp +dokumenter som lagres på interne filtjenere eller dokumenter som lages +i de interne webbaserte publiseringssystemene, men vet at hva noden +ser etter på nettet kontrolleres av NSM og oppdateres automatisk, slik +at det ikke gir så mye mening å sjekke hva noden ser etter i dag når +det kan endres automatisk i morgen.

+ +

Personlig vet jeg ikke om jeg hadde turt tipse NRK hvis jeg satt på +noe som kunne være en trussel mot den bestående makten i Norge eller +verden. Til det virker det å være for mange åpninger for +utenforstående med andre prioriteter enn NRKs journalistiske fokus. +Og den største truslen for en varsler er jo om metainformasjon kommer +på avveie, dvs. informasjon om at en har vært i kontakt med en +journalist. Det kan være nok til at en kommer i myndighetenes +søkelys, og de færreste har nok operasjonell sikkerhet til at vil tåle +slik flombelysning på sitt privatliv.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: dld, norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance.
@@ -249,105 +410,125 @@ I would love some help to improve the system further.

-
Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically
-
19th February 2016
-

Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to -details. And one of the details is the content of the -debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by -the code in the package in question, preferably in -machine -readable DEP5 format.

- -

For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write -and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the -package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters. So getting it right -the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save -both you and the ftpmasters some work.. Today, while trying to figure -out what was wrong with -the -zfsonlinux copyright file, I decided to spend some time on -figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least -semi-automatically.

- -

Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the -file based on the code in the source package, -debmake -and cme. I'm -not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to -create a sensible draft file. As far as I can tell, none of them can -be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be -polished a bit before the file is OK to upload. I found the debmake -option in -a -blog posts from 2014. - -

To generate using debmake, use the -cc option: +

Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier
+
7th October 2016
+

The Isenkram +system provide a practical and easy way to figure out which +packages support the hardware in a given machine. The command line +tool isenkram-lookup and the tasksel options provide a +convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current +hardware during system installation, both user space packages and +firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide +a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted +while using the computer. For example, if you plug in a smart card +reader, the system will ask if you want to install pcscd if +that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video +camera the system will ask if you want to install cheese if +cheese is currently missing. This already work just fine.

+ +

But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to +package names. When I started no such database existed in Debian, so +I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and +made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using +http. This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals +as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.

+ +

The hardware is identified using modalias strings. The modalias +design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are +made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style +globbing. It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related +identifiers.

+ +

The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no +information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making +isenkram propose obsolete packages too. But along came AppStream, a +cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about +software packages. When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the +people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using +modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for +mapping hardware to packages. This idea was accepted and AppStream is +now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a +distribution neutral way. I wrote +a +recipe on how to add such meta-information in a blog post last +December. If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please +announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.

+ +

In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms +RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream. The effect is +that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian +machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get +it working. The intention is that this should allow the local user to +start programming his robot controller right away without having to +guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.

+ +

But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT +unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something +annoying. The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to +the USB device for programming the unit. This used to work, but no +longer in Jessie and Stretch. After some investigation and asking +around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had +changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices. The +ConsoleKit mechanism from /lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules +no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the +plugdev group during login. Michael Biebl told me that this method +was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead. This was good +news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user +directory like LDAP. Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device +access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background +process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit +setup. Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem +for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.

+ +

The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'. It can either be +applied directly for a device, or is applied in +/lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices. As the +LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the +tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages. Here +is one example. For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the +/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules file now look like this: 

-debmake -cc > debian/copyright
+SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
+    SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"

-

Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so -this might not be the best option.

- -

The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found -this approach in -a -blog post from 2015. To generate using cme, use the 'update -dpkg-copyright' option: +

The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end. I suspect all +packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be +changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via +70-uaccess.rules). Perhaps a lintian check should be created +to detect this?

+ +

I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature. +It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation +detail like the udev-acl tag used by +/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules. If it is, I guess the +indirect method is the preferred way. Michael +asked for more +documentation from the systemd project and I hope it will make +this clearer. For now I use the generic classes when they exist and +is already handled by 70-uaccess.rules, and add the tag +directly if no such class exist.

-

-cme update dpkg-copyright
-

+

To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out +my +blog posts tagged isenkram.

-

This will create or update debian/copyright. The cme tool seem to -handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.

- -

When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to -check if the file is correct. For this I found two good options, -debmake -k and license-reconcile. The former seem -to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect -ineffective blocks in the copyright file. The latter reports missing -copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license -names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0). I suspect it is good to use both and -fix all issues reported by them before uploading. But I do not know -if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a -copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.

- -

The devscripts tool licensecheck deserve mentioning. It -will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements. -It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but -can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.

- -

Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update -debian/copyright file. Please let me know, or blog about it on -planet.debian.org.

+

To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier, +please join us on our IRC channel +#debian-lego and join +the Debian +LEGO team in the Alioth project we created yesterday. A mailing +list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)

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

- -

Update 2016-02-20: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel -on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file - -

-licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
-  /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
-

- -

He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the -version control system to make it easier to discover license and -copyright changes in the upstream source. I will try to do the same -with my packages in the future.

- -

Update 2016-02-21: The cme author recommended -against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed -command line.

+15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: debian, english, isenkram.
@@ -355,81 +536,47 @@ command line.

-
Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support
-
4th February 2016
-

The appstream system -is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very -convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given -firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it. This can -be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog -about. :)

- -

Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware -file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly -picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian -unstable. In general you would be looking for the firmware requested -by the kernel during kernel module loading. To find the package -providing the example file, do like this:

- -
-% apt install appstream
-[...]
-% apt update
-[...]
-% appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
-  awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
-firmware-qlogic
-%
-
- -

See the -appstream wiki page to learn how to embed the package metadata in -a way appstream can use.

- -

This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a -given MIME type. This is very useful when you get a file you do not -know how to handle. First find the mime type using file ---mime-type, and next look up the package providing support for -it. Lets say you got an SVG file. Its MIME type is image/svg+xml, -and you can find all packages handling this type like this:

- -
-% apt install appstream
-[...]
-% apt update
-[...]
-% appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
-  awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
-bkchem
-phototonic
-inkscape
-shutter
-tetzle
-geeqie
-xia
-pinta
-gthumb
-karbon
-comix
-mirage
-viewnior
-postr
-ristretto
-kolourpaint4
-eog
-eom
-gimagereader
-midori
-%
-
- -

I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for -packages providing appstream metadata.

+
Aftenposten-redaktøren med lua i hånda
+
9th September 2016
+

En av dagens nyheter er at Aftenpostens redaktør Espen Egil Hansen +bruker +forsiden +av papiravisen på et åpent brev til Facebooks sjef Mark Zuckerberg om +Facebooks fjerning av bilder, tekster og sider de ikke liker. Det +må være uvant for redaktøren i avisen Aftenposten å stå med lua i +handa og håpe på å bli hørt. Spesielt siden Aftenposten har vært med +på å gi Facebook makten de nå demonstrerer at de har. Ved å melde seg +inn i Facebook-samfunnet har de sagt ja til bruksvilkårene og inngått +en antagelig bindende avtale. Kanskje de skulle lest og vurdert +vilkårene litt nærmere før de sa ja, i stedet for å klage over at +reglende de har valgt å akseptere blir fulgt? Personlig synes jeg +vilkårene er uakseptable og det ville ikke falle meg inn å gå inn på +en avtale med slike vilkår. I tillegg til uakseptable vilkår er det +mange andre grunner til å unngå Facebook. Du kan finne en solid +gjennomgang av flere slike argumenter hos +Richard Stallmans side om +Facebook. + +

Jeg håper flere norske redaktører på samme vis må stå med lua i +hånden inntil de forstår at de selv er med på å føre samfunnet på +ville veier ved å omfavne Facebook slik de gjør når de omtaler og +løfter frem saker fra Facebook, og tar i bruk Facebook som +distribusjonskanal for sine nyheter. De bidrar til +overvåkningssamfunnet og raderer ut lesernes privatsfære når de lenker +til Facebook på sine sider, og låser seg selv inne i en omgivelse der +det er Facebook, og ikke redaktøren, som sitter med makta.

+ +

Men det vil nok ta tid, i et Norge der de fleste nettredaktører +deler +sine leseres personopplysinger med utenlands etterretning.

+ +

For øvrig burde varsleren Edward Snowden få politisk asyl i +Norge.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, surveillance.
@@ -437,91 +584,159 @@ packages providing appstream metadata.

-
Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software
-
24th January 2016
-

Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around -with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their -position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long -time (like every time a SMS is received or sent). And if their -computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called -mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often -also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access -during installation). And when these programs send out information to -central collection points, the location is often included, unless -extra care is taken to not send the location. The provided -information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is -good and bad, depend on your point of view). What is certain, is that -the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and -perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way, -when they share their whereabouts with private and public -entities.

- -

- -

The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out -when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing. It is -unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government -officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from -unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information. But the -public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software -tool to do so is called -Creepy or Cree.py. I -discovered it when I read -an -article about Creepy in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i -November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian. -The python program was in Debian, but -the version in -Debian was completely broken and practically unmaintained. I -uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not -have time to fix it then. This Christmas I decided to finally try to -get Creepy operational in Debian. Now a fixed version is available in -Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches -are now included -upstream.

- -

The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from -Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a -complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a -given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all -these services. Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at -least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these -days it is impossible. This mean that to use Creepy, you need to -configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide -information to them about your search interests. This should be taken -into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information -about yourself with the services.

- -

The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least -geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital -of Norway. One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at -information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the -information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area. -I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in -twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a -Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time, -making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other -things. A similar technique have been -used -to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine, and it is both a powerful -tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people -understand the value of the private information they provide to the -public.

- -

The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as -it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at -least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and -python-requests-toolbelt).

- -

(I have uploaded -the image to -screenshots.debian.net and licensed it under the same terms as the -Creepy program in Debian.)

+
E-tjenesten ber om innsyn i eposten til partiene på Stortinget
+
6th September 2016
+

I helga kom det et hårreisende forslag fra Lysne II-utvalget satt +ned av Forsvarsdepartementet. Lysne II-utvalget var bedt om å vurdere +ønskelista til Forsvarets etterretningstjeneste (e-tjenesten), og har +kommet med +forslag +om at e-tjenesten skal få lov til a avlytte all Internett-trafikk +som passerer Norges grenser. Få er klar over at dette innebærer at +e-tjenesten får tilgang til epost sendt til de fleste politiske +partiene på Stortinget. Regjeringspartiet Høyre (@hoyre.no), +støttepartiene Venstre (@venstre.no) og Kristelig Folkeparti (@krf.no) +samt Sosialistisk Ventreparti (@sv.no) og Miljøpartiet de grønne +(@mdg.no) har nemlig alle valgt å ta imot eposten sin via utenlandske +tjenester. Det betyr at hvis noen sender epost til noen med en slik +adresse vil innholdet i eposten, om dette forslaget blir vedtatt, gjøres +tilgjengelig for e-tjenesten. Venstre, Sosialistisk Ventreparti og +Miljøpartiet De Grønne har valgt å motta sin epost hos Google, +Kristelig Folkeparti har valgt å motta sin epost hos Microsoft, og +Høyre har valgt å motta sin epost hos Comendo med mottak i Danmark og +Irland. Kun Arbeiderpartiet og Fremskrittspartiet har valgt å motta +eposten sin i Norge, hos henholdsvis Intility AS og Telecomputing +AS.

+ +

Konsekvensen er at epost inn og ut av de politiske organisasjonene, +til og fra partimedlemmer og partiets tillitsvalgte vil gjøres +tilgjengelig for e-tjenesten for analyse og sortering. Jeg mistenker +at kunnskapen som slik blir tilgjengelig vil være nyttig hvis en +ønsker å vite hvilke argumenter som treffer publikum når en ønsker å +påvirke Stortingets representanter.

Ved hjelp av MX-oppslag i DNS for epost-domene, tilhørende +whois-oppslag av IP-adressene og traceroute for å se hvorvidt +trafikken går via utlandet kan enhver få bekreftet at epost sendt til +de omtalte partiene vil gjøres tilgjengelig for forsvarets +etterretningstjeneste hvis forslaget blir vedtatt. En kan også bruke +den kjekke nett-tjenesten ipinfo.io +for å få en ide om hvor i verden en IP-adresse hører til.

+ +

På den positive siden vil forslaget gjøre at enda flere blir +motivert til å ta grep for å bruke +Tor og krypterte +kommunikasjonsløsninger for å kommunisere med sine kjære, for å sikre +at privatsfæren vernes. Selv bruker jeg blant annet +FreedomBox og +Signal til slikt. Ingen av +dem er optimale, men de fungerer ganske bra allerede og øker kostnaden +for dem som ønsker å invadere mitt privatliv.

+ +

For øvrig burde varsleren Edward Snowden få politisk asyl i +Norge.

+ +
- Tags: debian, english, nice free software. + Tags: norsk, surveillance.
@@ -529,72 +744,33 @@ Creepy program in Debian.)

-
Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe
-
15th January 2016
-

During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum -observed -that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to -believe a computer have a given security hole if it download a -security fix from a Debian mirror. This is a good reason to always -use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those -listening do not know which IP address to attack. In August, Richard -Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible -to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that -download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and -proposed -to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror. He -was not the first to propose this, as the -apt-transport-tor -package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt -to use Tor, but I was not -aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.

- -

Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian -sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central -Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making -it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes, -making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.

- -

Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by -installing apt-transport-tor and replacing http and https -urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead -of the official Debian mirror site. I recommend installing -etckeeper before you start to have a history of the changes -done in /etc/.

- -
-apt install apt-transport-tor
-sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
-sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
-
- -

If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run -the sed commands for these too. The sed command is assuming your are -using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror. Adjust the command (or just -edit the file manually) to match your mirror.

- -

This work in Debian Jessie and later. Note that tools like -apt-file only recently started using the apt transport -system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs. For -apt-file you need the version currently in experimental, -which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable. So if you -need a working apt-file, this is not for you.

- -

Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start -using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you -update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus -masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine. Using Tor will -become normal for the machine in question.

- -

On Freedombox, APT -is set up by default to use apt-transport-tor when Tor is -enabled. It would be great if it was the default on any Debian -system.

+
First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public
+
30th August 2016
+

In April we +started +to work 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 get the Debian +Administrator's Handbook page (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 +the +hosted weblate project page, and get in touch using +the +translators mailing list. Please also check out +the instructions for +contributors. A good way to contribute is to proofread the text +and update weblate if you find errors.

+ +

Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as +electronic form.

- Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -602,37 +778,75 @@ system.

-
Nedlasting fra NRK, som Matroska med undertekster
-
2nd January 2016
-

Det kommer stadig nye løsninger for å ta lagre unna innslag fra NRK -for å se på det senere. For en stund tilbake kom jeg over et script -nrkopptak laget av Ingvar Hagelund. Han fjernet riktignok sitt script -etter forespørsel fra Erik Bolstad i NRK, men noen tok heldigvis og -gjorde det tilgjengelig -via github.

- -

Scriptet kan lagre som MPEG4 eller Matroska, og bake inn -undertekster i fila på et vis som blant annet VLC forstår. For å -bruke scriptet, kopier ned git-arkivet og kjør

- -

-nrkopptak/bin/nrk-opptak k https://tv.nrk.no/serie/bmi-turne/MUHH45000115/sesong-1/episode-1
-

- -

URL-eksemplet er dagens toppsak på tv.nrk.no. Argument 'k' ber -scriptet laste ned og lagre som Matroska. Det finnes en rekke andre -muligheter for valg av kvalitet og format.

- -

Jeg foretrekker dette scriptet fremfor youtube-dl, som - -nevnt i 2014 støtter NRK og en rekke andre videokilder, på grunn -av at nrkopptak samler undertekster og video i en enkelt fil, hvilket -gjør håndtering enklere på disk.

+
Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software
+
11th August 2016
+

This summer, I read a great article +"coz: +This Is the Profiler You're Looking For" 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.

+ +

The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to +get the system into Debian. I +created +a WNPP request for it 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.

+ +

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: + +

+coz run --- program-to-run
+

+ +

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 +http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/ +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 <coz.h> 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.

+ +

A video published by ACM +presenting the +Coz profiler is available from Youtube. There is also a paper +from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available +titled +Coz: +finding code that counts with causal profiling.

+ +

The source code +for Coz is available from github. It will only build with clang +because it uses a +C++ +feature missing in GCC, but I've submitted +a patch to solve +it and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.

+ +

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.

- Tags: multimedia, norsk, video, web. + Tags: debian, english, nice free software.
@@ -640,58 +854,58 @@ gjør håndtering enklere på disk.

-
OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software
-
23rd December 2015
-

When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to -call the car license plate numbers in those days. I would write the -numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids -to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some -exotic or special region codes and numbers. It was a fun game to pass -time, as we kids have plenty of it.

- -

A few days I came across -the OpenALPR -project, a free software project to automatically discover and -report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the -"car numbers" in a machine readable format. I've been looking for -such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the -automatic -number plate recognition tool only is available in the hands of -the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to -even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance. I -discovered the developer -wanted to get the tool into -Debian, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to -help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian -archive.

- -

Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded -it into Debian, where it currently -waits -in the NEW queue for review by the Debian ftpmasters.

- -

I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful -for the common folks, ie those not running a large government -surveillance system? Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike -and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified -when number plates on my watch list are discovered. Another use case -was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home -to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his -car. When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone -capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to -open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway. I -guess for such use case it make sense. I am sure there are other use -cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.

- -

If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check -out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/ -before running "debuild" to build the source. Or wait a bit until the -package show up in unstable.

+
Sales number for the Free Culture translation, first half of 2016
+
5th August 2016
+

As my regular readers probably remember, the last year I published +a French and Norwegian translation of the classic +Free Culture book 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.

+ +

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 +my surprise, the English edition is selling better than both the +French and Norwegian edition, despite the fact that it has been +available in English since it was first published. In total, 24 paper +books was sold for USD $19.99 between 2016-01-01 and 2016-07-31:

+ + + + + + +
Title / languageQuantity
Culture Libre / French3
Fri kultur / Norwegian7
Free Culture / English14
+ +

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 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.

+ +

The ebook edition is available for free from +Github.

+ +

If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native +language, I would be happy to help make it happen. Please get in +touch.

- Tags: debian, english, nice free software. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.
@@ -699,114 +913,40 @@ package show up in unstable.

-
Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian
-
20th December 2015
-

Around three years ago, I created -the isenkram -system to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing -hardware related packages. A GUI system in the isenkram package will -present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by -relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine. The same -lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line -tools in the isenkram-cli package. In addition to mapping hardware, -it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to -install needed firmware packages automatically. The key for this -system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other -words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work -with.

- -

I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and -adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run -time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available. -I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in -the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I -was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings, -the -appstream system was announced. I got in touch and suggested to -add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use -appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the -Debian version of appstream.

- -

A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible, -and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for -appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages. The only -package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my -pymissile package. I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out -how do add the required -metadata -in pymissile. I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with -this content:

- -
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<component>
-  <id>pymissile</id>
-  <metadata_license>MIT</metadata_license>
-  <name>pymissile</name>
-  <summary>Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher</summary>
-  <description>
-    <p>
-      Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
-      Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
-      motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
-      launcher.
-    </p>
-  </description>
-  <provides>
-    <modalias>usb:v1130p0202d*</modalias>
-  </provides>
-</component>
-
- -

The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value, -which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings -(modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel. In this case, it -will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code -0202.

- -

Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files -are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide -appstream files. Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for -these files. A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as -it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions -(in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use). But -it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as -upstream for this project is dormant.

- -

To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the -mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the -appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary -package under /usr/share/appdata/. I did this by adding the following -line to debian/pymissile.install:

- -
-debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
-
- -

With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list -all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI -pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already -installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in -question.

- -

Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the -DEP-11 proposal.

- -

To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine, -try running this command on the command line:

- -
-cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
-
- -

To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out -my -blog posts tagged isenkram.

+
Vitenskapen tar som vanlig feil igjen - relativt feil
+
1st August 2016
+

For mange år siden leste jeg en klassisk tekst som gjorde såpass +inntrykk på meg at jeg husker den fortsatt, flere år senere, og bruker +argumentene fra den stadig vekk. Teksten var «The Relativity of +Wrong» som Isaac Asimov publiserte i Skeptical Inquirer i 1989. Den +gir litt perspektiv rundt formidlingen av vitenskapelige resultater. +Jeg har hatt lyst til å kunne dele den også med folk som ikke +behersker engelsk så godt, som barn og noen av mine eldre slektninger, +og har savnet å ha den tilgjengelig på norsk. For to uker siden tok +jeg meg sammen og kontaktet Asbjørn Dyrendal i foreningen Skepsis om +de var interessert i å publisere en norsk utgave på bloggen sin, og da +han var positiv tok jeg kontakt med Skeptical Inquirer og spurte om +det var greit for dem. I løpet av noen dager fikk vi tilbakemelding +fra Barry Karr hos The Skeptical Inquirer som hadde sjekket og fått OK +fra Robyn Asimov som representerte arvingene i Asmiov-familien og gikk +igang med oversettingen.

+ +

Resultatet, «Relativt +feil», ble publisert på skepsis-bloggen for noen minutter siden. +Jeg anbefaler deg på det varmeste å lese denne teksten og dele den med +dine venner.

+ +

For å håndtere oversettelsen og sikre at original og oversettelse +var i sync brukte vi git, po4a, GNU make og Transifex. Det hele +fungerte utmerket og gjorde det enkelt å dele tekstene og jobbe sammen +om finpuss på formuleringene. Hadde hosted.weblate.org latt meg +opprette nye prosjekter selv i stedet for å måtte kontakte +administratoren der, så hadde jeg brukt weblate i stedet.

- Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + Tags: norsk, skepsis.
@@ -830,6 +970,22 @@ blog posts tagged isenkram.

  • March (3)
    • +
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  • August (5)
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  • September (2)
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  • 2015 @@ -1061,41 +1217,41 @@ blog posts tagged isenkram.

  • bitcoin (9)
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  • bootsystem (15)
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  • bootsystem (16)
  • bsa (2)
  • chrpath (2)
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    • @@ -1109,21 +1265,21 @@ blog posts tagged isenkram.

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  • multimedia (37)
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    • @@ -1141,19 +1297,19 @@ blog posts tagged isenkram.

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    • @@ -1161,7 +1317,7 @@ blog posts tagged isenkram.

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