X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/3d6ea43245fe0dfff15a2d0991d1494804a8ffcc..9d0dcdc25d86de368d53bea6cfcaecc172115c55:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 1366e41a16..f03a482580 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,68 +20,17 @@
-
Best way to create a docbook book?
-
31st July 2012
-

I tried to send this text to the -docbook-apps -mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org, but it only accept messages -from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the -bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I -try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me -out.

- -

I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep -learning curve at the moment.

- -

To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian -translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use -docbook to handle the process. The files to build the book are -available from -github. -The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables, -index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free -software docbook processors. My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux -Squeeze.

- -

I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have -tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these -formats. I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few -problems.

- - - -

So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version -of this book? Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or -experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?

- -

What about HTML and EPUB versions?

+
New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian
+
2nd January 2013
+

During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for +LEGO Mindstorm +NXT. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I +discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were +already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something +you care about, please join me on the IRC channel +#debian-lego (server +irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the +situation. :)

@@ -94,48 +43,104 @@ experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?

-
OOXML og standardisering
-
25th July 2012
-

DIFI har -en -høring gående om ny versjon av statens standardkatalog, med frist -2012-09-30, der det foreslås å fjerne ODF fra katalogen og ta inn ISO -OOXML. I den anledning minnes jeg -notatet -FAD skrev da versjon 2 av standardkatalogen var under -utarbeidelse, da FAD og DIFI fortsatt forsto poenget med og verdien av -frie og åpne standarder.

- -

Det er mange som tror at OOXML er ett spesifikt format, men det -brukes ofte som fellesbetegnelse for både formatet spesifisert av -ECMA, ISO, og formatet produsert av Microsoft Office (aka docx), som -dessverre ikke er det samme formatet. Fra en av de som implementerte -støtte for docx-formatet i KDE fikk jeg høre at ISO-spesifikasjonen -var en nyttig referanse, men at det var mange avvik som gjorde at en -ikke kunne gå ut ifra at Microsoft Office produserte dokumenter i -henhold til ISO-spesifikasjonen.

- -

ISOs OOXML-spesifikasjon har (eller hadde, usikker på om -kommentaren er oppdatert) i følge -Inigo -Surguy feil i mer enn 10% av eksemplene, noe som i tillegg gjør -det vanskelig å bruke spesifikasjonen til å implementere støtte for -ISO OOXML. Jeg har ingen erfaring med å validere OOXML-dokumenter -selv, men ser at -Microsoft -har laget en validator som jeg ikke kan teste da den kun er -tilgjengelig på MS Windows. Finner også en annen kalt -Office-O-Tron som -er oppdatert i fjor. Lurer på om de validerer at dokumenter er i -formatet til Microsoft office, eller om de validerer at de er i -henhold til formatene spesifisert av ECMA og ISO. Det hadde også vært -interessant å se om docx-dokumentene publisert av det offentlige er -gyldige ISO OOXML-dokumenter.

+
Lenker for 2013-01-01
+
1st January 2013
+

Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese den +siste måneden.

+ + + +

Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!

- Tags: norsk, nuug, standard. + Tags: bankid, lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern.
@@ -143,35 +148,29 @@ gyldige ISO OOXML-dokumenter.

-
Free Culture in Norwegian - 5 chapters done, 74 percent left to do
-
21st July 2012
-

I reported earlier that I am working on -a -norwegian version of the book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. -Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders -Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six. The source files as well as a -PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from -github.

- -

I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters -(preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also -completely translated. This completes 26 percent of the number of -strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74 -percent left to translate. A graph of the progress is present at the -bottom of the github project page. There is still room for more -contributors. Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if -you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to -print. :)

- -

The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other -translations, if you want the book to be available in your -language.

+
A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu
+
28th December 2012
+

I was happy to discover a few days ago that the +Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project also this year received a Christmas present from Another +Agency in Trondheim. NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account +December 24th. I want to express our thanks for this very welcome +present. As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on +funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer +gatherings, this donation was most welcome. One developer gathering +cost around NOK 15 000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the +development pace we want. Thus, I hope their example this year is +followed by many others. :)

+ +

The public list of donors can be found on +the +donation page for the project, which also contain instructions if +you want to donate to the project.

- Tags: english, nuug, opphavsrett. + Tags: debian edu, english.
@@ -179,50 +178,51 @@ language.

-
Tips for å bli med i Skolelinux-prosjektet (som faktisk er aktivt)
-
19th July 2012
-

Jeg fikk nettopp spørsmål på epost om Skolelinux-prosjektet lever -fra en som var interessert i å bidra, og måtte jo konstatere at i og -med at spørsmålet ble stilt har prosjektet ikke lyktes med å formidle -sin aktivitet. Her er det jeg svarte:

- -

-

Jada, Skolelinux-prosjektet -lever, men det meste av utvikling foregår nå under paraplyen -Debian Edu som er det -internasjonale navnet på prosjektet. Dugnaden i Norge organiseres av -medlemsforeningen -Fri programvare i -Skolen, og det finnes minst ett selskap som selger kommersiell -support på løsningen (Skolelinux -Drift AS, der jeg er styremedlem). Anbefaler at du melder deg på -epostlisten -debian-edu@lists.debian.org -(og debian-edu-announce) og -melder deg inn i -foreningen for å få beskjed om aktivitet som planlegges. Det -planlegges -utviklersamlinger -i august og utover høsten.

- -

Bidra gjerne med å spre ordet om Skolelinux. Det er alt for få som -bidrar til pressedekning, bloggposter, twittermeldinger, etc. :)

- -

Jeg antar du har funnet -bloggserien -min med intervjuer. Det er antagelig også interessant for deg å -følge med på Planet -Skolelinux.

- -

Hm, jeg burde vel blogge alle disse lenkene slik at de blir enklere -Ã¥ finne...

-

-

Herved gjort. :)

+
How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze
+
25th December 2012
+

Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new +year! I hope next year will prove to be a good year.

+ +

Bitcoin, the digital +decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins +between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting +experiment. And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in +Debian is about to improve a bit. +The new debian source +package (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting +in the NEW queue +for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package +name.

+ +

And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin +team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze +using the following steps to get a set of working packages:

+ +
+git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
+cd bitcoin
+DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
+DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
+
+ +

You might have to install some build dependencies as well. The +list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and +bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment. Note that the +client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need +around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment. Make sure your +~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download +all the blocks. The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so +there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will +not be able to get all the features out of the client.

+ +

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

- Tags: debian edu, norsk. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english.
@@ -230,33 +230,74 @@ Skolelinux.

-
Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
-
16th July 2012
-

I am currently working on a -project -to translate the book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig -to Norwegian. And the source we base our translation on is the -docbook version, to -allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for -this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly -tagged. The source files of this project is available from -github.

- -

The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have -no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert. Is there a -docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a -well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process -for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book? This will provide a -well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot -easier for us to create a good Norwegian version. If you can and want -to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and -send pull requests with fixes. :)

+
A word on bitcoin support in Debian
+
21st December 2012
+

It has been a while since I wrote about +bitcoin, the decentralised +peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I +have been busy elsewhere. But two days ago, I started looking at the +state of bitcoin in +Debian again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet. The package +is now maintained by a +team of +people, and the grunt work had already been done by this team. We +owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :) +But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in +Wheezy. It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from +backports). The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking +it from entering testing. To try to help the team and improve the +situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug +reports. I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt +Corallo in a +PPA for +Ubuntu, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the +Debian package.

+ +

After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on +IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to +improve the package. It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from +me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client +package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion +setup. As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created +a +patch to backport the latest version. Jonas is going to look at +it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a +new version to unstable. + +

I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the +centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system. I +find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting +transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and +that the major credit card companies can block legal money +transactions to Wikileaks. But for bitcoin to succeed, more people +need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when +they sell products and services. Improving the bitcoin support in +Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough. +Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to +pay with bitcoin is still not very good. The bitcoin: URI is a step +in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in +use. Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a +quick transaction. I believe there are other clients available, but +have not tested them.

+ +

My +experiment +with bitcoins showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin. +I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two +years ago, as can be +seen +on the blockexplorer service. Thank you everyone for your +donation. The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that +bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the +number of users have gone up since then. If you use bitcoin and want +to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to +the same address as last time, +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

- Tags: english, nuug, opphavsrett. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english.
@@ -264,36 +305,96 @@ send pull requests with fixes. :)

-
Fri programvare - "fri" som i "talefrihet", ikke som i "fri bar"
-
15th July 2012
-

Et ofte brukt sitat i fri programvareverden er Stallman-sitatet -«Free Software, -"free" as in "free speech", not as in "free beer"». Men det er -ikke direkte overførbart til norsk, da det baserer seg på koblingen -gratis/fri på engelsk. En direkte oversettelse ville være «Fri -programvare, "fri" som i "talefrihet", ikke som "gratis øl"», og det -går jo glipp av poenget. I forbindelse med at vi er -igang -med å oversette Free Culture -av Lawrence Lessig, måtte jeg forsøke a finne en bedre -oversettelse.

- -

Mitt forslag til oversettelse blir dermed å droppe ølet, og heller -fokusere på det kjente norske uttrykket "fri bar". Dermed blir -oversettelsen «Fri programvare - "fri" som i "talefrihet", ikke som i -"fri bar"».

- -

Noen som har bedre forslag?

- -

Forøvrig bruker jeg fri programvare som et samlebegrep på norsk for -begge de engelske uttrykkene Free Software og Open Source, jamfør -NUUGs -lille folder om temaet.

+
Piratpartiet på opphavs-retrett?
+
19th December 2012
+

Jeg ble overrasket over å se at Piratpartiet i +Aftenposten +er referert på følgende:

+ +
+Når det gjelder retten til opphavsrett for kulturproduktene, mener +Piratpartiet av levetid + 14 år er tilfredsstillende. +
+ +

Det betyr en vernetid langt ut over det kommersielle livet til de +aller fleste opphavsrettsbeskyttede verker, og er i strid med slik i +hvert fall jeg har tolket punkt 5 i +kjerneprogrammet +til Piratpartiet:

+ +
+

5: Åndsverk og patenter: tilbake til start

+ + + + + +
forslag:14 års opphavsrett og ingen +programvarepatenter
grunn:Den første loven om opphavsrett spesifiserte 14 +års vernetid. Senere har mediabransjens lobbyister stadig presset +loven mot lengre vern, nå er det 70 år etter forfatters død. Dette +gjør at mange verk glemmes og går tapt, noe som er skadelig for norsk +språk og kultur. Vi til tilbake til start: 14 års +vernetid. Patentloven sier klart at dataprogrammer ikke kan +patenteres. Likevel klarer patentadvokater å lure gjennom +programvarepatenter. Slike patenter gjør dingsene våre dyrere og kan i +enkelte tilfelle stoppe dem helt.
+
+ +

Den opprinnelige opphavsretten var på 14 år totalt, ikke 14 år +etter opphavspersonens død. Jeg tenkte først dette kanskje var +feilsitering fra Aftenposten, men jeg finner samme påstand i en bloggpost +fra Geir Aaslid på Piratpartietes offisielle nettsider. Der +skriver han følgende:

+ +
+Hva vi gjør med opphavsretten er mer komplisert fordi den omfavner så +mange bransjer, med ulike behov. Enhver reform er en forbedring men +det er nærliggende å anta at en opphavsrett på levetid + 14 år er +fullt ut tilfredstillende for musikk, film, litteratur og spill. +
+ +

Det virker dermed på meg som om Piratpartiet allerede har gjort +retrett fra sin beundringsverdige holdning om at det holdt med 14 års +total vernetid, til sin nye som tar utgangspunkt i levetiden til +opphavspersonen. Jeg håper det baserer seg på en misforståelse hos +piratlederen som blir korrigert tilbake til 14 års total vernetid før +partiet stiller til valg.

+ +

Hvis du lurer på hvilke problemer lang vernetid bringer med seg, +anbefaler jeg å lese boken Free +Culture av Lawrence Lessig. Jeg og en liten gruppe andre er igang +med å +oversette +boken til bokmål og tar gjerne imot hjelp med oversettelse og +korrekturlesing.

+ +

Oppdatering 2012-12-20: Oppdaget at +bloggposten +til Geir Aaslid er endret siden i går, og nå inneholder følgende +avsnitt i stedet for det jeg siterte over:

+ +
+Hva vi gjør med opphavsretten er mer komplisert fordi den omfavner så +mange bransjer, med ulike behov. Enhver reform er en forbedring men +det er nærliggende å anta at en opphavsrett lik levetiden, evt + 14 år +er fullt ut tilfredstillende for mange skapere av musikk, film, +litteratur og spill. Det er for det meste de store forlagene som er +imot enhver reform. +
+ +

I tillegg har det dukket opp en setning nederst "Dette dokumentet +er et utkast til svar på et angrep på Piratpartiet fra Gramo. Det +endrer seg derfor over tid og den endelige versjonen er det som blir +publisert på Hardware.no", som tyder på at originalformuleringen ikke +var veloverveid og sitatet i Aftenposten kanskje var basert på en +misforståelse.

- Tags: norsk, nuug. + Tags: freeculture, norsk, opphavsrett.
@@ -301,76 +402,64 @@ lille folder om temaet.

-
Dugnad for å sende norsk versjon av Free Culture til stortingets representanter!
-
11th July 2012
-

Da opphavsrettsloven ble revidert i forrige runde rundt 2005, var -det skummelt å se hvor lite stortingsrepresentantene forsto hvordan -Internet påvirket folks forhold til kulturuttrykk, og min venn Vidar -og jeg spekulert på at det hadde kanskje vært fornuftig om samtlige -representanter fikk en norsk utgave av boken -Free Culture av Lawrence Lessig -som forklarte litt om problemstillingene. Vi endte opp med å -prioritere utvikling i -Skolelinux-prosjektet i -stedet, så den oversatte boken så aldri dagens lys. Men i forrige uke -ble jeg inspirert til å ta opp tråden og se om det er mulig å få til -bokprosjektet denne gang, da det er tydelig at kulturdepartementet i -sitt nye forsøk på å gjøre opphavsrettsloven enda mer ubalansert til -fordel for forlag og store mediehus fortsatt trenger en annen vinkling -i debatten.

- -

Planen min er å oversette boka på dugnad, sette den opp for -trykking med en av de mange -trykk på -forespørsel-tjenestene, skaffe sponsor til å finansiere trykking -til stortingsrepresentantene og alle som har bidratt med -oversettelser. Kanskje vi også kan få en avtale med et forlag om -publisering når boka er ferdig? Kommentarene til -Eirik -Newth og -Espen -Andersen om erfaringene med selvpublisering og trykk på -forespørsel er interessante og ikke avskrekkende, og jeg mistenker at -Lulu er en grei leverandør av -trykketjenester til prosjektet.

- -

Jeg har satt opp -et -Github-prosjekt for a lage boken, basert på Docbook-utgaven jeg -fant fra Hans Schou. Skolelinux har hatt byggesystem for å lage -oversatt HTML og PDF-utgave av Docbook-bøker i en årrekke, så jeg har -kopiert og utvidet dette oppsettet. Originalteksten er i Docbook, og -oversettelsen gjøres i .po-filer med hjelp av vanlige -oversetterverktøy brukt i fri programvareverden. Dernest tar -byggesystemet over og lager PDF og EPUB-utgave av den oversatte -teksten. Resultatet kan ses i Github-prosjektet. For å komme raskt -igang har jeg brukt maskinoversettelse av alle tekstbitene fra engelsk -til norsk, noe som grovoversatte ca. 1300 av de ca. 1700 tekstbitene -boken består av. Jeg håper nå at flere kan bidra med å få -oversettelsen på plass, slik at teksten kan være klar i løpet av -høsten. Når alt er oversatt må teksten gjennomgås for feil og -konsistent språk. Totalt er det nok mange timer som trengs for å -gjennomføre oversettelsen.

- -

Økonomien i dette er ikke avskrekkende. 169 -stortingsrepresentanter og nesten like mange varamedlemmer bør få -bøker, og estimert produduksjonskostnad for hver bok er rundt 6 EURO i -følge et raskt estimat fra Lulu. Jeg vet ennå ikke hvor mange sider -det blir i størrelsen 5,5" x 8.5" (det er ca. 140 sider i A4-format), -så jeg gjettet på 400 sider. Jeg tror originalutgaven har nesten 400 -sider. For 169*2 eksemplarer snakker vi om en trykkekostnad på -ca. 2000 EURO, dvs. ca 15 000 NOK. Det burde være mulig å finne en -sponsor for å dekke en slik sum. I tillegg kommer distribusjon og -porto, som antagelig kommer på like mye.

- -

Kan du bidra med oversettelse og docbook-typesetting? Ta kontakt -og send patcher i github. Jeg legger gjerne inn folk i prosjektet -slik at du kan oppdatere direkte.

+
Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format
+
18th December 2012
+

A few days ago I came across +a blog post from Joey +Hess describing ledger and +hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting. I found it +interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where +accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with +the different web based systems we use. I find it hard to find what I +look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of +the systems. Ledger seem different. The accounting data is kept in +text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there + +are at least five +different implementations able to read the format. An example +entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to +generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:

+ +
+2004-05-27 Book Store
+      Expenses:Books                 $20.00
+      Liabilities:Visa
+
+ +

The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and +look for others using it. I found blog posts from +Christine +Spang, +Pete +Keen, +Andrew +Cantino and +Ronald +Ip describing how they use it, as well as a post from +Bradley +M. Kuhn at the Software Freedom Conservancy. All seemed like good +recommendations fitting my need.

+ +

The ledger +package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the +hledger +package only is available in Debian Sid. As I use Squeeze, ledger +seemed the best choice to get started.

+ +

To get some real data to test on, I wrote a +web scraper for +LODO, the accounting system used by +the NUUG association, and started to +play with the data set. I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I +am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example +using the "ledger balance" command. But I will have to +gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit +for the organisations I am involved in.

- Tags: norsk, nuug, opphavsrett. + Tags: debian edu, english, nuug.
@@ -378,166 +467,38 @@ slik at du kan oppdatere direkte.

-
Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg
-
9th July 2012
-

The Debian Edu / -Skolelinux project have users all over the globe, but until -recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour -country Sweden. This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March -this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how -to adjust and scale the just released -Debian Edu -Wheezy setup to his liking. He granted me an interview, and I am -happy to share his answers with you here.

- -

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

- -

I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at -the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational -background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a -"folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups. In -Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master -in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I -just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my -perspective when working with IT.

- -

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu -project?

- -I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by -now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some -time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be -a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When -K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more -seriously into Skolelinux instead. - -

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?

- -The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete -distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows -integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an -administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux -based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very -well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better -when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is -showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to -mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the -same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by -setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the -workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the -thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very -convenient since a school today often need to use a class room -projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a -small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You -have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin -clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time. Our -old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very -nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it -comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even -such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is -quicker to update. - -

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian -Edu?

- -

Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example -we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this -year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped -sound from working with them. It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have -to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in -a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.

- -

I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at -install time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the -distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration. -That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem. -Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs -to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and -support for single-sign on. That will make the transition to free -software easier, because you can keep the applications you really -need. No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where -some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to -run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes. We run a journalist -education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d -by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association). Our -education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they -are done. This is important if you want to get a job.

- -

Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and -magazines. We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there -market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource -world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according -to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they -are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to -edit and compile a newspaper. But politically at our school we are not -there yet. And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.

- -

We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to -the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try -Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to -Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have -tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio -program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio -studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only -want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise. Those -things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You -have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old -fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from -one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently -because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the -sound file.

- -

So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we -will try. The problem is the students have certain expectations when -they start an education towards a profession. So the programs has to -look and feel professional. Good thing with radio, there are many -programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised -as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what -program they learn, because once they start working they still have to -learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn -the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost -only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes -to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;) -)

- -

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?

- -

To get schools to use free software there has to be good open -source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But -it's also very important that the multimedia support is working -flawlessly. The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever -will create problems when it comes to both teachers and -students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin -clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good -idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for -the administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with -open source, if the principal has to run Windows. It also creates a -problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that -will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good -support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux) -desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed -level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.

- -

Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three -useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN -article Radio station -management with Airtime, -Airtime which -claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and -Rivendell which claim to -be complete radio broadcast automation solution. All of them seem -useful to the aspiring radio producer.

+
61 kommuner lenker nå til FiksGataMi fra sine nettsider
+
11th December 2012
+

For noen dager siden omfavnet nok en kommune NUUGs +FiksGataMi. Med 61 kommuner +som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er «markedsandelen» 14% +(av 429 kommuner). Siden +siste +oppdatering i november har kommunene Re og Vågsøy kommet til og +slår følge med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Balestrand, +Bærum, Eide, Farsund, Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, +Halden, Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, +Kongsberg, Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, +Luster, Lyngdal, Løten, Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, +Nordreisa, Randaberg, Rindal, Sel, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, +Spydeberg, Stange, Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, +Tynset, Tysvær, Ullensvang Herad, Utsira, Vennesla, Verdal, Vågan, +Vågå, Våler og Åseral. Oppdatert liste er tilgjengelig fra +NUUGs +wiki. Kartet er dog ikke oppdatert med de siste kommunene.

+ +

Kanskje du bør høre med din kommune om de vil bli mer aktive +brukere av FiksGataMi? Se +en +tidligere bloggpost med tips om hvordan det kan gjøres.

+ +

I snitt rapporteres det nå via FiksGataMi ca. 60 meldinger fra +innbyggerne i uka om feil på offentlig infrastruktur.

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: fiksgatami, norsk.
@@ -545,30 +506,53 @@ useful to the aspiring radio producer.

-
Why do schools waste money on IT?
-
8th July 2012
-

In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one -of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills -in schools and municipalities. We provide what the happy users of -Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the -alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution. I -was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom -Steinberg in his blog post -"Can -you recognize the million pound chair?". Read it and weep for the -spending of your tax money.

- -

Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our -projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation -causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need -to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when -public decision makers are unable to understand computer system -purchases.

+
Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC
+
6th December 2012
+

Where I work at the University of +Oslo, we use the +Cerebrum user +administration system to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc. +I've known since the system was written that the server is providing +an XML-RPC API, but +I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we +always use the bofh command line client at work. Until today. I want +to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up +virtual machines. Here are a few notes on how to use it with +Python.

+ +

I started by looking at the source of the Java +bofh +client, to figure out how it connected to the API server. I also +googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found +a +simple example in the XML-RPC howto.

+ +

This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of +commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the +user currently logged in:

+ +
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+import getpass
+import xmlrpclib
+server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
+username = getpass.getuser()
+password = getpass.getpass()
+server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
+#print server.get_commands(sessionid)
+sessionid = server.login(username, password)
+print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
+result = server.logout(sessionid)
+print result
+
+ +

Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS +and DHCP updates I wanted to do.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: english, sysadmin.
@@ -576,182 +560,52 @@ purchases.

-
Free Timetabling Software - nice free software
-
7th July 2012
-

Included in Debian Edu / -Skolelinux is a large collection of end user and school specific -software. It is one of the packages not installed by default but -provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to, -is a system to automatically plan the school time table using -information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with -the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should -receive. The software is - -named FET, and it provide a -graphical user interface to input the required information, save the -result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for -both teachers and students. It is available both for -Linux, MacOSX and -Windows.

- -

This is the -feature list, liftet from the project web site:

+
Lenker for 2012-11-28
+
28th November 2012
+

Mye interessant har skjedd de siste ukene. Her er noen dokumenter +jeg har hatt glede av å lese.

    -
  • FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later. - You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it
    • - -
  • Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca - (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa - (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu - (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk - (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR - (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala), - sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz - (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages) -
    • - -
  • Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also - semi-automatic or manual allocation
    • - -
  • Platform independent implementation, allowing running on - GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports
    • - -
  • Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing - with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)
    • - -
  • Import/export from CSV format
    • - -
  • The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV - formats
    • - -
  • Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups - and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and - non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students - (as separate sets)
    • - -
  • Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0% - (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight - percentage)
    • - -
  • Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on - demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more - memory): -
      -
    • Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60
      • -
    • Maximum number of working days per week: 35
      • -
    • Maximum total number of teachers: 6000
      • -
    • Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000
      • -
    • Maximum total number of subjects: 6000
      • -
    • Virtually unlimited number of activity tags
      • -
    • Maximum number of activities: 30000
      • -
    • Maximum number of rooms: 6000
      • -
    • Maximum number of buildings: 6000
      • -
    • Possibility of adding multiple teachers and - students sets for each activity. (it is possible - also to have no teachers or no students sets for an - activity)
      • -
    • Virtually unlimited number of time constraints
      • -
    • Virtually unlimited number of space constraints
      • -
    • - -
  • A large and flexible palette of time constraints: -
      -
    • Break periods
      • -
    • For teacher(s): -
        -
      • Not available periods
        • -
      • Max/min days per week
        • -
      • Max gaps per day/week
        • -
      • Max hours daily/continuously
        • -
      • Min hours daily
        • -
      • Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag
        • - -
      • Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of - days per week
        • -
      • -
    • For students (sets): -
        -
      • Not available periods
        • -
      • Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)
        • -
      • Max gaps per day/week
        • -
      • Max hours daily/continuously
        • -
      • Min hours daily
        • -
      • Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag
        • - -
      • Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of - days per week
        • -
      • -
    • For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities: -
        -
      • A single preferred starting time
        • -
      • A set of preferred starting times
        • -
      • A set of preferred time slots
        • -
      • Min/max days between them
        • -
      • End(s) students day
        • -
      • Same starting time/day/hour
        • -
      • Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and - flexible constraint, useful in many situations)
        • -
      • Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)
        • -
      • Not overlapping
        • -
      • Max simultaneous in selected time slots
        • -
      • Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities
        • -
      • -
    • - -
  • A large and flexible palette of space constraints: -
      -
    • Room not available periods
      • -
    • For teacher(s): -
        -
      • Home room(s)
        • -
      • Max building changes per day/week
        • -
      • Min gaps between building changes
        • -
      -
      • - -
    • For students (sets): -
        -
      • Home room(s)
        • -
      • Max building changes per day/week
        • -
      • Min gaps between building changes
        • -
      -
      • -
    • Preferred room(s): -
        -
      • For a subject
        • -
      • For an activity tag
        • -
      • For a subject and an activity tag
        • -
      • Individually for a (sub)activity
        • -
      -
      • - -
    • For a set of activities: -
        -
      • Occupy a maximum number of different rooms
        • -
      -
      • -
    -
    • -

+
  • - +Kan du hjelpe Piratpartiet? - Piratpartiet mangler 600 +borgersignaturer for Ã¥ kunne stille til stortingsvalg neste Ã¥r. Jeg +har samlet 20 signaturer. Har du gjort ditt?
    • + +
  • Who +is harmed by a "Real Names" policy? - en fin oversikt over hvem +som blir skadelidende nÃ¥r nett-tjenester og aviser innfører krav om +"ekte navn" for Ã¥ delta.
    • + +
  • Kan +vi stole pÃ¥ alle i politiet? - Advokat Sigurd J. Klomsæt skriver +litt om hvor merkelig det er Ã¥ bli anklaget for Ã¥ ha lekket +informasjon fra et politi som Ã¥penbart lekker selv.
    • + +
  • - +Opphavsretten mÃ¥ vekk - En av stifterne til +EFF besøkte Oslo i forrige uke, og +ble i den forbindelsen intervjuet av Digi. -

    I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table -planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it. If you -need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it -manually, check it out. - -A quick summary on how to use it can be found in -a -blog post from MarvelSoft. If you find FET useful, please provide -a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the -Debian Edu HowTo -section.

    +
  • Sparer +100 millioner kroner med Linux - München har beregnet hvor mye de +har spart pÃ¥ sin overgang til Linux.
    • + +
  • Oslo +Børs kjøres nÃ¥ pÃ¥ Linux - Børsen gikk nylig over fra .NET-basert +løsning til Linux-basert løsning, for Ã¥ fÃ¥ et system med akseptabel +kvalitet.
    • + +
  • It-milliardær +vil bygge Mars-koloni - inspirerende for oss som savner en +selvforsynt koloni pÃ¥ Mars.
    • + +

    - Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern.
    @@ -766,6 +620,13 @@ section.

    Archive