X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/49085f30e6629c40d67ebb37651ad19608c91cde..ffad0b71a34fca90ce442200de448aa1c4e15b95:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 8a4d7b2cbe..dbdba6fc70 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,10 +19,166 @@ +
+
Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013
+
27th February 2013
+

Dr. Richard Stallman, +founder of Free Software Foundation, +is giving a +talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00. The event is public +and organised by Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) +(where I am the chair of the board) and +The Norwegian Open Source Competence +Center. The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and +GNU», with this description: + +

+The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to +cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement +developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the +kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible. +

+ +

The meeting is open for everyone. Due to space limitations, the +doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45. I +am really curious how many will show up. See +the event +page for the location details.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, opphavsrett, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Skolelinux-intervju: Helge Tore Høyland
+
22nd February 2013
+

Etter en lang pause og travle uker har jeg endelig klart å få +samlet et nytt intervju med en av folkene i +Skolelinux-miljøet. +Denne gang er det Helge Tore Høyland, en mangeårig bidragsyter på +epostlistene og ellers i prosjektet.

+ +

Hvem er du, og hva driver du med til daglig?

+ +

Eg er IT-konsulent/teknikker hjå eit firma i Steinkjer med navn +Uno IT. Uno IT er eit lite firma som +drifter nettverk og maskiner for små og mellomstore firma +Steinkjer-området. Per dags dato er me 2 ansatte. Min faglege bakgrunn +er Fagbrev som it-teknikker, samt nokre fag innen nettverk- og +server-drift frå HiST og NTNU. Dagleg arbeid består i oppsett av nye +maskiner og hjelp til sluttbrukere, samt oppsett og vedlikehold av eit +vidt spekter av fagsystemer ute hjå kunder. Erfaring med Skolelinux +har eg hatt i forbindelse med drifting av +Bjørkly skule, ein privat +grunnskule i Namsos-området. I dag har skulen 65 elever, 15 lærere, 1 +hovedserver og ca 60 klienter som kjører halvtjukt. Eg har bygd og +driftet systemet sidan summaren 2006.

+ +

Hvordan kom du i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet?

+ +

Eg kom i kontakt med Skolelinux-prosjektet via ein artikkel i eit +fagblad, som eg ikkje lenger hugsar namnet på. I og med at eg allereie +hadde pusla med nettverk for ein annan skule, fatta eg straks +interesse for prosjektet.

+ +

Hva er fordelene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

+ +

Fordelane med Skolelinux er sentralisert administrasjon og svært +mange gode verktøy «ut av boksen». Veldig kjekt å kunne drifte 60 +klientar med berre å «bry» seg med ein server. Levetid for systemets +hardware er og ein veldig fin effekt. I tillegg kjem fordelar som økt +sikkerhet og mindre lisenskostnader. Etter min erfaring er det og +mykje mindre driftskostnader med eit slikt system enn konkurrerande +system, pga enkelhet med sentralisert administrasjon. På grunn av at +Skolelinux er basert på Debian er det òg svært stabilt.

+ +

Hva er ulempene med Skolelinux slik du ser det?

+ +

Ulemper er mangel på vilje til å følge standarer ute i markedet, +som fører til mangel på støtte til nokre mykje brukte ting. Flash og +Java er typiske eksempel. Sidan Debian satsar på stabilitet framfor å +ha nyeste pakke av eit program, kan ein i nokre tilfeller kome borti +at program vert «for gamle». Det er spesielt nettlesaren som er +utsett. Mangel på vilje til å utvikle pedagogisk programvare, i Noreg, +for «alle» platformer fører òg til noko hovudbry.

+ +

Hvilken fri programvare bruker du til daglig?

+ +

Til dagleg bruker eg svært mange forskjellige «fri programvare» +program. Firefox, Thunderbird, Freecommander, ImgBurn, Clonezilla, +OCS inventory, Icinga, Skolelinux, SystemRescueCD og mykje meir.

+ +

Hvilken strategi tror du er den rette å bruke for å få +skoler til å ta i bruk fri programvare?

+ +

Strategisk må ein fokusere på at sluttbruker eigentleg ikkje er så +fokusert på at det er fri programvare men at det skal «berre fungere». +Gjer det enkelt å bruker og ikkje minst å administrere. For Skolelinux +sin del må ein få eit betre fokus på overganger. Utbytting av servere +må gå meir automatisk, import og eksport av brukerbase og maskinbase +med meir må kunne gå enkelt og oppgradering til neste versjon må bli +mykje meir automatisk og gjennomtesta. Ein må unngå at ein må sette +opp frå start når ein byter ut ein server eller oppgraderer til neste +versjon. For å få Skolelinux til å bli eit betre alternativ for skular +må ein ha fokus på nettlesaren. Denne må bli «up to date» og støtte +dei protokollar og tillegg som vert brukt av forlag med meir. Etter +kvart som meir og meir blir flytta ut i «skya» vert dette viktigare og +viktigare. Ein kunne ynskje og jobbe for at forlag med fleire tar i +bruk opne standarer, men inntil det skjer, må systemet kunne brukast +mot desse fagsystema.

+ +

For meg har prosjektet med Skolelinux vore ein svært artig og +lærerik prosess. Miljøet rundt er ikkje enormt stort, dog stort nok, +men det er svært hjelpevillig og engasjert.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, intervju, norsk. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap
+
15th February 2013
+

If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is +now a great source of free maps available from +Frikart. To +download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and +download the map type you want. There are 8 different maps available, +using different colours and data selection. Pick one of Roadmap, Topo +Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II, +"Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web +page for descriptions).

+ +

The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the +map you can just edit the +OpenStreetmap map source +(anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, kart. + + +
+
+
+
"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code
12th February 2013
-
Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the +

Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the solution promoted by the Norwegian government require that invoices are sent through one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send @@ -64,7 +220,7 @@ to put bank account information into a vCard. For payments in Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.

-The complete vCard could look like this: +

The complete vCard could look like this:

 BEGIN:VCARD
@@ -98,7 +254,7 @@ handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.

Update 2013-02-12 11:30: Added KID to the proposal -based on Feedback from Sturle Sunde.

+based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.

@@ -454,229 +610,6 @@ clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.

-
- -
21st January 2013
-

Early this month I set out to try to -improve -the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices. Now my -prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience. To test -it, fetch the -source -from the Debian Edu subversion repository, build and install the -package. You might have to log out and in again activate the -autostart script.

- -

The design is simple:

- -
    - -
  • Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program -hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.
  • - -
  • This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly -from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I -initially did.
  • - -
  • When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in -the APT database, a database -available -via HTTP and a database available as part of the package.
  • - -
  • If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package -isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was -plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the -package or packages.
  • - -
  • If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask -aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.
  • - -
  • aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the -package while showing progress information in a window.
  • - -
- -

I still need to come up with a better name for the system. Here -are some screen shots showing the prototype in action. First the -notification, then the password request, and finally the request to -approve all the dependencies. Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.

- -

-
-
-
-

- -

The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but -is already useful. The database of hardware to package mappings also -need more work. It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of -storing such information in the package control file, but could be -changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current -method. I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the -modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long -as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.

- -

Update 2013-01-21 16:50: Due to popular demand, -here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use -'svn checkout -svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd -hw-support-handler; debuild'. If you lack debuild, install the -devscripts package.

- -

Update 2013-01-23 12:00: The project is now -renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu -subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository. See -build -instructions for details.

-
-
- - - Tags: debian, english, isenkram. - - -
-
-
- -
- -
19th January 2013
-

This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and -suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and -black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a -IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both -Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the -Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep -going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old -X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is -not a durable solution. - -

My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I -got a new one more than 10 years ago. It still holds true.:)

- -
    - -
  • Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller - than A4).
  • -
  • Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.
  • -
  • Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.
  • -
  • Long battery life time. Preferable a week.
  • -
  • Internal WIFI network card.
  • -
  • Internal Twisted Pair network card.
  • -
  • Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)
  • -
  • Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.
  • -
  • Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper -size).
  • -
  • Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and - X.org packages.
  • -
  • Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of - the time). - -
- -

You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the -list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the -last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look -at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as -robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less -robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since -Lenovo took over. But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might -still be useful.

- -

Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an -external keyboard? I'll have to check the -Linux Laptops site for -well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one -of the vendors listed on the Linux -Pre-loaded site.

-
-
- - - Tags: debian, english. - - -
-
-
- -
- -
18th January 2013
-

Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to -install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to -specifications -done by Ubuntu and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian. -Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta -information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser -plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:

- -
-#!/usr/bin/python
-import sys
-import apt
-def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
-    cache = apt.Cache()
-    cache.open(None)
-    thepkgs = []
-    for pkg in cache:
-        version = pkg.candidate
-        if version is None:
-            version = pkg.installed
-        if version is None:
-            continue
-        record = version.record
-        if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
-            continue
-        mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
-        for t in mime_types:
-            t = t.rstrip().strip()
-            if t == mimetype:
-                thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
-    return thepkgs
-mimetype = "audio/ogg"
-if 1 < len(sys.argv):
-    mimetype = sys.argv[1]
-print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
-for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
-    print "  %s" %pkg
-
- -

It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:

- -
-% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype 
-Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
-  gecko-mediaplayer
-% ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
-Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
-  browser-plugin-gnash
-%
-
- -

In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser -itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed -packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is -anyone working on adding it?

- -

Update 2013-01-18 14:20: The Debian BTS -request for icweasel support for this feature is -#484010 from 2008 (and -#698426 from today). Lack -of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature -is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.

-
-
- - - Tags: debian, english. - - -
-
-
-

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