X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/51d98ae3ba2fce3ed076d15c5ec88521669bccbc..b5795b8c827d8036eda9cc18a490f4356f8832be:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 61b9d1e9c9..477f484f67 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,767 +7,793 @@ - First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_beta_release.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_beta_release.html - Sun, 26 Apr 2015 14:10:00 +0200 - <p>I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out -<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2015/04/msg00000.html">this -announcement today</a>:</p> + Book cover for the Free Culture book finally done + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Book_cover_for_the_Free_Culture_book_finally_done.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Book_cover_for_the_Free_Culture_book_finally_done.html + Thu, 3 Sep 2015 21:00:00 +0200 + <p>Creating a good looking book cover proved harder than I expected. +I wanted to create a cover looking similar to the original cover of +the +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Free +Culture</a> book we are translating to Norwegian, and I wanted it in +vector format for high resolution printing. But my inkscape knowledge +were not nearly good enough to pull that off. + +<p>But thanks to the great inkscape community, I was able to wrap up +the cover yesterday evening. I asked on the +<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23inkscape">#inkscape IRC channel</a> +on Freenode for help and clues, and Marc Jeanmougin (Mc-) volunteered +to try to recreate it based on the PDF of the cover from the HTML +version. Not only did he create a +<a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/copy1.svg ">SVG document with +the original and his vector version side by side</a>, he even provided +an <a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/out-1.ogv">instruction +video</a> explaining how he did it</a>. But the instruction video is +not easy to follow for an untrained inkscape user. The video is a +recording on how he did it, and he is obviously very experienced as +the menu selections are very quick and he mentioned on IRC that he did +use some keyboard shortcuts that can't be seen on the video, but it +give a good idea about the inkscape operations to use to create the +stripes with the embossed copyright sign in the center.</p> + +<p>I took his SVG file, copied the vector image and re-sized it to fit +on the cover I was drawing. I am happy with the end result, and the +current english version look like this:</p> + +<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-03-free-culture-cover.png" width="70%" align="center"/> + +<p>I am not quite sure about the text on the back, but guess it will +do. I picked three quotes from the official site for the book, and +hope it will work to trigger the interest of potential readers. The +Norwegian cover will look the same, but with the texts and bar code +replaced with the Norwegian version.</p> + +<p>The book is very close to being ready for publication, and I expect +to upload the final draft to Lulu in the next few days and order a +final proof reading copy to verify that everything look like it should +before allowing everyone to order their own copy of Free Culture, in +English or Norwegian Bokmål. I'm waiting to give the the productive +proof readers a chance to complete their work.</p> + + + + + In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book! + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/In_my_hand__a_pocket_book_edition_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/In_my_hand__a_pocket_book_edition_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_.html + Wed, 19 Aug 2015 22:10:00 +0200 + <p>Today, finally, my first printed draft edition of the Norwegian +translation of Free Culture I have been working on for the last few +years arrived in the mail. I had to fake a cover to get the interior +printed, and the exterior of the book look awful, but that is +irrelevant at this point. I asked for a printed pocket book version +to get an idea about the font sizes and paper format as well as how +good the figures and images look in print, but also to test what the +pocket book version would look like. After receiving the 500 page +pocket book, it became obvious to me that that pocket book size is too +small for this book. I believe the book is too thick, and several +tables and figures do not look good in the size they get with that +small page sizes. I believe I will go with the 5.5x8.5 inch size +instead. A surprise discovery from the paper version was how bad the +URLs look in print. They are very hard to read in the colophon page. +The URLs are red in the PDF, but light gray on paper. I need to +change the color of links somehow to look better. But there is a +printed book in my hand, and it feels great. :)</p> + +<p>Now I only need to fix the cover, wrap up the postscript with the +store behind the book, and collect the last corrections from the proof +readers before the book is ready for proper printing. Cover artists +willing to work for free and create a Creative Commons licensed vector +file looking similar to the original is most welcome, as my skills as +a graphics designer are mostly missing.</p> + + + + + First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_paper_version_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_heading_my_way.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_paper_version_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_heading_my_way.html + Sun, 9 Aug 2015 10:15:00 +0200 + <p>Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped. As the translation is +mostly done, and a volunteer proof reader was going to check the text +on paper, it was time this summer to focus on formatting my translated +<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> based version of the +<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> book by Lawrence +Lessig. I've been trying to get both docboox-xsl+fop and dblatex to +give me a good looking PDF, but in the end I went with dblatex, because +its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were responsive and very +helpful in solving my formatting challenges.</p> + +<p>Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made +<a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu.com</a> complain after uploading, +and I ordered a text version of the book on paper. It is lacking a +proper book cover and is not tagged with the correct ISBN number, but +should give me an idea what the finished book will look like.</p> + +<p>Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using +<a href="http://www.createspace.com/">CreateSpace</a>, but ended up +using Lulu because it had smaller book size options (CreateSpace seem +to lack pocket book with extended distribution). I looked for a +similar service in Norway, but have not seen anything so far. Please +let me know if I am missing out on something here.</p> + +<p>But I still struggle to decide the book size. Should I go for +pocket book (4.25x6.875 inches / 10.8x17.5 cm) with 556 pages, Digest +(5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.6 cm) with 323 pages or US Trade (6x8 inches / +15.3x22.9 cm) with 280 pages? Fewer pager give a cheaper book, and a +smaller book is easier to carry around. The test book I ordered was +pocket book sized, to give me an idea how well that fit in my hand, +but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book in the end to +bring the prize down further.</p> + +<p>My biggest challenge at the moment is making nice cover art. My +inkscape skills are not yet up to the task of replicating the original +cover in SVG format. I also need to figure out what to write about +the book on the back (will most likely use the same text as the +description on web based book stores). I would love help with this, +if you are willing to license the art source and final version using +the same CC license as the book. My artistic skills are not really up +to the task.</p> + +<p>I plan to publish the book in both English and Norwegian and on +paper, in PDF form as well as EPUB and MOBI format. The current +status can as usual be found on +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a> +in the archive/ directory. So far I have spent all time on making the +PDF version look good. Someone should probably do the same with the +dbtoepub generated e-book. Help is definitely needed here, as I +expect to run out of steem before I find time to improve the epub +formatting.</p> + +<p>Please let me know via github if you find typos in the book or +discover translations that should be improved. The final proof +reading is being done right now, and I expect to publish the finished +result in a few months.</p> + + + + + Typesetting DocBook footnotes as endnotes with dblatex + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_DocBook_footnotes_as_endnotes_with_dblatex.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_DocBook_footnotes_as_endnotes_with_dblatex.html + Thu, 16 Jul 2015 18:10:00 +0200 + <p>I'm still working on the Norwegian version of the +<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture book by Lawrence +Lessig</a>, and is now working on the final typesetting and layout. +One of the features I want to get the structure similar to the +original book is to typeset the footnotes as endnotes in the notes +chapter. Based on the +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/685063">feedback from the Debian +maintainer and the dblatex developer</a>, I came up with this recipe I +would like to share with you. The proposal was to create a new LaTeX +class file and add the LaTeX code there, but this is not always +practical, when I want to be able to replace the class using a make +file variable. So my proposal misuses the latex.begindocument XSL +parameter value, to get a small fragment into the correct location in +the generated LaTeX File.</p> + +<p>First, decide where in the DocBook document to place the endnotes, +and add this text there:</p> <pre> -the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first -*beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first -time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable -release, Debian 8 "Jessie". - -(As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been -released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish -later today ;) - -We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming -weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades -from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will -be possible and encouraged! - -Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit -bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs - -Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete -operating system for schools, universities and other -organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles -administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which -will work in harmony on the school network. With Debian Edu, the -teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a -complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or -days. - -Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the -world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come -with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian -archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach. - -For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and -installation instructions are available, including detailed -instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting -up a network or adding users. Please note that the password for the -user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at -least 5 characters! - -== Where to download == - -A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting -can be downloaded at the following locations: - - http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso - rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso . - -The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a - -Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also -available, with more software included (saving additional download -time): - - http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso - rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso - -The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636 - -Sources are available from the Debian archive, see -http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download -options. - -== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages == - -Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for -the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual. - -This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian, -Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists -for Spanish. See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for -online version of the translated manual. - -More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the -release notes and the installation manual: -- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes -- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual - - -== Errata / known problems == - - It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via - DHCP (#780461). - - The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). - -Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the -hostname immediately. - -Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly -more current and complete list. - -== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 == - -=== Software updates === - -Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.: - - * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for - i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like - Intel Pentium and AMD K5). - - * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14, - Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6 - * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8 - * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of - the others see the manual. - * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41 - * LibreOffice 4.3.3 - * GOsa 2.7.4 - * LTSP 5.5.4 - * CUPS print system 1.7.5 - * new boot framework: systemd - * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12 - * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02 - * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14 - * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1 - * golearn 0.9 - * tuxpaint 0.9.22 - * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie. - * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation. - * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release - notes and the installation manual, see the link above. - -=== Installation changes === - - Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically - for the hardware present. - -=== Fixed bugs === - -A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable -from a user perspective: - - * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break - DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect - information is corrected (710362) - - * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). - -=== Sugar desktop removed === - -As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not -available in Debian Edu jessie. - - -== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux == - -Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on -Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely -configured school network. Directly after installation a school server -running all services needed for a school network is set up just -waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable -Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after -initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other -machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server -provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service, -centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other -services. The desktop contains more than 60 educational software -packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools -can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop -environment. +&lt;?latex \theendnotes ?&gt; +</pre> -== About Debian == +<p>Next, create a xsl stylesheet file dblatex-endnotes.xsl to add the +code needed to add the endnote instructions in the preamble of the +generated LaTeX document, with content like this:</p> -The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly -free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of -the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of -volunteers from all over the world work together to create and -maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a -huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal -operating system. +<pre> +&lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt; +&lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt; + &lt;xsl:param name="latex.begindocument"&gt; + &lt;xsl:text&gt; +\usepackage{endnotes} +\let\footnote=\endnote +\def\enoteheading{\mbox{}\par\vskip-\baselineskip } +\begin{document} + &lt;/xsl:text&gt; + &lt;/xsl:param&gt; +&lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt; +</pre> -== Thanks == +<p>Finally, load this xsl file when running dblatex, for example like +this:</p> -Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen! -You rock. +<pre> +dblatex --xsl-user=dblatex-endnotes.xsl freeculture.nb.xml </pre> + +<p>The end result can be seen on github, where +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">my +book project</a> is located.</p> - Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html - Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:20:00 +0200 - <p>It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete -computer system for schools I've involved in, -<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, was -being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an -interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish -Agarwal.</p> - -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and -historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India. -My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips, -installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different -fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with -few software start-ups as well.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few -years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was -anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free -educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many -nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as -it was known then. Since then I have started using the various -education meta-packages provided by the project.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational -software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and -figuratively). Even if I take the simplest software which is -gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of -the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even -pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781841">#781841</a> and -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781842">#781842</a>.</p> - -<p>I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions, -as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the -possibility of a larger life span. Of course with both it's more a -question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both -for the developer per-se.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I -think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take -help from people and the larger community wherever possible.</p> - -<p>I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact -that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it. -However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is -pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done -but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them. -Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but -still) I have had for a long time :</p> - -<p>1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions -each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how -far would each travel and similar questions like these. - -<p>The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can -be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in -interactive manner. While sites such as the -<a href="http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.two.trains.html">Ask -Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem</a> (as an example or point of -inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done. I dunno -if there is a free software which does something like this. The idea -being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does -this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or -colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question -or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour. -This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how -the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started, -psychics and everything in-between.</p> - -<p>One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on -one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they -meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could -also be used.</p> - -<p>2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have -enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary. I don't think it -should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and -sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers -from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be -the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on -the user's input.</p> - -<p>3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called -palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What -needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and -copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into -nature, history etc. and let it loose. This could turn to be really -huge collection of images. One source could be taken from -commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free -stock photos. Potential is immense.</p> - -<p>Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag -both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a -lot. This is more so in educational software as these applications -need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is -immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and -maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know -of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and -maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.</p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt, -aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays), -quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly -between kpat and Aiselriot. In desktops it's a tie between -gnome-flashback and mate.</p> - -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> - -<p>I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in -whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it. -Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the -school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the -people now understand the concept of a repository because of the -various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.</p> - -<p>What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and -passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers -then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as -well.</p> - -<p>I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For -instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but -there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La -Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.</p> - -<p>One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates -and upgrades. People have this myth that each update and upgrade -means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this -innumerable times. That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers -like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because -it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that -changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with -the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS -releases.</p> - -<p>The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest -is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu -is aimed at. - -<p>Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for -around 2 years, and -<a href="https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/sharings/">gathered -some experience</a> there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered -there was :</p> - -<ol> - - <li>Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects - and they do not want you to teach anything out of the - portion/syllabus given.</li> - - <li>They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever - is in the syllabus.</li> - - <li>There are huge barriers both with the English language and at - times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris - you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's - say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be - as recognizable as say a - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puneri_Pagadi">Puneri - Pagdi</a> so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever - possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words - which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in - parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or - something but that is something for upstream to do.</li> - -</ol> - - - - - I'm going to the Open Source Developers' Conference Nordic 2015! - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_m_going_to_the_Open_Source_Developers__Conference_Nordic_2015_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_m_going_to_the_Open_Source_Developers__Conference_Nordic_2015_.html - Tue, 7 Apr 2015 10:30:00 +0200 - <p>I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the <a -href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/">Open Source Developers' -Conference Nordic 2015</a>!</p> - -<p>It take place Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of May in Oslo next to -where I work, and I finally got around to submitting -<a href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/talk/6192">a talk proposal for -it</a> (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted). As -part of my involvement with the -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group member -association</a> I have been slightly involved in the planning of this -conference for a while now, with a focus on organising a Civic Hacking -Hackathon with our friends -over at <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> and -<a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>. This part is -named the 'My Society' track in the program. There is still space for -more talks and participants. I hope to see you there.</p> - -<p>Check out <a href="http://act.osdc.no/osdc2015no/talks">the talks -submitted and accepted so far</a>.</p> + Mimes brønn, norsk utgave av Alaveteli / WhatDoTheyKnow, endelig lansert + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mimes_br_nn__norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow__endelig_lansert.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mimes_br_nn__norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow__endelig_lansert.html + Thu, 9 Jul 2015 11:40:00 +0200 + <p>I går fikk vi endelig lansert en norsk version av mySocietys +<a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/">WhatDoTheyKnow</a>. +Tjenesten heter Mimes brønn, og ble +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/NUUG_lanserer_innsynstjenesten_Mimes_Br_nn.shtml">annonsert +av NUUG</a> via blogg, epost og twitter til NUUG-assosierte personer. +Det har tatt noen år, men de siste dagene fikk vi endelig tid til å få +på plass de siste bitene. Vi er to, Gorm og meg selv, som har vært +primus motor for det hele, men vi har fått hjelp med oversettelser og +oppsett fra mange flere. Jeg vil si tusen takk til hver og en av dem, +og er veldig fornøyd med at vi klarte å få tjenesten opp å kjøre før +ferietiden slo inn for fullt.</p> + +<p>Vi er usikker på hvor mye belastning den virtuelle maskinen der +tjenesten kjører klarer, så vi har lansert litt i det stille og ikke +til for mange folk for å se hvordan maskinen klarer seg over sommeren, +før vi går mer aktivt ut og annonserer til høsten. Ta en titt, og se +om du kanskje har et spørsmål til det offentlige som er egnet å sende +inn via Mimes brønn.</p> + +<p>Hvis du lurer på hva i alle dager en slik tjenestes kan brukes til, +anbefaler jeg deg å se +<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/625321">TED-foredraget til +Heather Brook</a> om hvordan hun brukte WhatDoTheyKnow til å lære +hvordan offentlige midler ble misbrukt. Det er en inspirerende +historie.</p> - Proof reading the Norwegian translation of Free Culture by Lessig - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Proof_reading_the_Norwegian_translation_of_Free_Culture_by_Lessig.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Proof_reading_the_Norwegian_translation_of_Free_Culture_by_Lessig.html - Sat, 4 Apr 2015 09:30:00 +0200 - <p>During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian -<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book -<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig. -At the moment I am proof reading the finished text, looking for typos, -inconsistent wordings and sentences that do not flow as they should. -I'm more than two thirds done with the text, and welcome others to -check the text up to chapter 13. The current status is available on the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a> -project pages. You can also check out the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>, -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a> -and HTML version available in the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/tree/master/archive">archive -directory</a>.</p> - -<p>Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if -you find any.</p> + MPEG LA on "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" licensing and non-private use + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MPEG_LA_on__Internet_Broadcast_AVC_Video__licensing_and_non_private_use.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MPEG_LA_on__Internet_Broadcast_AVC_Video__licensing_and_non_private_use.html + Tue, 7 Jul 2015 09:50:00 +0200 + <p>After asking the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_gj_r_at_NRK_kan_distribuere_H_264_video_uten_patentavtale_med_MPEG_LA_.html">why +they can broadcast and stream H.264 video without an agreement with +the MPEG LA</a>, I was wiser, but still confused. So I asked MPEG LA +if their understanding matched that of NRK. As far as I can tell, it +does not.</p> + +<p>I started by asking for more information about the various +licensing classes and what exactly is covered by the "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" class that NRK pointed me at to explain why NRK +did not need a license for streaming H.264 video: + +<p><blockquote> + +<p>According to +<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf">a +MPEG LA press release dated 2010-02-02</a>, there is no charge when +using MPEG AVC/H.264 according to the terms of "Internet Broadcast AVC +Video". I am trying to understand exactly what the terms of "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" is, and wondered if you could help me. What +exactly is covered by these terms, and what is not?</p> + +<p>The only source of more information I have been able to find is a +PDF named +<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/avc/Documents/avcweb.pdf">AVC +Patent Portfolio License Briefing</a>, which states this about the +fees:</p> + +<ul> + <li>Where End User pays for AVC Video + <ul> + <li>Subscription (not limited by title) – 100,000 or fewer + subscribers/yr = no royalty; &gt; 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers/yr = + $25,000; &gt;250,000 to 500,000 subscribers/yr = $50,000; &gt;500,000 to + 1M subscribers/yr = $75,000; &gt;1M subscribers/yr = $100,000</li> + + <li>Title-by-Title - 12 minutes or less = no royalty; &gt;12 minutes in + length = lower of (a) 2% or (b) $0.02 per title</li> + </ul></li> + + <li>Where remuneration is from other sources + <ul> + <li>Free Television - (a) one-time $2,500 per transmission encoder or + (b) annual fee starting at $2,500 for &gt; 100,000 HH rising to + maximum $10,000 for &gt;1,000,000 HH</li> + + <li>Internet Broadcast AVC Video (not title-by-title, not subscription) + – no royalty for life of the AVC Patent Portfolio License</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<p>Am I correct in assuming that the four categories listed is the +categories used when selecting licensing terms, and that "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video" is the category for things that do not fall into +one of the other three categories? Can you point me to a good source +explaining what is ment by "title-by-title" and "Free Television" in +the license terms for AVC/H.264?</p> + +<p>Will a web service providing H.264 encoded video content in a +"video on demand" fashing similar to Youtube and Vimeo, where no +subscription is required and no payment is required from end users to +get access to the videos, fall under the terms of the "Internet +Broadcast AVC Video", ie no royalty for life of the AVC Patent +Portfolio license? Does it matter if some users are subscribed to get +access to personalized services?</p> + +<p>Note, this request and all answers will be published on the +Internet.</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>The answer came quickly from Benjamin J. Myers, Licensing Associate +with the MPEG LA:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +<p>Thank you for your message and for your interest in MPEG LA. We +appreciate hearing from you and I will be happy to assist you.</p> + +<p>As you are aware, MPEG LA offers our AVC Patent Portfolio License +which provides coverage under patents that are essential for use of +the AVC/H.264 Standard (MPEG-4 Part 10). Specifically, coverage is +provided for end products and video content that make use of AVC/H.264 +technology. Accordingly, the party offering such end products and +video to End Users concludes the AVC License and is responsible for +paying the applicable royalties.</p> + +<p>Regarding Internet Broadcast AVC Video, the AVC License generally +defines such content to be video that is distributed to End Users over +the Internet free-of-charge. Therefore, if a party offers a service +which allows users to upload AVC/H.264 video to its website, and such +AVC Video is delivered to End Users for free, then such video would +receive coverage under the sublicense for Internet Broadcast AVC +Video, which is not subject to any royalties for the life of the AVC +License. This would also apply in the scenario where a user creates a +free online account in order to receive a customized offering of free +AVC Video content. In other words, as long as the End User is given +access to or views AVC Video content at no cost to the End User, then +no royalties would be payable under our AVC License.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, if End Users pay for access to AVC Video for a +specific period of time (e.g., one month, one year, etc.), then such +video would constitute Subscription AVC Video. In cases where AVC +Video is delivered to End Users on a pay-per-view basis, then such +content would constitute Title-by-Title AVC Video. If a party offers +Subscription or Title-by-Title AVC Video to End Users, then they would +be responsible for paying the applicable royalties you noted below.</p> + +<p>Finally, in the case where AVC Video is distributed for free +through an "over-the-air, satellite and/or cable transmission", then +such content would constitute Free Television AVC Video and would be +subject to the applicable royalties.</p> + +<p>For your reference, I have attached +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-07-07-mpegla.pdf">a +.pdf copy of the AVC License</a>. You will find the relevant +sublicense information regarding AVC Video in Sections 2.2 through +2.5, and the corresponding royalties in Section 3.1.2 through 3.1.4. +You will also find the definitions of Title-by-Title AVC Video, +Subscription AVC Video, Free Television AVC Video, and Internet +Broadcast AVC Video in Section 1 of the License. Please note that the +electronic copy is provided for informational purposes only and cannot +be used for execution.</p> + +<p>I hope the above information is helpful. If you have additional +questions or need further assistance with the AVC License, please feel +free to contact me directly.</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>Having a fresh copy of the license text was useful, and knowing +that the definition of Title-by-Title required payment per title made +me aware that my earlier understanding of that phrase had been wrong. +But I still had a few questions:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +<p>I have a small followup question. Would it be possible for me to get +a license with MPEG LA even if there are no royalties to be paid? The +reason I ask, is that some video related products have a copyright +clause limiting their use without a license with MPEG LA. The clauses +typically look similar to this: + +<p><blockquote> + This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for + the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer to (a) encode + video in compliance with the AVC standard ("AVC video") and/or (b) + decode AVC video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a + personal and non-commercial activity and/or AVC video that was + obtained from a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No + license is granted or shall be implied for any other use. additional + information may be obtained from MPEG LA L.L.C. +</blockquote></p> + +<p>It is unclear to me if this clause mean that I need to enter into +an agreement with MPEG LA to use the product in question, even if +there are no royalties to be paid to MPEG LA. I suspect it will +differ depending on the jurisdiction, and mine is Norway. What is +MPEG LAs view on this?</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>According to the answer, MPEG LA believe those using such tools for +non-personal or commercial use need a license with them:</p> + +<p><blockquote> + +<p>With regard to the Notice to Customers, I would like to begin by +clarifying that the Notice from Section 7.1 of the AVC License +reads:</p> + +<p>THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR +THE PERSONAL USE OF A CONSUMER OR OTHER USES IN WHICH IT DOES NOT +RECEIVE REMUNERATION TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC +STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO") AND/OR (ii) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED +BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND/OR WAS OBTAINED FROM +A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED +OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE +OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM</p> + +<p>The Notice to Customers is intended to inform End Users of the +personal usage rights (for example, to watch video content) included +with the product they purchased, and to encourage any party using the +product for commercial purposes to contact MPEG LA in order to become +licensed for such use (for example, when they use an AVC Product to +deliver Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free Television or Internet +Broadcast AVC Video to End Users, or to re-Sell a third party's AVC +Product as their own branded AVC Product).</p> + +<p>Therefore, if a party is to be licensed for its use of an AVC +Product to Sell AVC Video on a Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free +Television or Internet Broadcast basis, that party would need to +conclude the AVC License, even in the case where no royalties were +payable under the License. On the other hand, if that party (either a +Consumer or business customer) simply uses an AVC Product for their +own internal purposes and not for the commercial purposes referenced +above, then such use would be included in the royalty paid for the AVC +Products by the licensed supplier.</p> + +<p>Finally, I note that our AVC License provides worldwide coverage in +countries that have AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, including +Norway.</p> + +<p>I hope this clarification is helpful. If I may be of any further +assistance, just let me know.</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>The mentioning of Norwegian patents made me a bit confused, so I +asked for more information:</p> + +<p><blockquote> + +<p>But one minor question at the end. If I understand you correctly, +you state in the quote above that there are patents in the AVC Patent +Portfolio that are valid in Norway. This make me believe I read the +list available from &lt;URL: +<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx">http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx</a> +&gt; incorrectly, as I believed the "NO" prefix in front of patents +were Norwegian patents, and the only one I could find under Mitsubishi +Electric Corporation expired in 2012. Which patents are you referring +to that are relevant for Norway?</p> + +</blockquote></p> + +<p>Again, the quick answer explained how to read the list of patents +in that list:</p> + +<p><blockquote> + +<p>Your understanding is correct that the last AVC Patent Portfolio +Patent in Norway expired on 21 October 2012. Therefore, where AVC +Video is both made and Sold in Norway after that date, then no +royalties would be payable for such AVC Video under the AVC License. +With that said, our AVC License provides historic coverage for AVC +Products and AVC Video that may have been manufactured or Sold before +the last Norwegian AVC patent expired. I would also like to clarify +that coverage is provided for the country of manufacture and the +country of Sale that has active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents.</p> + +<p>Therefore, if a party offers AVC Products or AVC Video for Sale in +a country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents (for example, +Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.), then that party would still need +coverage under the AVC License even if such products or video are +initially made in a country without active AVC Patent Portfolio +Patents (for example, Norway). Similarly, a party would need to +conclude the AVC License if they make AVC Products or AVC Video in a +country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, but eventually Sell +such AVC Products or AVC Video in a country without active AVC Patent +Portfolio Patents.</p> +</blockquote></p> + +<p>As far as I understand it, MPEG LA believe anyone using Adobe +Premiere and other video related software with a H.264 distribution +license need a license agreement with MPEG LA to use such tools for +anything non-private or commercial, while it is OK to set up a +Youtube-like service as long as no-one pays to get access to the +content. I still have no clear idea how this applies to Norway, where +none of the patents MPEG LA is licensing are valid. Will the +copyright terms take precedence or can those terms be ignored because +the patents are not valid in Norway?</p> - Frikanalen, Norwegian TV channel for technical topics - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen__Norwegian_TV_channel_for_technical_topics.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen__Norwegian_TV_channel_for_technical_topics.html - Mon, 9 Mar 2015 11:10:00 +0100 - <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a>, -where I am a member, and where people interested in free software, -open standards and UNIX like operating systems like Linux and the BSDs -come together, record our monthly technical presentations on video. -The purpose is to document the talks and spread them to a wider -audience. For this, the the Norwegian nationwide open channel -<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> is a useful venue. -Since a few days ago, when I figured out the -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/api/">REST API</a> to program the -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/guide/">channel time schedule</a>, -the channel has been filled with NUUG talks, related recordings and -some Creative Commons licensed TED talks (from archive.org). I fill -all "leftover bits" on the channel with content from NUUG, which at -the moment is almost 17 of 24 hours every day.</p> - -<p>The list of NUUG videos -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/organization/82">uploaded so far</a> -include things like a -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/625090">one hour talk by John -Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo</a>, a presentation of -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/624275">Haiku, the BeOS -re-implementation</a>, the -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/624493">history of FiksGataMi, -the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet</a>, the good old -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/video/623566">Warriors of the net -video</A> and many others.</p> - -<p>We have a large backlog of NUUG talks not yet uploaded to -Frikanalen, and plan to upload every useful bit to the channel to -spread the word there. I also hope to find useful recordings from the -Chaos Computer Club and Debian conferences and spread them on the -channel as well. But this require locating the videos and their meta -information (title, description, license, etc), and preparing the -recordings for broadcast, and I have not yet had the spare time to -focus on this. Perhaps you want to help. Please join us on IRC, -<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nuug">#nuug on irc.freenode.net</a> -if you want to help make this happen.</p> - -<p>But as I said, already the channel is already almost exclusively -filled with technical topics, and if you want to learn something new -today, check out the <a href="http://www.frikanalen.tv/se">Ogg Theora -web stream</a> or use one of the other ways to get access to the -channel. Unfortunately the Ogg Theora recoding for distribution still -do not properly sync the video and sound. It is generated by recoding -a internal MPEG transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to -Ogg Theora / Vorbis, and we have not been able to find a way that -produces acceptable quality. Help needed, please get in touch if you -know how to fix it using free software.</p> + New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html + Sun, 5 Jul 2015 21:40:00 +0200 + <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my +need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback. I wish to +thank every one of these. Several pointed me to the possibility of +fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to +do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the +machine. But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it +with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live +for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement. If I did +not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts +using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it +might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p> + +<p>One tip I got was to use the +<a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to +compare laptop models. It seem to have more models available than +prisjakt.no. Another tip I got from someone I know have similar +keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not +very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook +keyboards I tested. Because of this, I will not consider it any further. + +<p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the +newest Thinkpad X model. The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons +(which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with +Debian Sid/Unstable according to +<a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>. The reports I +got on the keyboard quality are not consistent. Some say the keyboard +is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good. +Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250 +keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I +keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to +replace it. I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk +activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230. I'm +also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit +noisy. In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian +Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p> + +<p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was +<a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was +<a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>. +The latter look very attractive to me.</p> + +<p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback. It help a lot +as I keep looking for a replacement.</p> + +<p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the +<a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops. They got several +different +<a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old +thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p> - The Citizenfour documentary on the Snowden confirmations to Norway - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Citizenfour_documentary_on_the_Snowden_confirmations_to_Norway.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Citizenfour_documentary_on_the_Snowden_confirmations_to_Norway.html - Sat, 28 Feb 2015 22:10:00 +0100 - <p>Today I was happy to learn that the documentary -<a href="https://citizenfourfilm.com/">Citizenfour</a> by -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Poitras">Laura Poitras</a> -finally will show up in Norway. According to the magazine -<a href="http://montages.no/">Montages</a>, a deal has finally been -made for -<a href="http://montages.no/nyheter/snowden-dokumentaren-citizenfour-far-norsk-kinodistribusjon/">Cinema -distribution in Norway</a> and the movie will have its premiere soon. -This is great news. As part of my involvement with -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the Norwegian Unix User Group</a>, me and -a friend have -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Dokumentar_om_Snowdenbekreftelsene_til_Norge_.shtml">tried -to get the movie to Norway</a> ourselves, but obviously -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Dokumentar_om_Snowdenbekreftelsene_endelig_til_Norge_.shtml">we -were too late</a> and Tor Fosse beat us to it. I am happy he did, as -the movie will make its way to the public and we do not have to make -it happen ourselves. -<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiGwAvd5mvM">The trailer</a> -can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this -is.</p> - -<p>The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum -here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.</p> + Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html + Fri, 3 Jul 2015 07:10:00 +0200 + <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a +replacement soon. The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230 +started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken +cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the +flickering.</p> + +<p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is +still as +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I +described them in 2013</a>. The last time I bought a laptop, I had +good help from +<a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a> +where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin, +wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually. Three button mouse +and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three +laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and +G2) lack three mouse buttons). It is also unclear to me how good the +keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are. I hope Lenovo have not messed up +the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have +deteriorated since X41.</p> + +<p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options +seem sensible to me? Are there better services around to search the +set of available laptops for features? Please send me an email if you +have suggestions.</p> + +<p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF +<a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list +of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p> - The Norwegian open channel Frikanalen - 24x7 on the Internet - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Norwegian_open_channel_Frikanalen___24x7_on_the_Internet.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Norwegian_open_channel_Frikanalen___24x7_on_the_Internet.html - Wed, 25 Feb 2015 09:10:00 +0100 - <p>The Norwegian nationwide open channel -<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> is still going -strong. It allow everyone to send the video they want on national -television. It is a TV station administrated completely using a web -browser, running only <ahref="https://github.com/Frikanalen">Free -Software</a>, providing <ahref="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/api">a REST -api</a> for administrators and members, and with distribution on the -national DVB-T distribution network RiksTV. But only between 12:00 -and 17:30 Norwegian time. This has finally changed, after many years -with limited distribution. A few weeks ago, we set up a Ogg Theora -stream via icecast to allow everyone with Internet access to check out -the channel the rest of the day. This is presented on -<a href="http://www.frikanalen.tv/se">the Frikanalen web site now</a>. And -since a few days ago, the channel is also available -via <a href="https://www.uninett.no/iptv-tilgang">multicast on -UNINETT</a>, available for those using IPTV TVs and set-top boxes in -the Norwegian National Research and Education network.</p> - -<p>If you want to see what is on the channel, point your media player -to one of these sources. The first should work with most players and -browsers, while as far as I know, the multicast UDP stream only work -with VLC.</p> + MakerCon Nordic videos now available on Frikanalen + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html + Thu, 2 Jul 2015 14:10:00 +0200 + <p>Last oktober I was involved on behalf of +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> with recording the talks at +<a href="http://www.makercon.no/">MakerCon Nordic</a>, a conference for +the Maker movement. Since then it has been the plan to publish the +recordings on <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, which +finally happened the last few days. A few talks are missing because +the speakers asked the organizers to not publish them, but most of the +talks are available. The talks are being broadcasted on RiksTV +channel 50 and using multicast on Uninett, as well as being available +from the Frikanalen web site. The unedited recordings are +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">available on +Youtube too</a>.</p> + +<p>This is the list of talks available at the moment. Visit the +<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/?q=makercon">Frikanalen video +pages</a> to view them.</p> <ul> - <li><a href="http://video.nuug.no/frikanalen.ogv">http://video.nuug.no/frikanalen.ogv</a></li> - <li>udp://@224.17.43.129:1234</li> + + <li>Evolutionary algorithms as a design tool - from art + to robotics (Kyrre Glette)</li> + + <li>Make and break (Hans Gerhard Meier)</li> + + <li>Making a one year school course for young makers + (Olav Helland)</li> + + <li>Innovation Inspiration - IPR Databases as a Source of + Inspiration (Hege Langlo)</li> + + <li>Making a toy for makers (Erik Torstensson)</li> + + <li>How to make 3D printer electronics (Elias Bakken)</li> + + <li>Hovering Clouds: Looking at online tool offerings for Product + Design and 3D Printing (William Kempton)</li> + + <li>Travelling maker stories (Øyvind Nydal Dahl)</li> + + <li>Making the first Maker Faire in Sweden (Nils Olander)</li> + + <li>Breaking the mold: Printing 1000’s of parts (Espen Sivertsen)</li> + + <li>Ultimaker — and open source 3D printing (Erik de Bruijn)</li> + + <li>Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform: Sparking innovation (Hilde + Sevens)</li> + + <li>How Making is Changing the World – and How You Can Too! + (Jennifer Turliuk)</li> + + <li>Open-Source Adventuring: OpenROV, OpenExplorer and the Future of + Connected Exploration (David Lang)</li> + + <li>Making in Norway (Haakon Karlsen Jr., Graham Hayward and Jens + Dyvik)</li> + + <li>The Impact of the Maker Movement (Mike Senese)</li> + </ul> -<p>The Ogg Theora / icecast stream is not working well, as the video -and audio is slightly out of sync. We have not been able to figure -out how to fix it. It is generated by recoding a internal MPEG -transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to Ogg Theora / -Vorbis, and the result is less then stellar. If you have ideas how to -fix it, please let us know on frikanalen (at) nuug.no. We currently -use this with ffmpeg2theora 0.29:</p> - -<blockquote><pre> -./ffmpeg2theora.linux &lt;OBE_gemini_URL.ts&gt; -F 25 -x 720 -y 405 \ - --deinterlace --inputfps 25 -c 1 -H 48000 --keyint 8 --buf-delay 100 \ - --nosync -V 700 -o - | oggfwd video.nuug.no 8000 &lt;pw&gt; /frikanalen.ogv -</pre></blockquote> - -<p>If you get the multicast UDP stream working, please let me know, as -I am curious how far the multicast stream reach. It do not make it to -my home network, nor any other commercially available network in -Norway that I am aware of.</p> +<p>Part of the reason this took so long was that the scripts NUUG had +to prepare a recording for publication were five years old and no +longer worked with the current video processing tools (command line +argument changes). In addition, we needed better audio normalization, +which sent me on a detour to +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_and_adjusting_the_loudness_of_a_TV_channel_using_bs1770gain.html">package +bs1770gain for Debian</a>. Now this is in place and it became a lot +easier to publish NUUG videos on Frikanalen.</p> - En enklere Osloskolehverdag med automatisk sjekk av Fronter - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/En_enklere_Osloskolehverdag_med_automatisk_sjekk_av_Fronter.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/En_enklere_Osloskolehverdag_med_automatisk_sjekk_av_Fronter.html - Thu, 12 Feb 2015 10:30:00 +0100 - <p>En stund nå har jeg vært nødt til å forholde meg til -<a href="https://fronter.com/osloskoler/">Fronter</a>, en nettløsning -Osloskolen bruker for kontakt mellom hjem og skole. Løsningen -imponerer ikke, og det er lagt opp til at vi foreldre skal logge inn -regelmessig for å se om noe har endret seg. Idéen om å la folk stikke -innom nettsider for å se om det har skjedd endringer er så idiotisk at -jeg har lett etter et alternativ. Fronterløsningen har en innebygget -løsning der en kan abonnere på forsiden (som viser en oppsummering av -det en har tilgang til), og få tilsendt en kopi hver natt, men det -fjerner jo bare behovet for å stikke innom, ikke den idiotiske ideen -om at folk skal huske hvordan nettsiden så ut sist og oppdage hva som -er endret.</p> - -<p>For å gjøre livet enklere har jeg derfor brukt litt tid på å lage -et program som kobler seg opp og sjekker etter endringer automatisk, -slik at jeg kan få beskjed fra datamaskinen når noe endrer seg i -stedet for å forsøke å finne ut av det selv. I går ble scriptet -brukbart, og jeg er dermed klar til å dele det med deg.</p> - -<p>Jeg startet med å skrive programmet i Python, og hadde en versjon -som logget inn og hentet ned enkeltsider fra Fronter. Men -Fronter-websidene suger golfballer gjennom en hageslange, med -uleselig HTML, flere nivåer av iframes og en struktur på innholdet som -er svært vanskelig å finne ut av, så jeg ga til slutt opp lxml-parsing -med Python og forsøkte meg med WWW::Mechanize for Perl som jeg kjente -fra før. I ettertid har jeg oppdaget at WWW:Mechanize også finnes for -Python, så jeg kunne antagelig droppet språkbyttet. Men da jeg -oppdaget det hadde jeg kommet så langt med Perl-utgaven, så jeg hoppet -ikke tilbake.</p> - -<p>For å logge inn i Fronter besøker en enten skolens websider eller -den sentrale innloggingsiden <tt>https://fronter.com/osloskoler/</tt>. -Perl-koden for å logge inn ser slik ut:</p> + Hvem fører Medietilsynet tilsyn med? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvem_f_rer_Medietilsynet_tilsyn_med_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvem_f_rer_Medietilsynet_tilsyn_med_.html + Sun, 28 Jun 2015 23:20:00 +0200 + <p>I en global verden med eierskap på tvers, trengs det informasjon om +hvem som har kontrollen i selskaper og bedrifter. Og for å få tilgang +til slik informasjon for alle som ønsker å analysere eierskap, holder +med ikke med nasjonale databaser over eierskap, det må globale +samledatabaser med åpne data til. Heldigvis finnes det en +internasjonal bevegelse for å gjøre selskapsinformasjon for alle land +offentlig tilgjengelig. En slik database heter +<a href="http://opencorporates.com">OpenCorporates</a>, der +informasjonen er gratis tilgjengelig med en "del på samme +vilkår"-lisens. De samler inn selskapsinformasjon, eierskap, +konsesjonstildelinger og lignende. De manglet ganske mye for Norge, +da bruksvilkårene til Norsk offentlig informasjon i stor grad +blokkerer OpenCorporates fra å samle den inn.</p> + +<p>Men jeg er jo involvert i +<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, som har +TV-konsesjon, og tenkte det kunne være fint om informasjon om alle +mediakonsesjoner var tilgjengelig i OpenCorporates, så jeg sendte +avgårde følgende spørsmål til Medietilsynet 2015-06-22:</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Hei. Finnes det en oversikt over enhetene som Mediatilsynet fører +tilsyn med som åpne data? Jeg lette etter den på +&lt;URL:<a href="http://data.norge.no/">http://data.norge.no/</a>&gt; og +&lt;URL:<a href="http://hotell.difi.no/">http://hotell.difi.no/</a>&gt; uten å +finne noe der, og fant heller ikke noe under +&lt;URL:<a href="http://www.medietilsynet.no/">http://www.medietilsynet.no/</a>&gt;.</p> + +<p>Jeg tenker på alle som har fått kringkastingskonsesjon og alle som +er omtalt under +&lt;URL:<a href="http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebildet/">http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebildet/</a>&gt;.</p> + +<p>Jeg skulle gjerne hatt dette maskinlesbart, og inkludert +organisasjonsnummer og hva slags forhold mediatilsynet har til +organisasjonene. Tanken er å importere det i +&lt;URL:<a href="https://opencorporates.com/">https://opencorporates.com/</a>&gt; for analyse, så det bør ikke ha +bruksbegresninger som gjør dette umulig.</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>To dager senere fikk jeg svar, med de datasettene de hadde +tilgjengelig. Svaret fra Hanne Sekkelsten hos Medietilsynet var +informativt og imøtekommende.</p> + +<blockquote> +<p>Vi viser til din e-post av 22. juni, der du ber om å få tilsendt oversikter +over aktører Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med.</p> + +<p>Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med kringkastere og audiovisuelle +bestillingstjenester som omfattes av kringkastingsloven, og med +eierskap i aviser, fjernsyn radio og elektroniske medier etter +medieeierskapsloven. I tillegg vil Medietilsynet etter at +beskyttelsesloven trer i kraft fra 1. juli ha tilsyn med en rekke nye +aktører. Nærmere informasjon om den nye loven finnes på Medietilsynets +nettsted, her: +<a href="http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebransjen/bildeprogramloven/">http://www.medietilsynet.no/mediebransjen/bildeprogramloven/</a> +. Vi har ikke utarbeidet oversikter over alle aktørene, men vi sender +deg her de listene vi har utarbeidet, hentet fra våre databaser. Vi +har dessverre ikke ferdige rapporter som inneholder +organisasjonsnummer. Dersom du ønsker flere opplysninger ber vi om at +du tar kontakt med oss slik at vi kan finne ut av hvilke opplysninger +du trenger, og hvilke vi kan fremskaffe.</p> + +<p>Vedlagt følger: -<pre> -my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(); -$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/'); -$mech->submit_form(fields => { - username => $username, - password => $password, -} ); -</pre> +<ul> -<p>Neste steg er å få oversikt over hvilke «rom» en har tilgang til. -På vår skole er det rom for skolen, biblioteket, elevrådet, -aktivitetsskolen og klasser der en har unger, og dette vil være -forskjellig fra person til person. Etter å ha romstert rundt i -Fronter-grensesnittet endel kom jeg over en grei HTML-side med -oversikt over rommene, -<tt>https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser</tt>, -så jeg bruker denne til å hente ut romoversikt med rom-ID.</p> + <li>Konsesjoner - lokalradio FM pr. 31.12.2014 [<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Konsesjoner_lokalradio_fm_felles_31.12.2014.pdf">PDF (original)</a>]</li> -<pre> -my %room; -$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser'); -for my $link ($mech->links()) { - my $url = $link->url(); - if ($url =~ m%/links/list_files.phtml\?edit=(\d+)$%) { - $room{$link->text()} = $1; - } -} -</pre> + <li>Konsesjoner - lokalfjernsyn i det digitale bakkenettet for fjernsyn, pr. mars 2015 [<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Lokalfjernsyn_DTT_konsesjoner_mars_2015.docx">DOCX (original)</a>, +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Lokalfjernsyn_DTT_konsesjoner_mars_2015.pdf">PDF</a>]</li> -<p>Når en har rom-ID kan en slå opp websiden for rommet, som starter -på -<tt>https://fronter.com/osloskoler/contentframeset.phtml?goto_prjid=$ROMID</tt> -(der $ROMID byttes ut med rom-ID-tallet). Det gir en side med -iframes, og en må tre nivåer ned i iframes før en får tak i -HTML-informasjonen som vises frem når en ser på det aktuelle rommet. -Her ga jeg opp den robuste parsingen og hardkodet endel URL-er som i -stedet bør spores opp maskinelt. HTML-informasjonen som vises lagres -i en fil etter at økt- og innloggings-nøkkel er fjernet og deretter -bruker jeg <tt>lynx --dump --nolist</tt> for å hente ut en tekstlig -utgave av websiden. Denne tekstlige utgaven sammenlignes med forrige -versjon og oversikt over endringer kan så sendes ut på egnet vis.</p> - -<p>Jeg valgte å bruke git til å holde rede på endringer, så jeg -sjekker inn HTML og tekst-utgaver i git og bruker git til å vise frem -endringene i tekstutgavene. Programvaren for å gjøre dette er testet -på Debian GNU/Linux og kan -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fronter-scraper-oslo">lastes -ned fra github</a>.</p> - -<p>For å bruke dette selv, kjør følgende kommandoer på din -Debian-maskin (forutsetter sudo-tilgang for installasjon av -programvare):</p> + <li>Konsesjoner - DAB-radio, status mars 2015 [<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Konsesjonaernummer_DAB.xps">XPS (original)</a>, +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Konsesjonaernummer_DAB.pdf">PDF</a>]</li> -<pre> -sudo apt-get install git lynx-cur libio-prompter-perl libwww-mechanize-perl \ - libconfig-inifiles-perl -git clone https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fronter-scraper-oslo -cd fronter-scraper-oslo -./update-git -</pre> + <li>Registreringspliktige kringkastere - status mars 2015: [<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Registreringspliktige_kringkastere_register_-_aktive.xps">XPS (original)</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-06-28-medietilsynsdata/Registreringspliktige_kringkastere_register_-_aktive.pdf">PDF</a>] -<p>Det gjenstår endel, men systemet er allerede nyttig for meg. Jeg -ønsker at systemet også skal laste ned PDF-er og slikt som er lagt ut -for nedlasting på sidene, slik at f.eks. ukeplaner kommer inn i -git-arkivet mitt automatisk og jeg får automatisk beskjed når ny -ukeplan er lagt ut. Kanskje du kan bidra med å få det på plass, eller -kanskje du har andre ting du vil fikse? Jeg tar gjerne imot endringer -og forbedringer. Det er mye som kan gjøres bedre, og scriptet er ikke -veldig robust mot endringer hos nettsidene til Fronter. Jeg regner -dermed med at det vil trengs oppdateringer jevnlig etter hvert som -Fronter-løsningen endrer seg.</p> - - - - - Nude body scanner now present on Norwegian airport - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nude_body_scanner_now_present_on_Norwegian_airport.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nude_body_scanner_now_present_on_Norwegian_airport.html - Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:20:00 +0100 - <p>Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Norway, today report -that -<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/reise/Slik-skannes-kroppen-din-i-fremtidens-sikkerhetskontroll-490666_1.snd">three -of the nude body scanners now is put to use at Gardermoen</a>, the -main airport in Norway. This way the travelers can have their body -photographed without cloths when visiting Norway. Of course this -horrible news is presented with a positive spin, stating that "now -travelers can move past the security check point faster and more -efficiently", but fail to mention that the machines in question take -pictures of their nude bodies and store them internally in the -computer, while only presenting sketch figure of the body to the -public. The article is written in a way that leave the impression -that the new machines do not take these nude pictures and only create -the sketch figures. In reality the same nude pictures are still -taken, but not presented to everyone. They are still available for -the owners of the system and the people doing maintenance of the -scanners, as long as they are taken and stored.</p> - -<p>Wikipedia have a more on -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner">Full body -scanners</a>, including example images and a summary of the -controversy about these scanners.</p> - -<p>Personally I will decline to use these machines, as I believe strip -searches of my body is a very intrusive attack on my privacy, and not -something everyone should have to accept to travel.</p> - - - - - Nagios module to check if the Frikanalen video stream is working - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nagios_module_to_check_if_the_Frikanalen_video_stream_is_working.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nagios_module_to_check_if_the_Frikanalen_video_stream_is_working.html - Sun, 8 Feb 2015 13:00:00 +0100 - <p>When running a TV station with both broadcast and web stream -distribution, it is useful to know that the stream is working. As I -am involved in the Norwegian open channel -<a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> as part of my -activity in the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member -organisation</a>, I wrote a script to use mplayer to connect to a -video stream, pick two images 35 seconds apart and compare them. If -the images are missing or identical, something is probably wrong with -the stream and an alarm should be triggered. The script is written as -a Nagios plugin, allowing us to use Nagios to run the check regularly -and sound the alarm when something is wrong. It is able to detect -both a hanging and a broken video stream.</p> - -<p>I just uploaded the code for the script into the -<a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen/frikanalen/blob/master/nagios-plugin/check_video_stream_images">Frikanalen -git repository</a> on github. If you run a TV station with web -streaming, perhaps you can find it useful too.</p> - -<p>Last year, the Frikanalen public TV station transformed into using -only Linux based free software to administrate, schedule and -distribute the TV content. The -<a href="https://github.com/Frikanalen">source code for the entire TV -station</a> is available from the Github project page. Everyone can -use it to send their content on national TV, and we provide both a web -GUI and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/api/">a web API</a> to -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/login/?next=/members/video/">add</a> -and <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/members/plan/">schedule -content</a>. And thanks to last weeks developer gathering and -following activity, we now have the schedule -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/xmltv/2015/01/01">available as -XMLTV</a> too. Still a lot of work left to do, especially with the -process to add videos and with the scheduling, so your contribution is -most welcome. Perhaps you want to set up your own TV station?</p> - -<p>Update 2015-02-25: Got a tip from Uninett about their -<a href="https://scm.uninett.no/maalepaaler/qstream/">qstream -monitoring system</a>, which gather connection time, jitter, packet -loss and burst bandwidth usage. It look useful to check if UDP -streams are working as they should.</p> + <ul> + <li>Kabelsendt fjernsyn + <li>Satellittsendt fjernsyn + <li>Nett-tv + <li>Kabelsendt radio + <li>Satellittsendt radio + <li>Nett-radio + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<p>Vi må ta forbehold om at det kan være enkelte feil i oversiktene +siden disse ikke er oppdaterte pr. dags dato. Vi vil foreta nye +oppdateringer i august.</p> + +<p>Med hilsen</p> + +<p>Hanne Nistad Sekkelsten +<br>Seniorrådgiver | Senior Legal Adviser +<br>Medietilsynet | Norwegian Media Authority +<br>A: Nygata 4, NO-1607 Fredrikstad +<br>T: [telefonnummer fjernet] +<br>E: [adresse fjernet] | W: www.medietilsynet.no +</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>Desverre er formatene for ustrukturerte til maskinell behandling og +mangler endel informasjon, men det er gode oversikter over hvem +Medietilsynet fører tilsyn med. Filene er på formatene PDF, XPS +(XML-basert PDF-lignende format fra Microsoft) og DOCX, så det vil +være en stor jobb å strukturere informasjonen på en måte som kan +importeres i OpenCorporates. Svaret er ikke i tråd med +<a href="http://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2013-04-05-959">Forskrift +om IT-standarder i offentlig forvaltning</a> som sier epostvedlegg +skal sendes som PDF, så jeg har gjorde PDF-utgaver av XPS og +DOCX-utgavene tilgjengelig for å gjøre det enklere for alle å se +innholdet.</p>