X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/6331d93ee88ff178d5ee1e1461f32e133a8cdc9e..9d0dcdc25d86de368d53bea6cfcaecc172115c55:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 1495d4d135..f03a482580 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,56 +20,22 @@
-
RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory
-
19th April 2012
-

Here in Norway, the - Ministry of -Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs is behind -a directory of -standards that are recommended or mandatory for use by the -government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made -an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the -standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions -to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete -on the same level.

- -

But recently, some standards with RAND -(Reasonable -And Non-Discriminatory) terms have made their way into the -directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that -standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from -implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per -user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone -willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In -practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and -be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By -definition, users of free software do not need to register their use. -So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects. -And given that people will use the software without handing any money -to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free -software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights -to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result -in these situations is that free software are locked out from -implementing standards with RAND terms.

- -

Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a -standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is -how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free -software developers are working in a global market, it does not really -help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable -in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here. -I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more -attention to these issues in the future.

- -

You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms -from Simon Phipps -(RAND: -Not So Reasonable?).

+
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. :)

- Tags: english, multimedia, nuug, standard, video. + Tags: english.
@@ -77,83 +43,104 @@ Not So Reasonable?).

-
Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"
-
15th April 2012
-

Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over -en -hovedfagsoppgave ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien -av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer. Jeg ble fascinert -over det som presenteres der. Her er sammendraget:

- -

- -

Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring -over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det -økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg -for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på -fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover -økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri -programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.

- -

Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert -programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid -programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning, -disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de -manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven -er:

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

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

    -
  • Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?
    • -
  • Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere?
    • -
-

Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og -modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom -kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med -frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i -dialog med informantene.

- -

Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige -ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen -for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus -fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske -delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler -operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken -OpenOffice.org.

- -

Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling -av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom -begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt -vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de -økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og -stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som -omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien -til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall -eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken -inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og -formater.

- -

Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er -laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av -OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i -skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt -symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i -Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode, -mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske -friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også -slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».

-

- -

Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke -komplett oppgave tilgjengelig. På tide å holde et øye med -Skolelinux-søket -til DUO...

+
  • 2012-12-07 + Myter og + FUD om fri programvare av min venn Christer Gundersen som + kommenterer noen av de pÃ¥standene som er spredt via Computerworld + Norge de siste mÃ¥nedene.
    • + +
  • BankID er et opplegg der utsteder (dvs. banken eller dens + leverandør) sitter pÃ¥ alt som trengs for Ã¥ bruke BankID, men har + lovet Ã¥ ikke bruke den unntatt pÃ¥ oppdrag fra deg. Det er greit nok + for banktjenester, der banken allerede har full kontroll over + resultatet, men problematisk nÃ¥r det gjelder tilgang til + helseopplysninger og avtaleinngÃ¥else med andre enn banken. Jeg + hÃ¥per protestene brer om seg. + + + +
  • 2012-12-11 Norske elever er dÃ¥rligst i Europa pÃ¥ algebra + +
  • 2012-12-11 + Realfagsdødaren + +
  • 2012-12-21 + - + Noen mÃ¥ bli skuffet - Politiet i Bergen forteller hvor lavt de + prioriterer hverdagskriminalitet.
    • + +
  • 2012-05-03 + + Kripos-ansatt dømt for snoking for venn - viser hvor svak + reaksjonen blir nÃ¥r politiet misbruker innsamlet informasjon. En + forvarsel pÃ¥ konsekvensene av nasjonal brev- og besøkskontroll - + ofte kalt Datalagringsdirektivet.
    • + +
  • 2012-12-14 + Å + smøre en forskjell - om ensomhet og jul.
    • + +
  • 2012-12-18 + Én + krise av gangen, takk! + + +
  • 2012-12-17 + NAV: + Et mangehodet monster
    • + +
  • 2011-01-12 + Pasienter + uten vern - forteller litt om hvordan Norsk Pasientregister og + andre helseregister raderer bort pasienters privatsfære.
    • + +
  • 2012-12-19 + Hvorfor + er barnefamilier fattige?
    • + +
  • 2012-12-25 + Den + skjulte minoriteten – konservative kristne i Norge - kronikk av + Bjørn Stærk fra aftenposten
    • + +
  • 2009-05-04 + Folkebiblioteket + 2.0 - Min venn Sturle om opphavsrett og Internett, i debatt med + Olav Torvund.
    • + + + +

    Og et godt nytt år til dere alle!

    - Tags: debian edu, norsk. + Tags: bankid, lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern.
    @@ -161,86 +148,29 @@ til DUO...

    -
    Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt
    -
    15th April 2012
    -

    Behind Debian Edu and -Skolelinux there are a lot of people doing the hard work of -setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas -Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several -years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set -up in the recently released -Debian -Edu Squeeze version.

    - -

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

    - -

    My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany. After -studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in -Quantum Optics. After that I worked some years in an optics company. -Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started -teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school. I teach math, physics, -information technology and science/technology.

    - -

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

    - -

    Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu -project because of my interest in education and Debian. Within the -qualification/training period for the teaching, I started -contributing.

    - -

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

    - -

    The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the -out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the -Debian Project!

    - -

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

    - -

    As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its -downside, too. In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the -setup, if you need or want that. Further more, it is not easily -possible to upgrade the system to a new release. It takes much too -long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps -because the number of developers working on the core of the code is -rather small and often busy elsewhere.

    - -

    The Debian LAN -project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.

    - -

    Which free software do you use daily?

    - -

    I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian -on all my machines. For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then -mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing. At school I -have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.

    - -

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

    - -

    One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom: -Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and -politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader". The school -administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor. -Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats. Even -free browsers do not work for the school administration. Publishers -of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.

    - -

    To change this, political work is very important. Parts of the -political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years. -However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free' -the system. There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and -"Free/Open Standards". I am not sure if all the involved parties have -a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a -fraction takes them seriously. However it might slowly make free -software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.

    +
    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: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: debian edu, english.
    @@ -248,18 +178,51 @@ software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.

    -
    Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012
    -
    13th April 2012
    -

    Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen Go -Open 2012 i Oslo 23. april. -Medlemsforeningen NUUG deler ut -prisen for fremme av fri -programvare i Norge der i år. Kommer du?

    +
    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: norsk, nuug. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english.
    @@ -267,62 +230,74 @@ programvare i Norge der i år. Kommer du?

    -
    Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye
    -
    8th April 2012
    -

    It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution -like Debian Edu / Skolelinux, -and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big -contributor to the -Debian -Edu Squeeze release manual. - -

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

    - -

    I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has -occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.

    - -

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

    - -

    I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only -reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang -around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things -they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep -through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of -"localisation".

    - -

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

    - -

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

    - -

    These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I -had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the -education system.

    - -

    I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up -as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do -everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend -money on the latest hardware.

    - -

    Which free software do you use daily?

    - -

    I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the -software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other -words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).

    - -

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

    - -

    Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning -with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked -you would hardly need a strategy.

    +
    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: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: bitcoin, debian, english.
    @@ -330,59 +305,96 @@ you would hardly need a strategy.

    -
    Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround
    -
    6th April 2012
    -

    Recently I have spent time with -Skolelinux Drift AS on speeding -up a Debian Edu / Skolelinux -Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the -process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE -menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly -due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing -the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be -passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were - -NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the -ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20 -ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in -Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that -the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for -non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find -one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required -around 230 access(2) calls.

    - -

    The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon -directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In -(almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg -and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS -mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS -requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a -KDE bug report -from 2009 about this problem, and it is still unsolved.

    - -

    My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package -kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files -used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths -for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the -icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to -these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look -for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find -one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu -almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package -publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.

    - -

    The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu -and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to -speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and -that is not really an option at the moment.

    - -

    If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu -(at) lists.debian.org.

    +
    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: debian edu, english. + Tags: freeculture, norsk, opphavsrett.
    @@ -390,20 +402,64 @@ that is not really an option at the moment.

    -
    Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News
    -
    5th April 2012
    -

    About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about -Debian Edu and Skolelinux by -Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for -non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution -for schools. Check out his article -Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A -distribution for education if you want to learn more.

    +
    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: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian edu, english, nuug.
    @@ -411,89 +467,38 @@ distribution for education if you want to learn more.

    -
    Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer
    -
    1st April 2012
    -

    Germany is a core area for the -Debian Edu and Skolelinux -user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang -Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany. - -

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

    - -

    I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in -Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school -"Westfalen-Kolleg -Dortmund", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given -the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school -examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This -second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective -or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.

    - -

    Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a -blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other -information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been -teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my -school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at -the end of April this year.

    - -

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

    - -

    The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my -attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server -Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997 -using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since -2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin -clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of -reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the -Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About -two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only -known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system: -Skolelinux.

    - -

    Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a -better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin -clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI -was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI -and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for -the admin teachers.

    - -

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

    - -

    It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's -Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented! -So it was a perfect choice.

    - -

    Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's -possible to point teachers and students to programs like -OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of -high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of -a school and to choose where to get support for this.

    - -

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

    - -

    Nothing yet.

    - -

    Which free software do you use daily?

    - -

    At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice, -Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF -Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit, -LibreOffice.

    - -

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

    - -

    Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But -that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more -interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.

    +
    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.
    @@ -501,28 +506,53 @@ interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.

    -
    56 kommuner omfavner FiksGataMi
    -
    30th March 2012
    -

    I dag omfavnet nok en kommune NUUGs -FiksGataMi. Med 56 kommuner -som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er "markedsandelen" -oppe i 13% (av 429 kommuner). Sist ut er Sel kommune, som slår følge -med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Bærum, Eide, Farsund, -Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, Halden, Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, -Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, Kongsberg, Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, -Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, Luster, Lyngdal, Lørenskog, Løten, -Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, Nordreisa, Randaberg, -Rindal, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, Spydeberg, Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, -Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, Tynset, Tysvær, Ullensvang Herad, Vennesla, -Verdal, Vågan, Vågå og Åseral.

    - -

    I snitt rapporteres det nå 150 meldinger fra innbyggerne i uka via -FiksGataMi.

    +
    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: fiksgatami, norsk. + Tags: english, sysadmin.
    @@ -530,94 +560,52 @@ FiksGataMi.

    -
    Linux-skoler har høyere PC-tetthet enn landsgjennomsnittet - pressemelding fra FRiSK
    -
    30th March 2012
    -

    I dag har FRiSK -sendt ut følgende pressemelding basert på mine beregninger av -PC-tetthet på Linux-skoler:

    - -

    Linux-skoler har høyere PC-tetthet enn -landsgjennomsnittet

    - -

    Oslo, 30 Mars 2012

    - -

    Det er store forskjeller på skolenes digitale tilstand, viser -undersøkelsen Monitor 2011 som er laget på oppdrag fra -Kunnskapsdepartementet. Dette har ført til debatt om PC-tilgangen i -skolen, og om de med Linux i skolen gjør det bedre bedre eller -dårligere enn snittet i landet.

    - -

    Nå har vi tallene. Skoler med Linux har 36% større PC-tetthet en -landsgjennomsnittet. På spørsmål hvorfor skoler med Linux har større -PC-tetthet, observerer Paul Reidar Løsnesløkken som er IKT-konsulent i -Nord-Odal:

    - -

    "Vi erfarer at klienter med Skolelinux har god funksjon -til de er 8 til 10 år gamle. Dette er omtrent dobbelt så lenge som -andre løsninger, og skolene får mer datautstyr for -pengene."

    - -

    Undersøkelsen baserer seg på 56 skoler som har gjort det offentlig -at de kjører Skolelinux eller annen Linux-utgave. De kan også ha PC-er -med Windows i skolenettet. Når en sammenligner PC-tetthetene på -skolene i kommunene Flora, Harstad, Kongsvinger, Narvik, Nittedal, -Nord-Odal og Randaberg, er det i snitt 2,28 elev pr. PC på skolene med -Linux. På landsbasis er det 3.11 elev per PC i grunnskolen, i følge -side 95 i Monitor-rapporten for 2011. Målingen viser dermed 36% større -PC-tetthet i skoler med Linux.

    - -

    Om Skolelinux/Debian Edu

    - -

    Skolelinux har til hensikt å gi alle barn full tilgang til -skoleaktuelle dataprogram på sitt eget morsmål. Derfor følger det med -godt over 100 skoleaktuelle programmene laget for læring. De fleste -programmene er oversatt til over 50 språk. Elevene skal også kunne -studere alle sider av dataprogrammene. Derfor følger også kildekode -med. Elever med interesse kan lære av eksperter som har laget -systemet. Dette med enkelt programmering i læreprogram som KTurtle, -til profesjonelle verktøy som Qt Creator eller Java.

    - -

    Skolelinux er laget for sentralisert drift, der alt teknisk -administrasjon av alle skolene kan gjøres sentralt fra kommunehuset -eller sentralt i en region. F.eks. drifter to-tre personer 70.000 -skoledatamaskiner på 200 skoler i delstaten Extremadura i -Spania. Etter velykket bruk av Debian Edu i skolen, legger delstaten -over til Debian på 40.000 datamaskiner i administrasjonen. Det er idag -mange selskap som tilbyr profesjonell støtte til innføring og drift i -Norge og verden.

    - -

    Om FRiSK

    - -

    Medlemsforeningen Fri Programvare i Skolen organiserer -dugnadsprosjektet som står bak Skolelinux.

    - -

    Kontaktperson

    - -

    Knut Yrvin

    - -

    Leder av Fri Programvare i Skolen (FRISK)

    - -

    Epost: knuty at skolelinux.no -
    Mobil: +47 93 479 561

    - -

    Referanser

    +
    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.

    - Tags: debian edu, norsk. + Tags: lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern.
    @@ -632,6 +620,13 @@ dugnadsprosjektet som står bak Skolelinux.

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