X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/98f7aa4bfbece7c6a013f5945eda6b7f17d78b51..3f086f688ff5ca029cf2cdcae4a8dddad6e09ada:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index eb4ac7c9f2..3d11f5139f 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,34 +20,57 @@
-
Of course USA looses in cyber war - NSA and friends made sure it would happen
-
19th December 2014
-

So, Sony caved in -(according -to Rob Lowe) and demonstrated that America lost its first cyberwar -(according -to Newt Gingrich). It should not surprise anyone, after the -whistle blower Edward Snowden documented that the government of USA -and their allies for many years have done their best to make sure the -technology used by its citizens is filled with security holes allowing -the secret services to spy on its own population. No one in their -right minds could believe that the ability to snoop on the people all -over the globe could only be used by the personnel authorized to do so -by the president of the United States of America. If the capabilities -are there, they will be used by friend and foe alike, and now they are -being used to bring Sony on its knees.

- -

I doubt it will a lesson learned, and expect USA to loose its next -cyber war too, given how eager the western intelligence communities -(and probably the non-western too, but it is less in the news) seem to -be to continue its current dragnet surveillance practice.

- -

There is a reason why China and others are trying to move away from -Windows to Linux and other alternatives, and it is not to avoid -sending its hard earned dollars to Cayman Islands (or whatever -tax haven -Microsoft is using these days to collect the majority of its -income. :)

+
What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?
+
1st May 2015
+

Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost +to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the +cost of around 20 million NOK (2.4 mill EUR) for all the calls in a +year. I got curious and wondered what the same calculation would look +like today. To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is +needed for each minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in +Norway sums up to, and the cost of data storage.

+ +

The 2005 numbers are from +digi.no, +the 2012 numbers are from +a +NKOM report, and I got the 2013 numbers after asking NKOM via +email. I was told the numbers for 2014 will be presented May 20th, +and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very +different from the numbers from 2013.

+ +

The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted +quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that 8 Kbit/s is +enough. See for example a +summary +on voice quality from Cisco for some alternatives. 8 Kbit/s is 60 +Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes +to get the storage requirements.

+ +

Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies, +availability requirements etc. But a simple way to calculate can be +to use the price of a TiB-disk (around 1000 NOK / 120 EUR) and double +it to take space, power and redundancy into account. It could be much +higher with high speed and good redundancy requirements.

+ +

But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone +calls in Norway? Not much. Here is a small table showing the +estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium +and large organisations:

+ + + + + + +
YearCall minutesSizePrice in NOK / EUR
200524 000 000 0001.3 PiB3 mill / 358 000
201218 000 000 0001.0 PiB2.2 mill / 262 000
201317 000 000 000950 TiB2.1 mill / 250 000
+ +

This is the cost of buying the storage. Maintenance need to be +taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise +for the reader. But it is obvious to me from those numbers that +recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be +stopped because it is too expensive. I wonder if someone already is +collecting the data?

@@ -60,582 +83,175 @@ income. :)

-
Klarer ikke Microsoft å holde på hemmeligheter?
-
18th December 2014
-

Må Microsoft virkelig ha hjelp av unger for å holde på -hemmelighetene sine?

- -

I dag kom det en fascinerende artikkel i Aftenposten om -hva -Microsoft har foreslått at foreldre går med på for å la ungene -delta på Lær kidsa koding på -skolen. De ber foreldrene om å få bruke bilder og video av ungene -kommersielt og gratis i all fremtid, hvilket var så drøyt at -Arbeiderpartiets bystyrerepresentant -Per Anders -Torvik Langerød tok opp saken opp under bystyrets muntlige -spørretime onsdag. Resultatet av dette er at Microsoft har trukket -tilbake teksten i samtykkeerklæringen og kommunikasjonsdirektør -Christine Korme i Microsoft sier i artikkelen at «Vi vil presentere en -ny erklæring som gjør det helt klart i hvilken forbindelse materialet -skal brukes, altså ikke-kommersielt», hvilket jo er fint. Jeg lurer -virkelig på hvordan teksten kunne slippe ut til foreldrene i første -omgang. Her har noen på skolen ikke fulgt med i timen, eller mangler -grunnleggende personverntrening.

- -

Men bildet av samtykkeerklæringen inneholder også en annen -problematisk klausul, som ikke omtales overhodet i -Aftenposten-artikkelen. Neste punkt i erklæringen lyder:

- -

-«Du aksepterer ikke å bruke eller videreformidle til en tredjepart -noen hemmelige eller fortrolige opplysninger som gis av Microsoft i -løpet av elevens deltagelse.» -

- -

Mener Microsoft virkelig at foreldre og barn skal ta ansvar for at -Microsoft ikke klarer å holde hemmelig og fortrolig informasjon for -seg selv når de besøker en offentlig norsk skole? Jeg ville nektet -plent å signert på en avtale med en slik klausul, da det er Microsofts -ansvar å holde på sine hemmeligheter, og ikke noe mine barn og min -familie tar på oss erstatningsansvar for hvis de kommer på avveie.

- -

Jeg lurer på om noen har fått se den nye samtykkeerklæringen? -Inneholder den fortsatt klausul om hemmelighold? Hvor mange er det -som hittil har signert på den gamle samtykkeerklæringen? Hvor har den -vært brukt? Savnet svar på disse spørsmålene i artikkelen, da de som -har signert på den gamle vel vil være bundet av den selv om ingen -flere signerer på den.

- -

Lær kidsa koding er et glimrende initiativ, og jeg skulle ønske -noen av foreningen NUUGs medlemmer -hadde kapasitet til å delta i initiativet på NUUGs vegne. Selv tar -jobb, familie og eksisterende prosjekter allerede all tid. Slik -Microsoft tydeligvis holder på er det behov for noen med et annet syn -på livet som bidragsyter her.

-
-
- - - Tags: norsk, nuug, personvern. - - -
-
-
- -
-
Opphavsretts-status for «Empty Socks» fra 1927?
-
12th December 2014
-

For noen dager siden -annonserte -Nasjonalbiblioteket gladnyheten om at de i sine arkiver hadde -funnet et nitratfilm-eksemplar av en 87 år gammel Disney-film ved navn -Empty Socks, en film som tidligere var antatt tapt og der det i følge -nyhetsmeldinger var kun ca. 25 sekunder bevart for ettertiden. -Nasjonalbiblioteket hadde 5 minutter og 30 sekunder av filmen i sitt -magasin. Dette er flott for bevaringen av verdens kulturarv. 5,5 -minutter mindre tapt enn vi trodde av vår felles historie.

- -

Men hvordan kunne filmen gå tapt, når arkivlovene i USA krevde at -publiserte filmer på den tiden ble deponert i bibliotek? Forklaringen -har jeg fra Lawrence Lessig og boken -Free Culture, som jeg holder på -å -oversette til norsk:

- -

-

Dette er delvis på grunn av loven. Opphavsrettseiere var tidlig i - amerikansk opphavsrettslov nødt til å deponere kopier av sine verk i - biblioteker. Disse kopiene skulle både sikre spredning av kunnskap, - og sikre at det fantes en kopi av verket tilgjengelig når vernetiden - utløp, slik at andre kunne få tilgang til og kopiere verket.

- -

Disse reglene gjaldt også for filmer. Men i 1915 gjorde - kongressbiblioteket et unntak for film. Filmer kunne bli - opphavsrettsbeskyttet så lenge det ble gjort slik deponering. Men - filmskaperne fikk så lov til å låne tilbake de deponerte filmene - - så lenge de ville uten noe kostnad. Bare i 1915 var det mer enn 5475 - filmer deponert og “lånt tilbake”. Dermed var det ikke noe eksemplar - i noe bibliotek når vernetiden til filmen utløp. Eksemplaret - eksisterer - hvis den finnes i det hele tatt - i arkivbiblioteket - til filmselskapet.

-

- -

Nyheten gjorde meg nysgjerrig på om filmen kunne være falt i det -fri. En 87 år gammel film kunne jo tenkes å ha blitt en del av -allemannseiet, slik at vi alle kan bruke den til å bygge videre på vår -felles kultur uten å måtte be om tillatelse - slik Walt Disney gjorde -det i starten av sin karriere. Jeg spurte nasjonalbiblioteket, og de -sa nei. Hvordan kan det ha seg med en så gammel film? Jeg besteme -meg for å undersøke nærmere. En kan finne informasjon om den norske -vernetiden på -Lovdata -og Wikipedia. Her er et relevant utsnitt fra -siden om opphavsrett i den norske Wikipedia:

- -

- Ifølge åndsverkloven §§ 40-41 utløper vernetiden for et åndsverk 70 - år etter utløpet av opphavspersonens dødsår. [...] For filmverk - gjelder særlige regler: Her kommer ikke alle mulige opphavspersoner - i betraktning, men kun hovedregissøren, manusforfatteren, - dialogforfatteren og komponisten av filmmusikken. Vernetiden - begynner å løpe etter utgangen av dødsåret til den lengstlevende av - disse. [...] Der opphavspersonen er ukjent, utløper opphavsretten 70 - år etter første kjente offentliggjørelse av verket. Det er kun de - økonomiske rettighetene som faller bort i det vernetiden er - utløpt. De ideelle rettighetene må fortsatt respekteres, noe som - blant annet innebærer at man plikter å navngi opphavspersonen ved - tilgjengeliggjøring. -

- -

I følge nettstedet -The -Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts er følgende personer gitt -æren for denne kortfilmen:

- -
- -
Regissør
-
Walt Disney (1901-12-05 – 1966-12-15) +70 år = 2037
- -
Animasjon -
Ub Iwerks (1901-03-24 – 1971-07-07) +70 år = 2042 -
Rollin "Ham" Hamilton (1898-10-28 - 1951-06-03) +70 år = 2022 -
Hugh Harman (1903-08-31 – 1982-11-25) +70 år = 2053
- -
Kamera -
Mike Marcus (?-?)
- -
- -

Alle fødsels- og dødsdatoene er fra engelske Wikipedia. Det er -ikke oppgitt navn på manusforfatter, dialogforfatter og komponist, men -jeg mistenker at tegnerne vil få opphavsrettigheter på tegnefilmer her -i Norge, og tar derfor med disse. Kameramannen vil ikke få noen -rettigheter så vidt jeg forstår, og er derfor ignorert her.

- -

Slik jeg forstår den norske opphavsretten vil dermed dette -filmverket bli allemannseie (også kalt å falle i det fri) i 2053, 126 -år etter at det ble utgitt. Hvis kun regissørens rettigheter er -relevante, vil det skje i 2037, 110 år etter at det ble utgitt. Etter -det vil enhver kunne dele det med alle de har lyst til, fremføre det -offentlig eller klippe og lime i det for å lage sin egen film basert -på det - helt uten å måtte spørre noen om lov.

- -

Måtte så Nasjonalbiblioteket spørre om lov før de kunne kopiere -sitt nitrat-eksemplar over på mer varig format? Nei, heldigvis. -Åndsverklovens § 16 sier at arkiv, bibliotek, museer og undervisnings- -og forskningsinstitusjoner har rett til å fremstille eksemplar av verk -for konserverings- og sikringsformål og andre særskilte formål.

-
-
- - - Tags: freeculture, norsk, opphavsrett, video. - - -
-
-
- -
-
How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie
-
22nd November 2014
-

By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using -sysvinit as its boot system by default. But how can one keep using -sysvinit in Jessie? It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes, -courtesy of -Erich -Schubert and -Simon -McVittie. - -

If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and -keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file -/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit with this content before -you upgrade:

- -

-Package: systemd-sysv
-Pin: release o=Debian
-Pin-Priority: -1
-

- -

This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider -installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade -solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid -systemd as a default boot system. The end result should be that the -upgraded system keep using sysvinit.

- -

If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to -get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by -debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the -installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot. Either by -using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the -preseed file used. First, the kernel command line argument: - -

-preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
-

- -

Next, the line to use in a preseed file:

- -

-d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
-

- -

One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing -the sysvinit-core package.

- -

I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the -sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs -on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware -devices show up during boot. But on the other hand, the new default -boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before -Jessie is released.

- -

Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by -a -blog post by Torsten Glaser, added --purge to the preseed -line.

-
-
- - - Tags: bootsystem, debian, english. - - -
-
-
- -
-
Hvordan vurderer regjeringen H.264-patentutfordringen?
-
16th November 2014
-

For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke -juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da -H.264 ble tatt inn i statens -referansekatalog over standarder. Stig Hornnes i FAD tipset meg -om følgende som står i oppsumeringen til høringen om -referansekatalogen versjon 2.0, som jeg siden ved hjelp av en -innsynsforespørsel fikk tak i -PDF-utgaven av -datert 2009-06-03 (saksnummer 200803291, saksbehandler Henrik -Linnestad).

- -

Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:

- -

-4.4 Patentproblematikk - -

NUUG og Opera ser det som særlig viktig at forslagene knyttet til -lyd og video baserer seg på de royalty-frie standardene Vorbis, Theora -og FLAC.

- -

Kommentarene relaterer seg til at enkelte standarder er åpne, men -inneholder tekniske prosedyrer som det i USA (og noen andre land som -Japan) er gitt patentrettigheter til. I vårt tilfelle berører dette -spesielt standardene Mp3 og H.264, selv om Politidirektoratet peker på -at det muligens kan være tilsvarende problematikk også for Theora og -Vorbis. Dette medfører at det i USA kan kreves royalties for bruk av -tekniske løsninger knyttet til standardene, et krav som også -håndheves. Patenter kan imidlertid bare hevdes i de landene hvor -patentet er gitt, så amerikanske patenter gjelder ikke andre steder -enn USA.

- -

Spesielt for utvikling av fri programvare er patenter -problematisk. GPL, en "grunnleggende" lisens for distribusjon av fri -programvare, avviser at programvare kan distribueres under denne -lisensen hvis det inneholder referanser til patenterte rutiner som -utløser krav om royalties. Det er imidlertid uproblematisk å -distribuere fri programvareløsninger under GPL som benytter de -aktuelle standardene innen eller mellom land som ikke anerkjenner -patentene. Derfor finner vi også flere implementeringer av Mp3 og -H.264 som er fri programvare, lisensiert under GPL.

- -

I Norge og EU er patentlovgivningen langt mer restriktiv enn i USA, -men det er også her mulig å få patentert metoder for løsning av et -problem som relaterer seg til databehandling. Det er AIF bekjent ikke -relevante patenter i EU eller Norge hva gjelder H.264 og Mp3, men -muligheten for at det finnes patenter uten at det er gjort krav om -royalties eller at det senere vil gis slike patenter kan ikke helt -avvises.

- -

AIF mener det er et behov for å gi offentlige virksomheter mulighet -til å benytte antatt royaltyfrie åpne standarder som et likeverdig -alternativ eller i tillegg til de markedsledende åpne standardene.

- -

- -

Det ser dermed ikke ut til at de har vurdert patentspørsmålet i -sammenheng med opphavsrettsvilkår slik de er formulert for f.eks. -Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid og Sorenson-verktøyene, -der det kreves brukstillatelse for patenter som ikke er gyldige i -Norge for å bruke disse verktøyene til annet en personlig og ikke -kommersiell aktivitet når det gjelder H.264-video. Jeg må nok lete -videre etter svar på det spørsmålet.

-
-
- - - Tags: multimedia, norsk, opphavsrett, standard, video, web. - - -
-
-
- -
-
A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4
-
10th November 2014
-

The right to communicate with your friends and family in private, -without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal -democracy. But this right is under serious attack these days.

- -

A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet -surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by -the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email, -is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor. Such SMTP option would be -a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email -between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails -to the people peeking on the wire. I -proposed -this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October and got a -lot of useful feedback and suggestions. It also became obvious to me -that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and -documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both -the -Mailpile and the Cables systems -propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.

- -

To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service -providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses -looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion. With such addresses -the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will -go to the correct SMTP server. To do this, one need to configure the -Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept -emails for this .onion domain. To learn more about Exim configuration -in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I -set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to -set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian. Getting it to work -were fairly easy, and -the -source code for the Debian package is available from github. I -plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a -useful approach.

- -

If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any -mail system installed (or run apt-get purge exim4-config to -get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned -above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run -/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service and follow -the instructions to get the service up and running. Restart tor and -exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like -this:

- -

-torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
-  --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
-

- -

This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email -address with your own address to test your server. :)

- -

The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made -easier and more automatic. Especially the tor setup need more work. -Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task -should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb -architecture independent. It would probably also make the code easier -to review. The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for -exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd. It would be better if -no daemon and no socket is needed. I suspect it is possible to get -exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a -socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this -system.

- -

Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the -fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion mail address, deliverable over -SMTorP. :)

-
-
- - - Tags: debian, english, freedombox, personvern, surveillance. - - -
-
-
- -
-
First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0)
-
27th October 2014
-

I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just -sent out -this -announcement:

+
First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release
+
26th April 2015
+

I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out +this +announcement today:

-The Debian Edu Team is pleased to announce the release of Debian Edu
-Jessie 8.0+edu0~alpha0
-
-Debian Edu is a complete operating system for schools. Through its
-various installation profiles you can install servers, workstations
-and laptops which will work together on the school network. With
-Debian Edu, the teachers themselves or their technical support can
-roll out a complete multi-user multi-machine study environment within
-hours or a few days. Debian Edu comes with hundreds of applications
-pre-installed, but you can always add more packages from Debian.
+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[1] 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!
+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!
 
- [1] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie >
+== Where to download ==
 
-Would you like to give your school's computer a longer life? Are you
-tired of sneaker administration, running from computer to computer
-reinstalling the operating system? Would you like to administrate all
-the computers in your school using only a couple of hours every week?
-Check out Debian Edu Jessie!
+A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
+can be downloaded at the following locations:
 
-Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world,
-mostly in Germany and Norway.
+    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 . 
 
-About Debian Edu and Skolelinux
-===============================
+The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a
 
-Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux[2], is a Linux distribution based
-on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
-configured school network. Immediately 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[3] and more are available from the Debian archive, and
-schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
-environment.
+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
 
- [2] <URL: http://www.skolelinux.org/ >
- [3] <URL: http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html >
+Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
+http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
+options.
 
-Full release notes and manual
-=============================
+== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==
 
-Below the download URLs there is a list of some of the new features
-and bugfixes of Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie. The full
-list is part of the manual. (See the feature list in the manual[4] for
-the English version.) For some languages manual translations are
-available, see the manual translation overview[5].
+Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
+the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.
 
- [4] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features >
- [5] <URL: http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ >
+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.
 
-Where to get it
----------------
+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
 
-To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use
 
- * ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso
- * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso .
+== Errata / known problems ==
 
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095
+    It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
+    DHCP (#780461).
 
-New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27
-===============================================================================
+    The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). 
 
+Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
+hostname immediately.
 
-Installation changes
---------------------
+Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
+more current and complete list.
 
- * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present.
+== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==
 
-Software updates
-----------------
+=== Software updates ===
 
-Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg:
+Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:
 
- * Linux kernel 3.16.x
- * Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.11.12, GNOME 3.14, Xfce 4.10,
-   LXDE 0.5.6 and MATE 1.8 (KDE "Plasma" is installed by default; to
-   choose one of the others see manual.)
- * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 38 
- * !LibreOffice 4.3.3
+ * 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 14.07 
+ * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
  * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
  * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
- * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0
+ * 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 42000 packages available for
-   installation.
- * More information about Debian Jessie 8.0 is provided in the release
-   notes[6] and the installation manual[7].
-
- [6] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes >
- [7] <URL: http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual >
-
-Fixed bugs
-----------
+ * 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.
 
- * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
-   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
-   information is corrected (Debian bug #710362)
- * and many others.
+=== Installation changes ===
 
-Documentation and translation updates
-------------------------------------- 
+    Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
+    for the hardware present.
 
- * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French,
-   Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for
-   Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.
+=== Fixed bugs ===
 
-Other changes
--------------
+A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
+from a user perspective:
 
- * Due to new Squid settings, powering off or rebooting the main
-   server takes more time.
- * To manage printers localhost:631 has to be used, currently www:631
-   doesn't work.
+ * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
+   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
+   information is corrected (710362)
 
-Regressions / known problems
-----------------------------
+ * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). 
 
- * Installing LTSP chroot fails with a bug related to eatmydata about
-   exim4-config failing to run its postinst (see Debian bug #765694
-   and Debian bug #762103).
- * Munin collection is not properly configured on clients (Debian bug
-   #764594).  The fix is available in a newer version of munin-node.
- * PXE setup for Main Server and Thin Client Server setup does not
-   work when installing on a machine without direct Internet access.
-   Will be fixed when Debian bug #766960 is fixed in Jessie.
+=== Sugar desktop removed ===
 
-See the status page[8] for the complete list.
+As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
+available in Debian Edu jessie.
 
- [8] <URL: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie >
 
-How to report bugs
-------------------
+== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==
 
-<URL: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs >
+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.
 
-About Debian
-============
+== About Debian ==
 
 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
@@ -645,11 +261,10 @@ maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
 huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
 operating system.
 
-Contact Information
-For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send
-mail to press@debian.org.
+== Thanks ==
 
- [9] <URL: http://www.debian.org/ >
+Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
+You rock.
@@ -663,32 +278,417 @@ mail to press@debian.org.
-
I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic
-
23rd October 2014
-

I spent last weekend at Makercon -Nordic, a great conference and workshop for makers in Norway and -the surrounding countries. I had volunteered on behalf of the -Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG) to video record the talks, and we -had a great and exhausting time recording the entire day, two days in -a row. There were only two of us, Hans-Petter and me, and we used the -regular video equipment for NUUG, with a -dvswitch, a -camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides -live.

- -

Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the -around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is -now becoming -public on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license -NUUG always use on our recordings, which is -Creative -Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge. Many great -talks available. Check it out! :)

+
Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal
+
15th April 2015
+

It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete +computer system for schools I've involved in, +Debian Edu / Skolelinux, 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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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 +#781841 and +#781842.

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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 :

+ +

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. + +

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 +Ask +Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem (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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

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.

+ +

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

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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. + +

Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for +around 2 years, and +gathered +some experience there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered +there was :

+ +
    + +
  1. 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.
    2. + +
  2. They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever + is in the syllabus.
    3. + +
  3. 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 + Puneri + Pagdi 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.
    4. + +
+
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
I'm going to the Open Source Developers' Conference Nordic 2015!
+
7th April 2015
+

I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the Open Source Developers' +Conference Nordic 2015!

+ +

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 talk proposal for +it (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted). As +part of my involvement with the +Norwegian Unix User Group member +association 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 mySociety and +Holder de ord. 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.

+ +

Check out the talks +submitted and accepted so far.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, fiksgatami, nuug, offentlig innsyn. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Proof reading the Norwegian translation of Free Culture by Lessig
+
4th April 2015
+

During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian +docbook version of the 2004 book +Free Culture 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 +github +project pages. You can also check out the +PDF, +EPUB +and HTML version available in the +archive +directory.

+ +

Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if +you find any.

+
+
+ + + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Frikanalen, Norwegian TV channel for technical topics
+
9th March 2015
+

The Norwegian Unix User Group, +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 +Frikanalen is a useful venue. +Since a few days ago, when I figured out the +REST API to program the +channel time schedule, +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.

+ +

The list of NUUG videos +uploaded so far +include things like a +one hour talk by John +Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo, a presentation of +Haiku, the BeOS +re-implementation, the +history of FiksGataMi, +the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet, the good old +Warriors of the net +video and many others.

+ +

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, +#nuug on irc.freenode.net +if you want to help make this happen.

+ +

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 Ogg Theora +web stream 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.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
The Citizenfour documentary on the Snowden confirmations to Norway
+
28th February 2015
+

Today I was happy to learn that the documentary +Citizenfour by +Laura Poitras +finally will show up in Norway. According to the magazine +Montages, a deal has finally been +made for +Cinema +distribution in Norway and the movie will have its premiere soon. +This is great news. As part of my involvement with +the Norwegian Unix User Group, me and +a friend have +tried +to get the movie to Norway ourselves, but obviously +we +were too late 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. +The trailer +can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this +is.

+ +

The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum +here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, nuug, personvern, surveillance. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
The Norwegian open channel Frikanalen - 24x7 on the Internet
+
25th February 2015
+

The Norwegian nationwide open channel +Frikanalen 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 Free +Software, providing a REST +api 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 +the Frikanalen web site now. And +since a few days ago, the channel is also available +via multicast on +UNINETT, available for those using IPTV TVs and set-top boxes in +the Norwegian National Research and Education network.

+ +

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.

+ + + +

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:

+ +
+./ffmpeg2theora.linux <OBE_gemini_URL.ts> -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 <pw> /frikanalen.ogv
+
+ +

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.

- Tags: english, nuug, video. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
@@ -696,96 +696,118 @@ talks available. Check it out! :)

-
listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software
-
22nd October 2014
-

If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on -alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to -operate. First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password -and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate -and various options for each email address. This take a while for -every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good -job as a list moderator. But there is a quick alternative, -the -listadmin program. It allow you to check lists for new messages -to moderate in a fraction of a second. Here is a test run on two -lists I recently took over:

- -

-% time listadmin xiph
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
-
-real    0m1.709s
-user    0m0.232s
-sys     0m0.012s
-%
-

- -

In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that -there are no message in the moderation queue. Every morning I -currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two -minutes. When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days -ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue. It took me -less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin -program.

- -

If you install -the listadmin -package from Debian and create a file ~/.listadmin.ini -with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:

- -

-username username@example.org
-spamlevel 23
-default discard
-discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
-
-password secret
-adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
-mailman-list@lists.example.com
-
-password hidden
-other-list@otherserver.example.org
-

- -

There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to -learn the details.

- -

If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where -the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a -generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment -variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:

- -

-PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
-

- -

If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you -can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the -initial screen dump (the xiph argument). Using an argument, only -lists matching the argument string will be processed. This make it -quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your -email.

- -

Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68 -mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the -process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of -time I could spend elsewhere over the years. It truly is nice free -software.

- -

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

- -

Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in -configuration example. Also, I've been told that the -PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone. Not -sure why.

+
En enklere Osloskolehverdag med automatisk sjekk av Fronter
+
12th February 2015
+

En stund nå har jeg vært nødt til å forholde meg til +Fronter, 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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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.

+ +

For å logge inn i Fronter besøker en enten skolens websider eller +den sentrale innloggingsiden https://fronter.com/osloskoler/. +Perl-koden for å logge inn ser slik ut:

+ +
+my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
+$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/');
+$mech->submit_form(fields => {
+    username => $username,
+    password => $password,
+} );
+
+ +

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, +https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser, +så jeg bruker denne til å hente ut romoversikt med rom-ID.

+ +
+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;
+    }
+}
+
+ +

Når en har rom-ID kan en slå opp websiden for rommet, som starter +på +https://fronter.com/osloskoler/contentframeset.phtml?goto_prjid=$ROMID +(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 lynx --dump --nolist 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.

+ +

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 +lastes +ned fra github.

+ +

For å bruke dette selv, kjør følgende kommandoer på din +Debian-maskin (forutsetter sudo-tilgang for installasjon av +programvare):

+ +
+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
+
+ +

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.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, web.
@@ -793,114 +815,39 @@ sure why.

-
Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation
-
17th October 2014
-

When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the -problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly. -And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian. -Normally something more is needed. But thanks to -my isenkram -package and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy -to do this using simple preseeding.

- -

The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install -firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by -the kernel modules for the hardware). (It can also install user space -programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus -of this story.)

- -

To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding -values are needed. First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed -into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed -in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system. This is done by -preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the -isenkram-cli package. The package name is next passed to debootstrap -for installation. With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel -will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific -packages for the machine being installed and install them, because -isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.

- -

Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because -most firmware unfortunately is non-free. This is done by preseeding -the apt-mirror-setup step. This is unfortunate, but for a lot of -hardware it is the only option in Debian.

- -

The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get -firmware installed automatically by the installer:

- -

-base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
-apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
-

- -

The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install -both firmware and user space packages when using this method. It also -do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later. Installing both -firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you -want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware -and one for user space programs. The firmware task is enabled by -default, while the one for user space programs is not. This split is -implemented in the package currently in unstable.

- -

If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how -this recipe work for you. :)

- -

So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work. First and -foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever -files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/. So the -isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find. First there -is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):

- -

-Task: isenkram-packages
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
- proposed.
-Test-new-install: show show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware
-
-Task: isenkram-firmware
-Section: hardware
-Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
- Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
- packages are proposed.
-Test-new-install: mark show
-Relevance: 8
-Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
-

- -

The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task -should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in -/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/. The scripts use other scripts to get a -list of packages to install. The for-current-hardware-firmware script -look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine: - -

-#!/bin/sh
-#
-PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
-export PATH
-isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
-

- -

With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by -tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)

- -

If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is -installed, run DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test ---new-install to get the list of packages that tasksel would -install.

- -

Debian Edu will be -pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to -install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

+
Nude body scanner now present on Norwegian airport
+
10th February 2015
+

Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Norway, today report +that +three +of the nude body scanners now is put to use at Gardermoen, 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.

+ +

Wikipedia have a more on +Full body +scanners, including example images and a summary of the +controversy about these scanners.

+ +

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.

- Tags: debian, english, isenkram, sysadmin. + Tags: english, personvern.
@@ -915,6 +862,21 @@ install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.

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