X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/9da2199ce9673d2aeb21f64f6245c9dc4739fb60..f29f99052afe6957717bd71b319c2bcc57210b7a:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index bed861033f..e6b1048fbf 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,831 +7,728 @@ - Do you need an agreement with MPEG-LA to publish and broadcast H.264 video in Norway? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Do_you_need_an_agreement_with_MPEG_LA_to_publish_and_broadcast_H_264_video_in_Norway_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Do_you_need_an_agreement_with_MPEG_LA_to_publish_and_broadcast_H_264_video_in_Norway_.html - Mon, 25 Aug 2014 22:10:00 +0200 - <p>Two years later, I am still not sure if it is legal here in Norway -to use or publish a video in H.264 or MPEG4 format edited by the -commercially licensed video editors, without limiting the use to -create "personal" or "non-commercial" videos or get a license -agreement with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com">MPEG LA</a>. If one -want to publish and broadcast video in a non-personal or commercial -setting, it might be that those tools can not be used, or that video -format can not be used, without breaking their copyright license. I -am not sure. -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Trenger_en_avtale_med_MPEG_LA_for___publisere_og_kringkaste_H_264_video_.html">Back -then</a>, I found that the copyright license terms for Adobe Premiere -and Apple Final Cut Pro both specified that one could not use the -program to produce anything else without a patent license from MPEG -LA. The issue is not limited to those two products, though. Other -much used products like those from Avid and Sorenson Media have terms -of use are similar to those from Adobe and Apple. The complicating -factor making me unsure if those terms have effect in Norway or not is -that the patents in question are not valid in Norway, but copyright -licenses are.</p> - -<p>These are the terms for Avid Artist Suite, according to their -<a href="http://www.avid.com/US/about-avid/legal-notices/legal-enduserlicense2">published -end user</a> -<a href="http://www.avid.com/static/resources/common/documents/corporate/LICENSE.pdf">license -text</a> (converted to lower case text for easier reading):</p> - -<p><blockquote> -<p>18.2. MPEG-4. MPEG-4 technology may be included with the -software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice: </p> - -<p>This product is licensed under the MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio -license for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) -encoding video in compliance with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 -video”) and/or (ii) decoding MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a -consumer engaged in a personal and non-commercial activity and/or was -obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 -video. No license is granted or shall be implied for any other -use. Additional information including that relating to promotional, -internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG -LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com. This product is licensed under -the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license for encoding in compliance -with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except that an additional license -and payment of royalties are necessary for encoding in connection with -(i) data stored or replicated in physical media which is paid for on a -title by title basis and/or (ii) data which is paid for on a title by -title basis and is transmitted to an end user for permanent storage -and/or use, such additional license may be obtained from MPEG LA, -LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for additional details.</p> - -<p>18.3. H.264/AVC. H.264/AVC technology may be included with the -software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:</p> - -<p>This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for -the personal use of a consumer or other uses in which it does not -receive remuneration to (i) encode video in compliance with the AVC -standard (“AVC video”) and/or (ii) decode AVC video that was encoded -by a consumer engaged in a personal activity and/or was obtained from -a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No license is granted -or shall be implied for any other use. Additional information may be -obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Note the requirement that the videos created can only be used for -personal or non-commercial purposes.</p> - -<p>The Sorenson Media software have -<a href="http://www.sorensonmedia.com/terms/">similar terms</a>:</p> + Hvordan vurderer regjeringen H.264-patentutfordringen? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_vurderer_regjeringen_H_264_patentutfordringen_.html + Sun, 16 Nov 2014 10:30:00 +0100 + <p>For en stund tilbake spurte jeg Fornyingsdepartementet om hvilke +juridiske vurderinger rundt patentproblemstillingen som var gjort da +H.264 ble tatt inn i <a href="http://standard.difi.no/">statens +referansekatalog over standarder</a>. 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 +<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/200901-standardkatalog-v2?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=kongelig-resolusjon.pdf">PDF-utgaven av</a> +datert 2009-06-03 (saksnummer 200803291, saksbehandler Henrik +Linnestad).</p> + +<p>Der står det følgende om problemstillingen:</p> <p><blockquote> - -<p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 Video -Decoders and/or Encoders: Any such product is licensed under the -MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and -non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) encoding video in compliance -with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 video”) and/or (ii) decoding -MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and -non-commercial activity and/or was obtained from a video provider -licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 video. No license is granted or -shall be implied for any other use. Additional information including -that relating to promotional, internal and commercial uses and -licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See -http://www.mpegla.com.</p> - -<p>With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 -Consumer Recorded Data Encoder, MPEG-4 Systems Internet Data Encoder, -MPEG-4 Mobile Data Encoder, and/or MPEG-4 Unique Use Encoder: Any such -product is licensed under the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license -for encoding in compliance with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except -that an additional license and payment of royalties are necessary for -encoding in connection with (i) data stored or replicated in physical -media which is paid for on a title by title basis and/or (ii) data -which is paid for on a title by title basis and is transmitted to an -end user for permanent storage and/or use. Such additional license may -be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for -additional details.</p> +<strong>4.4 Patentproblematikk</strong> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> </blockquote></p> -<p>Some free software like -<a href="https://handbrake.fr/">Handbrake</A> and -<a href="http://ffmpeg.org/">FFMPEG</a> uses GPL/LGPL licenses and do -not have any such terms included, so for those, there is no -requirement to limit the use to personal and non-commercial.</p> - - - - - Lenker for 2014-08-03 - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2014_08_03.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenker_for_2014_08_03.html - Sun, 3 Aug 2014 23:00:00 +0200 - <p>Lenge siden jeg har hatt tid til å publisere lenker til skriverier -jeg har hatt glede og nytte av av å lese. Her er en liten norsk -lenkesamling.</p> - -<p><ul> - -<li><a href="http://www.nrk.no/ytring/sjoslag-om-fiskemilliardene-1.11576109">Sjøslag -om fiskemilliardene</a> (NRK Ytring 2014-03-03) - litt om hvordan de -norske felles matressurser røves fra felleskapet.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/Matkrisen-kan-komme-til-Norge-7522341.html">Matkrisen -kan komme til Norge</a> (Aftenposten 2014-4-01) - hvordan miljøendringene vil gjøre matproduksjonen i Norge mer sårbar.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nrk.no/ytring/norge-trenger-kornlager-1.11726744">Norge -trenger kornlager</a> (NRK Ytring 2014-06-07) Chr. Anton Smedshaug -forteller litt om Norges sårbare matsituasjon etter at Staten solgte -Norges kornlager.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nrk.no/norge/pst-vil-overvake-datatastaturer-1.11583286">PST -vil overvåke datatastaturer</a> (NRK 2014-03-04) - PST ønsker retten -til å bryte seg inn på private PC-er og legge inn spionprogrammer. -Hvilket nok vil gjøre Linux mer populært, men gjør at en i enda mindre -grad enn i dag kan stole på datamaskiner - neppe en god ide for -samfunnet totalt sett.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.osloby.no/nyheter/Ruter-fremstar-som-et-pobelvelde-7490624.html">«Ruter -fremstår som et pøbelvelde»</a> (OsloBy 2014-03-05) - et eksempel på -hvordan kollektivtransportselskapet i Oslo håndterer sine kunder.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/03/05/nyheter/dbtv/reklame/clear_channel/32123808/">Clear -Channel nektet å vise Greenpeace-reklame i Oslo</a> (Dagbladet -2014-03-05) - forteller litt om hvordan hvilke budskap som når ut i -det offentlige rom kontrolleres i Norge.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/03/06/kultur/meninger/debattinnlegg/kronikk/22_juli/32175854/">Svarte -ikke på kritikken</a> (Dagbladet 2014-03-06) - innlegg fra Norsk -presseforbund der de nok en gang tar opp det forkastelige i at -politiet nå har full tilgang til å bedrive telefonkontroll av -advokater.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/Putin-spiller-poker_-ikke-sjakk-I-sjakk-har-man-regler-7495368.html">«Putin -spiller poker, ikke sjakk. I sjakk har man regler.»</a> (Aftenposten -2014-03-08) - sjakklegenden Kasparov forklarer litt om hvordan han ser -at Russlands politikk fungerer, blant annet i lys av started av -Ukraina-krisen.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/I-seng-med-fienden-7492605.html">I -seng med fienden</a> (Aftenposten 2014-03-10) - kronikk fra Eirik -H. Vinje om hvordan menn og kvinner settes opp mot hverandre i det -offentlige ordskiftet, kanskje på sviktende grunnlag.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/amagasinet/Hvor-er-elevene-7501690.html">Fritt -frem for skulk</a> (Aftenposten 2014-03-14) - skildring av hvordan -norske elever i dag ikke lenger har rimelig krav om oppmøte på -skolen.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/digital/Datalagringsdirektiv-avslorte-abort_-sykdom-og-vapenkjop--7503014.html">«Datalagringsdirektiv» -avslørte abort, sykdom og våpenkjøp</a> (Aftenposten 2014-03-14) - om -hvordan forskere har dokumentert hvordan innsamling av metadata om -telefoni og Internett-bruk kan være svært avslørende.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/03/14/kultur/meninger/ideer/lordagskommentaren/agnes_ravatn/32302856/">Konsentrasjonssvikt -på pensum</a> (Dagbladet 2014-03-14) - Kommentar om hvordan (feil) -bruk IKT i skolen kan ødelegge mer enn det bidrar til læring.</li> - -<li><a href="http://doremusnor.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/reservasjonsrettsstaten/">Reservasjonsrettsstaten</a> -(blogg fra Doremus 2014-02-09) - morsom beskrivelse om hvordan -regjeringens forslag til reservasjonsrett for leger kan utvides til å -gjelde alles samvittighet.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Autoritar-gjokunge-7514915.html">Autoritær -gjøkunge</a> (Aftenposten 2014-03-25) - Kronikk av Bjørn Stærk om -snurpenots-overvåkningen som varsleren Snowden dokumenterte.</li> - -<li><a href="http://blogg.friprog.no/2014/03/leveransekrise-i-offentlig-sektor-mener-mike-bracken-executive-director-of-digital-in-the-cabinet-office/">Leveransekrise -i Offentlig sektor – mener Mike Bracken, Executive Director of Digital -in the Cabinet Office</a> (blogg fra Friprog-senteret 2014-03-26).</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/03/26/kultur/meninger/kronikk/etiopia/avlytting/32499687/">Norge -må stanse avlyttingen</a> (Dagbladet 2014-03-26) - leserinnlegg fra -Felix Horne der han ber om at Norge gjør en innsats for å få slutt på -overvåkning av innbyggerne som gjøres i Norge av Etiopiske -myndigheter.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Demokrati-er-ingen-naturlig-styreform-7521957.html">Demokrati -er ingen naturlig styreform</a> (Aftenposten 2014-04-01) - kronikk av -Stein Ringen om hvordan demokrati som styreform går tapt når -innbyggerne tar det for gitt.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nrk.no/ytring/ytringsansvar-ere-enhver-tilladte_-1.11618934">Ytringsansvar -ere Enhver tilladte!</a> (NRK Ytring 2014-04-01) - innspill fra Trygve -Svensson og Helge Svare om at hver enkelt av oss har et ansvar for å -ytre oss i den offentlige debatten.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/Jeg-er-ingen-god-samfunnsborger-7527128.html">Jeg -er ingen god samfunnsborger</a> (Aftenposten 2014-04-16), kronikk av -Simen Tveitereid om alternative måter å motiveres i samfunnet, uten å -hige etter mer penger og flere ting.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/Avgjorelsen-far-umiddelbar-virkning-7531811.html">DLD-dommen: -Avgjørelsen får umiddelbar virkning</a> (Aftenposten 2014-04-10) - -kronikk av Høyres Michael Tetzschner, en partiutbryter i DLD-saken som -stemte nei til DLD i Stortinget i 2011.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.uhuru.biz/?p=1466">Datalagringsdirektivets -endelikt</a> (blogg fra John Wessel-Aas 2014-04-11) - oppsummering -av hvordan direktivet ble funnet ugyldig i EU-domstolen.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.vg.no/nyheter/meninger/kronikk-kapitulasjonspresidenten/a/10147713/">Kronikk: -Kapitulasjonspresidenten</a> (VG 2014-04-22) - kronikk av Einar -Kr. Steffenak om hvordan Stortingspresidenten og regjeringen viser sin -prinsippløshet i møte med Kina.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Innerst-inne-er-alle-nordmenn-7542617.html">Innerst -inne er alle nordmenn</a> (Aftenposten 2014-04-27) - kronikk fra Bjørn -Stærk om hvordan vi i Vesten i stor grad baserer oss på en fantasi om -at alle i verden bærer på en drøm om å bli som oss.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/viten/uviten/Det-italienske-senatet-gav-seg-selv-134-milliarder-euro-i-sluttpakke--7575312.html">Det -italienske senatet gav seg selv 134 milliarder euro i sluttpakke</a> -(Aftenposten 2014-06-19) - forsker Simen Gaure forteller hvordan -løgner og fantasi fra nettkilder i stor grad blir akseptert som -sannhet - antagelig også av deg og meg.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/05/30/kultur/meninger/kronikk/skole/33576392/">Et -forsvar for bråkmakerne</a> (Dagbladet 2014-05-30) - kronikk av Dag -Øystein Nome som beskriver hvordan dagens skole ikke fungerer så godt -for mange elever.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.osloby.no/nyheter/Betalte-med-slitt-seddel---havnet-i-arresten-7617208.html">Betalte -med slitt seddel - havnet i arresten</a> (Osloby 2014-06-25)) - -dokumentasjon av Oslopolitiets angrep på vår alles rett til å ferdes -uten elektronisk sporing. Jeg bruker kontanter i så stor grad som -mulig da banken ikke har noe med hvor jeg er og hva jeg kjøper. Vi -som gjør dette risikerer som beskrevet overgrep som frihetsberøvelse -og registrering og lagring av fingeravtrykk og bilde i politiets -database over mistenkte.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/leder/Fredsprisen-til-Snowden-7620422.html">Fredsprisen -til Snowden</a> (Aftenposten 2014-06-28) - leder som forklarer hvorfor -varsleren Snowden bør få fredsprisen.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2014/08/01/kultur/meninger/dbmener/leder1/34598010/">Strategi -for politistaten</a> (Dagbladet 2014-08-01) - leder som advarer om -sterke krefter som bruker terrortrusselen til å lirke Norge nærmere å -bli en politistat.</li> - -<li><a href="http://www.nrk.no/ytring/vi-ma-tenke-nytt-om-narkotika-1.11859322">Vi -må tenke nytt om narkotika</a> (NRK Ytring 2014-08-03) - Mark Lewis -forklarer hvorfor legalisering og offentlig kontroll av -narkotikamarkedet er mye bedre enn å overlate det til kriminelle.</li> - - -</ul></p> +<p>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.</p> - Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Bernd_Zeitzen.html - Thu, 31 Jul 2014 08:30:00 +0200 - <p>The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for -schools, <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / -Skolelinux</a>, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people -involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists -from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust -the setup. I managed to interview him this summer.</p> - -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self -employed physiotherapist. My former profession is tool maker, but I -haven't worked for 30 years in this job. 30 years ago I started to -support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the -administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu -Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows -Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only -works with Windows . :-(</p> - -<p>In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use -Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX. Today we are running a -Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of -children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist, -psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to -work with the documentations of our patients.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in -his school (<a href="http://www.gymnasium-harsewinkel.de/">Gymnasium -Harsewinkel</a>). They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they -were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the -software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their -computer skills in optional lessons. I'm spending 4-6 hours a week -with this job.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>The independence.</p> - -<p>First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the -software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software -included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.</p> - -<p>Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the -possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices. The -servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are -working reliable. </p> - -<p>We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45 -workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile -solution for all classrooms. These machines are all booting from the -terminal server. In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile -workstations. Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these -machines in their classrooms. Internet access is realized by a WLAN -router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a -dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>Teachers and pupils are Windows users. &lt;Irony on&gt; And Linux -isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. &lt;Irony -off&gt; They don't realize the stability of the system. </p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba, -Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)</p> - -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> - -<p>In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide -which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by -teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with -Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS -Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software -instead. Another problem are the publisher of school books. They -develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.</p> - - - - - 98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/98_6_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/98_6_percent_done_with_the_Norwegian_draft_translation_of_Free_Culture.html - Wed, 23 Jul 2014 22:40:00 +0200 - <p>This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian -<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book -<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig, -to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright -law. Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text. There -are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page -need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be -translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof -reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations -need to be cleaned up. The work stopped up because I had to give -priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of -the translation show this very well:</p> - -<p><img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png"></p> - -<p>If you want to read the result, check out the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a> -project pages and the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>, -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a> -and HTML version available in the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/tree/master/archive">archive -directory</a>.</p> - -<p>Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if -you find any.</p> + A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4 + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html + Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:40:00 +0100 + <p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed +this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> 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 +<a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the +Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems +propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p> + +<p>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 +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the +source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github. I +plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a +useful approach.</p> + +<p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any +mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to +get rid of exim4). Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned +above, build the deb and install it on the machine. Next, run +<tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> 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:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \ + --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor. Replace the email +address with your own address to test your server. :)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the +<tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over +SMTorP. :)</p> - From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html - Tue, 17 Jun 2014 11:30:00 +0200 - <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux -project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system -administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up -and maintaining a Debian Edu installation. This text is about how the -text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p> - -<p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native -language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations. -But we also want to make sure each language contain the same -information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations -in sync. And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the -documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to -contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to -edit the documentation using a web browser. We also want it to be -easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them -help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of -tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these -goals.</p> - -<p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian -wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English. It consist of one -front page with references to the different chapters, several pages -for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the -chapters together into one large web page (aka -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the -AllInOne page</a>). The AllInOne page is the one used for further -processing and translations. Thanks to the fact that the -<a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on -wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in -<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch -the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne -page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the -manual. This process also download images and transform image -references to use the locally downloaded images. The generated -Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done -using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the -result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and -a handfull of images. The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML -and epub versions of the English manual. This is the basic step of -our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and -epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files -are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p> - -<p>But English documentation is not enough for us. We want translated -documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to -track the English original. For this we use the -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package, -which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a -translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based -translation tools used by those translating free software. The pot -file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po -files), which the translations update with the native language -translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the -original. The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML -and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to -create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case -debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml). This translated (or partly -translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can -then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version -of the documentation.</p> - -<p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files. We -recommend using -<a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>, -while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like -<a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or -<a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>. All we care about -is where the .po file end up, in our git repository. Updated -translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports -against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p> - -<p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if -they show translated user applications), and are needed in different -formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in -this regard). For this we transform the original PNG images to the -needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide -translated images by storing translated versions in -images/$LANGUAGECODE/. I am a bit unsure about the details here. The -package maintainers know more.</p> - -<p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide -<a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content -of the documentation packages on the web</a>. See for example the -<a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian -PDF version</a> or the -<a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German -HTML version</a>. We do not yet build the epub version by default, -but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p> - -<p>To learn more, check out -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the -debian-edu-doc package</a>, -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the -manual on the wiki</a> and -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the -translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p> + First Jessie based Debian Edu released (alpha0) + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Jessie_based_Debian_Edu_released__alpha0_.html + Mon, 27 Oct 2014 20:40:00 +0100 + <p>I am happy to report that I on behalf of the Debian Edu team just +sent out +<a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2014/10/msg00000.html">this +announcement</a>:</p> + +<pre> +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. + +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! + + [1] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie</a> &gt; + +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! + +Skolelinux is used by at least two hundred schools all over the world, +mostly in Germany and Norway. + +About Debian Edu and Skolelinux +=============================== + +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. + + [2] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">http://www.skolelinux.org/</a> &gt; + [3] &lt;URL: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html</a> &gt; + +Full release notes and manual +============================= + +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]. + + [4] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/Features</a> &gt; + [5] &lt;URL: <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/</a> &gt; + +Where to get it +--------------- + +To download the multiarch netinstall CD release (624 MiB) you can use + + * <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso</a> + * <a href="http://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</a> + * rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~alpha0-CD.iso . + +The SHA1SUM of this image is: 361188818e036ce67280a572f757de82ebfeb095 + +New features for Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~alpha0 Codename Jessie released 2014-10-27 +=============================================================================== + + +Installation changes +-------------------- + + * PXE installation now installs firmware automatically for the hardware present. + +Software updates +---------------- + +Everything which is new in Debian Jessie 8.0, eg: + + * 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 + * GOsa 2.7.4 + * LTSP 5.5.4 + * CUPS print system 1.7.5 + * new boot framework: systemd + * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.07 + * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02 + * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14 + * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.0 + * 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] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes</a> &gt; + [7] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual">http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual</a> &gt; + +Fixed bugs +---------- + + * 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. + +Documentation and translation updates +------------------------------------- + + * The Debian Edu Jessie Manual is fully translated to German, French, + Italian, Danish and Dutch. Partly translated versions exist for + Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish. + +Other changes +------------- + + * 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. + +Regressions / known problems +---------------------------- + + * 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. + +See the status page[8] for the complete list. + + [8] &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie</a> &gt; + +How to report bugs +------------------ + +&lt;URL: <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a> &gt; + +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 +the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of +volunteers from all over the world work together to create and +maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a +huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal +operating system. + +Contact Information +For further information, please visit the Debian web pages[9] or send +mail to press@debian.org. + + [9] &lt;URL: <a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a> &gt; +</pre> - Hvordan enkelt laste ned filmer fra NRK med den "nye" løsningen - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK_med_den__nye__l_sningen.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK_med_den__nye__l_sningen.html - Mon, 16 Jun 2014 19:20:00 +0200 - <p>Jeg har fortsatt behov for å kunne laste ned innslag fra NRKs -nettsted av og til for å se senere når jeg ikke er på nett, men -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK.html">min -oppskrift fra 2011</a> sluttet å fungere da NRK byttet -avspillermetode. I dag fikk jeg endelig lett etter oppdatert løsning, -og jeg er veldig glad for å fortelle at den enkleste måten å laste ned -innslag er å bruke siste versjon 2014.06.07 av -<a href="http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/">youtube-dl</a>. Støtten i -youtube-dl <a href="https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/2980">kom -inn for 23 dager siden</a> og -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/y/youtube-dl.html">versjonen i -Debian</a> fungerer fint også som backport til Debian Wheezy. Det er -et lite problem, det håndterer kun URLer med små bokstaver, men hvis -en har en URL med store bokstaver kan en bare gjøre alle store om til -små bokstaver for å få youtube-dl til å laste ned. Rapporterte -nettopp -<a href="https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/issues/2980">problemet til -utviklerne</a>, og antar de får fikset det snart.</p> - -<p>Dermed er alt klart til å laste ned dokumentarene om -<a href="http://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID23005014/usas-hemmelige-avlytting">USAs -hemmelige avlytting</a> og -<a href="http://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID23005114/selskapene-bak-usas-avlytting">Selskapene -bak USAs avlytting</a>, i tillegg til -<a href="http://tv.nrk.no/program/KOID20005814/et-moete-med-edward-snowden">intervjuet -med Edward Snowden gjort av den tyske tv-kanalen ARD</a>. Anbefaler -alle å se disse, sammen med -<a href="http://media.ccc.de/browse/congress/2013/30C3_-_5713_-_en_-_saal_2_-_201312301130_-_to_protect_and_infect_part_2_-_jacob.html">foredraget -til Jacob Appelbaum på siste CCC-konferanse</a>, for å forstå mer om -hvordan overvåkningen av borgerne brer om seg.</p> - -<p>Takk til gode venner på foreningen NUUGs IRC-kanal -<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nuug">#nuug på irc.freenode.net</a> -for tipsene som fikk meg i mål</a>.</p> - -<p><strong>Oppdatering 2014-06-17</strong>: Etter at jeg publiserte -denne, ble jeg tipset om bloggposten -"<a href="http://ingvar.blog.redpill-linpro.com/2012/05/31/downloading-hd-content-from-tv-nrk-no/">Downloading -HD content from tv.nrk.no</a>" av Ingvar Hagelund, som har alternativ -implementasjon og tips for å lage mkv-fil med undertekstene inkludert. -Kanskje den passer bedre for deg? I tillegg ble feilen i youtube-dl -ble fikset litt senere ut på dagen i går, samt at youtube-dl fikk -støtte for å laste ned undertitler. Takk til Anders Einar Hilden for -god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.</p> + I spent last weekend recording MakerCon Nordic + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_spent_last_weekend_recording_MakerCon_Nordic.html + Thu, 23 Oct 2014 23:00:00 +0200 + <p>I spent last weekend at <a href="http://www.makercon.no/">Makercon +Nordic</a>, 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 +<a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">dvswitch</a>, a +camera and a VGA to DV convert box, and mixed video and slides +live.</p> + +<p>Hans-Petter did the post-processing, consisting of uploading the +around 180 GiB of raw video to Youtube, and the result is +<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">now becoming +public</a> on the MakerConNordic account. The videos have the license +NUUG always use on our recordings, which is +<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/no/">Creative +Commons Navngivelse-Del på samme vilkår 3.0 Norge</a>. Many great +talks available. Check it out! :)</p> - Free software car computer solution? - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_car_computer_solution_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_car_computer_solution_.html - Thu, 29 May 2014 18:45:00 +0200 - <p>Dear lazyweb. I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer -in my car, connected to -<a href="http://www.dx.com/p/400a-4-0-tft-lcd-digital-monitor-for-vehicle-parking-reverse-camera-1440x272-12v-dc-57776">a -small screen</a> next to the rear mirror. I plan to hook it up with a -GPS and a USB wifi card too. The idea is to get my own -"<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carputer">Carputer</a>". But I -wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for -such car computer.</p> - -<p>This is my current wish list for such system:</p> + listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html + Wed, 22 Oct 2014 20:00:00 +0200 + <p>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, +<a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the +listadmin program</a>. 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:</p> -<ul> - - <li>Work on Raspberry Pi.</li> +<p><blockquote><pre> +% 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 +% +</pre></blockquote></p> - <li>Show current speed limit based on location, and warn if going too - fast (for example using color codes yellow and red on the screen, - or make a sound). This could be done either using either data from - <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">Openstreetmap</a> or OCR - info gathered from a dashboard camera.</li> +<p>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.</p> - <li>Track automatic toll road passes and their cost, show total spent - and make it possible to calculate toll costs for planned - route.</li> +<p>If you install +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin +package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt> +with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p> - <li>Collect GPX tracks for use with OpenStreetMap.</li> +<p><blockquote><pre> +username username@example.org +spamlevel 23 +default discard +discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list." - <li>Automatically detect and use any wireless connection to connect - to home server. Try IP over DNS - (<a href="http://dev.kryo.se/iodine/">iodine</a>) or ICMP - (<a href="http://code.gerade.org/hans/">Hans</a>) if direct - connection do not work.</li> +password secret +adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list} +mailman-list@lists.example.com - <li>Set up mesh network to talk to other cars with the same system, - or some standard car mesh protocol.</li> +password hidden +other-list@otherserver.example.org +</pre></blockquote></p> - <li>Warn when approaching speed cameras and speed camera ranges - (speed calculated between two cameras).</li> +<p>There are other options to set as well. Check the manual page to +learn the details.</p> - <li>Suport dashboard/front facing camera to discover speed limits and - run OCR to track registration number of passing cars.</li> +<p>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:</p> -</ul> +<p><blockquote><pre> +PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin +</pre></blockquote></p> -<p>If you know of any free software car computer system supporting -some or all of these features, please let me know.</p> - - - - - Half the Coverity issues in Gnash fixed in the next release - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_the_Coverity_issues_in_Gnash_fixed_in_the_next_release.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_the_Coverity_issues_in_Gnash_fixed_in_the_next_release.html - Tue, 29 Apr 2014 14:20:00 +0200 - <p>I've been following <a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">the Gnash -project</a> for quite a while now. It is a free software -implementation of Adobe Flash, both a standalone player and a browser -plugin. Gnash implement support for the AVM1 format (and not the -newer AVM2 format - see -<a href="http://lightspark.github.io/">Lightspark</a> for that one), -allowing several flash based sites to work. Thanks to the friendly -developers at Youtube, it also work with Youtube videos, because the -Javascript code at Youtube detect Gnash and serve a AVM1 player to -those users. :) Would be great if someone found time to implement AVM2 -support, but it has not happened yet. If you install both Lightspark -and Gnash, Lightspark will invoke Gnash if it find a AVM1 flash file, -so you can get both handled as free software. Unfortunately, -Lightspark so far only implement a small subset of AVM2, and many -sites do not work yet.</p> - -<p>A few months ago, I started looking at -<a href="http://scan.coverity.com/">Coverity</a>, the static source -checker used to find heaps and heaps of bugs in free software (thanks -to the donation of a scanning service to free software projects by the -company developing this non-free code checker), and Gnash was one of -the projects I decided to check out. Coverity is able to find lock -errors, memory errors, dead code and more. A few days ago they even -extended it to also be able to find the heartbleed bug in OpenSSL. -There are heaps of checks being done on the instrumented code, and the -amount of bogus warnings is quite low compared to the other static -code checkers I have tested over the years.</p> - -<p>Since a few weeks ago, I've been working with the other Gnash -developers squashing bugs discovered by Coverity. I was quite happy -today when I checked the current status and saw that of the 777 issues -detected so far, 374 are marked as fixed. This make me confident that -the next Gnash release will be more stable and more dependable than -the previous one. Most of the reported issues were and are in the -test suite, but it also found a few in the rest of the code.</p> - -<p>If you want to help out, you find us on -<a href="https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash-dev">the -gnash-dev mailing list</a> and on -<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#gnash">the #gnash channel on -irc.freenode.net IRC server</a>.</p> +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> - Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7) - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html - Wed, 23 Apr 2014 14:50:00 +0200 - <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware -related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically. -So I implemented one, using -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram -package</a>. To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and -run tasksel as user root. You should be presented with a new option, -"Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)". When you -select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for -the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p> - -<p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry -description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of -packages to install. The first part is in -<tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like -this:</p> + Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html + Fri, 17 Oct 2014 14:10:00 +0200 + <p>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 +<a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram +package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy +to do this using simple preseeding.</p> + +<p>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.)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get +firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli +apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how +this recipe work for you. :)</p> + +<p>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):</p> <p><blockquote><pre> -Task: isenkram +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: mark show +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 </pre></blockquote></p> -<p>The second part is in -<tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like -this:</p> +<p>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: <p><blockquote><pre> #!/bin/sh # -( - isenkram-lookup - isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l -) | sort -u +PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH +export PATH +isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by +tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p> + +<p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is +installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test +--new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would +install.</p> + +<p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be +pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to +install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p> + + + + + Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html + Sat, 4 Oct 2014 15:20:00 +0200 + <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen. Above the +bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu +with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck +on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p> + +<p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p> + +<p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known +about this hidden Linux installation. It is interesting what +<a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p> + + + + + New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html + Sat, 4 Oct 2014 08:40:00 +0200 + <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a> +got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original +developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood. +This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve +Dibb.</p> + +<p>I just wrapped up +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a +new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the +download page</a>. This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version +0.17.</p> + +<ul> + + <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li> + <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is + non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li> + <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li> + <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li> + <li>Fix include orders</li> + <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li> + <li>Fix the chapter count</li> + <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising + the palette size is the same.</li> + <li>Fix array printing.</li> + <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li> + <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li> + <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings + with more GCC compiler warnings.</li> + +</ul> + +<p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various +Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the +project the last nine years. Please check it out. :)</p> + + + + + How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html + Fri, 26 Sep 2014 12:20:00 +0200 + <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux +project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a +powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing +web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE +boot of both clients without disk and the installation to install Debian +Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small +to mention here). We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on +the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the +freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the +future. The +<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current +status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of +work left. Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer, +but it is possible to work around these to get anyway. Here is a +recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p> + +<p>First, download the test ISO via +<a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>, +<a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a> +or rsync (use +ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso). +The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every +12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to +install with some tweaking.</p> + +<p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2 +(use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install </pre></blockquote></p> -<p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it -trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to -have installed on our machines. I've not been able to find a way to -get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install -before doing the installation. So if you are curious or careful, -check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p> - -<p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is -fetched either from the isenkram package itself in -/usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package -database (using the Modaliases header). The APT package database -parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>). The cause is in -the python-apt code (bug -<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a -workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and -reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to -around 2 MiB per hardware detection. It should make the desktop -daemon a lot more useful. The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to -unstable today.</p> - -<p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in -Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to -use the AppStream data source for this. A proposal for getting proper -AppStream support into Debian is floating around as -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC -project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation. I -look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to -start using the information when it is ready.</p> - -<p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either -add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile -package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram -package. See also -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my -blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation. I expect -the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the -moment I got no better place to store it.</p> +<p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata +optimization. Return to the installation, select the profile you want +and continue. Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install +due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p> + +<p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if +this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be. All my +test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit +your need.</p> + +<p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as +root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the +education-desktop-XXX metapackage. XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce +or mate. If you want several desktop options, install more than one +metapackage. Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working +graphical login screen. This workaround should no longer be needed +once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two +days.</p> + +<p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new +tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to +update the debian-cd git repository. The eatmydata, grub and desktop +issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up +on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again. Well the +eatmydata optimization is really just disabled. The proper fix +require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch +provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>. +The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p> + +<p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are +quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based +installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p> - FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html - Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:10:00 +0200 - <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox -project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make -it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication -at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family -encrypted and away from prying eyes. It is still going strong, and -today a major mile stone was reached.</p> - -<p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to -created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable. It was -the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images -during build and on the first boot. Now all one need to get going is -the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from -Debian. And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can -build everything directly from Debian. :)</p> - -<p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>, -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>, -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>, -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>, -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>, -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and -<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>. There -are plans to integrate more packages into the setup. User -documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki. Please -<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out -the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p> - -<p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox -setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to -become root:</p> - -<p><pre> -sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \ - mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \ - u-boot-tools -git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \ - freedom-maker -make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image -</pre></p> - -<p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback -devices. See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more -details on the build. If you do not want all three images, trim the -make line. Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really -virtualbox specific. It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu, -vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment. You might need -the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it -include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p> - -<p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed -method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load -the preseed values:</p> - -<p><pre> -url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a> -</pre></p> - -<p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if -it still work.</p> - -<p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using -systemd as the boot system. It will become the default for Linux in -Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox. I did -a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start -during boot when using systemd. I suspect there are other problems -too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can -be run from the plinth web interface.</p> - -<p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help -us get the new release published. :) Please join us on -<a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on -irc.debian.org)</a> and -<a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the -mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p> + Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html + Thu, 25 Sep 2014 11:20:00 +0200 + <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a> +to handle my fairly large DVD collection. It is a nice command line +tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length, +etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format. But lsdvd have not seen +any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting +its use with some DVDs. Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I +sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the +project, without any reply. But I use it regularly and would like to +get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version +into Debian</a>. So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with +the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that +he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take +over. And yesterday, I became project admin.</p> + +<p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian +maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream +project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly, +collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place. +I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git +repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too. If you got +a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing +list</a>. :)</p>