X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/ba7c0d679f76b718672964dfa4c748f7167247cf..e2c7595dc3590410d743a2d723a81a3b1ea262e2:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 40332672f0..a7a884060e 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,63 +20,58 @@
-
"Fri kultur" av @lessig - norsk utgave av "Free Culture" tilgjengelig på papir, PDF og ePub
-
28th October 2015
-

Klikk her for å kjøpe boken.

- -

I 2004, mens Creative -Commons-bevegelsen vokste frem, skrev bevegelsens stifter Lawrence -Lessig boken -Free -Culture for å forklare problemene med økene åndsverksregulering og -for å foreslå noen løsninger. Jeg leste boken den gangen, og den både -inspirerte meg og endret på hvordan jeg så på opphavsrettslovigving. -Jeg skulle ønske flere folk leste denne boken. Den gir en god -gjennomgang av hvordan økende åndsverksregulering skader både -nyskapning og kulturlivet, og skisserer hvordan både lovgivere og oss -vanlige borgere kan bidra for å få slutt på dette.

- -

Derfor bestemte jeg meg sommeren 2012 for å oversette den til norsk -bokmål og gjøre den tilgjengelig for de blant mine venner og familie -som foretrekker å lese bøker på norsk. Jeg oversatte boken ved hjelp -av docbook og en gettext PO-fil, og endte opp med to utgaver, en på -norsk og en på engelsk. Den engelske publiserte jeg i forrige uke, og -den norske utgaven på papir -er -nå klar for salg. Slik ser omslaget ut: - -

- -

I tillegg til den norske og engelske utgaven holder vi på med en -fransk utgave. Den koordineres av dblatex-utvikleren Benoît Guillon, -og oversettelsen var komplett denne uka men må korrekturleses før den -kan gis ut. Flere frivillige trengs her, så ta kontakt med Benoît -hvis du vil bidra.

- -

Boken er også tilgjengelig i PDF, ePub og MOBI-format fra -min -github-prosjektside. Merk at ePub og MOBI-utgavene har noen -formatteringsproblemer som jeg tror kommer av feil i docbook-verktøyet -dbtoepub (Debian BTS-rapporter -#795842 -og -#796871), -men jeg har ikke tatt meg tid til å undersøke problemene. For de som -vil ha elektronisk kopi anbefaler jeg å bruke PDF- og ePub-utgaven i -denne omgang, da de ser ut til å hånderes bra av de fremviserne jeg -har tilgjengelig.

- -

Etter at oversettelsen til bokmål var ferdig klarte jeg å overtale -NUUG Foundation til å -sponse trykking av boken. Det er årsaken til at stiftelsens logo er -på baksiden av omslaget. Jeg er svært takknemlig for dette, og bruker -bidraget til å gi en kopi av den norske utgaven til alle -Stortingsrepresentanter og andre beslutningstakere her i Norge.

+
Sales number for the Free Culture translation, first half of 2016
+
5th August 2016
+

As my regular readers probably remember, the last year I published +a French and Norwegian translation of the classic +Free Culture book by the +founder of the Creative Commons movement, Lawrence Lessig. A bit less +known is the fact that due to the way I created the translations, +using docbook and po4a, I also recreated the English original. And +because I already had created a new the PDF edition, I published it +too. The revenue from the books are sent to the Creative Commons +Corporation. In other words, I do not earn any money from this +project, I just earn the warm fuzzy feeling that the text is available +for a wider audience and more people can learn why the Creative +Commons is needed.

+ +

Today, just for fun, I had a look at the sales number over at +Lulu.com, which take care of payment, printing and shipping. Much to +my surprise, the English edition is selling better than both the +French and Norwegian edition, despite the fact that it has been +available in English since it was first published. In total, 24 paper +books was sold for USD $19.99 between 2016-01-01 and 2016-07-31:

+ + + + + + +
Title / languageQuantity
Culture Libre / French3
Fri kultur / Norwegian7
Free Culture / English14
+ +

The books are available both from Lulu.com and from large book +stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Most revenue, around $10 per +book, is sent to the Creative Commons project when the book is sold +directly by Lulu.com. The other channels give less revenue. The +summary from Lulu tell me 10 books was sold via the Amazon channel, 10 +via Ingram (what is this?) and 4 directly by Lulu. And Lulu.com tells +me that the revenue sent so far this year is USD $101.42. No idea +what kind of sales numbers to expect, so I do not know if that is a +good amount of sales for a 10 year old book or not. But it make me +happy that the buyers find the book, and I hope they enjoy reading it +as much as I did.

+ +

The ebook edition is available for free from +Github.

+ +

If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native +language, I would be happy to help make it happen. Please get in +touch.

- Tags: docbook, freeculture, norsk. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.
@@ -84,65 +79,40 @@ Stortingsrepresentanter og andre beslutningstakere her i Norge.

-
"Free Culture" by @lessig - The background story for Creative Commons - new edition available
-
23rd October 2015
-

Click -here to buy the book.

- -

In 2004, as the Creative Commons -movement gained momentum, its creator Lawrence Lessig wrote the -book Free -Culture to explain the problems with increasing copyright -regulation and suggest some solutions. I read the book back then and -was very moved by it. Reading the book inspired me and changed the -way I looked on copyright law, and I would love it if more people -would read it too.

- -

Because of this, I decided in the summer of 2012 to translate it to -Norwegian Bokmål and publish it for those of my friends and family -that prefer to read books in Norwegian. I translated the book using -docbook and a gettext PO file, and a byproduct of this process is a -new edition of the English original. I've been in touch with the -author during by work, and he said it was fine with him if I also -published an English version. So I decided to do so. Today, I made -this edition -available -for sale on Lulu.com, for those interested in a paper book. This -is the cover: - -

- -

The Norwegian Bokmål version will be available for purchase in a -few days. I also plan to publish a French version in a few weeks or -months, depending on the amount of people with knowledge of French to -join the translation project. So far there is only one active -person, but the French book is almost completely translated but -need some proof reading.

- -

The book is also available in PDF, ePub and MOBI formats from -my -github project page. Note the ePub and MOBI versions have some -formatting problems I believe is due to bugs in the docbook tool -dbtoepub (Debian BTS issues -#795842 -and -#796871), -but I have not taken the time to investigate. I recommend the PDF and -ePub version for now, as they seem to show up fine in the viewers I -have available.

- -

After the translation to Norwegian Bokmål was complete, I was able -to secure some sponsoring from -the NUUG Foundation to -print the book. This is the reason their logo is located on the back -cover. I am very grateful for their contribution, and will use it to -give a copy of the Norwegian edition to members of the Norwegian -Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.

+
Vitenskapen tar som vanlig feil igjen - relativt feil
+
1st August 2016
+

For mange år siden leste jeg en klassisk tekst som gjorde såpass +inntrykk på meg at jeg husker den fortsatt, flere år senere, og bruker +argumentene fra den stadig vekk. Teksten var «The Relativity of +Wrong» som Isaac Asimov publiserte i Skeptical Inquirer i 1989. Den +gir litt perspektiv rundt formidlingen av vitenskapelige resultater. +Jeg har hatt lyst til å kunne dele den også med folk som ikke +behersker engelsk så godt, som barn og noen av mine eldre slektninger, +og har savnet å ha den tilgjengelig på norsk. For to uker siden tok +jeg meg sammen og kontaktet Asbjørn Dyrendal i foreningen Skepsis om +de var interessert i å publisere en norsk utgave på bloggen sin, og da +han var positiv tok jeg kontakt med Skeptical Inquirer og spurte om +det var greit for dem. I løpet av noen dager fikk vi tilbakemelding +fra Barry Karr hos The Skeptical Inquirer som hadde sjekket og fått OK +fra Robyn Asimov som representerte arvingene i Asmiov-familien og gikk +igang med oversettingen.

+ +

Resultatet, «Relativt +feil», ble publisert på skepsis-bloggen for noen minutter siden. +Jeg anbefaler deg på det varmeste å lese denne teksten og dele den med +dine venner.

+ +

For å håndtere oversettelsen og sikre at original og oversettelse +var i sync brukte vi git, po4a, GNU make og Transifex. Det hele +fungerte utmerket og gjorde det enkelt å dele tekstene og jobbe sammen +om finpuss på formuleringene. Hadde hosted.weblate.org latt meg +opprette nye prosjekter selv i stedet for å måtte kontakte +administratoren der, så hadde jeg brukt weblate i stedet.

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: norsk, skepsis.
@@ -150,35 +120,51 @@ Parliament and other decision makers here in Norway.

-
EU-domstolen konkluderer motsatt av Skatteetaten når det gjelder Bitcoin
-
22nd October 2015
-

Bitcoin er i litt vinden i Norge for tiden, med -kronikk -om bitcoin-overføringer på tvers av landegrensene hos NRK Ytring -for to dager siden og -dokumentar -om bitcoin på NRK 2 i forgårs og i går. I den sammenhengen er det -spesielt hyggelig med en gladnyhet fra EU om Bitcoin.

- -

I dag konkluderte EU-domstolen at -Bitcoin-kjøp -fra Bitcoin-børser ikke er MVA-pliktig (sak C‑264/14). Fant -nyheten -først hos Reuters, etter tips fra innehaveren av -Bitmynt. EU-domstolens avgjørelse -er stikk i strid med -annonseringen -fra Skatteetaten i 2013, der de konkluderte med at bitcoin er et -«formuesobjekter» som det skulle betales mva på ved kjøp og salg. -Dermed la Skatteetaten opp til dobbel MVA-betaling hvis en kjøpte noe -med Bitcoin fra Norge (først mva på kjøp av Bitcoin, deretter mva på -det en kjøper med Bitcoin). Jeg lurer på om denne avgjørelsen får -Skatteetaten til å bytte mening. Gleder meg til fortsettelsen.

+
Techno TV broadcasting live across Norway and the Internet (#debconf16, #nuug) on @frikanalen
+
1st August 2016
+

Did you know there is a TV channel broadcasting talks from DebConf +16 across an entire country? Or that there is a TV channel +broadcasting talks by or about +Linus Torvalds, +Tor, +OpenID, +Common Lisp, +Civic Tech, +EFF founder John Barlow, +how to make 3D +printer electronics and many more fascinating topics? It works +using only free software (all of it +available from Github), and +is administrated using a web browser and a web API.

+ +

The TV channel is the Norwegian open channel +Frikanalen, and I am involved +via the NUUG member association in +running and developing the software for the channel. The channel is +organised as a member organisation where its members can upload and +broadcast what they want (think of it as Youtube for national +broadcasting television). Individuals can broadcast too. The time +slots are handled on a first come, first serve basis. Because the +channel have almost no viewers and very few active members, we can +experiment with TV technology without too much flack when we make +mistakes. And thanks to the few active members, most of the slots on +the schedule are free. I see this as an opportunity to spread +knowledge about technology and free software, and have a script I run +regularly to fill up all the open slots the next few days with +technology related video. The end result is a channel I like to +describe as Techno TV - filled with interesting talks and +presentations.

+ +

It is available on channel 50 on the Norwegian national digital TV +network (RiksTV). It is also available as a multicast stream on +Uninett. And finally, it is available as +a WebM unicast stream from +Frikanalen and NUUG. Check it out. :)

- Tags: bitcoin, norsk. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
@@ -186,34 +172,90 @@ Skatteetaten til å bytte mening. Gleder meg til fortsettelsen.

-
Lawrence Lessig interviewed Edward Snowden a year ago
-
19th October 2015
-

Last year, US president candidate -in the Democratic Party Lawrence interviewed Edward Snowden. The -one hour interview was -published by -Harvard Law School 2014-10-23 on Youtube, and the meeting took -place 2014-10-20.

- -

The questions are very good, and there is lots of useful -information to be learned and very interesting issues to think about -being raised. Please check it out.

- - - -

I find it especially interesting to hear again that Snowden did try -to bring up his reservations through the official channels without any -luck. It is in sharp contrast to the answers made 2013-11-06 by the -Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to the Norwegian Parliament, -claiming -Snowden is no Whistle-Blower because he should have taken up his -concerns internally and using official channels. It make me sad -that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.

+
Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot
+
7th July 2016
+

Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved +to be a slight challenge. Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it +again. It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up +an +hardened Android installation from the Tor project blog on a +device I had access to. It is a old mobile phone with a broken +microphone The initial idea had been to just +install +CyanogenMod on it, but did not quite find time to start on it +until a few days ago.

+ +

The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot +loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select +'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux +machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot +oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using +the HTC developer web +site and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.

+ +

Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029 +or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027. This +apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and +running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft +require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not. So I had to +come up with a different approach. I got a lot of help from AndyCap +on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without +him.

+ +

First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from +the +windows binary for HTC Desire HD downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC. +For this there is is a github +project named unruu using libunshield. The unshield tool did not +recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip, +containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which +devices it would work for.

+ +

Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device. For this I +followed some instructions +available +from HTC1Guru.com, and ran these commands as root on a Linux +machine with Debian testing:

+ +

+adb reboot-bootloader
+fastboot oem rebootRUU
+fastboot flash zip rom.zip
+fastboot flash zip rom.zip
+fastboot reboot
+

+ +

The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect, +as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing. +The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the +device on while holding volume down and the power button should work +too.

+ +

With the new hboot version in place I could start following the +instructions on the HTC developer web site. I got the device token +like this:

+ +

+fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
+
+ +

And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like +this:

+ +

+fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
+

+ +

And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I +could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device. +So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone +before I start. We will see what happen next. Perhaps I should +install Debian on it. :)

- Tags: english, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: bootsystem, debian, english, opphavsrett, sikkerhet.
@@ -221,30 +263,112 @@ that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.

-
The Story of Aaron Swartz - Let us all weep!
-
8th October 2015
-

The movie "The -Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz" is both inspiring -and depressing at the same time. The work of Aaron Swartz has -inspired me in my work, and I am grateful of all the improvements he -was able to initiate or complete. I wish I am able to do as much good -in my life as he did in his. Every minute of this 1:45 long movie is -inspiring in documenting how much impact a single person can have on -improving the society and this world. And it is depressing in -documenting how the law enforcement of USA (and other countries) is -corrupted to a point where they can push a bright kid to his death for -downloading too many scientific articles. Aaron is dead. Let us all -weep.

- -

The movie is also available on -Youtube. I -wish there were Norwegian subtitles available, so I could show it to -my parents.

+
How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)
+
3rd July 2016
+

For a while now, I have wanted to test +the Signal app, as it is +said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my +friends and family are already using it. As I by choice do not own a +mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected. And I wanted to +have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my +machine. But yesterday I managed to get it working. I used the +Github source, compared it to the source in +the +Signal Chrome app available from the Chrome web store, applied +patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and +asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form. Here is +the recipe how I did it.

+ +

First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using + +

+git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
+
+ +

Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be +able to talk to other Signal users:

+ +
+cat <<EOF | patch -p0
+diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
+--- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
++++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
+@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
+         });
+     });
+ 
+-    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
+-    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
++    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
++    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
+     var messageReceiver;
+     window.getSocketStatus = function() {
+         if (messageReceiver) {
+diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
+--- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
++++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
+@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
+ ;(function() {
+     'use strict';
+-    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
++    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
+ 
+     window.extension = window.extension || {};
+ 
+EOF
+
+ +

The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating +an expiration timestamp. This timestamp need to be updated regularly. +It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js). +The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.

+ +

Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a +script to launch Signal in Chromium.

+ +
+#!/bin/sh
+cd $(dirname $0)
+mkdir -p userdata
+exec chromium \
+  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
+  --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
+
+ +

The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor +SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today +Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines +will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal +connections if they use source IP address.

+ +

When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under +"Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git +repository. I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the +Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote +'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the +registration form. Then I entered by land line phone number and +pressed 'Call'. 5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice +repeated the verification code three times. After entering the number +into the verification code field in the form, I could start using +Signal from my laptop. + +

As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to +whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server, +but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server +setup. It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the +content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data +exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know. +So better than many options, but not great. And sadly the usage is +connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server +to associate it to my home and person. I would prefer it if only +those I knew could tell who I was on Signal. There are options +avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not +using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.

- Tags: english, opphavsrett. + Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet, surveillance.
@@ -252,68 +376,46 @@ my parents.

-
Alle Stortingets mobiltelefoner kontrolleres fra USA...
-
7th October 2015
-

Jeg lot meg fascinere av -en -artikkel i Aftenposten der det fortelles at «over 600 telefoner som -benyttes av stortingsrepresentanter, rådgivere og ansatte på -Stortinget, kan «fjernstyres» ved hjelp av -programvaren -Airwatch, et såkalte MDM-program (Mobile Device Managment)». Det -hele bagatelliseres av Stortingets IT-stab, men det er i hovedsak på -grunn av at journalisten ikke stiller de relevante spørsmålene. For -meg er det relevante spørsmålet hvem som har lovlig tilgang (i henhold -til lokal lovgiving, dvs. i hvert fall i Norge, Sverige, UK og USA) -til informasjon om og på telefonene, og hvor enkelt det er å skaffe -seg tilgang til hvor mobilene befinner seg og informasjon som befinner -seg på telefonene ved hjelp av utro tjenere, trusler, innbrudd og -andre ulovlige metoder.

- -

Bruken av AirWatch betyr i realiteten at USAs etteretning og -politimyndigheter har full tilgang til stortingets mobiltelefoner, -inkludert posisjon og innhold, takket være -FISAAA-loven -og -"National -Security Letters" og det enkle faktum at selskapet -AirWatch er kontrollert av et -selskap i USA. I tillegg er det kjent at flere lands -etterretningstjenester kan lytte på trafikken når den passerer -landegrensene.

- -

Jeg har bedt om mer informasjon -fra -Stortinget om bruken av AirWatch via Mimes brønn så får vi se hva -de har å fortelle om saken. Fant ingenting om 'airwatch' i -postjournalen til Stortinget, så jeg trenger hjelp før jeg kan be om -innsyn i konkrete dokumenter.

- -

Oppdatering 2015-10-07: Jeg er blitt spurt hvorfor jeg antar at -AirWatch-agenten rapporterer til USA og ikke direkte til Stortingets -egen infrastruktur. Det stemmer at det er teknisk mulig å sette -opp mobiltelefonene til å rapportere til datamaskiner som eies av -Stortinget. Jeg antar det rapporteres til AirWatch sine sentrale -tjenester basert på det jeg leste fra beskrivelsen av -Mobile -Device Management på AirWatch sine egne nettsider, koblet med at -det brukes en standard app som kan hentes fra "app-butikkene" for å få -tilgang. Enten må app-en settes opp individuelt hos Stortinget, eller -så får den beskjed fra AirWatch i USA om hvor den skal koble seg opp. -I det første tilfellet vil den ikke rapportere direkte til USA, men -til programvare utviklet av AirWatch som kjører på en maskin under -Stortingets kontroll. Det er litt bedre, men fortsatt vil det være -umulig for Stortinget å være sikker på hva programvaren som tar imot -forbindelser gjør. Jeg ser fra beskrivelsen av -Enterprice -Integration hos AirWatch at det er mulig å ha lokal installasjon, -og håper innsynsforespørsler mot Stortinget kan fortelle mer om -hvordan ting konkret fungerer der.

+
The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?
+
6th June 2016
+

When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out +which +multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats / +MIME types, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types +the various players claimed support for. The range was from 55 to 130 +MIME types. I suspect most media formats are supported by all +players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in +their desktop files. There are probably also some bogus MIME types +listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.

+ +

Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of +the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files, +and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my +favorite media player VLC. The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable +yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the +Multimedia +player MIME type support status Debian wiki page.

+ +

The new "best" multimedia player in Debian? It is VLC, followed by +totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and +kmplayer. I am sure some of the other players desktop files support +several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc, +toten and parole.

+ +

A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as +supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their +desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl, +audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg, +video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska, +video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo. Personally I find +it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media +players in Debian. As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both +formats.

- Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn, personvern, sikkerhet, stortinget, surveillance. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video.
@@ -321,32 +423,118 @@ hvordan ting konkret fungerer der.

-
French Docbook/PDF/EPUB/MOBI edition of the Free Culture book
-
1st October 2015
-

As I wrap up the Norwegian version of -Free -Culture book by Lawrence Lessig (still waiting for my final proof -reading copy to arrive in the mail), my great -dblatex helper and -developer of the dblatex docbook processor, Benoît Guillon, decided a -to try to create a French version of the book. He started with the -French translation available from the -Wikilivres wiki -pages, and wrote a program to convert it into a PO file, allowing -the translation to be integrated into the po4a based framework I use -to create the Norwegian translation from the English edition. We meet -on the #dblatex IRC -channel to discuss the work. If you want to help create a French -edition, check out -his git -repository and join us on IRC. If the French edition look good, -we might publish it as a paper book on lulu.com. A French version of -the drawings and the cover need to be provided for this to happen.

+
A program should be able to open its own files on Linux
+
5th June 2016
+

Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I +decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a +talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine. I +wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed +the day before I would give the talk. The next day I took a plane to +the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I +started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover +that kpresenter refused to load its own data file. I cursed a bit and +started making the slides again from memory, to have something to +present when I arrived. I tested that the saved files could be +loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued. I continued to polish the +slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer +be loaded into kpresenter. In the end I had to rewrite the slides +three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and +shorter. After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem – +kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand. +Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great +program to make slides. The point I'm trying to make is that we +expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is +embarrassing to its developers if it can't.

+ +

Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data +files from the desktop file browser? It is not a uncommon problem. A +while back I discovered that the screencast recorder +gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file +browser would refuse to open. No video player claimed to understand +such file. I tracked down the cause being file --mime-type +returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had +installed listed as a MIME type they would understand. I asked for +file to change its +behavour and use the MIME type video/ogg instead. I also asked +several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give +the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files. After a +while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the +output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.

+ +

But history repeats itself. A few days ago I tested the music +system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file +browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files +(*.rg). I've reported the +rosegarden problem to BTS and a fix is commited to git and will be +included in the next upload. To increase the chance of me remembering +how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files +from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.

+ +

The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types. +There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file. The output from +file --mime-type mentioned above, and the content of the +shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/). The file MIME +type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this +information is collected from +the +desktop files available in /usr/share/applications/. If there is +one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is +activated when asking to open a given file. If there are more, one +can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and +selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar. In general +this work well. But it depend on each program picking a good MIME +type (preferably +a +MIME type registered with IANA), file and/or the shared MIME +registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME +type in its list of supported MIME types.

+ +

The /usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml entry for +the +Shared MIME database look like this:

+ +

+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
+  <mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden">
+    <sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/>
+    <comment>Rosegarden project file</comment>
+    <glob pattern="*.rg"/>
+  </mime-type>
+</mime-info>
+

+ +

This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip +(it is a gzipped XML file). Note, it is much better to use an +official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own +unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.

+ +

The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list +audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the +file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:

+ +

+% grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
+MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
+X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
+%
+

+ +

The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the +MimeType= line.

+ +

If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when +selected from the file browser, please check out the output from +file --mime-type for the file, ensure the file ending and +MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check +that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming +support for this MIME type. If not, please report a bug to have it +fixed. :)

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -354,144 +542,36 @@ the drawings and the cover need to be provided for this to happen.

-
The life and death of a laptop battery
-
24th September 2015
-

When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK. -But this do not last. The last few laptops gave me a feeling that -within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be, -and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected -all the time. Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop -about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have -more hard facts when the battery started to fail.

- - - -

First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the -battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled -by someone else. I found -battery-stats, -which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely -broken. I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to -write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback -from him. Via -a -blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air I also -discovered -batlog, not -available in Debian.

- -

I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting -battery stats ever since. Now my -/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000 -measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now, -when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity. My -collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:

- -
-#!/bin/sh
-# Inspired by
-# http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
-# See also
-# http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
-logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
-
-files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
-    energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
-
-if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
-    (
-	printf "timestamp,"
-	for f in $files; do
-	    printf "%s," $f
-	done
-	echo
-    ) > "$logfile"
-fi
-
-log_battery() {
-    # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
-    # when several log processes run in parallel.
-    msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
-	for f in $files; do \
-	    printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
-	done)
-    echo "$msg"
-}
-
-cd /sys/class/power_supply
-
-for bat in BAT*; do
-    (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
-done
-
- -

The script is called when the power management system detect a -change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into -and out of hibernation and suspend. In addition, it collect a value -every 10 minutes. This make it possible for me know when the battery -is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time. -The code for the Debian package -is now -available on github.

- -

The collected log file look like this:

- -
-timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
-1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
-[...]
-1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
-1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
-
- -

I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development -over time. This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop -battery.

- -

But why is this happening? Why are my laptop batteries always -dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and -satellites keep working year after year. If we are to believe -Battery -University, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a -chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100% -all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time. -I've been told that the Tesla electric cars -limit -the charge of their batteries to 80%, with the option to charge to -100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car -like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another -story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on -Linux too.

- -

Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to -stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in -preparation for a longer trip? I found -one -recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to -80%, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to -load).

- -

I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100% -at the start. I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some -times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery -back to design capacity. And I wonder if the discharge and charge -speed change over time, or if this stay the same. I did not yet try -to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery -level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from -those.

- -

Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages -acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable) -packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use -initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start -and stop. I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast -and need to be replaced. The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad -specific.

+
Tor - from its creators mouth 11 years ago
+
28th May 2016
+

A little more than 11 years ago, one of the creators of Tor, and +the current President of the Tor +project, Roger Dingledine, gave a talk for the members of the +Norwegian Unix User group (NUUG). A +video of the talk was recorded, and today, thanks to the great help +from David Noble, I finally was able to publish the video of the talk +on Frikanalen, the Norwegian open channel TV station where NUUG +currently publishes its talks. You can +watch the live stream using a web +browser with WebM support, or check out the recording on the video +on demand page for the talk +"Tor: Anonymous +communication for the US Department of Defence...and you.".

+ +

Here is the video included for those of you using browsers with +HTML video and Ogg Theora support:

+ +

+ +

I guess the gist of the talk can be summarised quite simply: If you +want to help the military in USA (and everyone else), use Tor. :)

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video.
@@ -499,56 +579,67 @@ specific.

-
Book cover for the Free Culture book finally done
-
3rd September 2015
-

Creating a good looking book cover proved harder than I expected. -I wanted to create a cover looking similar to the original cover of -the -Free -Culture book we are translating to Norwegian, and I wanted it in -vector format for high resolution printing. But my inkscape knowledge -were not nearly good enough to pull that off. - -

But thanks to the great inkscape community, I was able to wrap up -the cover yesterday evening. I asked on the -#inkscape IRC channel -on Freenode for help and clues, and Marc Jeanmougin (Mc-) volunteered -to try to recreate it based on the PDF of the cover from the HTML -version. Not only did he create a -SVG document with -the original and his vector version side by side, he even provided -an instruction -video explaining how he did it. But the instruction video is -not easy to follow for an untrained inkscape user. The video is a -recording on how he did it, and he is obviously very experienced as -the menu selections are very quick and he mentioned on IRC that he did -use some keyboard shortcuts that can't be seen on the video, but it -give a good idea about the inkscape operations to use to create the -stripes with the embossed copyright sign in the center.

- -

I took his SVG file, copied the vector image and re-sized it to fit -on the cover I was drawing. I am happy with the end result, and the -current english version look like this:

- - - -

I am not quite sure about the text on the back, but guess it will -do. I picked three quotes from the official site for the book, and -hope it will work to trigger the interest of potential readers. The -Norwegian cover will look the same, but with the texts and bar code -replaced with the Norwegian version.

- -

The book is very close to being ready for publication, and I expect -to upload the final draft to Lulu in the next few days and order a -final proof reading copy to verify that everything look like it should -before allowing everyone to order their own copy of Free Culture, in -English or Norwegian Bokmål. I'm waiting to give the the productive -proof readers a chance to complete their work.

+
Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable
+
25th May 2016
+

The isenkram +system is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware +related packages. The idea is to have a database of mappings between +hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to +install the packages to use a given hardware dongle. Some use cases +are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software +needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it +proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader; +and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to +install the driver for it. The system work well, and even have a few +command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the +hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).

+ +

The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found +good documentation and example code on how to use it. But aptdaemon +is going away and is generally being replaced by +PackageKit, +so Isenkram needed a rewrite. And today, thanks to the great patch +from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the +rewrite finally took place. I've just uploaded a new version of +Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default +for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit. To check it out, +install the isenkram package and insert some hardware dongle +and see if it is recognised.

+ +

If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for +the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup +program. This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:

+ +

+% isenkram-lookup 
+bluez
+cheese
+fprintd
+fprintd-demo
+gkrellm-thinkbat
+hdapsd
+libpam-fprintd
+pidgin-blinklight
+thinkfan
+tleds
+tp-smapi-dkms
+tp-smapi-source
+tpb
+%p
+

+ +

The hardware mappings come from several places. The preferred way +is for packages to announce their hardware support using +the +cross distribution appstream system. +See +previous +blog posts about isenkram to learn how to do that.

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: debian, english, isenkram.
@@ -556,37 +647,62 @@ proof readers a chance to complete their work.

-
In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book!
-
19th August 2015
-

Today, finally, my first printed draft edition of the Norwegian -translation of Free Culture I have been working on for the last few -years arrived in the mail. I had to fake a cover to get the interior -printed, and the exterior of the book look awful, but that is -irrelevant at this point. I asked for a printed pocket book version -to get an idea about the font sizes and paper format as well as how -good the figures and images look in print, but also to test what the -pocket book version would look like. After receiving the 500 page -pocket book, it became obvious to me that that pocket book size is too -small for this book. I believe the book is too thick, and several -tables and figures do not look good in the size they get with that -small page sizes. I believe I will go with the 5.5x8.5 inch size -instead. A surprise discovery from the paper version was how bad the -URLs look in print. They are very hard to read in the colophon page. -The URLs are red in the PDF, but light gray on paper. I need to -change the color of links somehow to look better. But there is a -printed book in my hand, and it feels great. :)

- -

Now I only need to fix the cover, wrap up the postscript with the -store behind the book, and collect the last corrections from the proof -readers before the book is ready for proper printing. Cover artists -willing to work for free and create a Creative Commons licensed vector -file looking similar to the original is most welcome, as my skills as -a graphics designer are mostly missing.

+
Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian
+
23rd May 2016
+

Yesterday I updated the +battery-stats +package in Debian with a few patches sent to me by skilled and +enterprising users. There were some nice user and visible changes. +First of all, both desktop menu entries now work. A design flaw in +one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was +dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available. +The script worked when called from the command line, but not when +called from the desktop menu. I changed this to look for a DISPLAY +variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the +graph window pop up as expected.

+ +

The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the +graphs (the one showing the last few hours). New is also the user of +colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red. The percentages +of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design +capacity.

+ +

+ +

The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery +statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to +visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time. The red +line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent: + +

+ +

In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80 +percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is +shrinking. :(

+ +

The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle +more hardware models. On some hardware, Linux power supply +information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the +collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/. Now +both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the +machine.

+ +

If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please +check out the +battery-stats +in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on +Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from github. +Patches are very welcome.

+ +

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

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -601,6 +717,27 @@ a graphics designer are mostly missing.

Archive