X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/bcfa7524ccdedac6146786bc5eed73cd5f22cab4..6de2416d4a9b7a56fb1c04dec08cdff3a6aa8fb6:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 6b92ddea3f..37f9d3aa69 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,6 +19,624 @@ +
+
Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine
+
14th March 2014
+

The Freedombox +project is working on providing the software and hardware for +making 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 has been +going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test +release (0.2).

+ +

And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the +new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for +Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization +system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed +file. The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie, +where most of the needed packages used are already present. Only one, +the freedombox-setup package, is missing. To try to build your own +boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts +and build using +vmdebootstrap +with a user with sudo access to become root: + +

+git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
+  freedom-maker
+sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
+  mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
+  u-boot-tools
+make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
+
+ +

Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback +devices. See the README for more details on the build. If you do not +want all three images, trim the make line. But note that thanks to a race condition in +vmdebootstrap, the build might fail without the patch to the +kpartx call.

+ +

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:

+ +
+url=http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat
+
+ +

But note that due to a +recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie, the installer will +currently hang while setting up APT sources. Killing the +'apt-cdrom ident' process when it hang a few times during the +installation will get the installation going. This affect all +installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.

+ +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 +IRC (#freedombox on +irc.debian.org) and +the +mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian, english, freedombox, sikkerhet, surveillance, web. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
How to add extra storage servers in Debian Edu / Skolelinux
+
12th March 2014
+

On larger sites, it is useful to use a dedicated storage server for +storing user home directories and data. The design for handling this +in Debian Edu / Skolelinux, is +to update the automount rules in LDAP and let the automount daemon on +the clients take care of the rest. I was reminded about the need to +document this better when one of the customers of +Skolelinux Drift AS, where I am +on the board of directors, asked about how to do this. The steps to +get this working are the following:

+ +

    + +
  1. Add new storage server in DNS. I use nas-server.intern as the +example host here.
    2. + +
  2. Add automoun LDAP information about this server in LDAP, to allow +all clients to automatically mount it on reqeust.
    3. + +
  3. Add the relevant entries in tjener.intern:/etc/fstab, because +tjener.intern do not use automount to avoid mounting loops.
    4. + +

+ +

DNS entries are added in GOsa², and not described here. Follow the +instructions +in the manual (Machine Management with GOsa² in section Getting +started).

+ +

Ensure that the NFS export points on the server are exported to the +relevant subnets or machines:

+ +

+root@tjener:~# showmount -e nas-server
+Export list for nas-server:
+/storage         10.0.0.0/8
+root@tjener:~#
+

+ +

Here everything on the backbone network is granted access to the +/storage export. With NFSv3 it is slightly better to limit it to +netgroup membership or single IP addresses to have some limits on the +NFS access.

+ +

The next step is to update LDAP. This can not be done using GOsa², +because it lack a module for automount. Instead, use ldapvi and add +the required LDAP objects using an editor.

+ +

+ldapvi --ldap-conf -ZD '(cn=admin)' -b ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+

+ +

When the editor show up, add the following LDAP objects at the +bottom of the document. The "/&" part in the last LDAP object is a +wild card matching everything the nas-server exports, removing the +need to list individual mount points in LDAP.

+ +

+add cn=nas-server,ou=auto.skole,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+objectClass: automount
+cn: nas-server
+automountInformation: -fstype=autofs --timeout=60 ldap:ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+
+add ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+objectClass: top
+objectClass: automountMap
+ou: auto.nas-server
+
+add cn=/,ou=auto.nas-server,ou=automount,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
+objectClass: automount
+cn: /
+automountInformation: -fstype=nfs,tcp,rsize=32768,wsize=32768,rw,intr,hard,nodev,nosuid,noatime nas-server.intern:/&
+

+ +

The last step to remember is to mount the relevant mount points in +tjener.intern by adding them to /etc/fstab, creating the mount +directories using mkdir and running "mount -a" to mount them.

+ +

When this is done, your users should be able to access the files on +the storage server directly by just visiting the +/tjener/nas-server/storage/ directory using any application on any +workstation, LTSP client or LTSP server.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, english, ldap. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Hvordan bør RFC 822-formattert epost lagres i en NOARK5-database?
+
7th March 2014
+

For noen uker siden ble NXCs fri programvarelisenserte +NOARK5-løsning +presentert hos +NUUG (video +på youtube +foreløbig), og det fikk meg til å titte litt mer på NOARK5, +standarden for arkivhåndtering i det offentlige Norge. Jeg lurer på +om denne kjernen kan være nyttig i et par av mine prosjekter, og for ett +av dem er det mest aktuelt å lagre epost. Jeg klarte ikke finne noen +anbefaling om hvordan RFC 822-formattert epost (aka Internett-epost) +burde lagres i NOARK5, selv om jeg vet at noen arkiver tar +PDF-utskrift av eposten med sitt epostprogram og så arkiverer PDF-en +(eller enda værre, tar papirutskrift og lagrer bildet av eposten som +PDF i arkivet).

+ +

Det er ikke så mange formater som er akseptert av riksarkivet til +langtidsoppbevaring av offentlige arkiver, og PDF og XML er de mest +aktuelle i så måte. Det slo meg at det måtte da finnes en eller annen +egnet XML-representasjon og at det kanskje var enighet om hvilken som +burde brukes, så jeg tok mot til meg og spurte +SAMDOK, en gruppe tilknyttet +arkivverket som ser ut til å jobbe med NOARK-samhandling, om de hadde +noen anbefalinger: + +

+

Hei.

+ +

Usikker på om dette er riktig forum å ta opp mitt spørsmål, men jeg +lurer på om det er definert en anbefaling om hvordan RFC +822-formatterte epost (aka vanlig Internet-epost) bør lages håndteres +i NOARK5, slik at en bevarer all informasjon i eposten +(f.eks. Received-linjer). Finnes det en anbefalt XML-mapping ala den +som beskrives på +<URL: https://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=32074 >? Mitt +mål er at det skal være mulig å lagre eposten i en NOARK5-kjerne og +kunne få ut en identisk formattert kopi av opprinnelig epost ved +behov.

+

+ +

Postmottaker hos SAMDOK mente spørsmålet heller burde stilles +direkte til riksarkivet, og jeg fikk i dag svar derfra formulert av +seniorrådgiver Geir Ivar Tungesvik:

+ +

+

Riksarkivet har ingen anbefalinger når det gjelder konvertering fra +e-post til XML. Det står arkivskaper fritt å eventuelt definere/bruke +eget format. Inklusive da - som det spørres om - et format der det er +mulig å re-etablere e-post format ut fra XML-en. XML (e-post) +dokumenter må være referert i arkivstrukturen, og det må vedlegges et +gyldig XML skjema (.xsd) for XML-filene. Arkivskaper står altså fritt +til å gjøre hva de vil, bare det dokumenteres og det kan dannes et +utrekk ved avlevering til depot.

+ +

De obligatoriske kravene i Noark 5 standarden må altså oppfylles - +etter dialog med Riksarkivet i forbindelse med godkjenning. For +offentlige arkiv er det særlig viktig med filene loependeJournal.xml +og offentligJournal.xml. Private arkiv som vil forholde seg til Noark +5 standarden er selvsagt frie til å bruke det som er relevant for dem +av obligatoriske krav.

+

+ +

Det ser dermed ut for meg som om det er et lite behov for å +standardisere XML-lagring av RFC-822-formatterte meldinger. Noen som +vet om god spesifikasjon i så måte? I tillegg til den omtalt over, +har jeg kommet over flere aktuelle beskrivelser (søk på "rfc 822 +xml", så finner du aktuelle alternativer).

+ + + +

Finnes det andre og bedre spesifikasjoner for slik lagring? Send +meg en epost hvis du har innspill.

+
+
+ + + Tags: norsk, offentlig innsyn. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Lenker for 2014-02-28
+
28th February 2014
+

Her er noen lenker til tekster jeg har satt pris på å lese de siste +månedene. Det er mye om varsleren Edward Snowden, som burde få all +hjelp, støtte og beskyttelse Norge kan stille opp med for å ha satt +totalitær overvåkning på sakskartet, men også endel annet +tankevekkende og interessant.

+ + +
+
+ + + Tags: lenker, norsk, personvern. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)
+
22nd February 2014
+

Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and +innetgr tools, because I needed them in +Skolelinux. I called the project +ng-utils, and it has served me well. I placed the project under the +Hungry Programmer umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS +repository. But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost, +not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a +proper home since then.

+ +

Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release +fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in +a proper source control system. I applied for a project on +Alioth, but did not have time +to follow up on it. Until today. :)

+ +

After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project +now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the +history of the project. I published all release tarballs and imported +them into the git repository. As the project is really stable and not +expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new +release and call it 1.0. Visit the new project home on +https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/ +if you want to check it out. The new version is also uploaded into +Debian Unstable.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian, english. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd
+
3rd February 2014
+

A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get +their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit +boot system instead of their old one. This follow up on the +great +Google Summer of Code work done last summer by Justus Winter to +get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux. To get started, +I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from +http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz, +and started it using virt-manager.

+ +

The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any +password) was to get the network operational. I followed +the +instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page and ran these +commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the +kvm internal DHCP server:

+ +

+settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
+kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
+kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
+dhclient /dev/eth0
+

+ +

After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could +upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and +enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.

+ +

But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is +running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be +set. Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block +compression from working. Remember to turn that off on the client +side.

+ +

Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit +stuff:

+ +

+cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list <<EOF
+deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
+EOF
+apt-get update
+apt-get dist-upgrade
+apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
+    sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
+update-alternatives --config runsystem
+

+ +

To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use +reboot-hurd instead of just reboot, as there is not +yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal +'reboot' command. After switching to sysvinit as the boot system, +upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP +after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the +start is no longer needed. But for some strange reason, there are no +longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using +ssh instead. + +

Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot +fail some times. No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters +figure it out. At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on +irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem. A way to reduce +the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by +adding this repository to the machine:

+ +

+cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list <<EOF
+deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
+EOF
+

+ +

At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from +http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in +unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in +BTS. This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:

+ +

+# aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
+i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
+i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
+i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
+i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
+i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
+i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
+i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
+i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
+i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
+i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
+i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
+i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
+i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
+i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
+i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
+#
+

+ +

All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :) +X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow +the porters instructions to fix it. This time I was interested in the +command line stuff.

+

+
+ + + Tags: bootsystem, debian, english. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
A fist full of non-anonymous Bitcoins
+
29th January 2014
+

Bitcoin is a incredible use of peer to peer communication and +encryption, allowing direct and immediate money transfer without any +central control. It is sometimes claimed to be ideal for illegal +activity, which I believe is quite a long way from the truth. At least +I would not conduct illegal money transfers using a system where the +details of every transaction are kept forever. This point is +investigated in +USENIX ;login: +from December 2013, in the article +"A +Fistful of Bitcoins - Characterizing Payments Among Men with No +Names" by Sarah Meiklejohn, Marjori Pomarole,Grant Jordan, Kirill +Levchenko, Damon McCoy, Geoffrey M. Voelker, and Stefan Savage. They +analyse the transaction log in the Bitcoin system, using it to find +addresses belong to individuals and organisations and follow the flow +of money from both Bitcoin theft and trades on Silk Road to where the +money end up. This is how they wrap up their article:

+ +

+

"To demonstrate the usefulness of this type of analysis, we turned +our attention to criminal activity. In the Bitcoin economy, criminal +activity can appear in a number of forms, such as dealing drugs on +Silk Road or simply stealing someone else’s bitcoins. We followed the +flow of bitcoins out of Silk Road (in particular, from one notorious +address) and from a number of highly publicized thefts to see whether +we could track the bitcoins to known services. Although some of the +thieves attempted to use sophisticated mixing techniques (or possibly +mix services) to obscure the flow of bitcoins, for the most part +tracking the bitcoins was quite straightforward, and we ultimately saw +large quantities of bitcoins flow to a variety of exchanges directly +from the point of theft (or the withdrawal from Silk Road).

+ +

As acknowledged above, following stolen bitcoins to the point at +which they are deposited into an exchange does not in itself identify +the thief; however, it does enable further de-anonymization in the +case in which certain agencies can determine (through, for example, +subpoena power) the real-world owner of the account into which the +stolen bitcoins were deposited. Because such exchanges seem to serve +as chokepoints into and out of the Bitcoin economy (i.e., there are +few alternative ways to cash out), we conclude that using Bitcoin for +money laundering or other illicit purposes does not (at least at +present) seem to be particularly attractive."

+

+ +

These researches are not the first to analyse the Bitcoin +transaction log. The 2011 paper +"An Analysis of Anonymity in +the Bitcoin System" by Fergal Reid and Martin Harrigan is +summarized like this:

+ +

+"Anonymity in Bitcoin, a peer-to-peer electronic currency system, is a +complicated issue. Within the system, users are identified by +public-keys only. An attacker wishing to de-anonymize its users will +attempt to construct the one-to-many mapping between users and +public-keys and associate information external to the system with the +users. Bitcoin tries to prevent this attack by storing the mapping of +a user to his or her public-keys on that user's node only and by +allowing each user to generate as many public-keys as required. In +this chapter we consider the topological structure of two networks +derived from Bitcoin's public transaction history. We show that the +two networks have a non-trivial topological structure, provide +complementary views of the Bitcoin system and have implications for +anonymity. We combine these structures with external information and +techniques such as context discovery and flow analysis to investigate +an alleged theft of Bitcoins, which, at the time of the theft, had a +market value of approximately half a million U.S. dollars." +

+ +

I hope these references can help kill the urban myth that Bitcoin +is anonymous. It isn't really a good fit for illegal activites. Use +cash if you need to stay anonymous, at least until regular DNA +sampling of notes and coins become the norm. :)

+ +

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

+
+
+ + + Tags: bitcoin, english, personvern, sikkerhet. + + +
+
+
+
New chrpath release 0.16
14th January 2014
@@ -35,7 +653,7 @@ the Coverity system, and discovered that the ipmitool projects I am involved with was already registered. But these are fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to -check, and decided to request +check, and decided to request checking of the chrpath project. It was added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects. Six of these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an @@ -336,461 +954,6 @@ likevel.

-
-
Debian Edu interview: Klaus Knopper
-
6th December 2013
-

It has been a while since I managed to publish the last interview, -but the Debian Edu / -Skolelinux community is still going strong, and yesterday we even -had a new school administrator show up on -#debian-edu to share -his success story with installing Debian Edu at their school. This -time I have been able to get some helpful comments from the creator of -Knoppix, Klaus Knopper, who was involved in a Skolelinux project in -Germany a few years ago.

- -

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

- -

I am Klaus Knopper. I have a master degree in electrical -engineering, and is currently professor in information management at -the university of applied sciences Kaiserslautern / Germany and -freelance Open Source software developer and consultant.

- -

All of this is pretty much of the work I spend my days with. Apart -from teaching, I'm also conducting some more or less experimental -projects like the Knoppix GNU/Linux live -system (Debian-based like Skolelinux), -ADRIANE -(a blind-friendly talking desktop system) and -LINBO -(Linux-based network boot console, a fast remote install and repair -system supporting various operating systems).

- -

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

- -

The credit for this have to go to Kurt Gramlich, who is the German -coordinator for Skolelinux. We were looking for an all-in-one open -source community-supported distribution for schools, and Kurt -introduced us to Skolelinux for this purpose.

- -

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

- - - -

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

- - - -

For these reasons and experience from our project, I would now -rather consider using plain Debian for schools next time, until -Skolelinux is more closely integrated into Debian and becomes -upgradeable without reinstallation.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

GNU/Linux with LXDE desktop, bash for interactive dialog and -programming, texlive for documentation and correspondence, -occasionally LibreOffice for document format conversion. Various -programming languages for teaching.

- -

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

- -

Strong arguments are

- - -
-
- - - Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. - - -
-
-
- -
-
Dugnadsnett for alle, a wireless community network in Oslo, take shape
-
30th November 2013
-

If you want the ability to electronically communicate directly with -your neighbors and friends using a network controlled by your peers in -stead of centrally controlled by a few corporations, or would like to -experiment with interesting network technology, the -Dugnasnett for alle i Oslo -might be project for you. 39 mesh nodes are currently being planned, -in the freshly started initiative from NUUG and Hackeriet to create a -wireless community network. The work is inspired by -Freifunk, -Athens Wireless Metropolitan -Network, Roofnet -and other successful mesh networks around the globe. Two days ago we -held a workshop to try to get people started on setting up their own -mesh node, and there we decided to create a new mailing list -dugnadsnett -(at) nuug.no and IRC channel -#dugnadsnett.no to -coordinate the work. See also the NUUG blog post -announcing -the mailing list and IRC channel.

-
-
- - - Tags: english, mesh network, nuug. - - -
-
-
- -
-
Hvor godt fungerer Linux-klienter mot MS Exchange?
-
26th November 2013
-

Jeg -skrev -i juni om protestene på planene til min arbeidsplass, -Universitetet i Oslo, om å gå bort fra -fri programvare- og åpne standardløsninger for å håndtere epost, -vekk fra IETF-standarden SIEVE for filtrering av epost og over til -godseide spesifikasjoner og epostsystemet Microsoft Exchange. -Protestene har fått litt ny omtale i media de siste dagene, i tillegg -til de oppslagene som kom i mai.

- - - -

Prosjektledelsen har fortalt at dette skal fungere like godt for -Linux-brukere som for brukere av Microsoft Windows og Apple MacOSX, -men jeg lurer på hva slags erfaringer Linux-brukere i eksisterende -miljøer som bruker MS Exchange har gjort. Hvis du har slik erfaring -hadet det vært veldig fint om du kan send et leserbrev til -Uniforum og fortelle om hvor -greit det er å bruke Exchange i kryss-platform-miljøer? De jeg har -snakket med sier en greit får lest e-posten sin hvis Exchange har -slått på IMAP-funksjonalitet, men at kalender og møtebooking ikke -fungerer godt for Linux-klienter. Jeg har ingen personlig erfaring å -komme med, så jeg er nysgjerrig på hva andre kan dele av erfaringer -med universitetet.

- -

Mitt ankerpunkt mot å bytte ut fri programvare som fungerer godt -med godseid programvare er at en mister kontroll over egen -infrastruktur, låser seg inn i en løsning det vil bli dyrt å komme ut -av, uten at en får funksjonalitet en ikke kunne skaffet seg med fri -programvare, eventuelt videreutviklet med de pengene som brukes på -overgangen til MS Exchange. Personlig planlegger jeg å fortsette å -laste ned all eposten min til lokal maskin for indeksering og lesing -med notmuch, så jeg håper jeg -ikke blir veldig skadelidende av overgangen.

- -

Underskriftslista -for oss som er mot endringen, som omtales i artiklene, er fortsatt -åpen for de som vil signere på oppropet. Akkurat nå er det 298 -personer som har signert.

-
-
- - - Tags: norsk, standard. - - -
-
-
- -
-
New chrpath release 0.15
-
24th November 2013
-

After many years break from the package and a vain hope that -development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my -acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath, -the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already -compiled ELF programs. The update was triggered by the persistence of -Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get -support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he -is working on. I checked the -Debian, -Ubuntu and -Fedora -packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from -OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes. -These are the release notes:

- -

New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:

- - - -

You can -download the -new version 0.15 from alioth. Please let us know via the Alioth -project if something is wrong with the new release. The test suite -did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also -include a testsuite check.

-
-
- - - Tags: chrpath, debian, english. - - -
-
-
- -
-
RSS-kilde for fritekstsøk i offentlige anbud hos Doffin
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22nd November 2013
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I fjor sommer lagde jeg en -offentlig -tilgjengelig SQL-database over offentlig anbud basert på skraping -av HTML-data fra Doffin. Den har stått og gått siden da, og har nå -ca. 28000 oppføringer. Jeg oppdaget da jeg tittet innom at noen -oppføringer var ikke blitt med, antagelig på grunn av at de fikk -tildelt sekvensnummer i Doffin en godt stund før de ble publisert, -slik at min nettsideskraper som fortsatte skrapingen der den slapp -sist ikke fikk dem med seg. Jeg har fikset litt slik at skraperen nå -ser litt tilbake i tid for å se om den har gått glipp av noen -oppføringer, og har skrapet på nytt fra midten av september 2013 og -fremover. Det bør dermed bli en mer komplett database for kommende -måneder. Hvis jeg får tid skal jeg forsøke å skrape "glemte" data fra -før midten av september 2013, men tør ikke garantere at det blir -prioritert med det første.

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Men målet med denne bloggposten er å vise hvordan denne -Doffin-databasen kan brukes og integreres med en RSS-leser, slik at en -kan la datamaskinen holde et øye med Doffin-annonseringer etter -nøkkelord. En kan lage sitt eget søk ved å besøke -API-et -hos Scraperwiki, velge format rss2 og så legge inn noe ala dette i -"query in SQL":

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-select title, scrapedurl as link, abstract as description,
-       publishdate as pubDate from 'swdata'
-   where abstract like '%linux%' or title like '%linux%'
-   order by seq desc limit 20
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Dette vil søke opp alle anbud med ordet linux i oppsummering eller -tittel. En kan lage mer avanserte søk hvis en ønsker det. URL-en som -dukker opp nederst på siden kan en så gi til sin RSS-leser (jeg bruker -akregator selv), og så automatisk få beskjed hvis det dukker opp anbud -med det aktuelle nøkkelordet i teksten. Merk at kapasiteten og -ytelsen hos Scraperwiki er begrenset, så ikke be RSS-leseren hente ned -oftere enn en gang hver dag.

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Du lurer kanskje på hva slags informasjon en kan få ut fra denne -databasen. Her er to RSS-kilder, med søkeordet -"linux", -søkeordet -"fri -programvare" -og søkeordet -"odf". -Det er bare å søke på det en er interessert i. Kopier gjerne -datasettet og sett opp din egen tjeneste hvis du vil gjøre mer -avanserte søk. SQLite-filen med Doffin-oppføringer kan lastes med fra -Scraperwiki for de som vil grave dypere.

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- - - Tags: norsk, nuug, offentlig innsyn. - - -
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All drones should be radio marked with what they do and who they belong to
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21st November 2013
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Drones, flying robots, are getting more and more popular. The most -know ones are the killer drones used by some government to murder -people they do not like without giving them the chance of a fair -trial, but the technology have many good uses too, from mapping and -forest maintenance to photography and search and rescue. I am sure it -is just a question of time before "bad drones" are in the hands of -private enterprises and not only state criminals but petty criminals -too. The drone technology is very useful and very dangerous. To have -some control over the use of drones, I agree with Daniel Suarez in his -TED talk -"The kill -decision shouldn't belong to a robot", where he suggested this -little gem to keep the good while limiting the bad use of drones:

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Each robot and drone should have a cryptographically signed -I.D. burned in at the factory that can be used to track its movement -through public spaces. We have license plates on cars, tail numbers on -aircraft. This is no different. And every citizen should be able to -download an app that shows the population of drones and autonomous -vehicles moving through public spaces around them, both right now and -historically. And civic leaders should deploy sensors and civic drones -to detect rogue drones, and instead of sending killer drones of their -own up to shoot them down, they should notify humans to their -presence. And in certain very high-security areas, perhaps civic -drones would snare them and drag them off to a bomb disposal facility.

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But notice, this is more an immune system than a weapons system. It -would allow us to avail ourselves of the use of autonomous vehicles -and drones while still preserving our open, civil society.

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The key is that every citizen should be able to read the -radio beacons sent from the drones in the area, to be able to check -both the government and others use of drones. For such control to be -effective, everyone must be able to do it. What should such beacon -contain? At least formal owner, purpose, contact information and GPS -location. Probably also the origin and target position of the current -flight. And perhaps some registration number to be able to look up -the drone in a central database tracking their movement. Robots -should not have privacy. It is people who need privacy.

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- - - Tags: english, robot, sikkerhet, surveillance. - - -
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Lets make a wireless community network in Oslo!
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13th November 2013
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Today NUUG and Hackeriet announced -our -plans to join forces and create a wireless community network in -Oslo. The workshop to help people get started will take place -Thursday 2013-11-28, but we already are collecting the geolocation of -people joining forces to make this happen. We have -9 -locations plotted on the map, but we will need more before we have -a connected mesh spread across Oslo. If this sound interesting to -you, please join us at the workshop. If you are too impatient to wait -15 days, please join us on the IRC channel -#nuug on irc.freenode.net -right away. :)

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- - - Tags: english, mesh network, nuug. - - -
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