X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/d3629bcaf36448c154f9049edfa5fda76512d11a..6621ff349d531b5887d38da305c6d1fde095b36d:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 628f671909..cfcefdc156 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,59 +7,35 @@ - Add-on to control the projector from within Kodi - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Add_on_to_control_the_projector_from_within_Kodi.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Add_on_to_control_the_projector_from_within_Kodi.html - Tue, 26 Jun 2018 23:55:00 +0200 - <p>My movie playing setup involve <a href="https://kodi.tv/">Kodi</a>, -<a href="https://openelec.tv">OpenELEC</a> (probably soon to be -replaced with <a href="https://libreelec.tv/">LibreELEC</a>) and an -Infocus IN76 video projector. My projector can be controlled via both -a infrared remote controller, and a RS-232 serial line. The vendor of -my projector, <a href="https://www.infocus.com/">InFocus</a>, had been -sensible enough to document the serial protocol in its user manual, so -it is easily available, and I used it some years ago to write -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/infocus-projector-control">a -small script to control the projector</a>. For a while now, I longed -for a setup where the projector was controlled by Kodi, for example in -such a way that when the screen saver went on, the projector was -turned off, and when the screen saver exited, the projector was turned -on again.</p> - -<p>A few days ago, with very good help from parts of my family, I -managed to find a Kodi Add-on for controlling a Epson projector, and -got in touch with its author to see if we could join forces and make a -Add-on with support for several projectors. To my pleasure, he was -positive to the idea, and we set out to add InFocus support to his -add-on, and make the add-on suitable for the official Kodi add-on -repository.</p> - -<p>The Add-on is now working (for me, at least), with a few minor -adjustments. The most important change I do relative to the master -branch in the github repository is embedding the -<a href="https://github.com/pyserial/pyserial">pyserial module</a> in -the add-on. The long term solution is to make a "script" type -pyserial module for Kodi, that can be pulled in as a dependency in -Kodi. But until that in place, I embed it.</p> - -<p>The add-on can be configured to turn on the projector when Kodi -starts, off when Kodi stops as well as turn the projector off when the -screensaver start and on when the screesaver stops. It can also be -told to set the projector source when turning on the projector. - -<p>If this sound interesting to you, check out -<a href="https://github.com/fredrik-eriksson/kodi_projcontrol">the -project github repository</a>. Perhaps you can send patches to -support your projector too? As soon as we find time to wrap up the -latest changes, it should be available for easy installation using any -Kodi instance.</p> - -<p>For future improvements, I would like to add projector model -detection and the ability to adjust the brightness level of the -projector from within Kodi. We also need to figure out how to handle -the cooling period of the projector. My projector refuses to turn on -for 60 seconds after it was turned off. This is not handled well by -the add-on at the moment.</p> + Time for an official MIME type for patches? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_an_official_MIME_type_for_patches_.html + Thu, 1 Nov 2018 08:15:00 +0100 + <p>As part of my involvement in +<a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core">the Nikita +archive API project</a>, I've been importing a fairly large lump of +emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would +go. I picked a subset of <a href="https://notmuchmail.org/">my +notmuch email database</a>, all public emails sent to me via +@lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import. +In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in +these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed +that one of the most common attachment formats do not have +<a href="https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">an +official MIME type</a> registered with IANA/IETF. The output from +diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats +included in these emails. At the moment people seem to use either +text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered. It +would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used +everywhere.</p> + +<p>To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought +up the topic on +<a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/media-types">the +media-types mailing list</a>. If you are interested in discussion +which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in +making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like +to join the discussion?</p> <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -68,327 +44,534 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address - youtube-dl for nedlasting fra NRK med undertekster - nice free software - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/youtube_dl_for_nedlasting_fra_NRK_med_undertekster___nice_free_software.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/youtube_dl_for_nedlasting_fra_NRK_med_undertekster___nice_free_software.html - Sat, 28 Apr 2018 10:30:00 +0200 - <p>I <a href="https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/VHS">VHS-kassettenes</a> -tid var det rett frem å ta vare på et TV-program en ønsket å kunne se -senere, uten å være avhengig av at programmet ble sendt på nytt. -Kanskje ønsket en å se programmet på hytten der det ikke var -TV-signal, eller av andre grunner ha det tilgjengelig for fremtidig -fornøyelse. Dette er blitt vanskeligere med introduksjon av -digital-TV og webstreaming, der opptak til harddisk er utenfor de -flestes kontroll hvis de bruker ufri programvare og bokser kontrollert -av andre. Men for NRK her i Norge, finnes det heldigvis flere fri -programvare-alternativer, som jeg har -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK.html">skrevet</a> -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hvordan_enkelt_laste_ned_filmer_fra_NRK_med_den__nye__l_sningen.html">om</a> -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nedlasting_fra_NRK__som_Matroska_med_undertekster.html">før</a>. -Så lenge kilden for nedlastingen er lovlig lagt ut på nett (hvilket -jeg antar NRK gjør), så er slik lagring til privat bruk også lovlig i -Norge.</p> - -<p>Sist jeg så på saken, i 2016, nevnte jeg at -<a href="https://rg3.github.com/youtube-dl/">youtube-dl</a> ikke kunne -bake undertekster fra NRK inn i videofilene, og at jeg derfor -foretrakk andre alternativer. Nylig oppdaget jeg at dette har endret -seg. Fordelen med youtube-dl er at den er tilgjengelig direkte fra -Linux-distribusjoner som <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> -og <a href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, slik at en slipper å -finne ut selv hvordan en skal få dem til å virke.</p> - -<p>For å laste ned et NRK-innslag med undertekster, og få den norske -underteksten pakket inn i videofilen, så kan følgende kommando -brukes:</p> + Measuring the speaker frequency response using the AUDMES free software GUI - nice free software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_the_speaker_frequency_response_using_the_AUDMES_free_software_GUI___nice_free_software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_the_speaker_frequency_response_using_the_AUDMES_free_software_GUI___nice_free_software.html + Mon, 22 Oct 2018 08:40:00 +0200 + <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2018-10-22-audmes-measure-speakers.png" align="right" width="40%"/></p> + +<p>My current home stereo is a patchwork of various pieces I got on +flee markeds over the years. It is amazing what kind of equipment +show up there. I've been wondering for a while if it was possible to +measure how well this equipment is working together, and decided to +see how far I could get using free software. After trawling the web I +came across an article from DIY Audio and Video on +<a href="https://www.diyaudioandvideo.com/Tutorial/SpeakerResponseTesting/">Speaker +Testing and Analysis</a> describing how to test speakers, and it listing +several software options, among them +<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/audmes/">AUDio MEasurement +System (AUDMES)</a>. It is the only free software system I could find +focusing on measuring speakers and audio frequency response. In the +process I also found an interesting article from NOVO on +<a href="http://novo.press/understanding-speaker-specifications-and-frequency-response/">Understanding +Speaker Specifications and Frequency Response</a> and an article from +ecoustics on +<a href="https://www.ecoustics.com/articles/understanding-speaker-frequency-response/">Understanding +Speaker Frequency Response</a>, with a lot of information on what to +look for and how to interpret the graphs. Armed with this knowledge, +I set out to measure the state of my speakers.</p> + +<p>The first hurdle was that AUDMES hadn't seen a commit for 10 years +and did not build with current compilers and libraries. I got in +touch with its author, who no longer was spending time on the program +but gave me write access to the subversion repository on Sourceforge. +The end result is that now the code build on Linux and is capable of +saving and loading the collected frequency response data in CSV +format. The application is quite nice and flexible, and I was able to +select the input and output audio interfaces independently. This made +it possible to use a USB mixer as the input source, while sending +output via my laptop headphone connection. I lacked the hardware and +cabling to figure out a different way to get independent cabling to +speakers and microphone.</p> + +<p>Using this setup I could see how a large range of high frequencies +apparently were not making it out of my speakers. The picture show +the frequency response measurement of one of the speakers. Note the +frequency lines seem to be slightly misaligned, compared to the CSV +output from the program. I can not hear several of these are high +frequencies, according to measurement from +<a href="http://freehearingtestsoftware.com">Free Hearing Test +Software</a>, an freeware system to measure your hearing (still +looking for a free software alternative), so I do not know if they are +coming out out the speakers. I thus do not quite know how to figure +out if the missing frequencies is a problem with the microphone, the +amplifier or the speakers, but I managed to rule out the audio card in my +PC by measuring my Bose noise canceling headset using its own +microphone. This setup was able to see the high frequency tones, so +the problem with my stereo had to be in the amplifier or speakers.</p> + +<p>Anyway, to try to role out one factor I ended up picking up a new +set of speakers at a flee marked, and these work a lot better than the +old speakers, so I guess the microphone and amplifier is OK. If you +need to measure your own speakers, check out AUDMES. If more people +get involved, perhaps the project could become good enough to +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/910876">include in Debian</a>? And if +you know of some other free software to measure speakers and amplifier +performance, please let me know. I am aware of the freeware option +<a href="https://www.roomeqwizard.com/">REW</a>, but I want something +that can be developed also when the vendor looses interest.</p> -<p><pre> -youtube-dl --write-sub --sub-format ttml \ - --convert-subtitles srt --embed-subs \ - https://tv.nrk.no/serie/ramm-ferdig-gaa/MUHU11000316/27-04-2018 -</pre></p> - -<p>URL-eksemplet er dagens toppsak på tv.nrk.no. Resultatet er en -MP4-fil med filmen og undertekster som kan spilles av med VLC. Merk -at VLC ikke viser frem undertekster før du aktiverer dem. For å gjøre -det, høyreklikk med musa i fremviservinduet, velg menyvalget for -undertekst og så norsk språk. Jeg testet også '--write-auto-sub', -men det kommandolinjeargumentet ser ikke ut til å fungere, så jeg -endte opp med settet med argumentlisten over, som jeg fant i en -feilrapport i youtube-dl-prosjektets samling over feilrapporter.</p> - -<p>Denne støtten i youtube-dl gjør det svært enkelt å lagre -NRK-innslag, det være seg nyheter, filmer, serier eller dokumentater, -for å ha dem tilgjengelig for fremtidig referanse og bruk, uavhengig -av hvor lenge innslagene ligger tilgjengelig hos NRK. Så får det ikke -hjelpe at NRKs jurister mener at det er -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best___ikke_fortelle_noen_at_streaming_er_nedlasting___.html">vesensforskjellig -å legge tilgjengelig for nedlasting og for streaming</a>, når det rent -teknisk er samme sak.</p> - -<p>Programmet youtube-dl støtter også en rekke andre nettsteder, se -prosjektoversikten for -<a href="http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/supportedsites.html">en -komplett liste</a>.</p> - - - - - Stortingsflertallet går inn for ny IP-basert sensurinfrastruktur i Norge - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stortingsflertallet_g_r_inn_for_ny_IP_basert_sensurinfrastruktur_i_Norge.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stortingsflertallet_g_r_inn_for_ny_IP_basert_sensurinfrastruktur_i_Norge.html - Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:00:00 +0200 - <p><a href="https://www.vg.no/sport/i/J1g8zj/stortingsvedtak-snart-ip-blokkerer-utenlandske-spillselskaper">VG</a>, -<a href="https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/stortinget-blokkerer-utenlandske-spillselskaper/69740219">Dagbladet</a> -og -<a href="https://www.nrk.no/ostfold/tar-opp-kampen-mot-utenlandske-spillselskap-1.14021381">NRK</a> -melder i dag at flertallet i Familie- og kulturkomiteen på Stortinget -har bestemt seg for å introdusere en ny sensurinfrastruktur i Norge. -Fra før har Norge en «frivillig» sensurinfrastruktur basert på -DNS-navn, der de største ISP-ene basert på en liste med DNS-navn -forgifter DNS-svar og omdirigerer til et annet IP-nummer enn det som -ligger i DNS. Nå kommer altså IP-basert omdirigering i tillegg. Når -infrastrukturen er på plass, er sensur av IP-adresser redusert et -spørsmål om hvilke IP-nummer som skal blokkeres. Listen over -IP-adresser vil naturligvis endre seg etter hvert som myndighetene -endrer seg. Det er ingen betryggende tanke.</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">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - En grunn til å takke nei til usikker digital post - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/En_grunn_til___takke_nei_til_usikker_digital_post.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/En_grunn_til___takke_nei_til_usikker_digital_post.html - Mon, 2 Apr 2018 13:30:00 +0200 - <p>Brevpost er beskyttet av straffelovens bestemmelse som gjør det -kriminelt å åpne andres brev. Dette følger av (ny) straffelovs -<a href="https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2005-05-20-28/§205">§ 205 -(Krenkelse av retten til privat kommunikasjon)</a>, som sier at «Med -bot eller fengsel inntil 2 år straffes den som uberettiget ... c) -åpner brev eller annen lukket skriftlig meddelelse som er adressert -til en annen, eller på annen måte skaffer seg uberettiget tilgang til -innholdet.» Dette gjelder såvel postbud som alle andre som har -befatning med brevet etter at avsender har befatning med et lukket -brev. Tilsvarende står også tidligere utgaver av den norske -straffeloven.</p> - -<p>Når en registrerer seg på usikre digitale postkasseløsningene, som -f.eks. Digipost og e-Boks, og slik tar disse i bruk, så gir en de som -står bak løsningene tillatelse til å åpne sine brev. Dette er -nødvendig for at innholdet i digital post skal kunne vises frem til -mottaker via tjenestens websider. Dermed gjelder ikke straffelovens -paragraf om forbud mot å åpne brev, da tilgangen ikke lenger er -uberettiget. En gir altså fremmede tilgang til å lese sin -korrespondanse. I tillegg vil bruk av slike usikre digitale -postbokser føre til at det blir registrert når du leser brevene, hvor -du befinner deg (vha. tilkoblingens IP-adresse), hvilket utstyr du -bruker og en rekke annen personlig informasjon som ikke er -tilgjengelig når papirpost brukes. Jeg foretrekker at det er -lovmessig beskyttelse av min korrespondanse, som jo inneholder privat -og personlig informasjon. Det bidrar til litt bedre vern av personlig -integritet i dagens norske samfunn.</p> + Web browser integration of VLC with Bittorrent support + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_browser_integration_of_VLC_with_Bittorrent_support.html + Sun, 21 Oct 2018 09:50:00 +0200 + <p>Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to +distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of +content providers, from national TV stations like +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/">NRK</a>, Linux distributors like +<a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> and +<a href="https://www.ubuntu.com/">Ubuntu</a>, and of course the +<a href="https://archive.org/">Internet archive</A>. + +<p>Almost a month ago +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vlc-plugin-bittorrent">a new +package adding Bittorrent support to VLC</a> became available in +Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like +this:</p> + +<p><pre> +apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent +</pre></p> + +<p>Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian, +several improvements have been made to it. In version 2.2-4, now +available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to +teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or +magnet links. The last part is thanks to me finally understanding +what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files +are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry +in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will +suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The +end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster and Sid, +one can visit any +<a href="https://archive.org/details/CopyingIsNotTheft1080p">Internet +Archive page with movies</a> using a web browser and click on the +torrent link to start streaming the movie.</p> + +<p>Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the +fact that it will hang and +<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/13">block VLC +from exiting until the torrent streaming starts</a>. Another is the +fact that it +<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent/issues/9">will pick +and play a random file in a multi file torrent</a>. This is not +always the video file you want. Combined with the first it can be a +bit hard to get the video streaming going. But when it work, it seem +to do a good job.</p> + +<p>For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test +if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest. I tried, but do not +know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working. For now +the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was +successfully loaded by VLC. If you have any suggestions, please +submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.</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">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - Self-appointed leaders of the Free World - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Self_appointed_leaders_of_the_Free_World.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Self_appointed_leaders_of_the_Free_World.html - Thu, 22 Mar 2018 11:00:00 +0100 - <p>The leaders of the worlds have started to congratulate the -re-elected Russian head of state, and this causes some criticism. I -am though a little fascinated by a comment from USA senator John McCain, -<a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/379339-mccain-rips-trumps-congratulatory-call-to-putin-as-insult-to-russian-people">sited -by The Hill and others</a>: - -<p><blockquote> -<p>"An American president does not lead the Free World by -congratulating dictators on winning sham elections."</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>While I totally agree with the senator here, the way the quote is -phrased make me suspect that he is unaware of the simple fact that USA -have not lead the Free World since at least before its government -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar">kidnapped a -completely innocent Canadian citizen in transit on his way home to -Canada via John F. Kennedy International Airport in September 2002 and -sent him to be tortured in Syria for a year</a>.</p> - -<p>USA might be running ahead, but the path they are taking is not the -one taken by any Free World.</p> + Release 0.2 of free software archive system Nikita announced + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Release_0_2_of_free_software_archive_system_Nikita_announced.html + Thu, 18 Oct 2018 14:40:00 +0200 + <p>This morning, the new release of the +<a href="https://gitlab.com/OsloMet-ABI/nikita-noark5-core/">Nikita +Noark 5 core project</a> was +<a href="https://lists.nuug.no/pipermail/nikita-noark/2018-October/000406.html">announced +on the project mailing list</a>. The free software solution is an +implementation of the Norwegian archive standard Noark 5 used by +government offices in Norway. These were the changes in version 0.2 +since version 0.1.1 (from NEWS.md): + +<ul> + <li>Fix typos in REL names</li> + <li>Tidy up error message reporting</li> + <li>Fix issue where we used Integer.valueOf(), not Integer.getInteger()</li> + <li>Change some String handling to StringBuffer</li> + <li>Fix error reporting</li> + <li>Code tidy-up</li> + <li>Fix issue using static non-synchronized SimpleDateFormat to avoid + race conditions</li> + <li>Fix problem where deserialisers were treating integers as strings</li> + <li>Update methods to make them null-safe</li> + <li>Fix many issues reported by coverity</li> + <li>Improve equals(), compareTo() and hash() in domain model</li> + <li>Improvements to the domain model for metadata classes</li> + <li>Fix CORS issues when downloading document</li> + <li>Implementation of case-handling with registryEntry and document upload</li> + <li>Better support in Javascript for OPTIONS</li> + <li>Adding concept description of mail integration</li> + <li>Improve setting of default values for GET on ny-journalpost</li> + <li>Better handling of required values during deserialisation </li> + <li>Changed tilknyttetDato (M620) from date to dateTime</li> + <li>Corrected some opprettetDato (M600) (de)serialisation errors.</li> + <li>Improve parse error reporting.</li> + <li>Started on OData search and filtering.</li> + <li>Added Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct to project.</li> + <li>Moved repository and project from Github to Gitlab.</li> + <li>Restructured repository, moved code into src/ and web/.</li> + <li>Updated code to use Spring Boot version 2.</li> + <li>Added support for OAuth2 authentication.</li> + <li>Fixed several bugs discovered by Coverity.</li> + <li>Corrected handling of date/datetime fields.</li> + <li>Improved error reporting when rejecting during deserializatoin.</li> + <li>Adjusted default values provided for ny-arkivdel, ny-mappe, + ny-saksmappe, ny-journalpost and ny-dokumentbeskrivelse.</li> + <li>Several fixes for korrespondansepart*.</li> + <li>Updated web GUI: + <ul> + <li>Now handle both file upload and download.</li> + <li>Uses new OAuth2 authentication for login.</li> + <li>Forms now fetches default values from API using GET.</li> + <li>Added RFC 822 (email), TIFF and JPEG to list of possible file formats.</li> + </ul></li> +</ul> + +<p>The changes and improvements are extensive. Running diffstat on +the changes between git tab 0.1.1 and 0.2 show 1098 files changed, +108666 insertions(+), 54066 deletions(-).</p> + +<p>If free and open standardized archiving API sound interesting to +you, please contact us on IRC +(<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23nikita">#nikita on +irc.freenode.net</a>) or email +(<a href="https://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/nikita-noark">nikita-noark +mailing list</a>).</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">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - Facebooks ability to sell your personal information is the real Cambridge Analytica scandal - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Facebooks_ability_to_sell_your_personal_information_is_the_real_Cambridge_Analytica_scandal.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Facebooks_ability_to_sell_your_personal_information_is_the_real_Cambridge_Analytica_scandal.html - Wed, 21 Mar 2018 16:30:00 +0100 - <p>So, Cambridge Analytica is getting some well deserved criticism for -(mis)using information it got from Facebook about 50 million people, -mostly in the USA. What I find a bit surprising, is how little -criticism Facebook is getting for handing the information over to -Cambridge Analytica and others in the first place. And what about the -people handing their private and personal information to Facebook? -And last, but not least, what about the government offices who are -handing information about the visitors of their web pages to Facebook? -No-one who looked at the terms of use of Facebook should be surprised -that information about peoples interests, political views, personal -lifes and whereabouts would be sold by Facebook.</p> - -<p>What I find to be the real scandal is the fact that Facebook is -selling your personal information, not that one of the buyers used it -in a way Facebook did not approve when exposed. It is well known that -Facebook is selling out their users privacy, but a scandal -nevertheless. Of course the information provided to them by Facebook -would be misused by one of the parties given access to personal -information about the millions of Facebook users. Collected -information will be misused sooner or later. The only way to avoid -such misuse, is to not collect the information in the first place. If -you do not want Facebook to hand out information about yourself for -the use and misuse of its customers, do not give Facebook the -information.</p> - -<p>Personally, I would recommend to completely remove your Facebook -account, and take back some control of your personal information. -<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/19/how-to-protect-your-facebook-privacy-or-delete-yourself-completely">According -to The Guardian</a>, it is a bit hard to find out how to request -account removal (and not just 'disabling'). You need to -<a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/224562897555674?helpref=faq_content">visit -a specific Facebook page</a> and click on 'let us know' on that page -to get to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/help/delete_account">the -real account deletion screen</a>. Perhaps something to consider? I -would not trust the information to really be deleted (who knows, -perhaps NSA, GCHQ and FRA already got a copy), but it might reduce the -exposure a bit.</p> - -<p>If you want to learn more about the capabilities of Cambridge -Analytica, I recommend to see the video recording of the one hour talk -Paul-Olivier Dehaye gave to <a href="">NUUG</a> last april about -<a href="https://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20170404-big-data-psychometric/"> -Data collection, psychometric profiling and their impact on -politics</a>.</p> - -<p>And if you want to communicate with your friends and loved ones, -use some end-to-end encrypted method like -<a href="https://www.signal.org/">Signal</a> or -<a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>, and stop sharing your private -messages with strangers like Facebook and Google.</p> + Fetching trusted timestamps using the rfc3161ng python module + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fetching_trusted_timestamps_using_the_rfc3161ng_python_module.html + Mon, 8 Oct 2018 12:30:00 +0200 + <p>I have earlier covered the basics of trusted timestamping using the +'openssl ts' client. See blog post for +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Public_Trusted_Timestamping_services_for_everyone.html">2014</a>, +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/syslog_trusted_timestamp___chain_of_trusted_timestamps_for_your_syslog.html">2016</a> +and +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_trusted_timestamps_in_a_Noark_5_archive.html">2017</a> +for those stories. But some times I want to integrate the timestamping +in other code, and recently I needed to integrate it into Python. +After searching a bit, I found +<a href="https://dev.entrouvert.org/projects/python-rfc3161">the +rfc3161 library</a> which seemed like a good fit, but I soon +discovered it only worked for python version 2, and I needed something +that work with python version 3. Luckily I next came across +<a href="https://github.com/trbs/rfc3161ng/">the rfc3161ng library</a>, +a fork of the original rfc3161 library. Not only is it working with +python 3, it have fixed a few of the bugs in the original library, and +it has an active maintainer. I decided to wrap it up and make it +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-rfc3161ng">available in +Debian</a>, and a few days ago it entered Debian unstable and testing.</p> + +<p>Using the library is fairly straight forward. The only slightly +problematic step is to fetch the required certificates to verify the +timestamp. For some services it is straight forward, while for others +I have not yet figured out how to do it. Here is a small standalone +code example based on of the integration tests in the library code:</p> + +<pre> +#!/usr/bin/python3 + +""" + +Python 3 script demonstrating how to use the rfc3161ng module to +get trusted timestamps. + +The license of this code is the same as the license of the rfc3161ng +library, ie MIT/BSD. + +""" + +import os +import pyasn1.codec.der +import rfc3161ng +import subprocess +import tempfile +import urllib.request + +def store(f, data): + f.write(data) + f.flush() + f.seek(0) + +def fetch(url, f=None): + response = urllib.request.urlopen(url) + data = response.read() + if f: + store(f, data) + return data + +def main(): + with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as cert_f,\ + tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as ca_f,\ + tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as msg_f,\ + tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as tsr_f: + + # First fetch certificates used by service + certificate_data = fetch('https://freetsa.org/files/tsa.crt', cert_f) + ca_data_data = fetch('https://freetsa.org/files/cacert.pem', ca_f) + + # Then timestamp the message + timestamper = \ + rfc3161ng.RemoteTimestamper('http://freetsa.org/tsr', + certificate=certificate_data) + data = b"Python forever!\n" + tsr = timestamper(data=data, return_tsr=True) + + # Finally, convert message and response to something 'openssl ts' can verify + store(msg_f, data) + store(tsr_f, pyasn1.codec.der.encoder.encode(tsr)) + args = ["openssl", "ts", "-verify", + "-data", msg_f.name, + "-in", tsr_f.name, + "-CAfile", ca_f.name, + "-untrusted", cert_f.name] + subprocess.check_call(args) + +if '__main__' == __name__: + main() +</pre> + +<p>The code fetches the required certificates, store them as temporary +files, timestamp a simple message, store the message and timestamp to +disk and ask 'openssl ts' to verify the timestamp. A timestamp is +around 1.5 kiB in size, and should be fairly easy to store for future +use.</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">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - H, Ap, Frp og Venstre går for DNA-innsamling av hele befolkningen - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/H__Ap__Frp_og_Venstre_g_r_for_DNA_innsamling_av_hele_befolkningen.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/H__Ap__Frp_og_Venstre_g_r_for_DNA_innsamling_av_hele_befolkningen.html - Wed, 14 Mar 2018 14:15:00 +0100 - <p>I går kom det nok et argument for å holde seg unna det norske -helsevesenet. Da annonserte et stortingsflertall, bestående av Høyre, -Arbeiderpartiet, Fremskrittspartiet og Venstre, at de går inn for å -samle inn og lagre DNA-prøver fra hele befolkningen i Norge til evig -tid. Endringen gjelder innsamlede blodprøver fra nyfødte i Norge. -Det vil dermed ta litt tid før en har hele befolkningen, men det er -dit vi havner gitt nok tid. I dag er det nesten hundre prosent -oppslutning om undersøkelsen som gjøres like etter fødselen, på -bakgrunn av blodprøven det er snakk om å lagre, for å oppdage endel -medfødte sykdommer. Blodprøven lagres i dag i inntil seks år. -<a href="https://www.stortinget.no/no/Saker-og-publikasjoner/Publikasjoner/Innstillinger/Stortinget/2017-2018/inns-201718-182l/?all=true">Stortingets -flertallsinnstilling</a> er at tidsbegrensingen skal fjernes, og mener -at tidsubegrenset lagring ikke vil påvirke oppslutningen om -undersøkelsen.</p> - -<p>Datatilsynet har ikke akkurat applaudert forslaget:</p> - -<p><blockquote> - - <p>«Datatilsynet mener forslaget ikke i tilstrekkelig grad - synliggjør hvilke etiske og personvernmessige utfordringer som må - diskuteres før en etablerer en nasjonal biobank med blodprøver fra - hele befolkningen.»</p> - -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Det er flere historier om hvordan innsamlet biologisk materiale har -blitt brukt til andre formål enn de ble innsamlet til, og historien om -<a href="https://www.aftenposten.no/norge/i/Ql0WR/Na-ma-Folkehelsa-slette-uskyldiges-DNA-info">folkehelseinstituttets -lagring på vegne av politiet (Kripos) av innsamlet biologisk materiale -og DNA-informasjon i strid med loven</a> viser at en ikke kan være -trygg på at lover og intensjoner beskytter de som blir berørt mot -misbruk av slik privat og personlig informasjon.</p> - -<p>Det er verdt å merke seg at det kan forskes på de innsamlede -blodprøvene uten samtykke fra den det gjelder (eller foreldre når det -gjelder barn), etter en lovendring for en stund tilbake, med mindre -det er sendt inn skjema der en reserverer seg mot forskning uten -samtykke. Skjemaet er tilgjengelig fra -<a href="https://www.fhi.no/arkiv/publikasjoner/for-pasienter-skjema-for-reservasjo/">folkehelseinstituttets -websider</a>, og jeg anbefaler, uavhengig av denne saken, varmt alle å -sende inn skjemaet for å dokumentere hvor mange som ikke synes det er -greit å fjerne krav om samtykke.</p> - -<p>I tillegg bør en kreve destruering av alt biologisk materiale som -er samlet inn om en selv, for å redusere eventuelle negative -konsekvenser i fremtiden når materialet kommer på avveie eller blir -brukt uten samtykke, men det er så vidt jeg vet ikke noe system for -dette i dag.</p> - -<p>Som vanlig, hvis du bruker Bitcoin og ønsker å vise din støtte til -det jeg driver med, setter jeg pris på om du sender Bitcoin-donasjoner -til min adresse + Automatic Google Drive sync using grive in Debian + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Google_Drive_sync_using_grive_in_Debian.html + Thu, 4 Oct 2018 15:20:00 +0200 + <p>A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian. To try to +rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive. +I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this +automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from +<a href="http://www.webupd8.org/">the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA</a> to do the +task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to +run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync. +Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.</p> + +<p>I first created <tt>~/googledrive</tt>, entered the directory and +ran '<tt>grive -a</tt>' to authenticate the machine/user. Next, I +created a autostart hook in <tt>~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop</tt> +to start the sync when the user log in:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +[Desktop Entry] +Name=Google drive autosync +Type=Application +Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>Finally, I wrote the <tt>~/bin/grive-sync</tt> script to sync +~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +#!/bin/sh +set -e +cd ~/ +cleanup() { + if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then + kill $syncpid + fi +} +trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT +/usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" & +syncpdi=$! +while true; do + if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then + echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out" + exit 1 + fi + if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then + /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive + fi + sleep 300 +done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>Feel free to use the setup if you want. It can be assumed to be +GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I +doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.</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">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p> - First rough draft Norwegian and Spanish edition of the book Made with Creative Commons - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_rough_draft_Norwegian_and_Spanish_edition_of_the_book_Made_with_Creative_Commons.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_rough_draft_Norwegian_and_Spanish_edition_of_the_book_Made_with_Creative_Commons.html - Tue, 13 Mar 2018 13:00:00 +0100 - <p>I am working on publishing yet another book related to Creative -Commons. This time it is a book filled with interviews and histories -from those around the globe making a living using Creative -Commons.</p> - -<p>Yesterday, after many months of hard work by several volunteer -translators, the first draft of a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the book -<a href="https://madewith.cc">Made with Creative Commons from 2017</a> -was complete. The Spanish translation is also complete, while the -Dutch, Polish, German and Ukraine edition need a lot of work. Get in -touch if you want to help make those happen, or would like to -translate into your mother tongue.</p> - -<p>The whole book project started when -<a href="http://gwolf.org/node/4102">Gunnar Wolf announced</a> that he -was going to make a Spanish edition of the book. I noticed, and -offered some input on how to make a book, based on my experience with -translating the -<a href="https://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html">Free -Culture</a> and -<a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/#norwegian">The Debian -Administrator's Handbook</a> books to Norwegian Bokmål. To make a -long story short, we ended up working on a Bokmål edition, and now the -first rough translation is complete, thanks to the hard work of -Ole-Erik Yrvin, Ingrid Yrvin, Allan Nordhøy and myself. The first -proof reading is almost done, and only the second and third proof -reading remains. We will also need to translate the 14 figures and -create a book cover. Once it is done we will publish the book on -paper, as well as in PDF, ePub and possibly Mobi formats.</p> - -<p>The book itself originates as a manuscript on Google Docs, is -downloaded as ODT from there and converted to Markdown using pandoc. -The Markdown is modified by a script before is converted to DocBook -using pandoc. The DocBook is modified again using a script before it -is used to create a Gettext POT file for translators. The translated -PO file is then combined with the earlier mentioned DocBook file to -create a translated DocBook file, which finally is given to dblatex to -create the final PDF. The end result is a set of editions of the -manuscript, one English and one for each of the translations.</p> - -<p>The translation is conducted using -<a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/madewithcc/translation/">the -Weblate web based translation system</a>. Please have a look there -and get in touch if you would like to help out with proof -reading. :)</p> + Valutakrambod - A python and bitcoin love story + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Valutakrambod___A_python_and_bitcoin_love_story.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Valutakrambod___A_python_and_bitcoin_love_story.html + Sat, 29 Sep 2018 22:20:00 +0200 + <p>It would come as no surprise to anyone that I am interested in +bitcoins and virtual currencies. I've been keeping an eye on virtual +currencies for many years, and it is part of the reason a few months +ago, I started writing a python library for collecting currency +exchange rates and trade on virtual currency exchanges. I decided to +name the end result valutakrambod, which perhaps can be translated to +small currency shop.</p> + +<p>The library uses the tornado python library to handle HTTP and +websocket connections, and provide a asynchronous system for +connecting to and tracking several services. The code is available +from +<a href="http://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/valutakrambod">github</a>.</p> + +</p>There are two example clients of the library. One is very simple and +list every updated buy/sell price received from the various services. +This code is started by running bin/btc-rates and call the client code +in valutakrambod/client.py. The simple client look like this:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +import functools +import tornado.ioloop +import valutakrambod +class SimpleClient(object): + def __init__(self): + self.services = [] + self.streams = [] + pass + def newdata(self, service, pair, changed): + print("%-15s %s-%s: %8.3f %8.3f" % ( + service.servicename(), + pair[0], + pair[1], + service.rates[pair]['ask'], + service.rates[pair]['bid']) + ) + async def refresh(self, service): + await service.fetchRates(service.wantedpairs) + def run(self): + self.ioloop = tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current() + self.services = valutakrambod.service.knownServices() + for e in self.services: + service = e() + service.subscribe(self.newdata) + stream = service.websocket() + if stream: + self.streams.append(stream) + else: + # Fetch information from non-streaming services immediately + self.ioloop.call_later(len(self.services), + functools.partial(self.refresh, service)) + # as well as regularly + service.periodicUpdate(60) + for stream in self.streams: + stream.connect() + try: + self.ioloop.start() + except KeyboardInterrupt: + print("Interrupted by keyboard, closing all connections.") + pass + for stream in self.streams: + stream.close() +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>The library client loops over all known "public" services, +initialises it, subscribes to any updates from the service, checks and +activates websocket streaming if the service provide it, and if no +streaming is supported, fetches information from the service and sets +up a periodic update every 60 seconds. The output from this client +can look like this:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690 +Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690 +Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690 +Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690 +Bitstamp EUR-USD: 1.159 1.154 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690 +Hitbtc BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690 +Bl3p BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690 +Paymium BTC-EUR: 5680.000 5620.240 +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>The exchange order book is tracked in addition to the best buy/sell +price, for those that need to know the details.</p> + +<p>The other example client is focusing on providing a curses view +with updated buy/sell prices as soon as they are received from the +services. This code is located in bin/btc-rates-curses and activated +by using the '-c' argument. Without the argument the "curses" output +is printed without using curses, which is useful for debugging. The +curses view look like this:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> + Name Pair Bid Ask Spr Ftcd Age + BitcoinsNorway BTCEUR 5591.8400 5711.0800 2.1% 16 nan 60 + Bitfinex BTCEUR 5671.0000 5671.2000 0.0% 16 22 59 + Bitmynt BTCEUR 5580.8000 5807.5200 3.9% 16 41 60 + Bitpay BTCEUR 5663.2700 nan nan% 15 nan 60 + Bitstamp BTCEUR 5664.8400 5676.5300 0.2% 0 1 1 + Bl3p BTCEUR 5653.6900 5684.9400 0.5% 0 nan 19 + Coinbase BTCEUR 5600.8200 5714.9000 2.0% 15 nan nan + Kraken BTCEUR 5670.1000 5670.2000 0.0% 14 17 60 + Paymium BTCEUR 5620.0600 5680.0000 1.1% 1 7515 nan + BitcoinsNorway BTCNOK 52898.9700 54034.6100 2.1% 16 nan 60 + Bitmynt BTCNOK 52960.3200 54031.1900 2.0% 16 41 60 + Bitpay BTCNOK 53477.7833 nan nan% 16 nan 60 + Coinbase BTCNOK 52990.3500 54063.0600 2.0% 15 nan nan + MiraiEx BTCNOK 52856.5300 54100.6000 2.3% 16 nan nan + BitcoinsNorway BTCUSD 6495.5300 6631.5400 2.1% 16 nan 60 + Bitfinex BTCUSD 6590.6000 6590.7000 0.0% 16 23 57 + Bitpay BTCUSD 6564.1300 nan nan% 15 nan 60 + Bitstamp BTCUSD 6561.1400 6565.6200 0.1% 0 2 1 + Coinbase BTCUSD 6504.0600 6635.9700 2.0% 14 nan 117 + Gemini BTCUSD 6567.1300 6573.0700 0.1% 16 89 nan + Hitbtc+BTCUSD 6592.6200 6594.2100 0.0% 0 0 0 + Kraken BTCUSD 6565.2000 6570.9000 0.1% 15 17 58 + Exchangerates EURNOK 9.4665 9.4665 0.0% 16 107789 nan + Norgesbank EURNOK 9.4665 9.4665 0.0% 16 107789 nan + Bitstamp EURUSD 1.1537 1.1593 0.5% 4 5 1 + Exchangerates EURUSD 1.1576 1.1576 0.0% 16 107789 nan + BitcoinsNorway LTCEUR 1.0000 49.0000 98.0% 16 nan nan + BitcoinsNorway LTCNOK 492.4800 503.7500 2.2% 16 nan 60 + BitcoinsNorway LTCUSD 1.0221 49.0000 97.9% 15 nan nan + Norgesbank USDNOK 8.1777 8.1777 0.0% 16 107789 nan +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>The code for this client is too complex for a simple blog post, so +you will have to check out the git repository to figure out how it +work. What I can tell is how the three last numbers on each line +should be interpreted. The first is how many seconds ago information +was received from the service. The second is how long ago, according +to the service, the provided information was updated. The last is an +estimate on how often the buy/sell values change.</p> + +<p>If you find this library useful, or would like to improve it, I +would love to hear from you. Note that for some of the services I've +implemented a trading API. It might be the topic of a future blog +post.</p> <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -397,47 +580,40 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address - Debian used in the subway info screens in Oslo, Norway - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_used_in_the_subway_info_screens_in_Oslo__Norway.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_used_in_the_subway_info_screens_in_Oslo__Norway.html - Fri, 2 Mar 2018 13:10:00 +0100 - <p>Today I was pleasantly surprised to discover my operating system of -choice, Debian, was used in the info screens on the subway stations. -While passing Nydalen subway station in Oslo, Norway, I discovered the -info screen booting with some text scrolling. I was not quick enough -with my camera to be able to record a video of the scrolling boot -screen, but I did get a photo from when the boot got stuck with a -corrupt file system: - -<p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2018-03-02-ruter-debian-lenny.jpeg"><img align="center" width="40%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2018-03-02-ruter-debian-lenny.jpeg" alt="[photo of subway info screen]"></a></p> - -<p>While I am happy to see Debian used more places, some details of the -content on the screen worries me.</p> - -<p>The image show the version booting is 'Debian GNU/Linux lenny/sid', -indicating that this is based on code taken from Debian Unstable/Sid -after Debian Etch (version 4) was released 2007-04-08 and before -Debian Lenny (version 5) was released 2009-02-14. Since Lenny Debian -has released version 6 (Squeeze) 2011-02-06, 7 (Wheezy) 2013-05-04, 8 -(Jessie) 2015-04-25 and 9 (Stretch) 2017-06-15, according to -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian_version_history">a Debian -version history on Wikpedia</a>. This mean the system is running -around 10 year old code, with no security fixes from the vendor for -many years.</p> - -<p>This is not the first time I discover the Oslo subway company, -Ruter, running outdated software. In 2012, -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Er_billettautomatene_til_kollektivtrafikken_i_Oslo_uten_sikkerhetsoppdateringer_.html">I -discovered the ticket vending machines were running Windows 2000</a>, -and this was -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fortsatt_ingen_sikkerhetsoppdateringer_for_billettautomatene_til_kollektivtrafikken_i_Oslo_.html">still -the case in 2016</a>. Given the response from the responsible people -in 2016, I would assume the machines are still running unpatched -Windows 2000. Thus, an unpatched Debian setup come as no surprise.</p> - -<p>The photo is made available under the license terms -<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons -4.0 Attribution International (CC BY 4.0)</a>.</p> + VLC in Debian now can do bittorrent streaming + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/VLC_in_Debian_now_can_do_bittorrent_streaming.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/VLC_in_Debian_now_can_do_bittorrent_streaming.html + Mon, 24 Sep 2018 21:20:00 +0200 + <p>Back in February, I got curious to see +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_VLC_to_stream_bittorrent_sources.html">if +VLC now supported Bittorrent streaming</a>. It did not, despite the +fact that the idea and code to handle such streaming had been floating +around for years. I did however find +<a href="https://github.com/johang/vlc-bittorrent">a standalone plugin +for VLC</a> to do it, and half a year later I decided to wrap up the +plugin and get it into Debian. I uploaded it to NEW a few days ago, +and am very happy to report that it +<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/vlc-plugin-bittorrent">entered +Debian</a> a few hours ago, and should be available in Debian/Unstable +tomorrow, and Debian/Testing in a few days.</p> + +<p>With the vlc-plugin-bittorrent package installed you should be able +to stream videos using a simple call to</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +vlc https://archive.org/download/TheGoat/TheGoat_archive.torrent +</pre></blockquote></p> + +</p>It can handle magnet links too. Now if only native vlc had +bittorrent support. Then a lot more would be helping each other to +share public domain and creative commons movies. The plugin need some +stability work with seeking and picking the right file in a torrent +with many files, but is already usable. Please note that the plugin +is not removing downloaded files when vlc is stopped, so it can fill +up your disk if you are not careful. Have fun. :)</p> + +<p>I would love to get help maintaining this package. Get in touch if +you are interested.</p> <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -446,32 +622,28 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address - The SysVinit upstream project just migrated to git - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_SysVinit_upstream_project_just_migrated_to_git.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_SysVinit_upstream_project_just_migrated_to_git.html - Sun, 18 Feb 2018 09:20:00 +0100 - <p>Surprising as it might sound, there are still computers using the -traditional Sys V init system, and there probably will be until -systemd start working on Hurd and FreeBSD. -<a href="https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/sysvinit">The upstream -project still exist</a>, though, and up until today, the upstream -source was available from Savannah via subversion. I am happy to -report that this just changed.</p> - -<p>The upstream source is now in Git, and consist of three -repositories:</p> - -<ul> - -<li><a href="http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/sysvinit.git">sysvinit</a></li> -<li><a href="http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/sysvinit/insserv.git">insserv</a></li> -<li><a href="http://git.savannah.nongnu.org/cgit/sysvinit/startpar.git">startpar</a></li> - -</ul> - -<p>I do not really spend much time on the project these days, and I -has mostly retired, but found it best to migrate the source to a good -version control system to help those willing to move it forward.</p> + Using the Kodi API to play Youtube videos + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_the_Kodi_API_to_play_Youtube_videos.html + Sun, 2 Sep 2018 23:40:00 +0200 + <p>I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to +tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to +insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard. After searching the +web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed +to find a recipe that worked. If you got a kodi instance with its API +available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to +have check out a nice cover band.</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre>curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ + --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open", + "params": {"item": { "file": + "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \ + http://projector.local/jsonrpc</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its +first argument. It can now handle direct video links, youtube links +and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi. It is almost like a +Chromecast. :)</p> <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address @@ -479,5 +651,19 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address + + Software created using taxpayers’ money should be Free Software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_created_using_taxpayers__money_should_be_Free_Software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_created_using_taxpayers__money_should_be_Free_Software.html + Thu, 30 Aug 2018 13:50:00 +0200 + <p>It might seem obvious that software created using tax money should +be available for everyone to use and improve. Free Software +Foundation Europe recentlystarted a campaign to help get more people +to understand this, and I just signed the petition on +<a href="https://publiccode.eu/">Public Money, Public Code</a> to help +them. I hope you too will do the same.</p> + + +