X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/d565ff32015ca50f2f2e9772b595f14701d092a4..162b054d8dd0d79ca99380bae4c82b4512ea7a2d:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 2b054ba053..fe419b29ab 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,26 +20,38 @@
-
A one-way wall on the border?
-
14th October 2017
-

I find it fascinating how many of the people being locked inside -the proposed border wall between USA and Mexico support the idea. The -proposal to keep Mexicans out reminds me of -the -propaganda twist from the East Germany government calling the wall -the “Antifascist Bulwark” after erecting the Berlin Wall, claiming -that the wall was erected to keep enemies from creeping into East -Germany, while it was obvious to the people locked inside it that it -was erected to keep the people from escaping.

- -

Do the people in USA supporting this wall really believe it is a -one way wall, only keeping people on the outside from getting in, -while not keeping people in the inside from getting out?

+ +
15th January 2019
+

The layered video playout server created by Sveriges Television, +CasparCG Server, entered Debian +today. This completes many months of work to get the source ready to +go into Debian. The first upload to the Debian NEW queue happened a +month ago, but the work upstream to prepare it for Debian started more +than two and a half month ago. So far +the +casparcg-server package is only available for amd64, but I hope +this can be improved. The package is in contrib because it depend on +the non-free fdk-aac +library. The Debian package lack support for streaming web pages +because Debian is missing CEF, Chromium Embedded Framework. CEF is +wanted by several packages in Debian. But because the Chromium source +is not available as a build +dependency, it is not yet possible to upload CEF to Debian. I +hope this will change in the future.

+ +

The reason I got involved is that +the Norwegian open channel +Frikanalen is starting to use CasparCG for our HD playout, and I +would like to have all the free software tools we use to run the TV +channel available as packages from the Debian project. The last +remaining piece in the puzzle is Open Broadcast Encoder, but it depend +on quite a lot of patched libraries which would have to be included in +Debian first.

- Tags: english. + Tags: english, frikanalen, multimedia, video.
@@ -47,48 +59,59 @@ while not keeping people in the inside from getting out?

- -
9th October 2017
-

At my nearby maker space, -Sonen, I heard the story that it -was easier to generate gcode files for theyr 3D printers (Ultimake 2+) -on Windows and MacOS X than Linux, because the software involved had -to be manually compiled and set up on Linux while premade packages -worked out of the box on Windows and MacOS X. I found this annoying, -as the software involved, -Cura, is free software -and should be trivial to get up and running on Linux if someone took -the time to package it for the relevant distributions. I even found -a request for adding into -Debian from 2013, which had seem some activity over the years but -never resulted in the software showing up in Debian. So a few days -ago I offered my help to try to improve the situation.

- -

Now I am very happy to see that all the packages required by a -working Cura in Debian are uploaded into Debian and waiting in the NEW -queue for the ftpmasters to have a look. You can track the progress -on -the -status page for the 3D printer team.

- -

The uploaded packages are a bit behind upstream, and was uploaded -now to get slots in the NEW -queue while we work up updating the packages to the latest -upstream version.

- -

On a related note, two competitors for Cura, which I found harder -to use and was unable to configure correctly for Ultimaker 2+ in the -short time I spent on it, are already in Debian. If you are looking -for 3D printer "slicers" and want something already available in -Debian, check out -slic3r and -slic3r-prusa. -The latter is a fork of the former.

+ +
15th December 2018
+

A fun way to learn how to program +Python is to follow the +instructions in the book +"Learn to program +with Minecraft", which introduces programming in Python to people +who like to play with Minecraft. The book uses a Python library to +talk to a TCP/IP socket with an API accepting build instructions and +providing information about the current players in a Minecraft world. +The TCP/IP API was first created for the Minecraft implementation for +Raspberry Pi, and has since been ported to some server versions of +Minecraft. The book contain recipes for those using Windows, MacOSX +and Raspian. But a little known fact is that you can follow the same +recipes using the free software construction game +Minetest.

+ +

There is a +Minetest module implementing the same API, making it possible to +use the Python programs coded to talk to Minecraft with Minetest too. +I +uploaded +this module to Debian two weeks ago, and as soon as it clears the +FTP masters NEW queue, learning to program Python with Minetest on +Debian will be a simple 'apt install' away. The Debian package is +maintained as part of the Debian Games team, and +the +packaging rules are currently located under 'unfinished' on +Salsa.

+ +

You will most likely need to install several of the Minetest +modules in Debian for the examples included with the library to work +well, as there are several blocks used by the example scripts that are +provided via modules in Minetest. Without the required blocks, a +simple stone block is used instead. My initial testing with a analog +clock did not get gold arms as instructed in the python library, but +instead used stone arms.

+ +

I tried to find a way to add the API to the desktop version of +Minecraft, but were unable to find any working recipes. The +recipes +I found are only +working with a standalone Minecraft server setup. Are there any +options to use with the normal desktop version?

+ +

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

- Tags: 3d-printer, debian, english. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -96,30 +119,39 @@ The latter is a fork of the former.

- -
4th October 2017
-
Når jeg holder på med ulike prosjekter, så trenger jeg stadig ulike -skruer. Det siste prosjektet jeg holder på med er å lage -en boks til en -HDMI-touch-skjerm som skal brukes med Raspberry Pi. Boksen settes -sammen med skruer og bolter, og jeg har vært i tvil om hvor jeg kan -få tak i de riktige skruene. Clas Ohlson og Jernia i nærheten har -sjelden hatt det jeg trenger. Men her om dagen fikk jeg et fantastisk -tips for oss som bor i Oslo. -Zachariassen Jernvare AS i -Hegermannsgate -23A på Torshov har et fantastisk utvalg, og åpent mellom 09:00 og -17:00. De selger skruer, muttere, bolter, skiver etc i løs vekt, og -så langt har jeg fått alt jeg har lett etter. De har i tillegg det -meste av annen jernvare, som verktøy, lamper, ledninger, etc. Jeg -håper de har nok kunder til å holde det gående lenge, da dette er en -butikk jeg kommer til å besøke ofte. Butikken er et funn å ha i -nabolaget for oss som liker å bygge litt selv. :)

+ +
12th December 2018
+

A few hours ago, a new and improved version (2.4) of +the VLC +bittorrent plugin was uploaded to Debian. This new version +include a complete rewrite of the bittorrent related code, which seem +to make the plugin non-blocking. This mean you can actually exit VLC +even when the plugin seem to be unable to get the bittorrent streaming +started. The new version also include support for filtering playlist +by file extension using command line options, if you want to avoid +processing audio, video or images. The package is currently in Debian +unstable, but should be available in Debian testing in two days. To +test it, simply install it like this:

+ +

+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+

+ +

After it is installed, you can try to use it to play a file +downloaded live via bittorrent like this: + +

+vlc https://archive.org/download/Glass_201703/Glass_201703_archive.torrent
+

+ +

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

- Tags: norsk. + Tags: english, verkidetfri, video.
@@ -127,64 +159,55 @@ nabolaget for oss som liker å bygge litt selv. :)

- -
29th September 2017
-

Every mobile phone announce its existence over radio to the nearby -mobile cell towers. And this radio chatter is available for anyone -with a radio receiver capable of receiving them. Details about the -mobile phones with very good accuracy is of course collected by the -phone companies, but this is not the topic of this blog post. The -mobile phone radio chatter make it possible to figure out when a cell -phone is nearby, as it include the SIM card ID (IMSI). By paying -attention over time, one can see when a phone arrive and when it leave -an area. I believe it would be nice to make this information more -available to the general public, to make more people aware of how -their phones are announcing their whereabouts to anyone that care to -listen.

- -

I am very happy to report that we managed to get something -visualizing this information up and running for -Oslo Skaperfestival 2017 -(Oslo Makers Festival) taking place today and tomorrow at Deichmanske -library. The solution is based on the -simple -recipe for listening to GSM chatter I posted a few days ago, and -will show up at the stand of Åpen -Sone from the Computer Science department of the University of -Oslo. The presentation will show the nearby mobile phones (aka -IMSIs) as dots in a web browser graph, with lines to the dot -representing mobile base station it is talking to. It was working in -the lab yesterday, and was moved into place this morning.

- -

We set up a fairly powerful desktop machine using Debian -Buster/Testing with several (five, I believe) RTL2838 DVB-T receivers -connected and visualize the visible cell phone towers using an -English version of -Hopglass. A fairly powerfull machine is needed as the -grgsm_livemon_headless processes from -gr-gsm converting -the radio signal to data packages is quite CPU intensive.

- -

The frequencies to listen to, are identified using a slightly -patched scan-and-livemon (to set the --args values for each receiver), -and the Hopglass data is generated using the -patches -in my meshviewer-output branch. For some reason we could not get -more than four SDRs working. There is also a geographical map trying -to show the location of the base stations, but I believe their -coordinates are hardcoded to some random location in Germany, I -believe. The code should be replaced with code to look up location in -a text file, a sqlite database or one of the online databases -mentioned in -the github -issue for the topic. - -

If this sound interesting, visit the stand at the festival!

+ +
11th December 2018
+

FNs +menneskerettighetserklæring artikkel 13 første punkt lyder som +følger:

+ +

+Enhver har rett til å bevege seg fritt og til fritt å velge +oppholdssted innenfor en stats grenser. +

+ +

Det er altsÃ¥ en menneskerett Ã¥ kunne bevege seg fritt i landet. +For Ã¥ bevege seg fritt i landet, sÃ¥ mÃ¥ en kunne bevege seg uten Ã¥ bli +sporet. Det vil i dagens samfunn innebære Ã¥ bevege seg uten Ã¥ legge +igjen digitale spor og uten Ã¥ være radiomerket. Hvis en vet at ens +bevegelser, hvor en befinner seg nÃ¥r, og hvem som befinner seg i +nærheten, blir samlet inn og gjort tilgjengelig for fremmede, det være +seg myndighetene eller private organisasjoner, sÃ¥ kan en ikke lenger +bevege seg fritt. Dette gjør at det er en forutsetning for Ã¥ ha glede +av retten til Ã¥ bevege seg fritt i landet at en motstÃ¥r fristelsen til +Ã¥ legge igjen digitale spor nÃ¥r en betaler for seg. Rettigheter som +ikke blir brukt, blir fjernet. Den eneste mÃ¥ten i dag Ã¥ unngÃ¥ Ã¥ legge +igjen digitale spor nÃ¥r en betaler for seg, er Ã¥ betale med kontanter, +samt takke nei til Ã¥ legge igjen navn og adresse (slik f.eks. Elkjøp +ber om — jeg sier de kan legge inn «anonym anonym» nÃ¥r +datasystemet deres trenger et navn). Personlig anbefaler jeg Ã¥ +konsekvent bruke kontant betaling nÃ¥r man beveger seg rundt, for Ã¥ +bidra til forsvaret av menneskerettighetene i Norge. Kanskje noe ogsÃ¥ +for deg? Merk at det ikke er tilstrekkelig for Ã¥ unngÃ¥ sporing Ã¥ +betale med kontanter, men det er et lite steg i riktig retning.

+ +

Det er flere andre argumenter i tillegg til +menneskerettighetsargumentet for å bruke kontanter. I går hadde +Dagbladet en utmerket kommentar av sin journalist John Olav Egeland om +hvilket +kontantløst +diktatur som venter oss hvis mange nok slutter å insistere på å +betale med kontanter. Jeg anbefaler deg å lese den.

+ +

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 +15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b. +Merk, betaling med bitcoin er ikke anonymt. :)

@@ -192,83 +215,45 @@ issue for the topic.
- -
24th September 2017
-

A little more than a month ago I wrote -how -to observe the SIM card ID (aka IMSI number) of mobile phones talking -to nearby mobile phone base stations using Debian GNU/Linux and a -cheap USB software defined radio, and thus being able to pinpoint -the location of people and equipment (like cars and trains) with an -accuracy of a few kilometer. Since then we have worked to make the -procedure even simpler, and it is now possible to do this without any -manual frequency tuning and without building your own packages.

- -

The gr-gsm -package is now included in Debian testing and unstable, and the -IMSI-catcher code no longer require root access to fetch and decode -the GSM data collected using gr-gsm.

- -

Here is an updated recipe, using packages built by Debian and a git -clone of two python scripts:

- -
    - -
  1. Start with a Debian machine running the Buster version (aka - testing).
  2. - -
  3. Run 'apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy - python-scapy' as root to install required packages.
  4. - -
  5. Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using 'git clone - github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git'.
  6. - -
  7. Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.
  8. - -
  9. Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'python - scan-and-livemon' to locate the frequency of nearby base - stations and start listening for GSM packages on one of them.
  10. - -
  11. Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'python - simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to display the collected information.
  12. - -
- -

Note, due to a bug somewhere the scan-and-livemon program (actually -its underlying -program grgsm_scanner) do not work with the HackRF radio. It does -work with RTL 8232 and other similar USB radio receivers you can get -very cheaply -(for example -from ebay), so for now the solution is to scan using the RTL radio -and only use HackRF for fetching GSM data.

- -

As far as I can tell, a cell phone only show up on one of the -frequencies at the time, so if you are going to track and count every -cell phone around you, you need to listen to all the frequencies used. -To listen to several frequencies, use the --numrecv argument to -scan-and-livemon to use several receivers. Further, I am not sure if -phones using 3G or 4G will show as talking GSM to base stations, so -this approach might not see all phones around you. I typically see -0-400 IMSI numbers an hour when looking around where I live.

- -

I've tried to run the scanner on a -Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 -running Debian Buster, but the grgsm_livemon_headless process seem -to be too CPU intensive to keep up. When GNU Radio print 'O' to -stdout, I am told there it is caused by a buffer overflow between the -radio and GNU Radio, caused by the program being unable to read the -GSM data fast enough. If you see a stream of 'O's from the terminal -where you started scan-and-livemon, you need a give the process more -CPU power. Perhaps someone are able to optimize the code to a point -where it become possible to set up RPi3 based GSM sniffers? I tried -using Raspbian instead of Debian, but there seem to be something wrong -with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().

+ +
9th December 2018
+

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching on Frikanalen the OWASP +talk by Scott Helme titled +"What We’ve Learned From +Billions of Security Reports". I had not heard of the +Content +Security Policy standard nor its ability to "call home" when a +browser detect a policy breach (I do not follow web page design +development much these days), and found the talk very illuminating.

+ +

The mechanism allow a web site owner to use HTTP headers to tell +visitors web browser which sources (internal and external) are allowed to +be used on the web site. Thus it become possible to enforce a "only +local content" policy despite web designers urge to fetch programs +from random sites on the Internet, like the one +enabling +the attack reported by Scott Helme earlier this year.

+ +

Using CSP seem like an obvious thing for a site admin to implement +to take some control over the information leak that occur when +external sources are used to render web pages, it is a mystery more +sites are not using CSP? It is being +standardized under W3C these +days, and is supposed by most web browsers

+ +

I managed to find a +Django middleware for implementing CSP and was happy to discover +it was already in Debian. I plan to use it to add CSP support to the +Frikanalen web site soon.

+ +

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

@@ -276,54 +261,46 @@ with GNU Radio on raspbian, causing glibc to abort().

- -
7th September 2017
-

For noen dager siden publiserte Jon Wessel-Aas en bloggpost om -«Konklusjonen om datalagring som -EU-kommisjonen ikke ville at vi skulle få se». Det er en -interessant gjennomgang av EU-domstolens syn på snurpenotovervåkning -av befolkningen, som er klar på at det er i strid med -EU-lovgivingen.

- -

Valgkampen går for fullt i Norge, og om noen få dager er siste -frist for å avgi stemme. En ting er sikkert, Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet -får ikke min stemme -denne -gangen heller. Jeg har ikke glemt at de tvang igjennom loven som -skulle pålegge alle data- og teletjenesteleverandører å overvåke alle -sine kunder. En lov som er vedtatt, og aldri opphevet igjen.

- -

Det er tydelig fra diskusjonen rundt grenseløs digital overvåkning -(eller "Digital Grenseforsvar" som det kalles i Orvellisk nytale) at -hverken Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet har noen prinsipielle sperrer mot å -overvåke hele befolkningen, og diskusjonen så langt tyder på at flere -av de andre partiene heller ikke har det. Mange av -de som stemte -for Datalagringsdirektivet i Stortinget (64 fra Arbeiderpartiet, -25 fra Høyre) er fortsatt aktive og argumenterer fortsatt for å radere -vekk mer av innbyggernes privatsfære.

- -

Når myndighetene demonstrerer sin mistillit til folket, tror jeg -folket selv bør legge litt innsats i å verne sitt privatliv, ved å ta -i bruk ende-til-ende-kryptert kommunikasjon med sine kjente og kjære, -og begrense hvor mye privat informasjon som deles med uvedkommende. -Det er jo ingenting som tyder på at myndighetene kommer til å være vår -privatsfære. -Det -er mange muligheter. Selv har jeg litt sans for -Ring, som er basert på p2p-teknologi -uten sentral kontroll, er fri programvare, og støtter meldinger, tale -og video. Systemet er tilgjengelig ut av boksen fra -Debian og -Ubuntu, og det -finnes pakker for Android, MacOSX og Windows. Foreløpig er det få -brukere med Ring, slik at jeg også bruker -Signal som nettleserutvidelse.

+ +
8th November 2018
+

If you read my blog regularly, you probably know I am involved in +running and developing the Norwegian +TV channel Frikanalen. It is an open channel, allowing everyone +in Norway to publish videos on a TV channel with national coverage. +You can think of it as Youtube for national television. +In addition to distribution on RiksTV and Uninett, Frikanalen is also +available as a Kodi addon. The last few days I have updated the code +to add more features. A +new +and improved version 0.0.3 Frikanalen addon was just made +available via the Kodi repositories. This new version include a +option to browse videos by category, as well as free text search +in the video archive. It will now also show the video duration in the +video lists, which were missing earlier. A new and experimental +link to the HD video stream currently being worked on is provided, for +those that want to see what the CasparCG +output look like. The alternative is the SD video stream, generated +using MLT. CasparCG is controlled by our +mltplayout +server which instead of talking to mlt is giving PLAY instructions +to the CasparCG server when it is time to start a new program.

+ +

By now, you are probably wondering what kind of content is being +played on the channel. These days, it is filled with technical +presentations like those from NUUG, +Debconf, Makercon, and TED, +but there are also some periods with +EMPT TV and +P7. + +

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

@@ -331,96 +308,42 @@ brukere med Ring, slik at jeg også bruker
- -
9th August 2017
-

On friday, I came across an interesting article in the Norwegian -web based ICT news magazine digi.no on -how -to collect the IMSI numbers of nearby cell phones using the cheap -DVB-T software defined radios. The article refered to instructions -and a recipe by -Keld Norman on Youtube on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher, and I decided to test them out.

- -

The instructions said to use Ubuntu, install pip using apt (to -bypass apt), use pip to install pybombs (to bypass both apt and pip), -and the ask pybombs to fetch and build everything you need from -scratch. I wanted to see if I could do the same on the most recent -Debian packages, but this did not work because pybombs tried to build -stuff that no longer build with the most recent openssl library or -some other version skew problem. While trying to get this recipe -working, I learned that the apt->pip->pybombs route was a long detour, -and the only piece of software dependency missing in Debian was the -gr-gsm package. I also found out that the lead upstream developer of -gr-gsm (the name stand for GNU Radio GSM) project already had a set of -Debian packages provided in an Ubuntu PPA repository. All I needed to -do was to dget the Debian source package and built it.

- -

The IMSI collector is a python script listening for packages on the -loopback network device and printing to the terminal some specific GSM -packages with IMSI numbers in them. The code is fairly short and easy -to understand. The reason this work is because gr-gsm include a tool -to read GSM data from a software defined radio like a DVB-T USB stick -and other software defined radios, decode them and inject them into a -network device on your Linux machine (using the loopback device by -default). This proved to work just fine, and I've been testing the -collector for a few days now.

- -

The updated and simpler recipe is thus to

- -
    - -
  1. start with a Debian machine running Stretch or newer,
  2. - -
  3. build and install the gr-gsm package available from -http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/,
  4. - -
  5. clone the git repostory from https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher,
  6. - -
  7. run grgsm_livemon and adjust the frequency until the terminal -where it was started is filled with a stream of text (meaning you -found a GSM station).
  8. - -
  9. go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.
  10. - -
- -

To make it even easier in the future to get this sniffer up and -running, I decided to package -the gr-gsm project -for Debian (WNPP -#871055), and the package was uploaded into the NEW queue today. -Luckily the gnuradio maintainer has promised to help me, as I do not -know much about gnuradio stuff yet.

- -

I doubt this "IMSI cacher" is anywhere near as powerfull as -commercial tools like -The -Spy Phone Portable IMSI / IMEI Catcher or the -Harris -Stingray, but I hope the existance of cheap alternatives can make -more people realise how their whereabouts when carrying a cell phone -is easily tracked. Seeing the data flow on the screen, realizing that -I live close to a police station and knowing that the police is also -wearing cell phones, I wonder how hard it would be for criminals to -track the position of the police officers to discover when there are -police near by, or for foreign military forces to track the location -of the Norwegian military forces, or for anyone to track the location -of government officials...

- -

It is worth noting that the data reported by the IMSI-catcher -script mentioned above is only a fraction of the data broadcasted on -the GSM network. It will only collect one frequency at the time, -while a typical phone will be using several frequencies, and not all -phones will be using the frequencies tracked by the grgsm_livemod -program. Also, there is a lot of radio chatter being ignored by the -simple_IMSI-catcher script, which would be collected by extending the -parser code. I wonder if gr-gsm can be set up to listen to more than -one frequency?

+ +
1st November 2018
+

As part of my involvement in +the Nikita +archive API project, 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 my +notmuch email database, 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 +an +official MIME type 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.

+ +

To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought +up the topic on +the +media-types mailing list. 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?

+ +

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

@@ -428,37 +351,79 @@ one frequency?

- -
25th July 2017
-

- -

I finally received a copy of the Norwegian Bokmål edition of -"The Debian Administrator's -Handbook". This test copy arrived in the mail a few days ago, and -I am very happy to hold the result in my hand. We spent around one and a half year translating it. This paperbook edition -is available -from lulu.com. If you buy it quickly, you save 25% on the list -price. The book is also available for download in electronic form as -PDF, EPUB and Mobipocket, as can be -read online -as a web page.

- -

This is the second book I publish (the first was the book -"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig -in -English, -French -and -Norwegian -Bokmål), and I am very excited to finally wrap up this -project. I hope -"Håndbok -for Debian-administratoren" will be well received.

+ +
22nd October 2018
+

+ +

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 +Speaker +Testing and Analysis describing how to test speakers, and it listing +several software options, among them +AUDio MEasurement +System (AUDMES). 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 +Understanding +Speaker Specifications and Frequency Response and an article from +ecoustics on +Understanding +Speaker Frequency Response, 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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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 +Free Hearing Test +Software, 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.

+ +

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 +include in Debian? 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 +REW, but I want something +that can be developed also when the vendor looses interest.

+ +

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

@@ -466,50 +431,67 @@ for Debian-administratoren" will be well received.

- -
27th June 2017
-

Jeg kom over teksten -«Killing -car privacy by federal mandate» av Leonid Reyzin på Freedom to -Tinker i dag, og det gleder meg å se en god gjennomgang om hvorfor det -er et urimelig inngrep i privatsfæren å la alle biler kringkaste sin -posisjon og bevegelse via radio. Det omtalte forslaget basert på -Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) kalles Basic Safety Message -(BSM) i USA og Cooperative Awareness Message (CAM) i Europa, og det -norske Vegvesenet er en av de som ser ut til å kunne tenke seg å -pålegge alle biler å fjerne nok en bit av innbyggernes privatsfære. -Anbefaler alle å lese det som står der. - -

Mens jeg tittet litt på DSRC på biler i Norge kom jeg over et sitat -jeg synes er illustrativt for hvordan det offentlige Norge håndterer -problemstillinger rundt innbyggernes privatsfære i SINTEF-rapporten -«Informasjonssikkerhet -i AutoPASS-brikker» av Trond Foss:

- -

-«Rapporten ser ikke på informasjonssikkerhet knyttet til personlig - integritet.» -

- -

Så enkelt kan det tydeligvis gjøres når en vurderer -informasjonssikkerheten. Det holder vel at folkene på toppen kan si -at «Personvernet er ivaretatt», som jo er den populære intetsigende -frasen som gjør at mange tror enkeltindividers integritet tas vare på. -Sitatet fikk meg til å undres på hvor ofte samme tilnærming, å bare se -bort fra behovet for personlig itegritet, blir valgt når en velger å -legge til rette for nok et inngrep i privatsfæren til personer i -Norge. Det er jo sjelden det får reaksjoner. Historien om -reaksjonene på Helse Sør-Østs tjenesteutsetting er jo sørgelig nok et -unntak og toppen av isfjellet, desverre. Tror jeg fortsatt takker nei -til både AutoPASS og holder meg så langt unna det norske helsevesenet -som jeg kan, inntil de har demonstrert og dokumentert at de verdsetter -individets privatsfære og personlige integritet høyere enn kortsiktig -gevist og samfunnsnytte.

+ +
21st October 2018
+

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 +NRK, Linux distributors like +Debian and +Ubuntu, and of course the +Internet archive. + +

Almost a month ago +a new +package adding Bittorrent support to VLC became available in +Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like +this:

+ +

+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+

+ +

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 +Internet +Archive page with movies using a web browser and click on the +torrent link to start streaming the movie.

+ +

Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the +fact that it will hang and +block VLC +from exiting until the torrent streaming starts. Another is the +fact that it +will pick +and play a random file in a multi file torrent. 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.

+ +

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.

+ +

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

@@ -517,66 +499,80 @@ gevist og samfunnsnytte.

- -
12th June 2017
-

It is pleasing to see that the work we put down in publishing new -editions of the classic Free -Culture book by the founder of the Creative Commons movement, -Lawrence Lessig, is still being appreciated. I had a look at the -latest sales numbers for the paper edition today. Not too impressive, -but happy to see some buyers still exist. All the revenue from the -books is sent to the Creative -Commons Corporation, and they receive the largest cut if you buy -directly from Lulu. Most books are sold via Amazon, with Ingram -second and only a small fraction directly from Lulu. The ebook -edition is available for free from -Github.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Title / languageQuantity
2016 jan-jun2016 jul-dec2017 jan-may
Culture Libre / French3615
Fri kultur / Norwegian710
Free Culture / English142716
Total243431
- -

A bit sad to see the low sales number on the Norwegian edition, and -a bit surprising the English edition still selling so well.

- -

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.

+ +
18th October 2018
+

This morning, the new release of the +Nikita +Noark 5 core project was +announced +on the project mailing list. 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): + +

    +
  • Fix typos in REL names
  • +
  • Tidy up error message reporting
  • +
  • Fix issue where we used Integer.valueOf(), not Integer.getInteger()
  • +
  • Change some String handling to StringBuffer
  • +
  • Fix error reporting
  • +
  • Code tidy-up
  • +
  • Fix issue using static non-synchronized SimpleDateFormat to avoid + race conditions
  • +
  • Fix problem where deserialisers were treating integers as strings
  • +
  • Update methods to make them null-safe
  • +
  • Fix many issues reported by coverity
  • +
  • Improve equals(), compareTo() and hash() in domain model
  • +
  • Improvements to the domain model for metadata classes
  • +
  • Fix CORS issues when downloading document
  • +
  • Implementation of case-handling with registryEntry and document upload
  • +
  • Better support in Javascript for OPTIONS
  • +
  • Adding concept description of mail integration
  • +
  • Improve setting of default values for GET on ny-journalpost
  • +
  • Better handling of required values during deserialisation
  • +
  • Changed tilknyttetDato (M620) from date to dateTime
  • +
  • Corrected some opprettetDato (M600) (de)serialisation errors.
  • +
  • Improve parse error reporting.
  • +
  • Started on OData search and filtering.
  • +
  • Added Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct to project.
  • +
  • Moved repository and project from Github to Gitlab.
  • +
  • Restructured repository, moved code into src/ and web/.
  • +
  • Updated code to use Spring Boot version 2.
  • +
  • Added support for OAuth2 authentication.
  • +
  • Fixed several bugs discovered by Coverity.
  • +
  • Corrected handling of date/datetime fields.
  • +
  • Improved error reporting when rejecting during deserializatoin.
  • +
  • Adjusted default values provided for ny-arkivdel, ny-mappe, + ny-saksmappe, ny-journalpost and ny-dokumentbeskrivelse.
  • +
  • Several fixes for korrespondansepart*.
  • +
  • Updated web GUI: +
      +
    • Now handle both file upload and download.
    • +
    • Uses new OAuth2 authentication for login.
    • +
    • Forms now fetches default values from API using GET.
    • +
    • Added RFC 822 (email), TIFF and JPEG to list of possible file formats.
    • +
  • +
+ +

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(-).

+ +

If free and open standardized archiving API sound interesting to +you, please contact us on IRC +(#nikita on +irc.freenode.net) or email +(nikita-noark +mailing list).

+ +

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

@@ -591,6 +587,40 @@ touch.

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