X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/d5816478765e883a3f90c71012cf648fca1bf5c1..5979d8b1ab077e22b3092c31ce751a69c1c62585:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index a7a884060e..f2f34cd091 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,58 +20,288 @@
-
Sales number for the Free Culture translation, first half of 2016
-
5th August 2016
-

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

- -

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

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

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

- -

The ebook edition is available for free from -Github.

- -

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

+
Locating IMDB IDs of movies in the Internet Archive using Wikidata
+
25th October 2017
+

Recently, I needed to automatically check the copyright status of a +set of The Internet Movie database +(IMDB) entries, to figure out which one of the movies they refer +to can be freely distributed on the Internet. This proved to be +harder than it sounds. IMDB for sure list movies without any +copyright protection, where the copyright protection has expired or +where the movie is lisenced using a permissive license like one from +Creative Commons. These are mixed with copyright protected movies, +and there seem to be no way to separate these classes of movies using +the information in IMDB.

+ +

First I tried to look up entries manually in IMDB, +Wikipedia and +The Internet Archive, to get a +feel how to do this. It is hard to know for sure using these sources, +but it should be possible to be reasonable confident a movie is "out +of copyright" with a few hours work per movie. As I needed to check +almost 20,000 entries, this approach was not sustainable. I simply +can not work around the clock for about 6 years to check this data +set.

+ +

I asked the people behind The Internet Archive if they could +introduce a new metadata field in their metadata XML for IMDB ID, but +was told that they leave it completely to the uploaders to update the +metadata. Some of the metadata entries had IMDB links in the +description, but I found no way to download all metadata files in bulk +to locate those ones and put that approach aside.

+ +

In the process I noticed several Wikipedia articles about movies +had links to both IMDB and The Internet Archive, and it occured to me +that I could use the Wikipedia RDF data set to locate entries with +both, to at least get a lower bound on the number of movies on The +Internet Archive with a IMDB ID. This is useful based on the +assumption that movies distributed by The Internet Archive can be +legally distributed on the Internet. With some help from the RDF +community (thank you DanC), I was able to come up with this query to +pass to the SPARQL interface on +Wikidata: + +

+SELECT ?work ?imdb ?ia ?when ?label
+WHERE
+{
+  ?work wdt:P31/wdt:P279* wd:Q11424.
+  ?work wdt:P345 ?imdb.
+  ?work wdt:P724 ?ia.
+  OPTIONAL {
+        ?work wdt:P577 ?when.
+        ?work rdfs:label ?label.
+        FILTER(LANG(?label) = "en").
+  }
+}
+

+ +

If I understand the query right, for every film entry anywhere in +Wikpedia, it will return the IMDB ID and The Internet Archive ID, and +when the movie was released and its English title, if either or both +of the latter two are available. At the moment the result set contain +2338 entries. Of course, it depend on volunteers including both +correct IMDB and The Internet Archive IDs in the wikipedia articles +for the movie. It should be noted that the result will include +duplicates if the movie have entries in several languages. There are +some bogus entries, either because The Internet Archive ID contain a +typo or because the movie is not available from The Internet Archive. +I did not verify the IMDB IDs, as I am unsure how to do that +automatically.

+ +

I wrote a small python script to extract the data set from Wikidata +and check if the XML metadata for the movie is available from The +Internet Archive, and after around 1.5 hour it produced a list of 2097 +free movies and their IMDB ID. In total, 171 entries in Wikidata lack +the refered Internet Archive entry. I assume the 60 "disappearing" +entries (ie 2338-2097-171) are duplicate entries.

+ +

This is not too bad, given that The Internet Archive report to +contain 5331 +feature films at the moment, but it also mean more than 3000 +movies are missing on Wikipedia or are missing the pair of references +on Wikipedia.

+ +

I was curious about the distribution by release year, and made a +little graph to show how the amount of free movies is spread over the +years:

+ +

+ +

I expect the relative distribution of the remaining 3000 movies to +be similar.

+ +

If you want to help, and want to ensure Wikipedia can be used to +cross reference The Internet Archive and The Internet Movie Database, +please make sure entries like this are listed under the "External +links" heading on the Wikipedia article for the movie:

+ +

+* {{Internet Archive film|id=FightingLady}}
+* {{IMDb title|id=0036823|title=The Fighting Lady}}
+

+ +

Please verify the links on the final page, to make sure you did not +introduce a typo.

+ +

Here is the complete list, if you want to correct the 171 +identified Wikipedia entries with broken links to The Internet +Archive: Q1140317, +Q458656, +Q458656, +Q470560, +Q743340, +Q822580, +Q480696, +Q128761, +Q1307059, +Q1335091, +Q1537166, +Q1438334, +Q1479751, +Q1497200, +Q1498122, +Q865973, +Q834269, +Q841781, +Q841781, +Q1548193, +Q499031, +Q1564769, +Q1585239, +Q1585569, +Q1624236, +Q4796595, +Q4853469, +Q4873046, +Q915016, +Q4660396, +Q4677708, +Q4738449, +Q4756096, +Q4766785, +Q880357, +Q882066, +Q882066, +Q204191, +Q204191, +Q1194170, +Q940014, +Q946863, +Q172837, +Q573077, +Q1219005, +Q1219599, +Q1643798, +Q1656352, +Q1659549, +Q1660007, +Q1698154, +Q1737980, +Q1877284, +Q1199354, +Q1199354, +Q1199451, +Q1211871, +Q1212179, +Q1238382, +Q4906454, +Q320219, +Q1148649, +Q645094, +Q5050350, +Q5166548, +Q2677926, +Q2698139, +Q2707305, +Q2740725, +Q2024780, +Q2117418, +Q2138984, +Q1127992, +Q1058087, +Q1070484, +Q1080080, +Q1090813, +Q1251918, +Q1254110, +Q1257070, +Q1257079, +Q1197410, +Q1198423, +Q706951, +Q723239, +Q2079261, +Q1171364, +Q617858, +Q5166611, +Q5166611, +Q324513, +Q374172, +Q7533269, +Q970386, +Q976849, +Q7458614, +Q5347416, +Q5460005, +Q5463392, +Q3038555, +Q5288458, +Q2346516, +Q5183645, +Q5185497, +Q5216127, +Q5223127, +Q5261159, +Q1300759, +Q5521241, +Q7733434, +Q7736264, +Q7737032, +Q7882671, +Q7719427, +Q7719444, +Q7722575, +Q2629763, +Q2640346, +Q2649671, +Q7703851, +Q7747041, +Q6544949, +Q6672759, +Q2445896, +Q12124891, +Q3127044, +Q2511262, +Q2517672, +Q2543165, +Q426628, +Q426628, +Q12126890, +Q13359969, +Q13359969, +Q2294295, +Q2294295, +Q2559509, +Q2559912, +Q7760469, +Q6703974, +Q4744, +Q7766962, +Q7768516, +Q7769205, +Q7769988, +Q2946945, +Q3212086, +Q3212086, +Q18218448, +Q18218448, +Q18218448, +Q6909175, +Q7405709, +Q7416149, +Q7239952, +Q7317332, +Q7783674, +Q7783704, +Q7857590, +Q3372526, +Q3372642, +Q3372816, +Q3372909, +Q7959649, +Q7977485, +Q7992684, +Q3817966, +Q3821852, +Q3420907, +Q3429733, +Q774474

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: english, opphavsrett.
@@ -79,40 +309,26 @@ touch.

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

+
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?

- Tags: norsk, skepsis. + Tags: english.
@@ -120,51 +336,48 @@ administratoren der, så hadde jeg brukt weblate i stedet.

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

+
Generating 3D prints in Debian using Cura and Slic3r(-prusa)
+
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.

- Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + Tags: 3d-printer, debian, english.
@@ -172,90 +385,30 @@ Frikanalen and NUUG. Check it out. :)

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

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

- -

-fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
-

- -

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

+
Mangler du en skrue, eller har du en skrue løs?
+
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. :)

- Tags: bootsystem, debian, english, opphavsrett, sikkerhet. + Tags: norsk.
@@ -263,112 +416,64 @@ install Debian on it. :)

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

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

- -

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

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

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

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

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

- -

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

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

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

- -

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

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

+
Visualizing GSM radio chatter using gr-gsm and Hopglass
+
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!

- Tags: debian, english, sikkerhet, surveillance. + Tags: debian, english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -376,46 +481,83 @@ using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

+
Easier recipe to observe the cell phones around you
+
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. + +
  2. Run 'apt install gr-gsm python-numpy python-scipy + python-scapy' as root to install required packages.
    3. + +
  3. Fetch the code decoding GSM packages using 'git clone + github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher.git'.
    4. + +
  4. Insert USB software defined radio supported by GNU Radio.
    5. + +
  5. 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.
    6. + +
  6. Enter the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'python + simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to display the collected information.
    7. + +
+ +

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().

- Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video. + Tags: debian, english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -423,118 +565,54 @@ formats.

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

+
Datalagringsdirektivet kaster skygger over Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet
+
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.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: dld, norsk, personvern, stortinget, surveillance, valg.
@@ -542,36 +620,96 @@ fixed. :)

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

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

- -

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

- -

- -

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

+
Simpler recipe on how to make a simple $7 IMSI Catcher using Debian
+
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. + +
  2. build and install the gr-gsm package available from +http://ppa.launchpad.net/ptrkrysik/gr-gsm/ubuntu/pool/main/g/gr-gsm/,
    3. + +
  3. clone the git repostory from https://github.com/Oros42/IMSI-catcher,
    4. + +
  4. 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).
    5. + +
  5. go into the IMSI-catcher directory and run 'sudo python simple_IMSI-catcher.py' to extract the IMSI numbers.
    6. + +
+ +

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?

- Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + Tags: debian, english, personvern, surveillance.
@@ -579,67 +717,37 @@ want to help the military in USA (and everyone else), use Tor. :)

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

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

+
Norwegian Bokmål edition of Debian Administrator's Handbook is now available
+
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.

- Tags: debian, english, isenkram. + Tags: debian, debian-handbook, english.
@@ -647,62 +755,50 @@ blog posts about isenkram to learn how to do that.

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

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

- -

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

- -

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

- -

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

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

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: norsk, personvern, sikkerhet.
@@ -717,6 +813,29 @@ activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address

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