X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e195aeaf7d9f1b07922f8963c5ff4fda67c8ed87..53798080ccfe7c0d9ad356a83ded5b219b186c9b:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 46783d2750..0a657f587a 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -7,812 +7,664 @@ - The life and death of a laptop battery - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html - Thu, 24 Sep 2015 16:00:00 +0200 - <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK. -But this do not last. The last few laptops gave me a feeling that -within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be, -and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected -all the time. Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop -about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have -more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p> - -<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/> - -<p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the -battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled -by someone else. I found -<a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>, -which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely -broken. I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to -write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback -from him. Via -<a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a -blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also -discovered -<a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not -available in Debian.</p> - -<p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting -battery stats ever since. Now my -/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000 -measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now, -when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity. My -collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p> - -<pre> -#!/bin/sh -# Inspired by -# http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html -# See also -# http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/ -logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log - -files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \ - energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status" - -if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then - ( - printf "timestamp," - for f in $files; do - printf "%s," $f - done - echo - ) > "$logfile" -fi - -log_battery() { - # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition - # when several log processes run in parallel. - msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \ - for f in $files; do \ - printf "%s," $(cat $f); \ - done) - echo "$msg" -} - -cd /sys/class/power_supply - -for bat in BAT*; do - (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile") -done -</pre> - -<p>The script is called when the power management system detect a -change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into -and out of hibernation and suspend. In addition, it collect a value -every 10 minutes. This make it possible for me know when the battery -is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time. -The code for the Debian package -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now -available on github</a>.</p> - -<p>The collected log file look like this:</p> - -<pre> -timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status, -1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging, + Detecting NFS hangs on Linux without hanging yourself... + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detecting_NFS_hangs_on_Linux_without_hanging_yourself___.html + Thu, 9 Mar 2017 15:20:00 +0100 + <p>Over the years, administrating thousand of NFS mounting linux +computers at the time, I often needed a way to detect if the machine +was experiencing NFS hang. If you try to use <tt>df</tt> or look at a +file or directory affected by the hang, the process (and possibly the +shell) will hang too. So you want to be able to detect this without +risking the detection process getting stuck too. It has not been +obvious how to do this. When the hang has lasted a while, it is +possible to find messages like these in dmesg:</p> + +<p><blockquote> +nfs: server nfsserver not responding, still trying +<br>nfs: server nfsserver OK +</blockquote></p> + +<p>It is hard to know if the hang is still going on, and it is hard to +be sure looking in dmesg is going to work. If there are lots of other +messages in dmesg the lines might have rotated out of site before they +are noticed.</p> + +<p>While reading through the nfs client implementation in linux kernel +code, I came across some statistics that seem to give a way to detect +it. The om_timeouts sunrpc value in the kernel will increase every +time the above log entry is inserted into dmesg. And after digging a +bit further, I discovered that this value show up in +/proc/self/mountstats on Linux.</p> + +<p>The mountstats content seem to be shared between files using the +same file system context, so it is enough to check one of the +mountstats files to get the state of the mount point for the machine. +I assume this will not show lazy umounted NFS points, nor NFS mount +points in a different process context (ie with a different filesystem +view), but that does not worry me.</p> + +<p>The content for a NFS mount point look similar to this:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> [...] -1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full, -1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full, -</pre> - -<p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development -over time. This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop -battery.</p> - -<p>But why is this happening? Why are my laptop batteries always -dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and -satellites keep working year after year. If we are to believe -<a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery -University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a -chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100% -all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time. -I've been told that the Tesla electric cars -<a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit -the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to -100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car -like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another -story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on -Linux too.</p> - -<p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to -stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in -preparation for a longer trip? I found -<a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one -recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to -80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to -load).</p> - -<p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100% -at the start. I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some -times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery -back to design capacity. And I wonder if the discharge and charge -speed change over time, or if this stay the same. I did not yet try -to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery -level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from -those.</p> - -<p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages -acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable) -packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use -initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start -and stop. I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast -and need to be replaced. The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad -specific.</p> - - - - - Book cover for the Free Culture book finally done - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Book_cover_for_the_Free_Culture_book_finally_done.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Book_cover_for_the_Free_Culture_book_finally_done.html - Thu, 3 Sep 2015 21:00:00 +0200 - <p>Creating a good looking book cover proved harder than I expected. -I wanted to create a cover looking similar to the original cover of -the -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Free -Culture</a> book we are translating to Norwegian, and I wanted it in -vector format for high resolution printing. But my inkscape knowledge -were not nearly good enough to pull that off. - -<p>But thanks to the great inkscape community, I was able to wrap up -the cover yesterday evening. I asked on the -<a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23inkscape">#inkscape IRC channel</a> -on Freenode for help and clues, and Marc Jeanmougin (Mc-) volunteered -to try to recreate it based on the PDF of the cover from the HTML -version. Not only did he create a -<a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/copy1.svg ">SVG document with -the original and his vector version side by side</a>, he even provided -an <a href="https://marc.jeanmougin.fr/share/out-1.ogv">instruction -video</a> explaining how he did it</a>. But the instruction video is -not easy to follow for an untrained inkscape user. The video is a -recording on how he did it, and he is obviously very experienced as -the menu selections are very quick and he mentioned on IRC that he did -use some keyboard shortcuts that can't be seen on the video, but it -give a good idea about the inkscape operations to use to create the -stripes with the embossed copyright sign in the center.</p> - -<p>I took his SVG file, copied the vector image and re-sized it to fit -on the cover I was drawing. I am happy with the end result, and the -current english version look like this:</p> - -<img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-03-free-culture-cover.png" width="70%" align="center"/> - -<p>I am not quite sure about the text on the back, but guess it will -do. I picked three quotes from the official site for the book, and -hope it will work to trigger the interest of potential readers. The -Norwegian cover will look the same, but with the texts and bar code -replaced with the Norwegian version.</p> - -<p>The book is very close to being ready for publication, and I expect -to upload the final draft to Lulu in the next few days and order a -final proof reading copy to verify that everything look like it should -before allowing everyone to order their own copy of Free Culture, in -English or Norwegian Bokmål. I'm waiting to give the the productive -proof readers a chance to complete their work.</p> +device /dev/mapper/Debian-var mounted on /var with fstype ext3 +device nfsserver:/mnt/nfsserver/home0 mounted on /mnt/nfsserver/home0 with fstype nfs statvers=1.1 + opts: rw,vers=3,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,namlen=255,acregmin=3,acregmax=60,acdirmin=30,acdirmax=60,soft,nolock,proto=tcp,timeo=600,retrans=2,sec=sys,mountaddr=129.240.3.145,mountvers=3,mountport=4048,mountproto=udp,local_lock=all + age: 7863311 + caps: caps=0x3fe7,wtmult=4096,dtsize=8192,bsize=0,namlen=255 + sec: flavor=1,pseudoflavor=1 + events: 61063112 732346265 1028140 35486205 16220064 8162542 761447191 71714012 37189 3891185 45561809 110486139 4850138 420353 15449177 296502 52736725 13523379 0 52182 9016896 1231 0 0 0 0 0 + bytes: 166253035039 219519120027 0 0 40783504807 185466229638 11677877 45561809 + RPC iostats version: 1.0 p/v: 100003/3 (nfs) + xprt: tcp 925 1 6810 0 0 111505412 111480497 109 2672418560317 0 248 53869103 22481820 + per-op statistics + NULL: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 + GETATTR: 61063106 61063108 0 9621383060 6839064400 453650 77291321 78926132 + SETATTR: 463469 463470 0 92005440 66739536 63787 603235 687943 + LOOKUP: 17021657 17021657 0 3354097764 4013442928 57216 35125459 35566511 + ACCESS: 14281703 14290009 5 2318400592 1713803640 1709282 4865144 7130140 + READLINK: 125 125 0 20472 18620 0 1112 1118 + READ: 4214236 4214237 0 715608524 41328653212 89884 22622768 22806693 + WRITE: 8479010 8494376 22 187695798568 1356087148 178264904 51506907 231671771 + CREATE: 171708 171708 0 38084748 46702272 873 1041833 1050398 + MKDIR: 3680 3680 0 773980 993920 26 23990 24245 + SYMLINK: 903 903 0 233428 245488 6 5865 5917 + MKNOD: 80 80 0 20148 21760 0 299 304 + REMOVE: 429921 429921 0 79796004 61908192 3313 2710416 2741636 + RMDIR: 3367 3367 0 645112 484848 22 5782 6002 + RENAME: 466201 466201 0 130026184 121212260 7075 5935207 5961288 + LINK: 289155 289155 0 72775556 67083960 2199 2565060 2585579 + READDIR: 2933237 2933237 0 516506204 13973833412 10385 3190199 3297917 + READDIRPLUS: 1652839 1652839 0 298640972 6895997744 84735 14307895 14448937 + FSSTAT: 6144 6144 0 1010516 1032192 51 9654 10022 + FSINFO: 2 2 0 232 328 0 1 1 + PATHCONF: 1 1 0 116 140 0 0 0 + COMMIT: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 + +device binfmt_misc mounted on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc with fstype binfmt_misc +[...] +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>The key number to look at is the third number in the per-op list. +It is the number of NFS timeouts experiences per file system +operation. Here 22 write timeouts and 5 access timeouts. If these +numbers are increasing, I believe the machine is experiencing NFS +hang. Unfortunately the timeout value do not start to increase right +away. The NFS operations need to time out first, and this can take a +while. The exact timeout value depend on the setup. For example the +defaults for TCP and UDP mount points are quite different, and the +timeout value is affected by the soft, hard, timeo and retrans NFS +mount options.</p> + +<p>The only way I have been able to get working on Debian and RedHat +Enterprise Linux for getting the timeout count is to peek in /proc/. +But according to +<ahref="http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/816-4555/netmonitor-12/index.html">Solaris +10 System Administration Guide: Network Services</a>, the 'nfsstat -c' +command can be used to get these timeout values. But this do not work +on Linux, as far as I can tell. I +<ahref="http://bugs.debian.org/857043">asked Debian about this</a>, +but have not seen any replies yet.</p> + +<p>Is there a better way to figure out if a Linux NFS client is +experiencing NFS hangs? Is there a way to detect which processes are +affected? Is there a way to get the NFS mount going quickly once the +network problem causing the NFS hang has been cleared? I would very +much welcome some clues, as we regularly run into NFS hangs.</p> - In my hand, a pocket book edition of the Norwegian Free Culture book! - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/In_my_hand__a_pocket_book_edition_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/In_my_hand__a_pocket_book_edition_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_.html - Wed, 19 Aug 2015 22:10:00 +0200 - <p>Today, finally, my first printed draft edition of the Norwegian -translation of Free Culture I have been working on for the last few -years arrived in the mail. I had to fake a cover to get the interior -printed, and the exterior of the book look awful, but that is -irrelevant at this point. I asked for a printed pocket book version -to get an idea about the font sizes and paper format as well as how -good the figures and images look in print, but also to test what the -pocket book version would look like. After receiving the 500 page -pocket book, it became obvious to me that that pocket book size is too -small for this book. I believe the book is too thick, and several -tables and figures do not look good in the size they get with that -small page sizes. I believe I will go with the 5.5x8.5 inch size -instead. A surprise discovery from the paper version was how bad the -URLs look in print. They are very hard to read in the colophon page. -The URLs are red in the PDF, but light gray on paper. I need to -change the color of links somehow to look better. But there is a -printed book in my hand, and it feels great. :)</p> - -<p>Now I only need to fix the cover, wrap up the postscript with the -store behind the book, and collect the last corrections from the proof -readers before the book is ready for proper printing. Cover artists -willing to work for free and create a Creative Commons licensed vector -file looking similar to the original is most welcome, as my skills as -a graphics designer are mostly missing.</p> + How does it feel to be wiretapped, when you should be doing the wiretapping... + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_does_it_feel_to_be_wiretapped__when_you_should_be_doing_the_wiretapping___.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_does_it_feel_to_be_wiretapped__when_you_should_be_doing_the_wiretapping___.html + Wed, 8 Mar 2017 11:50:00 +0100 + <p>So the new president in the United States of America claim to be +surprised to discover that he was wiretapped during the election +before he was elected president. He even claim this must be illegal. +Well, doh, if it is one thing the confirmations from Snowden +documented, it is that the entire population in USA is wiretapped, one +way or another. Of course the president candidates were wiretapped, +alongside the senators, judges and the rest of the people in USA.</p> + +<p>Next, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ask the Department of +Justice to go public rejecting the claims that Donald Trump was +wiretapped illegally. I fail to see the relevance, given that I am +sure the surveillance industry in USA believe they have all the legal +backing they need to conduct mass surveillance on the entire +world.</p> + +<p>There is even the director of the FBI stating that he never saw an +order requesting wiretapping of Donald Trump. That is not very +surprising, given how the FISA court work, with all its activity being +secret. Perhaps he only heard about it?</p> + +<p>What I find most sad in this story is how Norwegian journalists +present it. In a news reports the other day in the radio from the +Norwegian National broadcasting Company (NRK), I heard the journalist +claim that 'the FBI denies any wiretapping', while the reality is that +'the FBI denies any illegal wiretapping'. There is a fundamental and +important difference, and it make me sad that the journalists are +unable to grasp it.</p> + +<p><strong>Update 2017-03-13:</strong> Look like +<a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/03/13/rand-paul-is-right-nsa-routinely-monitors-americans-communications-without-warrants/">The +Intercept report that US Senator Rand Paul confirm what I state above</a>.</p> - First paper version of the Norwegian Free Culture book heading my way - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_paper_version_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_heading_my_way.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_paper_version_of_the_Norwegian_Free_Culture_book_heading_my_way.html - Sun, 9 Aug 2015 10:15:00 +0200 - <p>Typesetting a book is harder than I hoped. As the translation is -mostly done, and a volunteer proof reader was going to check the text -on paper, it was time this summer to focus on formatting my translated -<a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> based version of the -<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> book by Lawrence -Lessig. I've been trying to get both docboox-xsl+fop and dblatex to -give me a good looking PDF, but in the end I went with dblatex, because -its Debian maintainer and upstream developer were responsive and very -helpful in solving my formatting challenges.</p> - -<p>Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made -<a href="http://www.lulu.com/">Lulu.com</a> complain after uploading, -and I ordered a text version of the book on paper. It is lacking a -proper book cover and is not tagged with the correct ISBN number, but -should give me an idea what the finished book will look like.</p> - -<p>Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using -<a href="http://www.createspace.com/">CreateSpace</a>, but ended up -using Lulu because it had smaller book size options (CreateSpace seem -to lack pocket book with extended distribution). I looked for a -similar service in Norway, but have not seen anything so far. Please -let me know if I am missing out on something here.</p> - -<p>But I still struggle to decide the book size. Should I go for -pocket book (4.25x6.875 inches / 10.8x17.5 cm) with 556 pages, Digest -(5.5x8.5 inches / 14x21.6 cm) with 323 pages or US Trade (6x8 inches / -15.3x22.9 cm) with 280 pages? Fewer pager give a cheaper book, and a -smaller book is easier to carry around. The test book I ordered was -pocket book sized, to give me an idea how well that fit in my hand, -but I suspect I will end up using a digest sized book in the end to -bring the prize down further.</p> - -<p>My biggest challenge at the moment is making nice cover art. My -inkscape skills are not yet up to the task of replicating the original -cover in SVG format. I also need to figure out what to write about -the book on the back (will most likely use the same text as the -description on web based book stores). I would love help with this, -if you are willing to license the art source and final version using -the same CC license as the book. My artistic skills are not really up -to the task.</p> - -<p>I plan to publish the book in both English and Norwegian and on -paper, in PDF form as well as EPUB and MOBI format. The current -status can as usual be found on -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a> -in the archive/ directory. So far I have spent all time on making the -PDF version look good. Someone should probably do the same with the -dbtoepub generated e-book. Help is definitely needed here, as I -expect to run out of steem before I find time to improve the epub -formatting.</p> - -<p>Please let me know via github if you find typos in the book or -discover translations that should be improved. The final proof -reading is being done right now, and I expect to publish the finished -result in a few months.</p> + Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html + Fri, 3 Mar 2017 14:50:00 +0100 + <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian +Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian +Administrator's Handbook</a>. Now, thanks to the tireless effort of +Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and +we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and +use of correct computer science terms. The plan is to make the book +available on paper, as well as in electronic form. For that to +happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need +to be translated. If you want to help out, get in touch.</p> + +<p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A + +fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller +pages) of the book created every morning is available for +proofreading. If you find any errors, please +<a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit +Weblate and correct the error</a>. The +<a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state +of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those +provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p> - Typesetting DocBook footnotes as endnotes with dblatex - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_DocBook_footnotes_as_endnotes_with_dblatex.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_DocBook_footnotes_as_endnotes_with_dblatex.html - Thu, 16 Jul 2015 18:10:00 +0200 - <p>I'm still working on the Norwegian version of the -<a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture book by Lawrence -Lessig</a>, and is now working on the final typesetting and layout. -One of the features I want to get the structure similar to the -original book is to typeset the footnotes as endnotes in the notes -chapter. Based on the -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/685063">feedback from the Debian -maintainer and the dblatex developer</a>, I came up with this recipe I -would like to share with you. The proposal was to create a new LaTeX -class file and add the LaTeX code there, but this is not always -practical, when I want to be able to replace the class using a make -file variable. So my proposal misuses the latex.begindocument XSL -parameter value, to get a small fragment into the correct location in -the generated LaTeX File.</p> - -<p>First, decide where in the DocBook document to place the endnotes, -and add this text there:</p> - -<pre> -&lt;?latex \theendnotes ?&gt; -</pre> - -<p>Next, create a xsl stylesheet file dblatex-endnotes.xsl to add the -code needed to add the endnote instructions in the preamble of the -generated LaTeX document, with content like this:</p> - -<pre> -&lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt; -&lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt; - &lt;xsl:param name="latex.begindocument"&gt; - &lt;xsl:text&gt; -\usepackage{endnotes} -\let\footnote=\endnote -\def\enoteheading{\mbox{}\par\vskip-\baselineskip } -\begin{document} - &lt;/xsl:text&gt; - &lt;/xsl:param&gt; -&lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt; -</pre> - -<p>Finally, load this xsl file when running dblatex, for example like -this:</p> - -<pre> -dblatex --xsl-user=dblatex-endnotes.xsl freeculture.nb.xml -</pre> - -<p>The end result can be seen on github, where -<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">my -book project</a> is located.</p> + Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html + Wed, 1 Mar 2017 20:50:00 +0100 + <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of +<a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small +USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith +Packard. Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it +work great! According to its designers, to get it to work out of the +box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later. I tested on a +Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just +fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly. I wrote a small +test oneliner to test. It first print the current entropy level, +drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds. +Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p> + +<blockquote><pre> +% cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \ + dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \ + for n in $(seq 1 5); do \ + cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \ + sleep 1; \ + done +300 +0+1 oppføringer inn +0+1 oppføringer ut +28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s +4 +8 +12 +17 +21 +% +</pre></blockquote> + +<p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second. In such case any +application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server) +will halt and wait for more entrpy. And here is the situation with +the ChaosKey inserted:</p> + +<blockquote><pre> +% cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \ + dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \ + for n in $(seq 1 5); do \ + cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \ + sleep 1; \ + done +1079 +0+1 oppføringer inn +0+1 oppføringer ut +104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s +433 +1028 +1031 +1035 +1038 +% +</pre></blockquote> + +<p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case +someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p> + +<p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year. You might +find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk +recording illuminating</a>. It explains exactly what the source of +randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing +available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog +post.</p> - Mimes brønn, norsk utgave av Alaveteli / WhatDoTheyKnow, endelig lansert - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mimes_br_nn__norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow__endelig_lansert.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Mimes_br_nn__norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow__endelig_lansert.html - Thu, 9 Jul 2015 11:40:00 +0200 - <p>I går fikk vi endelig lansert en norsk version av mySocietys -<a href="https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/">WhatDoTheyKnow</a>. -Tjenesten heter Mimes brønn, og ble -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/NUUG_lanserer_innsynstjenesten_Mimes_Br_nn.shtml">annonsert -av NUUG</a> via blogg, epost og twitter til NUUG-assosierte personer. -Det har tatt noen år, men de siste dagene fikk vi endelig tid til å få -på plass de siste bitene. Vi er to, Gorm og meg selv, som har vært -primus motor for det hele, men vi har fått hjelp med oversettelser og -oppsett fra mange flere. Jeg vil si tusen takk til hver og en av dem, -og er veldig fornøyd med at vi klarte å få tjenesten opp å kjøre før -ferietiden slo inn for fullt.</p> - -<p>Vi er usikker på hvor mye belastning den virtuelle maskinen der -tjenesten kjører klarer, så vi har lansert litt i det stille og ikke -til for mange folk for å se hvordan maskinen klarer seg over sommeren, -før vi går mer aktivt ut og annonserer til høsten. Ta en titt, og se -om du kanskje har et spørsmål til det offentlige som er egnet å sende -inn via Mimes brønn.</p> - -<p>Hvis du lurer på hva i alle dager en slik tjenestes kan brukes til, -anbefaler jeg deg å se -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/625321">TED-foredraget til -Heather Brook</a> om hvordan hun brukte WhatDoTheyKnow til å lære -hvordan offentlige midler ble misbrukt. Det er en inspirerende -historie.</p> + Detect OOXML files with undefined behaviour? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detect_OOXML_files_with_undefined_behaviour_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detect_OOXML_files_with_undefined_behaviour_.html + Tue, 21 Feb 2017 00:20:00 +0100 + <p>I just noticed +<a href="http://www.arkivrad.no/aktuelt/riksarkivarens-forskrift-pa-horing">the +new Norwegian proposal for archiving rules in the goverment</a> list +<a href="http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-376.htm">ECMA-376</a> +/ ISO/IEC 29500 (aka OOXML) as valid formats to put in long term +storage. Luckily such files will only be accepted based on +pre-approval from the National Archive. Allowing OOXML files to be +used for long term storage might seem like a good idea as long as we +forget that there are plenty of ways for a "valid" OOXML document to +have content with no defined interpretation in the standard, which +lead to a question and an idea.</p> + +<p>Is there any tool to detect if a OOXML document depend on such +undefined behaviour? It would be useful for the National Archive (and +anyone else interested in verifying that a document is well defined) +to have such tool available when considering to approve the use of +OOXML. I'm aware of the +<a href="https://github.com/arlm/officeotron/">officeotron OOXML +validator</a>, but do not know how complete it is nor if it will +report use of undefined behaviour. Are there other similar tools +available? Please send me an email if you know of any such tool.</p> - MPEG LA on "Internet Broadcast AVC Video" licensing and non-private use - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MPEG_LA_on__Internet_Broadcast_AVC_Video__licensing_and_non_private_use.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MPEG_LA_on__Internet_Broadcast_AVC_Video__licensing_and_non_private_use.html - Tue, 7 Jul 2015 09:50:00 +0200 - <p>After asking the Norwegian Broadcasting Company (NRK) -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_gj_r_at_NRK_kan_distribuere_H_264_video_uten_patentavtale_med_MPEG_LA_.html">why -they can broadcast and stream H.264 video without an agreement with -the MPEG LA</a>, I was wiser, but still confused. So I asked MPEG LA -if their understanding matched that of NRK. As far as I can tell, it -does not.</p> - -<p>I started by asking for more information about the various -licensing classes and what exactly is covered by the "Internet -Broadcast AVC Video" class that NRK pointed me at to explain why NRK -did not need a license for streaming H.264 video: - -<p><blockquote> - -<p>According to -<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/Lists/MPEG%20LA%20News%20List/Attachments/226/n-10-02-02.pdf">a -MPEG LA press release dated 2010-02-02</a>, there is no charge when -using MPEG AVC/H.264 according to the terms of "Internet Broadcast AVC -Video". I am trying to understand exactly what the terms of "Internet -Broadcast AVC Video" is, and wondered if you could help me. What -exactly is covered by these terms, and what is not?</p> - -<p>The only source of more information I have been able to find is a -PDF named -<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/avc/Documents/avcweb.pdf">AVC -Patent Portfolio License Briefing</a>, which states this about the -fees:</p> - -<ul> - <li>Where End User pays for AVC Video - <ul> - <li>Subscription (not limited by title) – 100,000 or fewer - subscribers/yr = no royalty; &gt; 100,000 to 250,000 subscribers/yr = - $25,000; &gt;250,000 to 500,000 subscribers/yr = $50,000; &gt;500,000 to - 1M subscribers/yr = $75,000; &gt;1M subscribers/yr = $100,000</li> - - <li>Title-by-Title - 12 minutes or less = no royalty; &gt;12 minutes in - length = lower of (a) 2% or (b) $0.02 per title</li> - </ul></li> - - <li>Where remuneration is from other sources - <ul> - <li>Free Television - (a) one-time $2,500 per transmission encoder or - (b) annual fee starting at $2,500 for &gt; 100,000 HH rising to - maximum $10,000 for &gt;1,000,000 HH</li> - - <li>Internet Broadcast AVC Video (not title-by-title, not subscription) - – no royalty for life of the AVC Patent Portfolio License</li> - </ul></li> -</ul> - -<p>Am I correct in assuming that the four categories listed is the -categories used when selecting licensing terms, and that "Internet -Broadcast AVC Video" is the category for things that do not fall into -one of the other three categories? Can you point me to a good source -explaining what is ment by "title-by-title" and "Free Television" in -the license terms for AVC/H.264?</p> - -<p>Will a web service providing H.264 encoded video content in a -"video on demand" fashing similar to Youtube and Vimeo, where no -subscription is required and no payment is required from end users to -get access to the videos, fall under the terms of the "Internet -Broadcast AVC Video", ie no royalty for life of the AVC Patent -Portfolio license? Does it matter if some users are subscribed to get -access to personalized services?</p> - -<p>Note, this request and all answers will be published on the -Internet.</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>The answer came quickly from Benjamin J. Myers, Licensing Associate -with the MPEG LA:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -<p>Thank you for your message and for your interest in MPEG LA. We -appreciate hearing from you and I will be happy to assist you.</p> - -<p>As you are aware, MPEG LA offers our AVC Patent Portfolio License -which provides coverage under patents that are essential for use of -the AVC/H.264 Standard (MPEG-4 Part 10). Specifically, coverage is -provided for end products and video content that make use of AVC/H.264 -technology. Accordingly, the party offering such end products and -video to End Users concludes the AVC License and is responsible for -paying the applicable royalties.</p> - -<p>Regarding Internet Broadcast AVC Video, the AVC License generally -defines such content to be video that is distributed to End Users over -the Internet free-of-charge. Therefore, if a party offers a service -which allows users to upload AVC/H.264 video to its website, and such -AVC Video is delivered to End Users for free, then such video would -receive coverage under the sublicense for Internet Broadcast AVC -Video, which is not subject to any royalties for the life of the AVC -License. This would also apply in the scenario where a user creates a -free online account in order to receive a customized offering of free -AVC Video content. In other words, as long as the End User is given -access to or views AVC Video content at no cost to the End User, then -no royalties would be payable under our AVC License.</p> - -<p>On the other hand, if End Users pay for access to AVC Video for a -specific period of time (e.g., one month, one year, etc.), then such -video would constitute Subscription AVC Video. In cases where AVC -Video is delivered to End Users on a pay-per-view basis, then such -content would constitute Title-by-Title AVC Video. If a party offers -Subscription or Title-by-Title AVC Video to End Users, then they would -be responsible for paying the applicable royalties you noted below.</p> - -<p>Finally, in the case where AVC Video is distributed for free -through an "over-the-air, satellite and/or cable transmission", then -such content would constitute Free Television AVC Video and would be -subject to the applicable royalties.</p> - -<p>For your reference, I have attached -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-07-07-mpegla.pdf">a -.pdf copy of the AVC License</a>. You will find the relevant -sublicense information regarding AVC Video in Sections 2.2 through -2.5, and the corresponding royalties in Section 3.1.2 through 3.1.4. -You will also find the definitions of Title-by-Title AVC Video, -Subscription AVC Video, Free Television AVC Video, and Internet -Broadcast AVC Video in Section 1 of the License. Please note that the -electronic copy is provided for informational purposes only and cannot -be used for execution.</p> - -<p>I hope the above information is helpful. If you have additional -questions or need further assistance with the AVC License, please feel -free to contact me directly.</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Having a fresh copy of the license text was useful, and knowing -that the definition of Title-by-Title required payment per title made -me aware that my earlier understanding of that phrase had been wrong. -But I still had a few questions:</p> - -<p><blockquote> -<p>I have a small followup question. Would it be possible for me to get -a license with MPEG LA even if there are no royalties to be paid? The -reason I ask, is that some video related products have a copyright -clause limiting their use without a license with MPEG LA. The clauses -typically look similar to this: - -<p><blockquote> - This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for - the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer to (a) encode - video in compliance with the AVC standard ("AVC video") and/or (b) - decode AVC video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a - personal and non-commercial activity and/or AVC video that was - obtained from a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No - license is granted or shall be implied for any other use. additional - information may be obtained from MPEG LA L.L.C. -</blockquote></p> - -<p>It is unclear to me if this clause mean that I need to enter into -an agreement with MPEG LA to use the product in question, even if -there are no royalties to be paid to MPEG LA. I suspect it will -differ depending on the jurisdiction, and mine is Norway. What is -MPEG LAs view on this?</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>According to the answer, MPEG LA believe those using such tools for -non-personal or commercial use need a license with them:</p> - -<p><blockquote> - -<p>With regard to the Notice to Customers, I would like to begin by -clarifying that the Notice from Section 7.1 of the AVC License -reads:</p> - -<p>THIS PRODUCT IS LICENSED UNDER THE AVC PATENT PORTFOLIO LICENSE FOR -THE PERSONAL USE OF A CONSUMER OR OTHER USES IN WHICH IT DOES NOT -RECEIVE REMUNERATION TO (i) ENCODE VIDEO IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE AVC -STANDARD ("AVC VIDEO") AND/OR (ii) DECODE AVC VIDEO THAT WAS ENCODED -BY A CONSUMER ENGAGED IN A PERSONAL ACTIVITY AND/OR WAS OBTAINED FROM -A VIDEO PROVIDER LICENSED TO PROVIDE AVC VIDEO. NO LICENSE IS GRANTED -OR SHALL BE IMPLIED FOR ANY OTHER USE. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY BE -OBTAINED FROM MPEG LA, L.L.C. SEE HTTP://WWW.MPEGLA.COM</p> - -<p>The Notice to Customers is intended to inform End Users of the -personal usage rights (for example, to watch video content) included -with the product they purchased, and to encourage any party using the -product for commercial purposes to contact MPEG LA in order to become -licensed for such use (for example, when they use an AVC Product to -deliver Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free Television or Internet -Broadcast AVC Video to End Users, or to re-Sell a third party's AVC -Product as their own branded AVC Product).</p> - -<p>Therefore, if a party is to be licensed for its use of an AVC -Product to Sell AVC Video on a Title-by-Title, Subscription, Free -Television or Internet Broadcast basis, that party would need to -conclude the AVC License, even in the case where no royalties were -payable under the License. On the other hand, if that party (either a -Consumer or business customer) simply uses an AVC Product for their -own internal purposes and not for the commercial purposes referenced -above, then such use would be included in the royalty paid for the AVC -Products by the licensed supplier.</p> - -<p>Finally, I note that our AVC License provides worldwide coverage in -countries that have AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, including -Norway.</p> - -<p>I hope this clarification is helpful. If I may be of any further -assistance, just let me know.</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>The mentioning of Norwegian patents made me a bit confused, so I -asked for more information:</p> - -<p><blockquote> - -<p>But one minor question at the end. If I understand you correctly, -you state in the quote above that there are patents in the AVC Patent -Portfolio that are valid in Norway. This make me believe I read the -list available from &lt;URL: -<a href="http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx">http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/AVC/Pages/PatentList.aspx</a> -&gt; incorrectly, as I believed the "NO" prefix in front of patents -were Norwegian patents, and the only one I could find under Mitsubishi -Electric Corporation expired in 2012. Which patents are you referring -to that are relevant for Norway?</p> - -</blockquote></p> - -<p>Again, the quick answer explained how to read the list of patents -in that list:</p> - -<p><blockquote> - -<p>Your understanding is correct that the last AVC Patent Portfolio -Patent in Norway expired on 21 October 2012. Therefore, where AVC -Video is both made and Sold in Norway after that date, then no -royalties would be payable for such AVC Video under the AVC License. -With that said, our AVC License provides historic coverage for AVC -Products and AVC Video that may have been manufactured or Sold before -the last Norwegian AVC patent expired. I would also like to clarify -that coverage is provided for the country of manufacture and the -country of Sale that has active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents.</p> - -<p>Therefore, if a party offers AVC Products or AVC Video for Sale in -a country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents (for example, -Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc.), then that party would still need -coverage under the AVC License even if such products or video are -initially made in a country without active AVC Patent Portfolio -Patents (for example, Norway). Similarly, a party would need to -conclude the AVC License if they make AVC Products or AVC Video in a -country with active AVC Patent Portfolio Patents, but eventually Sell -such AVC Products or AVC Video in a country without active AVC Patent -Portfolio Patents.</p> -</blockquote></p> - -<p>As far as I understand it, MPEG LA believe anyone using Adobe -Premiere and other video related software with a H.264 distribution -license need a license agreement with MPEG LA to use such tools for -anything non-private or commercial, while it is OK to set up a -Youtube-like service as long as no-one pays to get access to the -content. I still have no clear idea how this applies to Norway, where -none of the patents MPEG LA is licensing are valid. Will the -copyright terms take precedence or can those terms be ignored because -the patents are not valid in Norway?</p> + Ruling ignored our objections to the seizure of popcorn-time.no (#domstolkontroll) + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ruling_ignored_our_objections_to_the_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no___domstolkontroll_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ruling_ignored_our_objections_to_the_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no___domstolkontroll_.html + Mon, 13 Feb 2017 21:30:00 +0100 + <p>A few days ago, we received the ruling from +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_day_in_court_challenging_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no_for__domstolkontroll.html">my +day in court</a>. The case in question is a challenge of the seizure +of the DNS domain popcorn-time.no. The ruling simply did not mention +most of our arguments, and seemed to take everything ØKOKRIM said at +face value, ignoring our demonstration and explanations. But it is +hard to tell for sure, as we still have not seen most of the documents +in the case and thus were unprepared and unable to contradict several +of the claims made in court by the opposition. We are considering an +appeal, but it is partly a question of funding, as it is costing us +quite a bit to pay for our lawyer. If you want to help, please +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/dns-beslag-donasjon.shtml">donate to the +NUUG defense fund</a>.</p> + +<p>The details of the case, as far as we know it, is available in +Norwegian from +<a href="https://www.nuug.no/news/tags/dns-domenebeslag/">the NUUG +blog</a>. This also include +<a href="https://www.nuug.no/news/Avslag_etter_rettslig_h_ring_om_DNS_beslaget___vurderer_veien_videre.shtml">the +ruling itself</a>.</p> - New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html - Sun, 5 Jul 2015 21:40:00 +0200 - <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my -need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback. I wish to -thank every one of these. Several pointed me to the possibility of -fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to -do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the -machine. But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it -with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live -for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement. If I did -not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts -using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it -might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p> - -<p>One tip I got was to use the -<a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to -compare laptop models. It seem to have more models available than -prisjakt.no. Another tip I got from someone I know have similar -keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not -very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook -keyboards I tested. Because of this, I will not consider it any further. - -<p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the -newest Thinkpad X model. The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons -(which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with -Debian Sid/Unstable according to -<a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>. The reports I -got on the keyboard quality are not consistent. Some say the keyboard -is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good. -Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250 -keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I -keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to -replace it. I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk -activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230. I'm -also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit -noisy. In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian -Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p> - -<p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was -<a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was -<a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>. -The latter look very attractive to me.</p> - -<p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback. It help a lot -as I keep looking for a replacement.</p> - -<p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the -<a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops. They got several -different -<a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old -thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p> + A day in court challenging seizure of popcorn-time.no for #domstolkontroll + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_day_in_court_challenging_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no_for__domstolkontroll.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_day_in_court_challenging_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no_for__domstolkontroll.html + Fri, 3 Feb 2017 11:10:00 +0100 + <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-02-01-popcorn-time-in-court.jpeg"></p> + +<p>On Wednesday, I spent the entire day in court in Follo Tingrett +representing <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the member association +NUUG</a>, alongside <a href="https://www.efn.no/">the member +association EFN</a> and <a href="http://www.imc.no">the DNS registrar +IMC</a>, challenging the seizure of the DNS name popcorn-time.no. It +was interesting to sit in a court of law for the first time in my +life. Our team can be seen in the picture above: attorney Ola +Tellesbø, EFN board member Tom Fredrik Blenning, IMC CEO Morten Emil +Eriksen and NUUG board member Petter Reinholdtsen.</p> + +<p><a href="http://www.domstol.no/no/Enkelt-domstol/follo-tingrett/Nar-gar-rettssaken/Beramming/?cid=AAAA1701301512081262234UJFBVEZZZZZEJBAvtale">The +case at hand</a> is that the Norwegian National Authority for +Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (aka +Økokrim) decided on their own, to seize a DNS domain early last +year, without following +<a href="https://www.norid.no/no/regelverk/navnepolitikk/#link12">the +official policy of the Norwegian DNS authority</a> which require a +court decision. The web site in question was a site covering Popcorn +Time. And Popcorn Time is the name of a technology with both legal +and illegal applications. Popcorn Time is a client combining +searching a Bittorrent directory available on the Internet with +downloading/distribute content via Bittorrent and playing the +downloaded content on screen. It can be used illegally if it is used +to distribute content against the will of the right holder, but it can +also be used legally to play a lot of content, for example the +millions of movies +<a href="https://archive.org/details/movies">available from the +Internet Archive</a> or the collection +<a href="http://vodo.net/films/">available from Vodo</a>. We created +<a href="magnet:?xt=urn:btih:86c1802af5a667ca56d3918aecb7d3c0f7173084&dn=PresentasjonFolloTingrett.mov&tr=udp%3A%2F%2Fpublic.popcorn-tracker.org%3A6969%2Fannounce">a +video demonstrating legally use of Popcorn Time</a> and played it in +Court. It can of course be downloaded using Bittorrent.</p> + +<p>I did not quite know what to expect from a day in court. The +government held on to their version of the story and we held on to +ours, and I hope the judge is able to make sense of it all. We will +know in two weeks time. Unfortunately I do not have high hopes, as +the Government have the upper hand here with more knowledge about the +case, better training in handling criminal law and in general higher +standing in the courts than fairly unknown DNS registrar and member +associations. It is expensive to be right also in Norway. So far the +case have cost more than NOK 70 000,-. To help fund the case, NUUG +and EFN have asked for donations, and managed to collect around NOK 25 +000,- so far. Given the presentation from the Government, I expect +the government to appeal if the case go our way. And if the case do +not go our way, I hope we have enough funding to appeal.</p> + +<p>From the other side came two people from Økokrim. On the benches, +appearing to be part of the group from the government were two people +from the Simonsen Vogt Wiik lawyer office, and three others I am not +quite sure who was. Økokrim had proposed to present two witnesses +from The Motion Picture Association, but this was rejected because +they did not speak Norwegian and it was a bit late to bring in a +translator, but perhaps the two from MPA were present anyway. All +seven appeared to know each other. Good to see the case is take +seriously.</p> + +<p>If you, like me, believe the courts should be involved before a DNS +domain is hijacked by the government, or you believe the Popcorn Time +technology have a lot of useful and legal applications, I suggest you +too <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dns-beslag-donasjon.shtml">donate to +the NUUG defense fund</a>. Both Bitcoin and bank transfer are +available. If NUUG get more than we need for the legal action (very +unlikely), the rest will be spend promoting free software, open +standards and unix-like operating systems in Norway, so no matter what +happens the money will be put to good use.</p> + +<p>If you want to lean more about the case, I recommend you check out +<a href="https://www.nuug.no/news/tags/dns-domenebeslag/">the blog +posts from NUUG covering the case</a>. They cover the legal arguments +on both sides.</p> - Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html - Fri, 3 Jul 2015 07:10:00 +0200 - <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a -replacement soon. The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230 -started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken -cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the -flickering.</p> - -<p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is -still as -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I -described them in 2013</a>. The last time I bought a laptop, I had -good help from -<a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a> -where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin, -wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually. Three button mouse -and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three -laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and -G2) lack three mouse buttons). It is also unclear to me how good the -keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are. I hope Lenovo have not messed up -the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have -deteriorated since X41.</p> - -<p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options -seem sensible to me? Are there better services around to search the -set of available laptops for features? Please send me an email if you -have suggestions.</p> - -<p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF -<a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list -of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p> + Nasjonalbiblioteket avslutter sin ulovlige bruk av Google Skjemaer + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nasjonalbiblioteket_avslutter_sin_ulovlige_bruk_av_Google_Skjemaer.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Nasjonalbiblioteket_avslutter_sin_ulovlige_bruk_av_Google_Skjemaer.html + Thu, 12 Jan 2017 09:40:00 +0100 + <p>I dag fikk jeg en skikkelig gladmelding. Bakgrunnen er at før jul +arrangerte Nasjonalbiblioteket +<a href="http://www.nb.no/Bibliotekutvikling/Kunnskapsorganisering/Nasjonalt-verksregister/Seminar-om-verksregister">et +seminar om sitt knakende gode tiltak «verksregister»</a>. Eneste +måten å melde seg på dette seminaret var å sende personopplysninger +til Google via Google Skjemaer. Dette syntes jeg var tvilsom praksis, +da det bør være mulig å delta på seminarer arrangert av det offentlige +uten å måtte dele sine interesser, posisjon og andre +personopplysninger med Google. Jeg ba derfor om innsyn via +<a href="https://www.mimesbronn.no/">Mimes brønn</a> i +<a href="https://www.mimesbronn.no/request/personopplysninger_til_google_sk">avtaler +og vurderinger Nasjonalbiblioteket hadde rundt dette</a>. +Personopplysningsloven legger klare rammer for hva som må være på +plass før en kan be tredjeparter, spesielt i utlandet, behandle +personopplysninger på sine vegne, så det burde eksistere grundig +dokumentasjon før noe slikt kan bli lovlig. To jurister hos +Nasjonalbiblioteket mente først dette var helt i orden, og at Googles +standardavtale kunne brukes som databehandlingsavtale. Det syntes jeg +var merkelig, men har ikke hatt kapasitet til å følge opp saken før +for to dager siden.</p> + +<p>Gladnyheten i dag, som kom etter at jeg tipset Nasjonalbiblioteket +om at Datatilsynet underkjente Googles standardavtaler som +databehandleravtaler i 2011, er at Nasjonalbiblioteket har bestemt seg +for å avslutte bruken av Googles Skjemaer/Apps og gå i dialog med DIFI +for å finne bedre måter å håndtere påmeldinger i tråd med +personopplysningsloven. Det er fantastisk å se at av og til hjelper +det å spørre hva i alle dager det offentlige holder på med.</p> - MakerCon Nordic videos now available on Frikanalen - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html - Thu, 2 Jul 2015 14:10:00 +0200 - <p>Last oktober I was involved on behalf of -<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> with recording the talks at -<a href="http://www.makercon.no/">MakerCon Nordic</a>, a conference for -the Maker movement. Since then it has been the plan to publish the -recordings on <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a>, which -finally happened the last few days. A few talks are missing because -the speakers asked the organizers to not publish them, but most of the -talks are available. The talks are being broadcasted on RiksTV -channel 50 and using multicast on Uninett, as well as being available -from the Frikanalen web site. The unedited recordings are -<a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/MakerConNordic/">available on -Youtube too</a>.</p> - -<p>This is the list of talks available at the moment. Visit the -<a href="http://beta.frikanalen.no/video/?q=makercon">Frikanalen video -pages</a> to view them.</p> - -<ul> - - <li>Evolutionary algorithms as a design tool - from art - to robotics (Kyrre Glette)</li> - - <li>Make and break (Hans Gerhard Meier)</li> - - <li>Making a one year school course for young makers - (Olav Helland)</li> - - <li>Innovation Inspiration - IPR Databases as a Source of - Inspiration (Hege Langlo)</li> - - <li>Making a toy for makers (Erik Torstensson)</li> + Bryter NAV sin egen personvernerklæring? + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bryter_NAV_sin_egen_personvernerkl_ring_.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bryter_NAV_sin_egen_personvernerkl_ring_.html + Wed, 11 Jan 2017 06:50:00 +0100 + <p>Jeg leste med interesse en nyhetssak hos +<a href="http://www.digi.no/artikler/nav-avslorer-trygdemisbruk-ved-a-spore-ip-adresser/367394">digi.no</a> +og +<a href="https://www.nrk.no/buskerud/trygdesvindlere-avslores-av-utenlandske-ip-adresser-1.13313461">NRK</a> +om at det ikke bare er meg, men at også NAV bedriver geolokalisering +av IP-adresser, og at det gjøres analyse av IP-adressene til de som +sendes inn meldekort for å se om meldekortet sendes inn fra +utenlandske IP-adresser. Politiadvokat i Drammen, Hans Lyder Haare, +er sitert i NRK på at «De to er jo blant annet avslørt av +IP-adresser. At man ser at meldekortet kommer fra utlandet.»</p> + +<p>Jeg synes det er fint at det blir bedre kjent at IP-adresser +knyttes til enkeltpersoner og at innsamlet informasjon brukes til å +stedsbestemme personer også av aktører her i Norge. Jeg ser det som +nok et argument for å bruke +<a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a> så mye som mulig for å +gjøre gjøre IP-lokalisering vanskeligere, slik at en kan beskytte sin +privatsfære og unngå å dele sin fysiske plassering med +uvedkommede.</p> + +<P>Men det er en ting som bekymrer meg rundt denne nyheten. Jeg ble +tipset (takk #nuug) om +<a href="https://www.nav.no/no/NAV+og+samfunn/Kontakt+NAV/Teknisk+brukerstotte/Snarveier/personvernerkl%C3%A6ring-for-arbeids-og-velferdsetaten">NAVs +personvernerklæring</a>, som under punktet «Personvern og statistikk» +lyder:</p> - <li>How to make 3D printer electronics (Elias Bakken)</li> - - <li>Hovering Clouds: Looking at online tool offerings for Product - Design and 3D Printing (William Kempton)</li> - - <li>Travelling maker stories (Øyvind Nydal Dahl)</li> - - <li>Making the first Maker Faire in Sweden (Nils Olander)</li> - - <li>Breaking the mold: Printing 1000’s of parts (Espen Sivertsen)</li> - - <li>Ultimaker — and open source 3D printing (Erik de Bruijn)</li> - - <li>Autodesk’s 3D Printing Platform: Sparking innovation (Hilde - Sevens)</li> - - <li>How Making is Changing the World – and How You Can Too! - (Jennifer Turliuk)</li> +<p><blockquote> - <li>Open-Source Adventuring: OpenROV, OpenExplorer and the Future of - Connected Exploration (David Lang)</li> +<p>«Når du besøker nav.no, etterlater du deg elektroniske spor. Sporene +dannes fordi din nettleser automatisk sender en rekke opplysninger til +NAVs tjener (server-maskin) hver gang du ber om å få vist en side. Det +er eksempelvis opplysninger om hvilken nettleser og -versjon du +bruker, og din internettadresse (ip-adresse). For hver side som vises, +lagres følgende opplysninger:</p> - <li>Making in Norway (Haakon Karlsen Jr., Graham Hayward and Jens - Dyvik)</li> +<ul> +<li>hvilken side du ser på</li> +<li>dato og tid</li> +<li>hvilken nettleser du bruker</li> +<li>din ip-adresse</li> +</ul> - <li>The Impact of the Maker Movement (Mike Senese)</li> +<p>Ingen av opplysningene vil bli brukt til å identifisere +enkeltpersoner. NAV bruker disse opplysningene til å generere en +samlet statistikk som blant annet viser hvilke sider som er mest +populære. Statistikken er et redskap til å forbedre våre +tjenester.»</p> -</ul> +</blockquote></p> -<p>Part of the reason this took so long was that the scripts NUUG had -to prepare a recording for publication were five years old and no -longer worked with the current video processing tools (command line -argument changes). In addition, we needed better audio normalization, -which sent me on a detour to -<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Measuring_and_adjusting_the_loudness_of_a_TV_channel_using_bs1770gain.html">package -bs1770gain for Debian</a>. Now this is in place and it became a lot -easier to publish NUUG videos on Frikanalen.</p> +<p>Jeg klarer ikke helt å se hvordan analyse av de besøkendes +IP-adresser for å se hvem som sender inn meldekort via web fra en +IP-adresse i utlandet kan gjøres uten å komme i strid med påstanden om +at «ingen av opplysningene vil bli brukt til å identifisere +enkeltpersoner». Det virker dermed for meg som at NAV bryter sine +egen personvernerklæring, hvilket +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Er_lover_brutt_n_r_personvernpolicy_ikke_stemmer_med_praksis_.html">Datatilsynet +fortalte meg i starten av desember antagelig er brudd på +personopplysningsloven</a>. + +<p>I tillegg er personvernerklæringen ganske misvisende i og med at +NAVs nettsider ikke bare forsyner NAV med personopplysninger, men i +tillegg ber brukernes nettleser kontakte fem andre nettjenere +(script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com, vars.hotjar.com, +www.google-analytics.com og www.googletagmanager.com), slik at +personopplysninger blir gjort tilgjengelig for selskapene Hotjar og +Google , og alle som kan lytte på trafikken på veien (som FRA, GCHQ og +NSA). Jeg klarer heller ikke se hvordan slikt spredning av +personopplysninger kan være i tråd med kravene i +personopplysningloven, eller i tråd med NAVs personvernerklæring.</p> + +<p>Kanskje NAV bør ta en nøye titt på sin personvernerklæring? Eller +kanskje Datatilsynet bør gjøre det?</p> + + + + + Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html + Mon, 9 Jan 2017 12:20:00 +0100 + <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the +web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through? +It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it +is hard to find all the details. Many years ago, I wrote a system to +map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a +network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed +to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users. Back +then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends +to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the +graph and the map. The output from traceroute typically look like +this: + +<p><pre> +traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets + 1 uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1) 0.447 ms 0.486 ms 0.621 ms + 2 uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229) 0.467 ms 0.578 ms 0.675 ms + 3 oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17) 0.385 ms 0.373 ms 0.358 ms + 4 te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3) 1.174 ms 1.172 ms 1.153 ms + 5 he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234) 2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48) 3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234) 2.857 ms + 6 ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39) 0.662 ms 0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23) 0.622 ms + 7 89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146) 0.931 ms 0.917 ms 0.955 ms + 8 * * * + 9 * * * +[...] +</pre></p> + +<p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the) +network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the +www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a +package to reach the equipment and return to me. Three packages are +sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path. This +is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the +traceroute request.</p> + +<p>There are many ways to measure trace routes. Other good traceroute +implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do +both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP +traceroute and a lot of other capabilities). All of them are easily +available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p> + +<p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of +different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread +information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe. The +background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get +from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts, +JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content. This will +leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers +and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP, +the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p> + +<p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site +www.stortinget.no. It is read daily by all members of parliament and +their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other +citizens of Norway. A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will +ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com, +insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com, +stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com, +www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se. I extracted this by +asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the +Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to +render the page (in HAR format using +<a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their +netsniff example</a>. I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how +to do this). My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP +addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal +information is spread when visiting the page.</p> + +<p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img +src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p> + +<p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good +free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute +wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP. KML +is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several +of the GIS tools I have available. I got good help from by NUUG +colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in +<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my +kmltraceroute git repository</a>. Unfortunately, the quality of the +free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my +friends had access to) is not up to the task. The IP addresses of +central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the +controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really +located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the +KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind. + +<p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img +src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p> + +<p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by +<a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>, +showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in +question. +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The +graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG +format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network +equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation. This graph +make it possible to see the information is made available at least for +UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level +3 Communications and NetDNA.</p> + +<p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img +src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p> + +<p>In the process, I came across the +<a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by +Salim Gasmi. Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names, +various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out +candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct +geolocation. But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have +a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available +for postprocessing. So I contacted the developer and asked if he +would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to +clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a +machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway. So +since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this +service thanks to a sensor node set up by +<a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the +trace in KML format for further processing.</p> + +<p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img +src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p> + +<p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to +Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland. Plenty of places where the +Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors +without your best interest as their top priority.</p> + +<p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop +over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and +ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML +file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses +behind the DNS name is traced this time. To get them all, one would +have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from +GeoTraceroute). That might be the next step in this project.</p> + +<p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where +the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it. +And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can +be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in +Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe. (Hm, what should +we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything +unencrypted over the Internet.</p> + +<p>PS: KML files are drawn using +<a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan +Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application +Marble. There are heaps of other options too.</p> + +<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my +activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address +<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>