5 days ago, the Norwegian Parliament decided, unanimously, that all -citizens of Norway, no matter if they are suspected of something -criminal or not, are -required to -give fingerprints to the police (vote details from Holder de -ord). The law make it sound like it will be optional, but in a few -years there will be no option any more. The ID will be required to -vote, to get a bank account, a bank card, to change address on the -post office, to receive an electronic ID or to get a drivers license -and many other tasks required to function in Norway. The banks plan -to stop providing their own ID on the bank cards when this new -national ID is introduced, and the national road authorities plan to -change the drivers license to no longer be usable as identity cards. -In effect, to function as a citizen in Norway a national ID card will -be required, and to get it one need to provide the fingerprints to -the police.
- -In addition to handing the fingerprint to the police (which -promised to not make a copy of the fingerprint image at that point in -time, but say nothing about doing it later), a picture of the finger -print will be stored on the RFID chip, along with a picture of the -face and other information about the person. Some of the information -will be encrypted, but the encryption will be the same system as -currently used in the passports. The codes to decrypt will be -available to a lot of government offices and their suppliers around -the globe, but for those that do now know anyone in those circles it -is good to know that -the -encryption is already broken. And they -can -be read from 70 meters away. This can be mitigated a bit by -keeping it in a Faraday cage (metal box or metal wire container), but -one will be required to take it out of there often enough to expose -ones private and personal information to a lot of people that have no -business getting access to that information.
- -The new Norwegian national IDs are a vehicle for identity theft, -and I feel sorry for us all having politicians accepting such invasion -of privacy without any objections. So are the Norwegian passports, -but it has been possible to function in Norway without those so far. -That option is going away with the passing of the new law. In this, I -envy the Germans, because for them it is optional how much biometric -information is stored in their national ID.
- -And if forced collection of fingerprints was not bad enough, the -information collected in the national ID card register can be handed -over to foreign intelligence services and police authorities, "when -extradition is not considered disproportionate".
+ +Bitcoin er i litt vinden i Norge for tiden, med +kronikk +om bitcoin-overføringer på tvers av landegrensene hos NRK Ytring +for to dager siden og +dokumentar +om bitcoin på NRK 2 i forgårs og i går. I den sammenhengen er det +spesielt hyggelig med en gladnyhet fra EU om Bitcoin.
+ +I dag konkluderte EU-domstolen at +Bitcoin-kjøp +fra Bitcoin-børser ikke er MVA-pliktig (sak Câ264/14). Fant +nyheten +først hos Reuters, etter tips fra innehaveren av +Bitmynt. EU-domstolens avgjørelse +er stikk i strid med +annonseringen +fra Skatteetaten i 2013, der de konkluderte med at bitcoin er et +«formuesobjekter» som det skulle betales mva pÃ¥ ved kjøp og salg. +Dermed la Skatteetaten opp til dobbel MVA-betaling hvis en kjøpte noe +med Bitcoin fra Norge (først mva pÃ¥ kjøp av Bitcoin, deretter mva pÃ¥ +det en kjøper med Bitcoin). Jeg lurer pÃ¥ om denne avgjørelsen fÃ¥r +Skatteetaten til Ã¥ bytte mening. Gleder meg til fortsettelsen.
Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost -to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the -cost of around 20 million NOK (2.4 mill EUR) for all the calls in a -year. I got curious and wondered what the same calculation would look -like today. To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is -needed for each minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in -Norway sums up to, and the cost of data storage.
- -The 2005 numbers are from -digi.no, -the 2012 numbers are from -a -NKOM report, and I got the 2013 numbers after asking NKOM via -email. I was told the numbers for 2014 will be presented May 20th, -and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very -different from the numbers from 2013.
- -The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted -quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that 8 Kbit/s is -enough. See for example a -summary -on voice quality from Cisco for some alternatives. 8 Kbit/s is 60 -Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes -to get the storage requirements.
- -Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies, -availability requirements etc. But a simple way to calculate can be -to use the price of a TiB-disk (around 1000 NOK / 120 EUR) and double -it to take space, power and redundancy into account. It could be much -higher with high speed and good redundancy requirements.
- -But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone -calls in Norway? Not much. Here is a small table showing the -estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium -and large organisations:
- -Year | Call minutes | Size | Price in NOK / EUR |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | 24 000 000 000 | 1.3 PiB | 3 mill / 358 000 |
2012 | 18 000 000 000 | 1.0 PiB | 2.2 mill / 262 000 |
2013 | 17 000 000 000 | 950 TiB | 2.1 mill / 250 000 |
This is the cost of buying the storage. Maintenance need to be -taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise -for the reader. But it is obvious to me from those numbers that -recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be -stopped because it is too expensive. I wonder if someone already is -collecting the data?
+ +Last year, US president candidate +in the Democratic Party Lawrence interviewed Edward Snowden. The +one hour interview was +published by +Harvard Law School 2014-10-23 on Youtube, and the meeting took +place 2014-10-20.
+ +The questions are very good, and there is lots of useful +information to be learned and very interesting issues to think about +being raised. Please check it out.
+ + + +I find it especially interesting to hear again that Snowden did try +to bring up his reservations through the official channels without any +luck. It is in sharp contrast to the answers made 2013-11-06 by the +Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg to the Norwegian Parliament, +claiming +Snowden is no Whistle-Blower because he should have taken up his +concerns internally and using official channels. It make me sad +that this is the political leadership we have here in Norway.
I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out -this -announcement today:
- --the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first -*beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first -time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable -release, Debian 8 "Jessie". - -(As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been -released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish -later today ;) - -We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming -weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades -from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will -be possible and encouraged! - -Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit -bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs - -Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete -operating system for schools, universities and other -organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles -administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which -will work in harmony on the school network. With Debian Edu, the -teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a -complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or -days. - -Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the -world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come -with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian -archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach. - -For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and -installation instructions are available, including detailed -instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting -up a network or adding users. Please note that the password for the -user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at -least 5 characters! - -== Where to download == - -A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting -can be downloaded at the following locations: - - http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso - rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso . - -The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a - -Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also -available, with more software included (saving additional download -time): - - http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso - rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso - -The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636 - -Sources are available from the Debian archive, see -http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download -options. - -== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages == - -Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for -the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual. - -This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian, -Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists -for Spanish. See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for -online version of the translated manual. - -More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the -release notes and the installation manual: -- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes -- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual - - -== Errata / known problems == - - It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via - DHCP (#780461). - - The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). - -Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the -hostname immediately. - -Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly -more current and complete list. - -== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 == - -=== Software updates === - -Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.: - - * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for - i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like - Intel Pentium and AMD K5). - - * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14, - Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6 - * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8 - * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of - the others see the manual. - * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41 - * LibreOffice 4.3.3 - * GOsa 2.7.4 - * LTSP 5.5.4 - * CUPS print system 1.7.5 - * new boot framework: systemd - * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12 - * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02 - * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14 - * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1 - * golearn 0.9 - * tuxpaint 0.9.22 - * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie. - * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation. - * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release - notes and the installation manual, see the link above. - -=== Installation changes === - - Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically - for the hardware present. - -=== Fixed bugs === - -A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable -from a user perspective: - - * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break - DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect - information is corrected (710362) - - * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). - -=== Sugar desktop removed === - -As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not -available in Debian Edu jessie. - - -== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux == - -Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on -Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely -configured school network. Directly after installation a school server -running all services needed for a school network is set up just -waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable -Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after -initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other -machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server -provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service, -centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other -services. The desktop contains more than 60 educational software -packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools -can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop -environment. - -== About Debian == - -The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly -free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of -the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of -volunteers from all over the world work together to create and -maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a -huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal -operating system. - -== Thanks == - -Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen! -You rock. -+ +
The movie "The +Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz" is both inspiring +and depressing at the same time. The work of Aaron Swartz has +inspired me in my work, and I am grateful of all the improvements he +was able to initiate or complete. I wish I am able to do as much good +in my life as he did in his. Every minute of this 1:45 long movie is +inspiring in documenting how much impact a single person can have on +improving the society and this world. And it is depressing in +documenting how the law enforcement of USA (and other countries) is +corrupted to a point where they can push a bright kid to his death for +downloading too many scientific articles. Aaron is dead. Let us all +weep.
+ +The movie is also available on +Youtube. I +wish there were Norwegian subtitles available, so I could show it to +my parents.
It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete -computer system for schools I've involved in, -Debian Edu / Skolelinux, was -being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an -interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish -Agarwal.
- -Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
- -My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and -historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India. -My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips, -installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different -fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with -few software start-ups as well.
- -How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?
- -It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few -years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was -anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free -educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many -nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as -it was known then. Since then I have started using the various -education meta-packages provided by the project.
- -What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?
- -It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational -software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and -figuratively). Even if I take the simplest software which is -gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of -the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even -pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered -#781841 and -#781842.
- -I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions, -as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the -possibility of a larger life span. Of course with both it's more a -question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both -for the developer per-se.
- -What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?
- -I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I -think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take -help from people and the larger community wherever possible.
- -I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact -that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it. -However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is -pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done -but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them. -Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but -still) I have had for a long time :
- -1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions -each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how -far would each travel and similar questions like these. - -
The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can -be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in -interactive manner. While sites such as the -Ask -Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem (as an example or point of -inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done. I dunno -if there is a free software which does something like this. The idea -being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does -this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or -colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question -or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour. -This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how -the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started, -psychics and everything in-between.
- -One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on -one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they -meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could -also be used.
- -2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have -enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary. I don't think it -should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and -sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers -from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be -the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on -the user's input.
- -3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called -palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What -needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and -copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into -nature, history etc. and let it loose. This could turn to be really -huge collection of images. One source could be taken from -commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free -stock photos. Potential is immense.
- -Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag -both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a -lot. This is more so in educational software as these applications -need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is -immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and -maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know -of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and -maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.
- -Which free software do you use daily?
- -That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt, -aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays), -quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly -between kpat and Aiselriot. In desktops it's a tie between -gnome-flashback and mate.
- -Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?
- -I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in -whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it. -Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the -school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the -people now understand the concept of a repository because of the -various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.
- -What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and -passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers -then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as -well.
- -I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For -instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but -there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La -Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.
- -One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates -and upgrades. People have this myth that each update and upgrade -means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this -innumerable times. That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers -like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because -it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that -changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with -the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS -releases.
- -The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest -is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu -is aimed at. - -
Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for -around 2 years, and -gathered -some experience there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered -there was :
- --
-
-
- Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects - and they do not want you to teach anything out of the - portion/syllabus given. - -
- They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever - is in the syllabus. - -
- There are huge barriers both with the English language and at - times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris - you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's - say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be - as recognizable as say a - Puneri - Pagdi so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever - possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words - which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in - parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or - something but that is something for upstream to do. - -
Jeg lot meg fascinere av +en +artikkel i Aftenposten der det fortelles at «over 600 telefoner som +benyttes av stortingsrepresentanter, rådgivere og ansatte på +Stortinget, kan «fjernstyres» ved hjelp av +programvaren +Airwatch, et såkalte MDM-program (Mobile Device Managment)». Det +hele bagatelliseres av Stortingets IT-stab, men det er i hovedsak på +grunn av at journalisten ikke stiller de relevante spørsmålene. For +meg er det relevante spørsmålet hvem som har lovlig tilgang (i henhold +til lokal lovgiving, dvs. i hvert fall i Norge, Sverige, UK og USA) +til informasjon om og på telefonene, og hvor enkelt det er å skaffe +seg tilgang til hvor mobilene befinner seg og informasjon som befinner +seg på telefonene ved hjelp av utro tjenere, trusler, innbrudd og +andre ulovlige metoder.
+ +Bruken av AirWatch betyr i realiteten at USAs etteretning og +politimyndigheter har full tilgang til stortingets mobiltelefoner, +inkludert posisjon og innhold, takket være +FISAAA-loven +og +"National +Security Letters" og det enkle faktum at selskapet +AirWatch er kontrollert av et +selskap i USA. I tillegg er det kjent at flere lands +etterretningstjenester kan lytte på trafikken når den passerer +landegrensene.
+ +Jeg har bedt om mer informasjon +fra +Stortinget om bruken av AirWatch via Mimes brønn så får vi se hva +de har å fortelle om saken. Fant ingenting om 'airwatch' i +postjournalen til Stortinget, så jeg trenger hjelp før jeg kan be om +innsyn i konkrete dokumenter.
+ +Oppdatering 2015-10-07: Jeg er blitt spurt hvorfor jeg antar at +AirWatch-agenten rapporterer til USA og ikke direkte til Stortingets +egen infrastruktur. Det stemmer at det er teknisk mulig å sette +opp mobiltelefonene til å rapportere til datamaskiner som eies av +Stortinget. Jeg antar det rapporteres til AirWatch sine sentrale +tjenester basert på det jeg leste fra beskrivelsen av +Mobile +Device Management på AirWatch sine egne nettsider, koblet med at +det brukes en standard app som kan hentes fra "app-butikkene" for å få +tilgang. Enten må app-en settes opp individuelt hos Stortinget, eller +så får den beskjed fra AirWatch i USA om hvor den skal koble seg opp. +I det første tilfellet vil den ikke rapportere direkte til USA, men +til programvare utviklet av AirWatch som kjører på en maskin under +Stortingets kontroll. Det er litt bedre, men fortsatt vil det være +umulig for Stortinget å være sikker på hva programvaren som tar imot +forbindelser gjør. Jeg ser fra beskrivelsen av +Enterprice +Integration hos AirWatch at det er mulig å ha lokal installasjon, +og håper innsynsforespørsler mot Stortinget kan fortelle mer om +hvordan ting konkret fungerer der.
I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the Open Source Developers' -Conference Nordic 2015!
- -It take place Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of May in Oslo next to -where I work, and I finally got around to submitting -a talk proposal for -it (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted). As -part of my involvement with the -Norwegian Unix User Group member -association I have been slightly involved in the planning of this -conference for a while now, with a focus on organising a Civic Hacking -Hackathon with our friends -over at mySociety and -Holder de ord. This part is -named the 'My Society' track in the program. There is still space for -more talks and participants. I hope to see you there.
- -Check out the talks -submitted and accepted so far.
+ +As I wrap up the Norwegian version of +Free +Culture book by Lawrence Lessig (still waiting for my final proof +reading copy to arrive in the mail), my great +dblatex helper and +developer of the dblatex docbook processor, Benoît Guillon, decided a +to try to create a French version of the book. He started with the +French translation available from the +Wikilivres wiki +pages, and wrote a program to convert it into a PO file, allowing +the translation to be integrated into the po4a based framework I use +to create the Norwegian translation from the English edition. We meet +on the #dblatex IRC +channel to discuss the work. If you want to help create a French +edition, check out +his git +repository and join us on IRC. If the French edition look good, +we might publish it as a paper book on lulu.com. A French version of +the drawings and the cover need to be provided for this to happen.
During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian -docbook version of the 2004 book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. -At the moment I am proof reading the finished text, looking for typos, -inconsistent wordings and sentences that do not flow as they should. -I'm more than two thirds done with the text, and welcome others to -check the text up to chapter 13. The current status is available on the -github -project pages. You can also check out the -PDF, -EPUB -and HTML version available in the -archive -directory.
- -Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if -you find any.
+ +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.
+ +
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 +battery-stats, +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 +blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air I also +discovered +batlog, not +available in Debian.
+ +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:
+ ++#!/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 ++ +
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 +is now +available on github.
+ +The collected log file look like this:
+ ++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, +[...] +1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full, +1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full, ++ +
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.
+ +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 +Battery +University, 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 +limit +the charge of their batteries to 80%, 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.
+ +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 +one +recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to +80%, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to +load).
+ +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.
+ +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.
The Norwegian Unix User Group, -where I am a member, and where people interested in free software, -open standards and UNIX like operating systems like Linux and the BSDs -come together, record our monthly technical presentations on video. -The purpose is to document the talks and spread them to a wider -audience. For this, the the Norwegian nationwide open channel -Frikanalen is a useful venue. -Since a few days ago, when I figured out the -REST API to program the -channel time schedule, -the channel has been filled with NUUG talks, related recordings and -some Creative Commons licensed TED talks (from archive.org). I fill -all "leftover bits" on the channel with content from NUUG, which at -the moment is almost 17 of 24 hours every day.
- -The list of NUUG videos -uploaded so far -include things like a -one hour talk by John -Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo, a presentation of -Haiku, the BeOS -re-implementation, the -history of FiksGataMi, -the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet, the good old -Warriors of the net -video and many others.
- -We have a large backlog of NUUG talks not yet uploaded to -Frikanalen, and plan to upload every useful bit to the channel to -spread the word there. I also hope to find useful recordings from the -Chaos Computer Club and Debian conferences and spread them on the -channel as well. But this require locating the videos and their meta -information (title, description, license, etc), and preparing the -recordings for broadcast, and I have not yet had the spare time to -focus on this. Perhaps you want to help. Please join us on IRC, -#nuug on irc.freenode.net -if you want to help make this happen.
- -But as I said, already the channel is already almost exclusively -filled with technical topics, and if you want to learn something new -today, check out the Ogg Theora -web stream or use one of the other ways to get access to the -channel. Unfortunately the Ogg Theora recoding for distribution still -do not properly sync the video and sound. It is generated by recoding -a internal MPEG transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to -Ogg Theora / Vorbis, and we have not been able to find a way that -produces acceptable quality. Help needed, please get in touch if you -know how to fix it using free software.
+ +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 +Free +Culture 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. + +
But thanks to the great inkscape community, I was able to wrap up +the cover yesterday evening. I asked on the +#inkscape IRC channel +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 +SVG document with +the original and his vector version side by side, he even provided +an instruction +video explaining how he did it. 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.
+ +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:
+ +
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.
+ +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.
Today I was happy to learn that the documentary -Citizenfour by -Laura Poitras -finally will show up in Norway. According to the magazine -Montages, a deal has finally been -made for -Cinema -distribution in Norway and the movie will have its premiere soon. -This is great news. As part of my involvement with -the Norwegian Unix User Group, me and -a friend have -tried -to get the movie to Norway ourselves, but obviously -we -were too late and Tor Fosse beat us to it. I am happy he did, as -the movie will make its way to the public and we do not have to make -it happen ourselves. -The trailer -can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this -is.
- -The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum -here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.
+ +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. :)
+ +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.
The Norwegian nationwide open channel
-Frikanalen is still going
-strong. It allow everyone to send the video they want on national
-television. It is a TV station administrated completely using a web
-browser, running only
If you want to see what is on the channel, point your media player -to one of these sources. The first should work with most players and -browsers, while as far as I know, the multicast UDP stream only work -with VLC.
- --
-
- http://video.nuug.no/frikanalen.ogv -
- udp://@224.17.43.129:1234 -
The Ogg Theora / icecast stream is not working well, as the video -and audio is slightly out of sync. We have not been able to figure -out how to fix it. It is generated by recoding a internal MPEG -transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to Ogg Theora / -Vorbis, and the result is less then stellar. If you have ideas how to -fix it, please let us know on frikanalen (at) nuug.no. We currently -use this with ffmpeg2theora 0.29:
- -- --./ffmpeg2theora.linux <OBE_gemini_URL.ts> -F 25 -x 720 -y 405 \ - --deinterlace --inputfps 25 -c 1 -H 48000 --keyint 8 --buf-delay 100 \ - --nosync -V 700 -o - | oggfwd video.nuug.no 8000 <pw> /frikanalen.ogv -
If you get the multicast UDP stream working, please let me know, as -I am curious how far the multicast stream reach. It do not make it to -my home network, nor any other commercially available network in -Norway that I am aware of.
+ +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 +docbook based version of the +Free Culture 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.
+ +Last night, I finally managed to create a PDF that no longer made +Lulu.com 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.
+ +Instead of using Lulu, I did consider printing the book using +CreateSpace, 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.
+ +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.
+ +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.
+ +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 +github +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.
+ +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.
En stund nå har jeg vært nødt til å forholde meg til -Fronter, en nettløsning -Osloskolen bruker for kontakt mellom hjem og skole. Løsningen -imponerer ikke, og det er lagt opp til at vi foreldre skal logge inn -regelmessig for å se om noe har endret seg. Idéen om å la folk stikke -innom nettsider for å se om det har skjedd endringer er så idiotisk at -jeg har lett etter et alternativ. Fronterløsningen har en innebygget -løsning der en kan abonnere på forsiden (som viser en oppsummering av -det en har tilgang til), og få tilsendt en kopi hver natt, men det -fjerner jo bare behovet for å stikke innom, ikke den idiotiske ideen -om at folk skal huske hvordan nettsiden så ut sist og oppdage hva som -er endret.
- -For å gjøre livet enklere har jeg derfor brukt litt tid på å lage -et program som kobler seg opp og sjekker etter endringer automatisk, -slik at jeg kan få beskjed fra datamaskinen når noe endrer seg i -stedet for å forsøke å finne ut av det selv. I går ble scriptet -brukbart, og jeg er dermed klar til å dele det med deg.
- -Jeg startet med å skrive programmet i Python, og hadde en versjon -som logget inn og hentet ned enkeltsider fra Fronter. Men -Fronter-websidene suger golfballer gjennom en hageslange, med -uleselig HTML, flere nivåer av iframes og en struktur på innholdet som -er svært vanskelig å finne ut av, så jeg ga til slutt opp lxml-parsing -med Python og forsøkte meg med WWW::Mechanize for Perl som jeg kjente -fra før. I ettertid har jeg oppdaget at WWW:Mechanize også finnes for -Python, så jeg kunne antagelig droppet språkbyttet. Men da jeg -oppdaget det hadde jeg kommet så langt med Perl-utgaven, så jeg hoppet -ikke tilbake.
- -For å logge inn i Fronter besøker en enten skolens websider eller -den sentrale innloggingsiden https://fronter.com/osloskoler/. -Perl-koden for å logge inn ser slik ut:
+ +I'm still working on the Norwegian version of the +Free Culture book by Lawrence +Lessig, 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 +feedback from the Debian +maintainer and the dblatex developer, 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.
+ +First, decide where in the DocBook document to place the endnotes, +and add this text there:
-my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new(); -$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/'); -$mech->submit_form(fields => { - username => $username, - password => $password, -} ); +<?latex \theendnotes ?>-
Neste steg er å få oversikt over hvilke «rom» en har tilgang til. -På vår skole er det rom for skolen, biblioteket, elevrådet, -aktivitetsskolen og klasser der en har unger, og dette vil være -forskjellig fra person til person. Etter å ha romstert rundt i -Fronter-grensesnittet endel kom jeg over en grei HTML-side med -oversikt over rommene, -https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser, -så jeg bruker denne til å hente ut romoversikt med rom-ID.
+Next, create a xsl stylesheet file dblatex-endnotes.xsl to add the +code needed to add the endnote instructions in the preamble of the +generated LaTeX document, with content like this:
-my %room; -$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser'); -for my $link ($mech->links()) { - my $url = $link->url(); - if ($url =~ m%/links/list_files.phtml\?edit=(\d+)$%) { - $room{$link->text()} = $1; - } -} +<?xml version='1.0'?> +<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'> + <xsl:param name="latex.begindocument"> + <xsl:text> +\usepackage{endnotes} +\let\footnote=\endnote +\def\enoteheading{\mbox{}\par\vskip-\baselineskip } +\begin{document} + </xsl:text> + </xsl:param> +</xsl:stylesheet>-
Når en har rom-ID kan en slå opp websiden for rommet, som starter -på -https://fronter.com/osloskoler/contentframeset.phtml?goto_prjid=$ROMID -(der $ROMID byttes ut med rom-ID-tallet). Det gir en side med -iframes, og en må tre nivåer ned i iframes før en får tak i -HTML-informasjonen som vises frem når en ser på det aktuelle rommet. -Her ga jeg opp den robuste parsingen og hardkodet endel URL-er som i -stedet bør spores opp maskinelt. HTML-informasjonen som vises lagres -i en fil etter at økt- og innloggings-nøkkel er fjernet og deretter -bruker jeg lynx --dump --nolist for å hente ut en tekstlig -utgave av websiden. Denne tekstlige utgaven sammenlignes med forrige -versjon og oversikt over endringer kan så sendes ut på egnet vis.
- -Jeg valgte å bruke git til å holde rede på endringer, så jeg -sjekker inn HTML og tekst-utgaver i git og bruker git til å vise frem -endringene i tekstutgavene. Programvaren for å gjøre dette er testet -på Debian GNU/Linux og kan -lastes -ned fra github.
- -For å bruke dette selv, kjør følgende kommandoer på din -Debian-maskin (forutsetter sudo-tilgang for installasjon av -programvare):
+Finally, load this xsl file when running dblatex, for example like +this:
-sudo apt-get install git lynx-cur libio-prompter-perl libwww-mechanize-perl \ - libconfig-inifiles-perl -git clone https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fronter-scraper-oslo -cd fronter-scraper-oslo -./update-git +dblatex --xsl-user=dblatex-endnotes.xsl freeculture.nb.xml-
Det gjenstår endel, men systemet er allerede nyttig for meg. Jeg -ønsker at systemet også skal laste ned PDF-er og slikt som er lagt ut -for nedlasting på sidene, slik at f.eks. ukeplaner kommer inn i -git-arkivet mitt automatisk og jeg får automatisk beskjed når ny -ukeplan er lagt ut. Kanskje du kan bidra med å få det på plass, eller -kanskje du har andre ting du vil fikse? Jeg tar gjerne imot endringer -og forbedringer. Det er mye som kan gjøres bedre, og scriptet er ikke -veldig robust mot endringer hos nettsidene til Fronter. Jeg regner -dermed med at det vil trengs oppdateringer jevnlig etter hvert som -Fronter-løsningen endrer seg.
+The end result can be seen on github, where +my +book project is located.