X-Git-Url: http://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/f25a7624b81ce264b556a5500c68bff5f08d4aa8..fc69198f89b689c41f669748e7e9839dfcf9d19b:/blog/archive/2012/10/10.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2012/10/10.rss b/blog/archive/2012/10/10.rss index 05d11e24b1..d7ca3f27a5 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2012/10/10.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2012/10/10.rss @@ -6,6 +6,279 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + 12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html + Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +0200 + <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> +looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general +all over the place. I am also a member (and currently leader) of +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn +make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>. NUUG +is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free +software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX +is a US based member organisation with similar targets. And thanks to +these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine +<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the +mail several times a year. The magazine is great, and I read most of +it every time.</p> + +<p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an +article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from +Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled +"<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What +Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also +<a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available +from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he +processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the +last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day, +etc etc. The article is a good read to get some empirical data on +what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired +me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p> + +<p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly +standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when +it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the +assumtions on scope and user impact. Here is the two example from the +article: First the unplanned outage: + +<blockquote><pre> +Subject: Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues +Severity: Critical (Unplanned) +Start: Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58 +End: Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38 +Duration: 40 minutes +Scope: Exchange 2003 +Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering + a cluster failover. + +User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to + access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected. +Technician: [xxx] +</pre></blockquote> + +Next the planned outage: + +<blockquote><pre> +Subject: H Building Switch Upgrades +Severity: Major (Planned) +Start: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00 +End: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00 +Duration: 10 hours +Scope: H2 Transport +Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end- + stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst + 4510s. +User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during + this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit + connectivity. +Technician: [xxx] +</pre></blockquote> + +<p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have +been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them +into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601 +dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask +people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time +format listed above). There are also other issues with the format +that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p> + +<p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a +good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the +university too. We do register +<a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned +changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing +list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a +report to the same location for unplanned outages. Perhaps something +for other sites to consider too?</p> + + + + + Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html + Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0200 + <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of +<a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how +Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account +and refuse to tell the customer why</a>. If a real book store did +this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property +and theft. The story has spread around the net today. A bit more +background information is available in Norwegian from +<a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>. +It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used +this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was +introduced many years back. And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was +willing to +<a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html"> +break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had +bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the +customers who had bought it. From the official comments, it even +sounded like +<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon +would never do that again</a>. And here we are, three years +later.</p> + +<p>And thought this action is +<a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against +Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use +as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to +Norwegian laws. It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms +of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer +rights.</p> + +<p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without +unacceptable terms. For example +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000 +books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652 +books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet +Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which +can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p> + +<p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In +the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon +restored the account of the user, as reported by +<a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a> +and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>. +Apparently public pressure work. The story from Martin have seen +several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite +a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention. But even when the +account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist. I recommend +reading two opinions from +<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon +Phipps</a> and +<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen +Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more +details about the original story.</p> + + + + + The fight for freedom and privacy + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html + Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:50:00 +0200 + <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the +drain, and it is hard to fight against it. I try to do my best, but +time is limited. I hope you do your best too. A few years ago I came +across a marvellous drawing by +<a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a> +visualising some of what is going on. + +<p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html"> +<img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p> + +<blockquote> +«They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary +safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin +</blockquote> + +<p>Do you feel safe at the airport? I do not. Do you feel safe when +you see a surveillance camera? I do not. Do you feel safe when you +leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions? I do not. I +just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the +Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly +transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p> + + + + + 57 kommuner omfavner nå FiksGataMi + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/57_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/57_kommuner_omfavner_n__FiksGataMi.html + Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:40:00 +0200 + <p><a href="http://maps.google.com/?q=http://www.nuug.no/prosjekt/fiksgatami/fiksgatami-municipalities-201210.kml"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2012-10-17-fiksgatami.png"></a></p> + +<p>For noen dager siden omfavnet nok en kommune NUUGs +<a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>. Med 57 kommuner +som lenker til FiksGataMi fra sine hjemmesider er "markedsandelen" +13% (av 429 kommuner). Sist ut er Våler kommune, som slår +følge med kommunene Askim, Askøy, Audnedal, Aure, Balestrand, Bærum, +Eide, Farsund, Flekkefjord, Folldal, Gran, Grue, Hadsel, Halden, +Halsa, Hamar, Hobøl, Holtålen, Hægebostad, Høyanger, Kongsberg, +Kristiansund, Kvinesdal, Kviteseid, Levanger, Lindesnes, Luster, +Lyngdal, Løten, Mandal, Marnardal, Moss, Namsos, Nissedal, Nordreisa, +Randaberg, Rindal, Sel, Sirdal, Skiptvet, Sortland, Spydeberg, +Stjørdal, Stord, Søgne, Sør-Odal, Tolga, Trysil, Tynset, Tysvær, +Ullensvang Herad, Vennesla, Verdal, Vågan, Vågå og Åseral. Oppdatert +liste og kart er tilgjengelig fra +<a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/fiksgatami/positivemottakere">NUUGs +wiki</a>. + +<p>I snitt rapporteres det nå via FiksGataMi ca. 110 meldinger fra +innbyggerne i uka om feil på offentlig infrastruktur.</p> + + + + + Netflix krever at du frasier deg dine forbrukerrettigheter... + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Netflix_krever_at_du_frasier_deg_dine_forbrukerrettigheter___.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Netflix_krever_at_du_frasier_deg_dine_forbrukerrettigheter___.html + Wed, 17 Oct 2012 15:30:00 +0200 + <p>Filmtjenesten Netflix lanseres i Norge, med en jublende presse på +sidelinjen. Men har journalistene lest bruksvilkårene? Synes de +avsnitt nummer to i +«<a href="https://signup.netflix.com/TermsOfUse?locale=nb-NO">Vilkår +for bruk</a>» høres greit ut for en forbrukertjeneste i Norge? +Avsnittet lyder slik: + +<blockquote> + +«Disse vilkårene for bruk innebærer at alle tvister mellom deg og +Netflix vil bli løst ved BINDENDE VOLDGIFT. DU SAMTYKKER I AT DU +FRASIER DEG ENHVER RETT TIL RETTSLIGE SKRITT for å hevde eller +forsvare rettighetene dine under denne kontrakten (med unntak for +mindre saker som kan avgjøres i forliksretten). Rettighetene dine vil +bli bestemt av en NØYTRAL VOLDGIFTSMANN/MEKLER og IKKE en dommer eller +jury, og krav kan ikke framstilles i form av gruppesøksmål. Les +gjennom voldgiftsavtalen nedenfor for å finne alle detaljer vedrørende +avtalen, slik at du kan se hvordan en eventuell konflikt med Netflix +skal håndteres og vil avgjøres.» + +</blockquote> + +<p>Ikke nok med det, men må akseptere at det er USAs lov som skal +regulere bruken, og dermed akseptere å miste norsk forbruker- og +personvernlovgiving (hvilket så vidt jeg vet ikke kan gjøres i +Norge).</p> + +<blockquote> +«Gjennom å godta disse vilkår for bruk samtykker du i at tolkingen og +håndhevelsen av denne voldgiftsavtalen er underlagt den føderale +voldgiftsloven i USA, U.S. Federal Arbitration Act, og at både du og +Netflix frasier dere retten til en juryprosess eller deltakelse i +gruppesøksmål. Denne voldgiftsbetingelsen gjelder selv etter at denne +avtalen er oppsagt og Netflix-medlemskapet ditt har opphørt.» +</blockquote> + +<p>En må altså si ja til å frasi seg de vanlige forbrukerrettighetene +i Norge for å bruke Netflix. Vilkårene til Netflix vil neppe stå seg +i norsk rett, men det er usedvanlig frekt å bare foreslå det, da de +aller fleste som leser dem vil anta at vilkårene gjelder med mindre de +er svært godt kjent med norsk forbrukerrett. Skal en frasi seg +muligheten til å hevde sin rett hvis Netflix lekker personopplysninger +(USAs lovgiving er svært mangelfull i forhold til den norske +personvernlovgivingen) eller leverer en tjeneste som ikke holder mål? +Nei takk. Med slike bruksvilkår takker jeg høflig nei til tilbudet, +og de får ikke meg som kunde før de har en helt annen tilnærming mot +sine kunder.</p> + +<p>Oppdatering 2012-10-18: Både +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/digital/Netflix-krever-at-du-sier-fra-deg-norske-forbrukerrettigheter-7021182.html">Aftenposten</a>, +<a href="http://nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.8362951">NRK</a> og +<a href="http://www.teknofil.no/artikler/forbrukerradet-slakter-netflix/113679">Teknofil</a> +har snappet opp saken (dog nevner ikke NRK kilde, så de kan jo ha +oppdaget det selv). Veldig bra at flere blir oppmerksom på slike +ting. «- Helt hinsides, mener Forbrukerrådet om Netflix' +brukervilkår», siterer Aftenposten. Og +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/Forbrukerombudet-vil-granske-TV-markedet-7021465.html">Aftenposten</a> +melder videre at Forbrukerrådet vil granske TV-bransjen med bakgrunn i +dette.</p> + + + Alternativindustrien og NRKs Folkeopplysningen - debatten så langt http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Alternativindustrien_og_NRKs_Folkeopplysningen___debatten_s__langt.html @@ -22,9 +295,16 @@ forsøkt å samle alle debattinnleggene her.</p> <ul> +<li> +2012-10-25 +<a href="http://morgenbladet.no/debatt/2012/hvem_bor_i_tomannsboliger">Hvem bor i tomannsboliger?</a> - morgenbladet.no + +<li>2012-10-18 +<a href="http://morgenbladet.no/debatt/2012/postmodernisme">Postmodernisme?</a> - morgenbladet.no</li> + <li>2012-10-16 <a href="http://fritanke.no/index.php?page=vis_nyhet&NyhetID=8936">Sukkerpiller -og silkehansker</a> - fritanke.no.</li> +og silkehansker</a> - fritanke.no</li> <li>2012-10-15 <a href="http://www.aftenbladet.no/meninger/Vitenskapelig-mobbing-3049983.html">«Vitenskapelig» @@ -160,6 +440,9 @@ for å ha hjulpet meg å følge debatten.</p> <p>Bonuslenke til deg som lurer på om det er så farlig med alternativ behandling. Sjekk «<a href="http://whatstheharm.net/">What's the harm</a>» for informasjon om hva som kan gå galt.</a> + +<p>Oppdatering 2012-10-30: Lagt inn to nye debattinnlegg publisert +etter 2012-10-16.</p>