blog/archive/2012/06/06.rss

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   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from June 2012</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from June 2012</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Veileder fra DIFI om publisering av offentlige data</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Veileder_fra_DIFI_om_publisering_av_offentlige_data.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Veileder_fra_DIFI_om_publisering_av_offentlige_data.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Fri, 1 Jun 2012 10:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;På onsdag rakk jeg såvidt innom
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.meetup.com/osloopendata/&quot;&gt;Oslo Open Data Forums&lt;/a&gt;
  16 møte, og fikk lagt hendene mine på DIFIs helt nye veileder
  17 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://veileder.data.norge.no/&quot;&gt;Åpne data.  Del og skap
  18 verdier.  Veileder i tilgjengeliggjøring av offentlig data&lt;/a&gt;&quot; (også
  19 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.difi.no/filearchive/veileder-i-tilgjengeliggjoring-av-offentlig-data-web.pdf&quot;&gt;tilgjengelig
  20 som PDF&lt;/a&gt; fra DIFI).&lt;/p&gt;
  21
  22 &lt;p&gt;Veilederen er veldig bra, og nevner viktige problemstillinger og
  23 skisserer f.eks. både verdiskapningspotensialet og formatmulighetene
  24 som en bør ha i bakhodet når en publiserer offentlig informasjon på
  25 maskinlesbart format.  Kildekoden til veilederen er
  26 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/difi/veileder-opnedata&quot;&gt;tilgjengelig via
  27 github&lt;/a&gt;, og en kan rapportere tilbakemeldinger og forslag til
  28 forbedringer der (eller via epost og twitter for de som ønsker
  29 det).&lt;/p&gt;
  30
  31 &lt;p&gt;Det eneste jeg virkelig savnet i veilederen var omtale av
  32 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html&quot;&gt;w3cs
  33 stjerneklassifisering&lt;/a&gt; av åpne datakilder, som jeg tror ville være
  34 nyttige mentale knagger for de som vurderer å publisere sin
  35 informasjon på som åpne data.  Jeg har
  36 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/difi/veileder-opnedata/issues/1&quot;&gt;rapportert
  37 en github-bug&lt;/a&gt; om dette, så får vi se hvordan den blir behandlet.&lt;/p&gt;
  38
  39 &lt;p&gt;Det slo meg at det var veldig lite konkret i veilederen om valg av
  40 bruksvilkår ved publisering (aka lisens), men jeg er ikke sikker på om
  41 det hører hjemme der, da det er et vanskelig tema som kanskje heller
  42 hører hjemme i sin egen veileder.  Uansett, anbefaler alle å ta en
  43 titt på veilederen og sikre at alle offentlige etater en har kontakt
  44 med får en kopi.&lt;/p&gt;
  45 </description>
  46         </item>
  47
  48         <item>
  49                 <title>SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</title>
  50                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html</link>
  51                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html</guid>
  52                 <pubDate>Fri, 1 Jun 2012 15:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
  53                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few years ago I wrote
  54 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html&quot;&gt;how
  55 to extract support status&lt;/a&gt; for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
  56 I have learned from colleges here at the
  57 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of Oslo&lt;/a&gt; that Dell have
  58 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
  59 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
  60 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
  61 demonstrate how to do it:&lt;/p&gt;
  62
  63 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  64 use strict;
  65 use warnings;
  66 use SOAP::Lite;
  67 use Data::Dumper;
  68 my $GUID = &#39;11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111&#39;;
  69 my $App = &#39;test&#39;;
  70 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die &quot;Please supply a servicetag. $!\n&quot;;
  71 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
  72 my $s = SOAP::Lite
  73     -&gt; uri(&#39;http://support.dell.com/WebServices/&#39;)
  74     -&gt; on_action( sub { join &#39;&#39;, @_ } )
  75     -&gt; proxy(&#39;http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx&#39;)
  76     ;
  77 my $a = $s-&gt;GetAssetInformation(
  78     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;guid&#39;)-&gt;value($GUID)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
  79     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;applicationName&#39;)-&gt;value($App)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
  80     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;serviceTags&#39;)-&gt;value($servicetag)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
  81 );
  82 print Dumper($a -&gt; result) ;
  83 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  84
  85 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
  86
  87 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
  88 $VAR1 = {
  89           &#39;Asset&#39; =&gt; {
  90                      &#39;Entitlements&#39; =&gt; {
  91                                        &#39;EntitlementData&#39; =&gt; [
  92                                                             {
  93                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
  94                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2009-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
  95                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
  96                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
  97                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
  98                                                             },
  99                                                             {
 100                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
 101                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2009-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
 102                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
 103                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
 104                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
 105                                                             },
 106                                                             {
 107                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
 108                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2007-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
 109                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
 110                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
 111                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
 112                                                             }
 113                                                           ]
 114                                      },
 115                      &#39;AssetHeaderData&#39; =&gt; {
 116                                           &#39;SystemModel&#39; =&gt; &#39;GX620&#39;,
 117                                           &#39;ServiceTag&#39; =&gt; &#39;8DSGD2J&#39;,
 118                                           &#39;SystemShipDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00&#39;,
 119                                           &#39;Buid&#39; =&gt; &#39;2323&#39;,
 120                                           &#39;Region&#39; =&gt; &#39;Europe&#39;,
 121                                           &#39;SystemID&#39; =&gt; &#39;PLX_GX620&#39;,
 122                                           &#39;SystemType&#39; =&gt; &#39;OptiPlex&#39;
 123                                         }
 124                    }
 125         };
 126 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 127
 128 &lt;p&gt;I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
 129 service outside the
 130 &lt;a href=&quot;http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation&quot;&gt;inline
 131 documentation&lt;/a&gt;, and according to
 132 &lt;a href=&quot;http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/&quot;&gt;one
 133 comment&lt;/a&gt; it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
 134 scraping HTML pages. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 135
 136 &lt;p&gt;Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
 137 you know of one, drop me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 138 </description>
 139         </item>
 140
 141         <item>
 142                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</title>
 143                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</link>
 144                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</guid>
 145                 <pubDate>Sat, 2 Jun 2012 14:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
 146                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
 147 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
 148 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
 149 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
 150 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
 151 Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;
 152
 153 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 154
 155 &lt;p&gt;My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
 156 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
 157 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
 158 by Angela).&lt;/p&gt;
 159
 160 &lt;p&gt;During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
 161 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
 162 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
 163 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
 164 becoming an osteopath.&lt;/p&gt;
 165
 166 &lt;p&gt;Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
 167 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
 168 introducing free software into schools. The project&#39;s name is
 169 &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; (IT future for schools). The project links IT
 170 skills with communication skills.&lt;/p&gt;
 171
 172 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 173 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 174
 175 &lt;p&gt;While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
 176 &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
 177 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
 178 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
 179 distributions that target being used for school networks.&lt;/p&gt;
 180
 181 &lt;p&gt;At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
 182 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
 183 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
 184 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
 185 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
 186 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
 187 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
 188 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
 189 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.&lt;/p&gt;
 190
 191 &lt;p&gt;In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
 192 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
 193 protection experts, other IT professionals.&lt;/p&gt;
 194
 195 &lt;p&gt;We came to two conclusions:&lt;/p&gt;
 196
 197 &lt;p&gt;First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
 198 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
 199 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
 200 whereas most of each school&#39;s requirements could mapped by a standard
 201 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
 202 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
 203 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
 204 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
 205 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
 206 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
 207 point.&lt;/p&gt;
 208
 209 &lt;p&gt;Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
 210 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
 211 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
 212 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
 213 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot;
 214 tries to provide an approach for this.&lt;/p&gt;
 215
 216 &lt;p&gt;Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
 217 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
 218 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school&#39;s IT
 219 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
 220 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
 221 spare time.&lt;/p&gt;
 222
 223 &lt;p&gt;We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
 224 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
 225 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
 226 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
 227 non-existent until 2010/2011.&lt;/p&gt;
 228
 229 &lt;p&gt;Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
 230 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
 231 avoidance do exist.&lt;/p&gt;
 232
 233 &lt;p&gt;We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
 234 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
 235 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
 236 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
 237 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
 238 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
 239 and probably a gain for all.&lt;/p&gt;
 240
 241 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 242 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 243
 244 &lt;p&gt;There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
 245 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
 246 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
 247 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
 248 project communication, honest communication within the group of
 249 developers, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
 250
 251 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 252 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 253
 254 &lt;p&gt;Every coin has two sides:&lt;/p&gt;
 255
 256 &lt;p&gt;Technically: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/311188&quot;&gt;BTS issue
 257 #311188&lt;/a&gt;, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
 258 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
 259 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
 260 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
 261 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
 262 contribute).&lt;/p&gt;
 263
 264 &lt;p&gt;Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
 265 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
 266 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
 267 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
 268 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
 269 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
 270 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
 271 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
 272 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
 273 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
 274
 275 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 276
 277 &lt;p&gt;For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.&lt;/p&gt;
 278
 279 &lt;p&gt;For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
 280 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
 281 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.&lt;/p&gt;
 282
 283 &lt;p&gt;I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
 284 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
 285 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
 286 is being integrated in Ubuntu&#39;s software center.&lt;/p&gt;
 287
 288 &lt;p&gt;For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
 289 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
 290 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
 291 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
 292 whiteboard.&lt;/p&gt;
 293
 294 &lt;p&gt;My favourite terminal emulator is KDE&#39;s Yakuake.&lt;/p&gt;
 295
 296 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 297 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 298
 299 &lt;p&gt;Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
 300 enrol people.&lt;/p&gt;
 301 </description>
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 303
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