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5 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: entries from December 2010</title>
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11
12 <div class="title">
13 <h1>
14 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
15
16 </h1>
17
18 </div>
19
20 <p>Entries from December 2010.</p>
21
22
23 <div class="entry">
24 <div class="title">
25 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
26 </div>
27 <div class="date">
28 2010-12-09 19:30
29 </div>
30
31 <div class="body">
32
33 <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
34 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
35 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
36 get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
37 work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
38 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
39 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
40 forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
41 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
42 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
43 operational.</p>
44
45 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
46 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
47 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
48 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>. I even got
49 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
50 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
51 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
52
53 </div>
54 <div class="tags">
55
56
57
58 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
59
60 </div>
61 </div>
62 <div class="padding"></div>
63
64 <div class="entry">
65 <div class="title">
66 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b__nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html">Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</a>
67 </div>
68 <div class="date">
69 2010-12-09 21:25
70 </div>
71
72 <div class="body">
73
74 <p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/">Martin Bekkelund</a> ved
75 <a href="http://www.friprog.no/">friprog-senteret</a> har skrevet
76 følgende
77 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/">korte
78 oppsummering</a> rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
79 her.</p>
80
81 <p><blockquote><strong>Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
82 innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (<acronym
83 title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>) i norsk rett. Kanskje
84 har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
85 tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.</strong></p>
86
87 <p>Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
88 <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> ikke bør
89 innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
90 er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
91 store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
92 hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.</p>
93
94 <ul>
95 <li><a href="http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/">EU-ekspertene sier</a> at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale</li>
96 <li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf">Juristene påpeker</a> at direktivet er i strid med EMK</li>
97 <li><a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/">Datatilsynet sier</a> direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt</li>
98 <li><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld">Teknologene sier</a> at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser</li>
99 <li><a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf">Pressen sier</a> nei av hensyn til kildevernet</li>
100 <li>Det er store <a href="http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html">interne</a> <a href="http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/">stridigheter</a> i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym> er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov</li>
101 <li>Alle de store <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/">operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei</a>, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker</li>
102 </ul>
103
104 <p>Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
105 rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
106 for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
107 lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
108 mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
109 atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.</p>
110
111 <p><strong>Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
112 <acronym title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>.</strong></p>
113
114 <p><a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/">Ta kontakt med meg</a>
115 hvis du har spørsmål om <acronym
116 title="Datalagringsdirektivet">DLD</acronym>, uansett hva det måtte
117 gjelde.</p>
118
119 <p class="info">Denne teksten er å anse som <a
120 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/"><em>Public
121 Domain</em></a>. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
122 den!</p>
123 </blockquote></p>
124
125 <p>Siste <a href="http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece">melding
126 fra Nettavisen</a> er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
127 til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
128 fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi
129 får snart se om det stemmer.</p>
130
131 </div>
132 <div class="tags">
133
134
135
136 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
137
138 </div>
139 </div>
140 <div class="padding"></div>
141
142 <div class="entry">
143 <div class="title">
144 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
145 </div>
146 <div class="date">
147 2010-12-10 08:20
148 </div>
149
150 <div class="body">
151
152 <p>With this weeks lawless
153 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
154 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
155 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
156 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
157 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
158 A blog post from
159 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
160 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
161 mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
162 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>. I got
163 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
164 some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
165 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
166
167 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
168 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
169 networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
170 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
171 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
172 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
173 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
174 line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
175 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
176 Debian</a> soon.</p>
177
178 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
179 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
180 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
181 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
182 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
183 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
184 you can even get
185 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
186 bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
187 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
188 on the current exchange rates.</p>
189
190 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
191 machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
192 donations to the address
193 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>. Thank you!</p>
194
195 </div>
196 <div class="tags">
197
198
199
200 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
201
202 </div>
203 </div>
204 <div class="padding"></div>
205
206 <div class="entry">
207 <div class="title">
208 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html">Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</a>
209 </div>
210 <div class="date">
211 2010-12-11 10:45
212 </div>
213
214 <div class="body">
215
216 <p>Via <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/">en
217 blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går</a>, fant jeg en referanse til
218 <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/">en
219 artikkel i Washington Times</a> som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
220 det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
221 med tittelen
222 "<a href="http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html">An
223 evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
224 characteristics</a>" som enkelt konstaterer at
225 <a href="http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&c=124">pornoscannerne</a>
226 som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
227 produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre. Kort
228 sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten. Reisende må altså la ansatte på
229 flyplasser <a href="http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/">se dem
230 nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet</a> uten grunn. Jeg vil
231 fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
232 de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
233 kan.</p>
234
235 </div>
236 <div class="tags">
237
238
239
240 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
241
242 </div>
243 </div>
244 <div class="padding"></div>
245
246 <div class="entry">
247 <div class="title">
248 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
249 </div>
250 <div class="date">
251 2010-12-11 15:10
252 </div>
253
254 <div class="body">
255
256 <p>As I continue to explore
257 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
258 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
259 and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.</p>
260
261 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
262 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
263 is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
264 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
265 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
266 that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
267 all transactions. There I can see that my address
268 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
269 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
270 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
271 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
272 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
273 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
274 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
275 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
276 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
277 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
278 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
279 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
280 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
281
282 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
283 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
284 without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
285 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
286 If the Skolelinux foundation
287 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
288 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
289 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
290 Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
291 not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
292 should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
293 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
294 BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
295
296 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
297 accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
298 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
299 easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
300 access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
301 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
302 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
303 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
304 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
305 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
306 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
307 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
308 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
309 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
310 currencies.</p>
311
312 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
313 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
314 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
315 to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get 50
316 BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
317 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
318 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
319 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
320 BitCoins. Check out
321 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
322 if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
323 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
324 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
325 yet.</p>
326
327 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
328 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
329 criticism</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
330 it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
331 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
332
333 </div>
334 <div class="tags">
335
336
337
338 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
339
340 </div>
341 </div>
342 <div class="padding"></div>
343
344 <div class="entry">
345 <div class="title">
346 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
347 </div>
348 <div class="date">
349 2010-12-22 14:55
350 </div>
351
352 <div class="body">
353
354 <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
355 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of oslo</a> testing if the new
356 batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
357 years the university have organized shared bid of a few thousand
358 computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
359 five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
360 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
361 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
362 university.</p>
363
364 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
365 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
366 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
367 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
368 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
369 on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
370 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
371 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
372
373 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
374 I perform on a new model.</p>
375
376 <ul>
377
378 <li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
379 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
380 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
381
382 <li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
383 installation, X.org is working.</li>
384
385 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
386 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
387 reported by the program.</li>
388
389 <li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
390 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
391 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
392 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
393 normally test this by playing
394 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
395 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
396
397 <li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
398 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
399
400 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
401 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
402
403 <li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
404 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
405
406 <li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
407 any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
408 few.</li>
409
410 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
411 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
412 notice this.</li>
413
414 <li>For laptops, is suspecd/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
415 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
416 resume.</li>
417
418 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
419 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
420 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
421 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
422 not.</li>
423
424 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
425 acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
426 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
427 existence.</li>
428
429 </ul>
430
431 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
432 for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
433 the test results later. For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
434 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
435 and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p. As you
436 can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
437 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the framerate than
438 RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.</p>
439
440 </div>
441 <div class="tags">
442
443
444
445 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
446
447 </div>
448 </div>
449 <div class="padding"></div>
450
451 <div class="entry">
452 <div class="title">
453 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/165_norske_overv__kningskamera_registert_s___langt_i_OpenStreetmap_org.html">165 norske overvåkningskamera registert så langt i OpenStreetmap.org</a>
454 </div>
455 <div class="date">
456 2010-12-24 11:20
457 </div>
458
459 <div class="body">
460
461 <p>Jeg flikket litt på OpenStreetmap.org i går, og oppdaget ved en
462 tilfeldighet at det er en rekke noder som representerer
463 overvåkningskamera som ikke blir med på kartet med overvåkningskamera
464 i Norge som
465 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kart_over_overv__kningskamera_i_Norge.html">jeg
466 laget</a> for snart to år siden. Fra før tok jeg med noder merket med
467 man_made=surveillance, mens det er en rekke noder som kun er merket
468 med highway=speed_camera. Endret på koden som henter ut kameralisten
469 fra OSM, og vips er antall kamera økt til 165.</p>
470
471 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.no/pere/surveillance-norway/">Kartet</a>
472 er fortsatt ikke komplett, så hvis du ser noen kamera som mangler,
473 legg inn ved å følge instruksene fra
474 <a href="http://personvern.no/wiki/index.php/Kameraovervåkning">prosjektsiden</a>.
475 Hvis du vet om noen flere måter å merke overvåkningskamera i OSM, ta
476 kontakt slik at jeg kan få med også disse.</p>
477
478 </div>
479 <div class="tags">
480
481
482
483 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
484
485 </div>
486 </div>
487 <div class="padding"></div>
488
489 <div class="entry">
490 <div class="title">
491 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
492 </div>
493 <div class="date">
494 2010-12-25 09:40
495 </div>
496
497 <div class="body">
498
499 <p>Half a year ago I
500 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
501 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
502 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
503 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
504
505 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
506 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
507 different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
508 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
509 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
510 for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
511 got such a great test tool available.</p>
512
513 </div>
514 <div class="tags">
515
516
517
518 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
519
520 </div>
521 </div>
522 <div class="padding"></div>
523
524 <div class="entry">
525 <div class="title">
526 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a>
527 </div>
528 <div class="date">
529 2010-12-25 10:50
530 </div>
531
532 <div class="body">
533
534 <p>A few days ago
535 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
536 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
537 2.0 of
538 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
539 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
540 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
541 Nothing very surprising there, given
542 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
543 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
544 this work. But I find this very sad. The definition of
545 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
546 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
547 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
548 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
549 definition from Digistan</A>. Version 2 have removed the open
550 standard definition from its content.</p>
551
552 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
553 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
554 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
555 in the public sector in Peru. As the text was not available from a
556 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
557 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
558 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future. Some
559 background information about that story is available in
560 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
561 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
562
563 <blockquote>
564 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
565 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
566 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
567
568 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
569
570 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
571
572 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
573
574 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
575
576 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
577
578 <p>
579 <ul>
580 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
581 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
582 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
583 </ul>
584 </p>
585
586 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
587
588 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
589
590 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
591
592 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
593
594 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
595
596
597 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
598 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
599 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
600 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
601 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
602 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
603
604 </p>
605
606 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
607
608 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
609
610 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
611
612 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
613
614 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
615
616 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
617
618 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
619
620 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
621
622 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
623
624 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
625
626 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
627
628 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
629
630 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
631
632 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
633
634 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
635
636 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
637
638 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
639
640 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
641
642 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
643
644 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
645
646 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
647
648 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
649
650 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
651
652 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
653
654 <p>On security:</p>
655
656 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
657
658 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
659
660 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
661
662 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
663
664 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
665
666 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
667
668 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
669
670 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
671
672 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
673
674 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
675
676 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
677
678 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
679
680 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
681
682 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
683
684 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
685
686 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
687
688 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
689
690 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
691
692 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
693
694 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
695
696 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
697
698 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
699
700 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
701
702 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
703
704 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
705
706 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
707
708 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
709
710 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
711
712 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
713
714 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
715
716 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
717
718 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
719
720 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
721
722 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
723
724 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
725
726 <p>Cordially,<br>
727 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
728 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
729 </blockquote>
730
731 </div>
732 <div class="tags">
733
734
735
736 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
737
738 </div>
739 </div>
740 <div class="padding"></div>
741
742 <div class="entry">
743 <div class="title">
744 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
745 </div>
746 <div class="date">
747 2010-12-25 20:25
748 </div>
749
750 <div class="body">
751
752 <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
753 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
754
755 <blockquote>
756
757 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
758 as follows:</p>
759
760 <ol>
761
762 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
763 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
764 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
765
766 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
767 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
768 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
769 parties.</li>
770
771 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
772 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
773 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
774
775 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
776 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
777
778 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
779
780 </ol>
781
782 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
783 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
784 products based on the standard.</p>
785 </blockquote>
786
787 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
788 and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
789 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
790 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
791 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
792 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
793 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
794 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
795
796 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
797
798 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
799 Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
800 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
801 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
802 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
803 obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
804 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
805 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
806 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
807 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
808 where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
809 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
810 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
811 specification. But it seem unlikely.</p>
812
813 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
814
815 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
816 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
817 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
818 documentation indicating this.</p>
819
820 <p>According to
821 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
822 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
823 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
824 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
825 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
826 report is correct.</p>
827
828 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
829
830 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
831 container format</a> and both the
832 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
833 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
834 the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
835
836 <blockquote>
837
838 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
839 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
840 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
841 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
842 specification compliance.
843
844 </blockquote>
845
846 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
847 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
848 this is the term:<p>
849
850 <blockquote>
851
852 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
853 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
854 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
855 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
856 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
857 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
858 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
859 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
860 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
861 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
862 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
863 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
864
865 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
866 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
867 </blockquote>
868
869 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
870 this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
871 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
872 thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
873 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
874
875 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
876
877 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
878 Theora format.
879 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
880 and
881 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
882 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
883 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
884 them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
885 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
886 without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
887 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
888 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
889
890 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
891
892 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
893
894 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
895
896 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
897 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
898 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
899 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
900 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
901 this.</p>
902
903 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
904 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
905
906 </div>
907 <div class="tags">
908
909
910
911 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
912
913 </div>
914 </div>
915 <div class="padding"></div>
916
917 <div class="entry">
918 <div class="title">
919 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
920 </div>
921 <div class="date">
922 2010-12-27 14:45
923 </div>
924
925 <div class="body">
926
927 <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
928 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
929 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
930 the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard" has
931 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
932 about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
933 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
934 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
935
936 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
937 standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
938 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
939 complete survey. More definitions are available on the
940 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
941 page</a>.</p>
942
943 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
944 Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
945 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
946 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
947 their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
948 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
949 specification on equal terms.</p>
950
951 <blockquote>
952
953 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
954 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
955 open standard:</p>
956
957 <ul>
958
959 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
960 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
961 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
962 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
963
964 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
965 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
966 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
967 nominal fee.</li>
968
969 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
970 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
971 free basis.</li>
972
973 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
974
975 </ul>
976 </blockquote>
977
978 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
979 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
980 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
981 definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
982 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
983 definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
984 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
985
986 <blockquote>
987
988 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
989
990 <ol>
991
992 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
993 tilgængelig.</li>
994
995 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
996 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
997
998 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
999 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
1000
1001 </ol>
1002
1003 </blockquote>
1004
1005 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
1006 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
1007
1008 <blockquote>
1009
1010 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
1011
1012 <ol>
1013
1014 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
1015 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
1016
1017 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
1018 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
1019 Standard themselves;</li>
1020
1021 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
1022 any party or in any business model;</li>
1023
1024 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
1025 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
1026 parties;</li>
1027
1028 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
1029 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
1030 parties.</li>
1031
1032 </ol>
1033
1034 </blockquote>
1035
1036 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
1037 its
1038 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
1039 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
1040
1041 <blockquote>
1042 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
1043
1044 <ul>
1045
1046 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
1047 democratic:
1048
1049 <ul>
1050
1051 <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
1052 participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
1053 imposed by the organization under which it is developed
1054 and managed.</li>
1055
1056 <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
1057 method, can be changed through input from all
1058 participants.</li>
1059
1060 <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
1061 the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
1062
1063 <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
1064 and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
1065
1066 <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
1067 public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
1068 comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
1069
1070 </ul>
1071
1072 </li>
1073
1074 </ul>
1075
1076 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
1077 <ul>
1078
1079 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
1080 and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
1081 implementations to the interface described in the standard without
1082 undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
1083 protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
1084
1085 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
1086 a technical or economic barriers</li>
1087
1088 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
1089 interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
1090 program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
1091 programs and mutually to use the information which has been
1092 exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
1093 file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
1094 conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
1095 computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
1096 intended to function.</li>
1097
1098 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
1099 standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
1100 must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
1101
1102 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
1103 fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
1104 perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
1105 sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
1106 terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
1107 outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
1108 patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
1109 only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
1110
1111 <ul>
1112
1113 <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
1114 licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
1115 (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
1116
1117 <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
1118 or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
1119 essential to practice that standard (also known as a
1120 "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
1121
1122 <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
1123 licensor</li>
1124
1125 </ul>
1126 </li>
1127
1128 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
1129 implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
1130 or restricted licensing terms</li>
1131
1132 </ul>
1133
1134 </blockquote>
1135
1136 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
1137 there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
1138 open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
1139 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
1140 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
1141 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
1142 competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
1143 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
1144 Standards.</p>
1145
1146 </div>
1147 <div class="tags">
1148
1149
1150
1151 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1152
1153 </div>
1154 </div>
1155 <div class="padding"></div>
1156
1157 <div class="entry">
1158 <div class="title">
1159 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
1160 </div>
1161 <div class="date">
1162 2010-12-30 23:15
1163 </div>
1164
1165 <div class="body">
1166
1167 <p>After trying to
1168 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
1169 Ogg Theora</a> to
1170 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
1171 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
1172 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
1173 this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
1174 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
1175 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
1176 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
1177
1178 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
1179 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
1180 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
1181 to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
1182 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
1183 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
1184 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
1185
1186 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
1187 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
1188
1189 </div>
1190 <div class="tags">
1191
1192
1193
1194 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
1195
1196 </div>
1197 </div>
1198 <div class="padding"></div>
1199
1200 <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="12.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14"></a></p>
1201
1202
1203
1204 <div id="sidebar">
1205
1206 <h2>Archive</h2>
1207 <ul>
1208
1209 <li>2011
1210 <ul>
1211
1212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
1213
1214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
1215
1216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
1217
1218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
1219
1220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
1221
1222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
1223
1224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
1225
1226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (5)</a></li>
1227
1228 </ul></li>
1229
1230 <li>2010
1231 <ul>
1232
1233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
1234
1235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
1236
1237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
1238
1239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
1240
1241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1242
1243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
1244
1245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
1246
1247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
1248
1249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
1250
1251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
1252
1253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
1254
1255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
1256
1257 </ul></li>
1258
1259 <li>2009
1260 <ul>
1261
1262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
1263
1264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
1265
1266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
1267
1268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
1269
1270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
1271
1272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
1273
1274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
1275
1276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
1277
1278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
1279
1280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
1281
1282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
1283
1284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
1285
1286 </ul></li>
1287
1288 <li>2008
1289 <ul>
1290
1291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
1292
1293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
1294
1295 </ul></li>
1296
1297 </ul>
1298
1299
1300
1301 <h2>Tags</h2>
1302 <ul>
1303
1304 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
1305
1306 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
1307
1308 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
1309
1310 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
1311
1312 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
1313
1314 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (53)</a></li>
1315
1316 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (64)</a></li>
1317
1318 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (7)</a></li>
1319
1320 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (95)</a></li>
1321
1322 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (12)</a></li>
1323
1324 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (11)</a></li>
1325
1326 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (10)</a></li>
1327
1328 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (15)</a></li>
1329
1330 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
1331
1332 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
1333
1334 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
1335
1336 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (13)</a></li>
1337
1338 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (133)</a></li>
1339
1340 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (119)</a></li>
1341
1342 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
1343
1344 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (21)</a></li>
1345
1346 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (43)</a></li>
1347
1348 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
1349
1350 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
1351
1352 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
1353
1354 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
1355
1356 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
1357
1358 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (3)</a></li>
1359
1360 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (24)</a></li>
1361
1362 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
1363
1364 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (2)</a></li>
1365
1366 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (9)</a></li>
1367
1368 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (20)</a></li>
1369
1370 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
1371
1372 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (16)</a></li>
1373
1374 </ul>
1375
1376 </div>
1377 </body>
1378 </html>