blog/archive/2016/05/05.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from May 2016</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from May 2016</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
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   9         <item>
  10                 <title>I want the courts to be involved before the police can hijack a news site DNS domain (#domstolkontroll)</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_want_the_courts_to_be_involved_before_the_police_can_hijack_a_news_site_DNS_domain___domstolkontroll_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/I_want_the_courts_to_be_involved_before_the_police_can_hijack_a_news_site_DNS_domain___domstolkontroll_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Thu, 19 May 2016 13:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I just donated to the
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/dns-beslag-donasjon.shtml&quot;&gt;NUUG defence
  16 &quot;fond&quot;&lt;/a&gt; to fund the effort in Norway to get the seizure of the news
  17 site popcorn-time.no tested in court.  I hope everyone that agree with
  18 me will do the same.&lt;/p&gt;
  19
  20 &lt;p&gt;Would you be worried if you knew the police in your country could
  21 hijack DNS domains of news sites covering free software system without
  22 talking to a judge first?  I am.  What if the free software system
  23 combined search engine lookups, bittorrent downloads and video playout
  24 and was called Popcorn Time?  Would that affect your view?  It still
  25 make me worried.&lt;/p&gt;
  26
  27 &lt;p&gt;In March 2016, the Norwegian police seized (as in forced NORID to
  28 change the IP address pointed to by it to one controlled by the
  29 police) the DNS domain popcorn-time.no, without any supervision from
  30 the courts.  I did not know about the web site back then, and assumed
  31 the courts had been involved, and was very surprised when I discovered
  32 that the police had hijacked the DNS domain without asking a judge for
  33 permission first.  I was even more surprised when I had a look at
  34 &lt;a href=&quot;https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://popcorn-time.no&quot;&gt;the web
  35 site content on the Internet Archive&lt;/A&gt;, and only found news coverage
  36 about Popcorn Time, not any material published without the right
  37 holders permissions.&lt;/p&gt;
  38
  39 &lt;p&gt;The seizure was widely covered in the Norwegian press (see for
  40 example &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hegnar.no/Nyheter/Naeringsliv/2016/03/Popcorn-time.no-beslaglagt-av-OEkokrim&quot;&gt;Hegnar Online&lt;/a&gt; and
  41 &lt;a href=&quot;http://itavisen.no/2016/03/08/okokrim-har-beslaglagt-popcorn-time-no/&quot;&gt;ITavisen&lt;a/&gt;
  42 and
  43 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nrk.no/kultur/okokrim-gar-til-aksjon-mot-popcorn-time-1.12842452&quot;&gt;NRK&lt;/a&gt;),
  44 at first due to the press release sent out by Økokrim, but then based
  45 on
  46 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogg.torvund.net/2016/03/09/okokrims-beslag-i-domenet-popcorn-time-no/&quot;&gt;protests
  47 from the law professor Olav Torvund&lt;/a&gt; and
  48 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.klassekampen.no/article/20160311/ARTICLE/160319995&quot;&gt;lawyer
  49 Jon Wessel-Aas&lt;/a&gt;.  It even got some
  50 &lt;a href=&quot;https://torrentfreak.com/norwegian-authorities-sued-over-popcorn-time-domain-seizure-160418/&quot;&gt;coverage
  51 on TorrentFreak&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  52
  53 &lt;p&gt;I
  54 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUG_contests_Norwegian_police_DNS_seizure_of_popcorn_time_no.html&quot;&gt;
  55 wrote about the case a month ago&lt;/a&gt;, when the
  56 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;Norwegian Unix User Group&lt;/a&gt; (NUUG)
  57 where I am a member decided to ask the courts to test this seizure.
  58 The request was denied, but NUUG and its co-requestor EFN have not
  59 given up, and now they are rallying for support to get the seizure
  60 legally challenged.  They accept both bank and Bitcoin transfer for
  61 those that want to support the request.&lt;/p&gt;
  62
  63 &lt;p&gt;If you as me believe news sites about free software should not be
  64 censored, even if the free software have both legal and illegal
  65 applications, and that DNS hijacking should be tested by the courts, I
  66 suggest you &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/dns-beslag-donasjon.shtml&quot;&gt;show
  67 your support by donating to NUUG&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/a&gt;
  68 </description>
  69         </item>
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  71         <item>
  72                 <title>Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</title>
  73                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html</link>
  74                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html</guid>
  75                 <pubDate>Thu, 12 May 2016 07:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
  76                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
  77 &lt;a href=&quot;http://zfsonlinux.org/&quot;&gt;ZFS for Linux&lt;/a&gt; finally entered
  78 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
  79 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux&quot;&gt;the package tracker
  80 for zfs-linux&lt;/a&gt;.  and
  81 &lt;a href=&quot;https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
  82 team status page&lt;/a&gt;. If you want to help out, please join us.
  83 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git&quot;&gt;The
  84 source code&lt;/a&gt; is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
  85 great if you could help out with
  86 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms&quot;&gt;the dkms package&lt;/a&gt;, as
  87 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.&lt;/p&gt;
  88 </description>
  89         </item>
  90
  91         <item>
  92                 <title>What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</title>
  93                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</link>
  94                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html</guid>
  95                 <pubDate>Sun, 8 May 2016 09:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
  96                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
  97 Debian claim support for most file formats.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  98
  99 &lt;p&gt;A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
 100 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
 101 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
 102 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
 103 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
 104 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;The
 105 result&lt;/a&gt; can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
 106 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
 107 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
 108 players.&lt;/p&gt;
 109
 110 &lt;p&gt;A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
 111 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
 112 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
 113 &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/822245&quot;&gt;missing MIME type in the VLC
 114 desktop file&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
 115 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
 116 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
 117 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
 118 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
 119 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
 120 support most file formats.&lt;/p&gt;
 121
 122 &lt;p&gt;The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
 123 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport&quot;&gt;a
 124 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
 125 in the table&lt;/a&gt;, with the package supporting most MIME types being
 126 listed first in the table.&lt;/p&gt;
 127
 128 &lt;/p&gt;The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
 129 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
 130 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
 131 support?&lt;/p&gt;
 132 </description>
 133         </item>
 134
 135         <item>
 136                 <title>The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</title>
 137                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html</link>
 138                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html</guid>
 139                 <pubDate>Wed, 4 May 2016 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
 140                 <description>A friend of mine made me aware of
 141 &lt;a href=&quot;https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/&quot;&gt;The Pyra&lt;/a&gt;, a
 142 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
 143 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 144
 145 &lt;p&gt;The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
 146 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5&quot;
 147 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
 148 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
 149 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
 150 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
 151 production started.&lt;/p&gt;
 152
 153 &lt;p&gt;As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
 154 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
 155 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?&lt;/p&gt;
 156 </description>
 157         </item>
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