blog/archive/2010/12/12.rss

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   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from December 2010</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from December 2010</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>
  15 &lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
  16 student assosiation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.robotica.no/&quot;&gt;Robotica
  17 Osloensis&lt;/a&gt; at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
  18 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
  19 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
  20 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
  21 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
  22 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
  23 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
  24 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
  25 operational.&lt;/p&gt;
  26
  27 &lt;p&gt;The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
  28 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
  29 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
  30 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thingiverse.com/&quot;&gt;Thingiverse&lt;/a&gt;.  I even got
  31 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
  32 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
  33 very cool 3D scanner.&lt;/p&gt;
  34 </description>
  35         </item>
  36
  37         <item>
  38                 <title>Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet</title>
  39                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b__nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</link>
  40                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Martin_Bekkelund__En_stille_b__nn_om_Datalagringsdirektivet.html</guid>
  41                 <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 21:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
  42                 <description>
  43 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/&quot;&gt;Martin Bekkelund&lt;/a&gt; ved
  44 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprog.no/&quot;&gt;friprog-senteret&lt;/a&gt; har skrevet
  45 følgende
  46 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/09/en-stille-bonn/&quot;&gt;korte
  47 oppsummering&lt;/a&gt; rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler
  48 her.&lt;/p&gt;
  49
  50 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om
  51 innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (&lt;acronym
  52 title=&quot;Datalagringsdirektivet&quot;&gt;DLD&lt;/acronym&gt;) i norsk rett. Kanskje
  53 har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge
  54 tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  55
  56 &lt;p&gt;Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at
  57 &lt;acronym title=&quot;Datalagringsdirektivet&quot;&gt;DLD&lt;/acronym&gt; ikke bør
  58 innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet
  59 er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har
  60 store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og
  61 hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.&lt;/p&gt;
  62
  63 &lt;ul&gt;
  64 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ikt-norge.no/norge-kan-slippe-datalagringsdirektivet/&quot;&gt;EU-ekspertene sier&lt;/a&gt; at konsekvensene av å benytte vetoretten er minimale&lt;/li&gt;
  65 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/Deninternasjonalejuristkommisjon.pdf&quot;&gt;Juristene påpeker&lt;/a&gt; at direktivet er i strid med EMK&lt;/li&gt;
  66 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/12/06/kultur/debatt/kronikk/dld/personvern/14594699/&quot;&gt;Datatilsynet sier&lt;/a&gt; direktivet får store konsekvenser for personvernet og at direktivet er irreversibelt&lt;/li&gt;
  67 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/?s=dld&quot;&gt;Teknologene sier&lt;/a&gt; at sikker lagring ikke er mulig, at det er svært enkelt å omgå og mulig å manipulere data og produsere falske beviser&lt;/li&gt;
  68 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.regjeringen.no/pages/2281080/NJ_247460_1_P.pdf&quot;&gt;Pressen sier&lt;/a&gt; nei av hensyn til kildevernet&lt;/li&gt;
  69 &lt;li&gt;Det er store &lt;a href=&quot;http://tetzschner.blogspot.com/2010/03/den-tyske-forfatningsdomstol.html&quot;&gt;interne&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href=&quot;http://stoppdld.no/2010/03/02/datalagring-stoppet-av-tysk-forfatningsdomstol/&quot;&gt;stridigheter&lt;/a&gt; i EU. Blant annet har den tyske forfatningsdomstolen funnet at måten &lt;acronym title=&quot;Datalagringsdirektivet&quot;&gt;DLD&lt;/acronym&gt; er innført på er i strid med tysk grunnlov&lt;/li&gt;
  70 &lt;li&gt;Alle de store &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/2010/12/08/lokasjonsdata-og-datalagringsdirektivet/&quot;&gt;operatørene og tilbyderne sier nei&lt;/a&gt;, av tekniske og personvernmessige årsaker&lt;/li&gt;
  71 &lt;/ul&gt;
  72
  73 &lt;p&gt;Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent
  74 rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde
  75 for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg,
  76 lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel
  77 mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår
  78 atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.&lt;/p&gt;
  79
  80 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til
  81 &lt;acronym title=&quot;Datalagringsdirektivet&quot;&gt;DLD&lt;/acronym&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  82
  83 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/kontakt/&quot;&gt;Ta kontakt med meg&lt;/a&gt;
  84 hvis du har spørsmål om &lt;acronym
  85 title=&quot;Datalagringsdirektivet&quot;&gt;DLD&lt;/acronym&gt;, uansett hva det måtte
  86 gjelde.&lt;/p&gt;
  87
  88 &lt;p class=&quot;info&quot;&gt;Denne teksten er å anse som &lt;a
  89 href=&quot;http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/&quot;&gt;&lt;em&gt;Public
  90 Domain&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av
  91 den!&lt;/p&gt;
  92 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
  93
  94 &lt;p&gt;Siste &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nettavisen.no/it/article3043918.ece&quot;&gt;melding
  95 fra Nettavisen&lt;/a&gt; er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag
  96 til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av
  97 fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken.  Vi
  98 får snart se om det stemmer.&lt;/p&gt;
  99 </description>
 100         </item>
 101
 102         <item>
 103                 <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</title>
 104                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</link>
 105                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</guid>
 106                 <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 107                 <description>
 108 &lt;p&gt;With this weeks lawless
 109 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html&quot;&gt;governmental
 110 attacks&lt;/a&gt; on Wikileak and
 111 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech&quot;&gt;free
 112 speech&lt;/a&gt;, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
 113 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
 114 A blog post from
 115 &lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/&quot;&gt;Simon
 116 Phipps on bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; reminded me about a project that a friend of
 117 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon&#39;s example, and get
 118 involved with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;BitCoin&lt;/a&gt;.  I got
 119 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
 120 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
 121 for helping me remember BitCoin.&lt;/p&gt;
 122
 123 &lt;p&gt;So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
 124 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
 125 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
 126 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
 127 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
 128 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
 129 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
 130 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
 131 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/578157&quot;&gt;will get the package into
 132 Debian&lt;/a&gt; soon.&lt;/p&gt;
 133
 134 &lt;p&gt;Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
 135 There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/trade&quot;&gt;companies accepting
 136 bitcoins&lt;/a&gt; when selling services and goods, and there are even
 137 currency &quot;stock&quot; markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
 138 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
 139 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
 140 you can even get
 141 &lt;a href=&quot;https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/&quot;&gt;some for free&lt;/a&gt; (0.05
 142 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
 143 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/&quot;&gt;BitcoinWatch&lt;/a&gt; to keep an eye
 144 on the current exchange rates.&lt;/p&gt;
 145
 146 &lt;p&gt;As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
 147 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
 148 donations to the address
 149 &lt;b&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/b&gt;.  Thank you!&lt;/p&gt;
 150 </description>
 151         </item>
 152
 153         <item>
 154                 <title>Pornoskannerne på flyplassene bedrer visst ikke sikkerheten</title>
 155                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</link>
 156                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pornoskannerne_p___flyplassene_bedrer_visst_ikke_sikkerheten.html</guid>
 157                 <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
 158                 <description>
 159 &lt;p&gt;Via &lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/2010/12/10/links-for-2010-12-10/&quot;&gt;en
 160 blogpost fra Simon Phipps i går&lt;/a&gt;, fant jeg en referanse til
 161 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/dec/9/exposed-tsas-x-rated-scanner-fraud/&quot;&gt;en
 162 artikkel i Washington Times&lt;/a&gt; som igjen refererer til en artikkel i
 163 det fagfellevurderte tidsskriftet Journal of Transportation Security
 164 med tittelen
 165 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/fulltext.html&quot;&gt;An
 166 evaluation of airport x-ray backscatter units based on image
 167 characteristics&lt;/a&gt;&quot; som enkelt konstaterer at
 168 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dailysquib.co.uk/?a=2389&amp;c=124&quot;&gt;pornoscannerne&lt;/a&gt;
 169 som kler av reisende på flyplasser ikke er i stand til å avsløre det
 170 produsenten og amerikanske myndigheter sier de skal avsløre.  Kort
 171 sagt, de bedrer ikke sikkerheten.  Reisende må altså la ansatte på
 172 flyplasser &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thousandsstandingaround.org/&quot;&gt;se dem
 173 nakne eller la seg beføle i skrittet&lt;/a&gt; uten grunn.  Jeg vil
 174 fortsette å nekte å bruke disse pornoskannerne, unngå flyplasser der
 175 de er tatt i bruk, og reise med andre transportmidler enn fly hvis jeg
 176 kan.&lt;/p&gt;
 177 </description>
 178         </item>
 179
 180         <item>
 181                 <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins</title>
 182                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</link>
 183                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</guid>
 184                 <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
 185                 <description>
 186 &lt;p&gt;As I continue to explore
 187 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;BitCoin&lt;/a&gt;, I&#39;ve starting to wonder
 188 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
 189 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.&lt;/p&gt;
 190
 191 &lt;p&gt;One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
 192 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
 193 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
 194 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
 195 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
 196 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
 197 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
 198 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;
 199 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
 200 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3&quot;&gt;1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3&lt;/a&gt;
 201 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
 202 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt&quot;&gt;1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt&lt;/A&gt;
 203 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
 204 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
 205 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
 206 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
 207 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I&#39;m told
 208 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
 209 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
 210 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.&lt;/p&gt;
 211
 212 &lt;p&gt;In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
 213 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
 214 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
 215 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
 216 If the Skolelinux foundation
 217 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;SLX
 218 Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
 219 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
 220 Given that it is impossible to know if money can across the border or
 221 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
 222 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
 223 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
 224 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.&lt;/p&gt;
 225
 226 &lt;p&gt;For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
 227 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
 228 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
 229 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
 230 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
 231 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
 232 so I wonder when my kind of show would start accepting BitCoins.  I
 233 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
 234 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
 235 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
 236 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I&#39;m sure they
 237 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
 238 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
 239 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
 240 currencies.&lt;/p&gt;
 241
 242 &lt;p&gt;The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
 243 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
 244 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
 245 to see which one get the next lump of cash.  The &quot;winner&quot; get 50
 246 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
 247 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
 248 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
 249 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
 250 BitCoins.  Check out
 251 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/&quot;&gt;BitCoin Pool&lt;/a&gt;
 252 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
 253 machine to participate there yet.&lt;/p&gt;
 254 </description>
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