blog/archive/2015/12/12.rss

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   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from December 2015</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from December 2015</description>
   6                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</title>
  11                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2015 01:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;When I was a kid, we used to collect &quot;car numbers&quot;, as we used to
  15 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
  16 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
  17 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
  18 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
  19 time, as we kids have plenty of it.&lt;/p&gt;
  20
  21 &lt;p&gt;A few days I came across
  22 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr&quot;&gt;the OpenALPR
  23 project&lt;/a&gt;, a free software project to automatically discover and
  24 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
  25 &quot;car numbers&quot; in a machine readable format.  I&#39;ve been looking for
  26 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
  27 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition&quot;&gt;automatic
  28 number plate recognition&lt;/a&gt; tool only is available in the hands of
  29 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
  30 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
  31 discovered the developer
  32 &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.debian.org/747509&quot;&gt;wanted to get the tool into
  33 Debian&lt;/a&gt;, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
  34 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
  35 archive.&lt;/p&gt;
  36
  37 &lt;p&gt;Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
  38 it into Debian, where it currently
  39 &lt;a href=&quot;https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html&quot;&gt;waits
  40 in the NEW queue&lt;/a&gt; for review by the Debian ftpmasters.&lt;/p&gt;
  41
  42 &lt;p&gt;I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
  43 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
  44 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
  45 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
  46 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
  47 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
  48 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
  49 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
  50 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
  51 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
  52 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
  53 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.&lt;/p&gt;
  54
  55 &lt;p&gt;If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
  56 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
  57 before running &quot;debuild&quot; to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
  58 package show up in unstable.&lt;/p&gt;
  59 </description>
  60         </item>
  61
  62         <item>
  63                 <title>Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</title>
  64                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html</link>
  65                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html</guid>
  66                 <pubDate>Sun, 20 Dec 2015 12:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
  67                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Around three years ago, I created
  68 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram&quot;&gt;the isenkram
  69 system&lt;/a&gt; to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
  70 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
  71 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
  72 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
  73 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
  74 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
  75 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
  76 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
  77 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
  78 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
  79 with.&lt;/p&gt;
  80
  81 &lt;p&gt;I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
  82 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
  83 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
  84 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
  85 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
  86 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
  87 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/&quot;&gt;the
  88 appstream system&lt;/a&gt; was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
  89 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
  90 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
  91 Debian version of appstream.&lt;/p&gt;
  92
  93 &lt;p&gt;A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
  94 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
  95 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
  96 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
  97 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
  98 how do add the required
  99 &lt;a href=&quot;https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html&quot;&gt;metadata
 100 in pymissile&lt;/a&gt;.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
 101 this content:&lt;/p&gt;
 102
 103 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 104 &amp;lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?&amp;gt;
 105 &amp;lt;component&amp;gt;
 106   &amp;lt;id&amp;gt;pymissile&amp;lt;/id&amp;gt;
 107   &amp;lt;metadata_license&amp;gt;MIT&amp;lt;/metadata_license&amp;gt;
 108   &amp;lt;name&amp;gt;pymissile&amp;lt;/name&amp;gt;
 109   &amp;lt;summary&amp;gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&amp;lt;/summary&amp;gt;
 110   &amp;lt;description&amp;gt;
 111     &amp;lt;p&amp;gt;
 112       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
 113       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
 114       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
 115       launcher.
 116     &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;
 117   &amp;lt;/description&amp;gt;
 118   &amp;lt;provides&amp;gt;
 119     &amp;lt;modalias&amp;gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&amp;lt;/modalias&amp;gt;
 120   &amp;lt;/provides&amp;gt;
 121 &amp;lt;/component&amp;gt;
 122 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 123
 124 &lt;p&gt;The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
 125 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
 126 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
 127 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
 128 0202.&lt;/p&gt;
 129
 130 &lt;p&gt;Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
 131 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
 132 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
 133 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
 134 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
 135 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
 136 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
 137 upstream for this project is dormant.&lt;/p&gt;
 138
 139 &lt;p&gt;To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
 140 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
 141 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
 142 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
 143 line to debian/pymissile.install:&lt;/p&gt;
 144
 145 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 146 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
 147 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 148
 149 &lt;p&gt;With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
 150 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
 151 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
 152 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
 153 question.&lt;/p&gt;
 154
 155 &lt;p&gt;Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
 156 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11&quot;&gt;DEP-11&lt;/a&gt; proposal.&lt;/p&gt;
 157
 158 &lt;p&gt;To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
 159 try running this command on the command line:&lt;/p&gt;
 160
 161 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 162 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
 163 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 164
 165 &lt;p&gt;To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 166 &lt;a href=&quot;https://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/&quot;&gt;my
 167 blog posts tagged isenkram&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 168 </description>
 169         </item>
 170
 171         <item>
 172                 <title>Bokhandeldistribusjon av boken Fri kultur av Lawrence Lessig</title>
 173                 <link>http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Bokhandeldistribusjon_av_boken_Fri_kultur_av_Lawrence_Lessig.html</link>
 174                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.hungry.com/~pere/blog/Bokhandeldistribusjon_av_boken_Fri_kultur_av_Lawrence_Lessig.html</guid>
 175                 <pubDate>Mon, 14 Dec 2015 12:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
 176                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Besøk
 177 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html&quot;&gt;lulu.com&lt;/a&gt;
 178 eller
 179 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.com/Fri-kultur-Norwegian-Lawrence-Lessig/dp/8269018236/&quot;&gt;Amazon&lt;/a&gt;
 180 for å kjøpe boken på papir, eller last ned ebook som
 181 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt;,
 182 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub&quot;&gt;ePub&lt;/a&gt;
 183 eller
 184 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/archive/freeculture.nb.mobi&quot;&gt;MOBI&lt;/a&gt;
 185 fra
 186 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 187
 188 &lt;p&gt;Jeg ble gledelig overrasket i dag da jeg oppdaget at boken jeg har
 189 gitt ut
 190 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.amazon.com/Fri-kultur-Norwegian-Lawrence-Lessig/dp/8269018236/&quot;&gt;hadde
 191 dukket opp i Amazon&lt;/a&gt;.  Jeg hadde trodd det skulle ta lenger tid, da
 192 jeg fikk beskjed om at det skulle ta seks til åtte uker.
 193 Amazonoppføringen er et resultat av at jeg for noen uker siden
 194 diskuterte prissetting og håndtering av profitt med forfatteren.  Det
 195 måtte avklares da bruksvilkårene til boken har krav om
 196 ikke-kommersiell bruk.  Vi ble enige om at overskuddet fra salg av
 197 boken skal sendes til
 198 &lt;a href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons-stiftelsen&lt;/a&gt;.
 199 Med det på plass kunne jeg be
 200 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html&quot;&gt;lulu.com&lt;/a&gt;
 201 om å gi boken «utvidet» distribusjon.  Årsaken til at
 202 bokhandeldistribusjon var litt utfordrende er at bokhandlere krever
 203 mulighet for profitt på bøkene de selger (selvfølgelig), og dermed
 204 måtte de få lov til å selge til høyere pris enn lulu.com.  I tillegg
 205 er det krav om samme pris på lulu.com og i bokhandlene, dermed blir
 206 prisen økt også hos lulu.com.  Hva skulle jeg gjøre med den profitten
 207 uten å bryte med klausulen om ikkekommersiell?  Løsningen var å gi
 208 bort profitten til CC-stiftelsen.  Prisen på boken ble nesten
 209 tredoblet, til $19.99 (ca. 160,-) pluss frakt, men synligheten øker
 210 betraktelig når den kan finnes i katalogene til store nettbokhandlere.
 211 Det betyr at hvis du allerede har kjøpt boken har du fått den veldig
 212 billig, og kjøper du den nå, får du den fortsatt billig samt donerer i
 213 tillegg noen tiere til fremme av Creative Commons.&lt;/p&gt;
 214
 215 &lt;p&gt;Mens jeg var i gang med å titte etter informasjon om boken
 216 oppdaget jeg  at den også var dukket opp på
 217 &lt;a href=&quot;https://books.google.no/books?id=uKUGCwAAQBAJ&quot;&gt;Google
 218 Books&lt;/a&gt;, der en kan lese den på web.  PDF-utgaven har ennå ikke
 219 dukket opp hos &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nb.no/&quot;&gt;Nasjonalbiblioteket&lt;/a&gt;,
 220 men det regner jeg med kommer på plass i løpet av noen uker.  Boken er
 221 heller ikke dukket opp hos
 222 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.barnesandnoble.com/&quot;&gt;Barnes &amp; Noble&lt;/a&gt; ennå, men
 223 jeg antar det bare er et tidsspørsmål før dette er på plass.&lt;/p&gt;
 224
 225 &lt;p&gt;Boken er dessverre ikke tilgjengelig fra norske bokhandlere, og
 226 kommer neppe til å bli det med det første.  Årsaken er at for å få det
 227 til måtte jeg personlig håndtere bestilling av bøker, hvilket jeg ikke
 228 er interessert i å bruke tid på.  Jeg kunne betalt ca 2000,- til
 229 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bokbasen.no/&quot;&gt;den norske bokbasen&lt;/a&gt;, en felles
 230 database over bøker tilgjengelig for norske bokhandlere, for å få en
 231 oppføring der, men da måtte jeg tatt imot bestillinger på epost og
 232 sendt ut bøker selv.  Det ville krevd at jeg var klar til å
 233 sende ut bøker på kort varsel, dvs. holdt meg med ekstra bøker,
 234 konvolutter og frimerker.  Bokbasen har visst ikke opplegg for å be
 235 bokhandlene bestille direkte via web, så jeg droppet oppføring der.
 236 Jeg har spurt Haugen bok og Tronsmo direkte på epost om de er
 237 interessert i å ta inn boken i sin bestillingskatalog, men ikke fått
 238 svar, så jeg antar de ikke er interessert.  Derimot har jeg fått en
 239 hyggelig henvendelse fra Biblioteksentralen som fortalte at de har
 240 lagt den inn i sin database slik at deres bibliotekskunder enkelt kan
 241 bestille den via dem.&lt;/p&gt;
 242
 243 &lt;p&gt;Boken er i følge
 244 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bibsys-almaprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=detailsTab&amp;ct=display&amp;fn=search&amp;doc=BIBSYS_ILS71518423420002201&amp;indx=1&amp;recIds=BIBSYS_ILS71518423420002201&amp;recIdxs=0&amp;elementId=0&amp;renderMode=poppedOut&amp;displayMode=full&amp;frbrVersion=&amp;dscnt=0&amp;tab=library_catalogue&amp;dstmp=1448543801124&amp;vl(freeText0)=fri%20kultur&amp;vid=UBO&amp;mode=Basic&quot;&gt;Bibsys/Oria&lt;/a&gt;
 245 og bokdatabasen til
 246 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.deich.folkebibl.no/cgi-bin/websok?tnr=1819617&quot;&gt;Deichmanske&lt;/a&gt;
 247 tilgjengelig fra flere biblioteker allerede, og alle eksemplarer er
 248 visst allerede utlånt med ventetid.  Det synes jeg er veldig gledelig
 249 å se.  Jeg håper mange kommer til å lese boken.  Jeg tror den er
 250 spesielt egnet for foreldre og bekjente av oss nerder for å forklare
 251 hva slags problemer vi ser med dagens opphavsrettsregime.&lt;/p&gt;
 252 </description>
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