blog/archive/2012/04/index.html

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  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <h3>Entries from April 2012.</h3>
  23
  24     <div class="entry">
  25       <div class="title">
  26         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
  27       </div>
  28       <div class="date">
  29          1st April 2012
  30       </div>
  31       <div class="body">
  32         <p>Germany is a core area for the
  33 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
  34 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
  35 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
  36
  37 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
  38
  39 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
  40 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
  41 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
  42 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
  43 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
  44 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
  45 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
  46 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
  47
  48 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
  49 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
  50 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
  51 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
  52 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
  53 the end of April this year.</p>
  54
  55 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
  56 project?</strong></p>
  57
  58 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
  59 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
  60 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
  61 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
  62 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
  63 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
  64 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
  65 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
  66 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
  67 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
  68 Skolelinux.</p>
  69
  70 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
  71 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
  72 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
  73 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
  74 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
  75 the admin teachers.</p>
  76
  77 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  78 Edu?</strong></p>
  79
  80 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
  81 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
  82 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
  83
  84 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
  85 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
  86 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
  87 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
  88 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
  89
  90 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
  91 Edu?</strong></p>
  92
  93 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
  94
  95 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
  96
  97 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
  98 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
  99 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
 100 LibreOffice.</p>
 101
 102 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 103 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 104
 105 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
 106 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
 107 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
 108
 109       </div>
 110       <div class="tags">
 111
 112
 113         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 114
 115
 116       </div>
 117     </div>
 118     <div class="padding"></div>
 119
 120     <div class="entry">
 121       <div class="title">
 122         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
 123       </div>
 124       <div class="date">
 125          5th April 2012
 126       </div>
 127       <div class="body">
 128         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
 129 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
 130 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
 131 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
 132 for schools.  Check out his article
 133 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
 134 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
 135
 136       </div>
 137       <div class="tags">
 138
 139
 140         Tags: <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>.
 141
 142
 143       </div>
 144     </div>
 145     <div class="padding"></div>
 146
 147     <div class="entry">
 148       <div class="title">
 149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
 150       </div>
 151       <div class="date">
 152          6th April 2012
 153       </div>
 154       <div class="body">
 155         <p>Recently I have spent time with
 156 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
 157 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
 158 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
 159 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
 160 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
 161 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
 162 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
 163 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
 164
 165 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
 166 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
 167 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
 168 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
 169 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
 170 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
 171 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
 172 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
 173
 174 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
 175 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
 176 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
 177 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
 178 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
 179 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
 180 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
 181 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
 182
 183 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
 184 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
 185 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
 186 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
 187 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
 188 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
 189 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
 190 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
 191 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
 192 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
 193
 194 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
 195 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
 196 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
 197 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
 198
 199 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
 200 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
 201
 202       </div>
 203       <div class="tags">
 204
 205
 206         Tags: <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>.
 207
 208
 209       </div>
 210     </div>
 211     <div class="padding"></div>
 212
 213     <div class="entry">
 214       <div class="title">
 215         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
 216       </div>
 217       <div class="date">
 218          8th April 2012
 219       </div>
 220       <div class="body">
 221         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
 222 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
 223 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
 224 contributor to the
 225 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
 226 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
 227
 228 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 229
 230 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
 231 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
 232
 233 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 234 project?</strong></p>
 235
 236 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
 237 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
 238 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
 239 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
 240 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
 241 "localisation".</p>
 242
 243 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 244 Edu?</strong></p>
 245
 246 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 247 Edu?</strong></p>
 248
 249 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
 250 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
 251 education system.</p>
 252
 253 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
 254 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
 255 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
 256 money on the latest hardware.</p>
 257
 258 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 259
 260 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
 261 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
 262 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
 263
 264 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 265 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 266
 267 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
 268 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
 269 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
 270
 271       </div>
 272       <div class="tags">
 273
 274
 275         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 276
 277
 278       </div>
 279     </div>
 280     <div class="padding"></div>
 281
 282     <div class="entry">
 283       <div class="title">
 284         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jeg_skal_p__konferansen_Go_Open_2012.html">Jeg skal på konferansen Go Open 2012</a>
 285       </div>
 286       <div class="date">
 287         13th April 2012
 288       </div>
 289       <div class="body">
 290         <p>Jeg har tenkt meg på konferansen <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go
 291 Open 2012</a> i Oslo 23. april.
 292 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Medlemsforeningen NUUG</a> deler ut
 293 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/prisen/">prisen for fremme av fri
 294 programvare i Norge</a> der i år.  Kommer du?</p>
 295
 296       </div>
 297       <div class="tags">
 298
 299
 300         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
 301
 302
 303       </div>
 304     </div>
 305     <div class="padding"></div>
 306
 307     <div class="entry">
 308       <div class="title">
 309         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
 310       </div>
 311       <div class="date">
 312         15th April 2012
 313       </div>
 314       <div class="body">
 315         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
 316 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
 317 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
 318 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
 319 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
 320 up in the recently released
 321 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
 322 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
 323
 324 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 325
 326 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
 327 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
 328 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
 329 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
 330 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
 331 information technology and science/technology.</p>
 332
 333 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
 334 project?</strong></p>
 335
 336 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
 337 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
 338 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
 339 contributing.</p>
 340
 341 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 342 Edu?</strong></p>
 343
 344 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
 345 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
 346 Debian Project!</p>
 347
 348 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 349 Edu?</strong></p>
 350
 351 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
 352 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
 353 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
 354 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
 355 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
 356 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
 357 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
 358
 359 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
 360 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
 361
 362 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 363
 364 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
 365 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
 366 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
 367 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
 368
 369 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 370 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 371
 372 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
 373 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
 374 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
 375 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
 376 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
 377 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
 378 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
 379
 380 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
 381 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
 382 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
 383 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
 384 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
 385 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
 386 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
 387 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
 388
 389       </div>
 390       <div class="tags">
 391
 392
 393         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju</a>.
 394
 395
 396       </div>
 397     </div>
 398     <div class="padding"></div>
 399
 400     <div class="entry">
 401       <div class="title">
 402         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forskning___GPL_gir_lokal_frihet_og_kontroll_gjennom_omfordeling_av_makt_fra_produsent_til_bruker_.html">Forskning: "GPL gir lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling av makt fra produsent til bruker"</a>
 403       </div>
 404       <div class="date">
 405         15th April 2012
 406       </div>
 407       <div class="body">
 408         <p>Da jeg googlet etter noe annet kom jeg tilfeldigvis over
 409 <a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/work.html?WORKID=58309">en
 410 hovedfagsoppgave</a> ved Universitetet i Oslo som diskuterer verdien
 411 av GPLs fire friheter for brukerne av IT-systemer.  Jeg ble fascinert
 412 over det som presenteres der.  Her er sammendraget:</p>
 413
 414 <p><blockquote>
 415
 416 <p>Motivasjonen til å skrive denne oppgaven er en personlig undring
 417 over hvorfor det primært, og ofte eksklusivt, fokuseres på det
 418 økonomiske aspektet ved utredninger om fri programvare er et godt valg
 419 for det offentlige. Fri og produsenteid programvare bygger på
 420 fundamentalt forskjellige ideologier som kan ha implikasjoner utover
 421 økonomiske kostnader. Kunnskapskulturen som er med på å definere fri
 422 programvare er basert på åpenhet, og er en verdi i seg selv.</p>
 423
 424 <p>Oppgavens tema er programvarelisensen GPL og frihet. GPL-lisensiert
 425 programvare gir visse friheter i forhold til produsenteid
 426 programvare. Mitt spørsmål er om, og eventuelt i hvilken utstrekning,
 427 disse frihetene blir benyttet av ulike brukere og hvordan de
 428 manifesterer seg for disse brukerne. Sentrale spørsmål i oppgaven
 429 er:</p>
 430
 431 <ul>
 432 <li>Hvordan fordeles handlekraft gjennom lisensieringen av programvaren?</li>
 433 <li>Hvilke konsekvenser har programvarelisensen for de ulike brukere? </li>
 434 </ul>
 435
 436 <p>Fri programvare gir blant annet brukeren mulighet til å studere og
 437 modifisere kildekoden. Denne formen for frihet erverves gjennom
 438 kunnskap og krever at brukeren også er en ekspert. Hva skjer med
 439 frihetene til GPL når sluttbrukeren er en annen? Dette diskuteres i
 440 dialog med informantene.</p>
 441
 442 <p>Jeg har i denne oppgaven samlet inn intervjudata fra IKT-ansvarlige
 443 ved grunnskolene i Nittedal kommune, driftsansvarlig og IKT-veilederen
 444 for skolene i kommunen, samt IKT-koordinator for utdanning i Akershus
 445 fylkeskommune og bokmåloversettere av OpenOffice.org. Den empiriske
 446 delen av oppgaven er delt inn i to seksjoner; den første omhandler
 447 operativsystemet Skolelinux, den andre kontorprogrampakken
 448 OpenOffice.org.</p>
 449
 450 <p>Som vi vil se gir GPL lokal frihet og kontroll gjennom omfordeling
 451 av makt fra produsent til bruker. Brukerens makt analyseres gjennom
 452 begrepene brukermedvirkning og handlingsfrihet. Det blir også lagt
 453 vekt på strukturelle forhold rundt bruken av teknologi, og spesielt de
 454 økonomiske begrepene nettverkseksternaliteter, innlåsing og
 455 stiavhengighet. Dette er begreper av spesiell nytte når objektet som
 456 omsettes eller distribueres er et kommunikasjonsprodukt, fordi verdien
 457 til et slikt gode for en potensiell bruker avhenger av antall
 458 eksisterende brukere av godet. I tilknytning til denne problematikken
 459 inneholder oppgaven også en diskusjon rundt åpne standarder og
 460 formater.</p>
 461
 462 <p>Oppgaven konkluderer med at de «fire frihetene» som GPL-lisensen er
 463 laget for å beskytte er av avgjørende betydning for bruken av
 464 OpenOffice.org og Skolelinux, i Akershus fylkeskommune såvel som i
 465 skolene i Nittedal. Distribusjonen av handlekraft er ikke helt
 466 symmetrisk. Det er først og fremst de profesjonelle utviklerne i
 467 Skolelinux som direkte kan nyttiggjøre seg friheten til å endre kode,
 468 mens en sluttbruker som Nittedal kommune nyttiggjør seg den økonomiske
 469 friheten til å kunne distribuere programmene. Det er imidlertid også
 470 slik at ingen aktør klarer seg uten alle disse «frihetene».</p>
 471 </blockquote></p>
 472
 473 <p>Jeg fant også en masteroppgave fra 2006, men der ligger ikke
 474 komplett oppgave tilgjengelig.  På tide å holde et øye med
 475 <a href="http://www.duo.uio.no/sok/search.html?q=skolelinux">Skolelinux-søket</a>
 476 til DUO...</p>
 477
 478
 479       </div>
 480       <div class="tags">
 481
 482
 483         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
 484
 485
 486       </div>
 487     </div>
 488     <div class="padding"></div>
 489
 490     <div class="entry">
 491       <div class="title">
 492         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
 493       </div>
 494       <div class="date">
 495         19th April 2012
 496       </div>
 497       <div class="body">
 498         <p>Here in Norway, the
 499 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
 500 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
 501 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
 502 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
 503 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
 504 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
 505 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
 506 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
 507 on the same level.</p>
 508
 509 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
 510 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
 511 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
 512 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
 513 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
 514 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
 515 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
 516 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
 517 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
 518 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
 519 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
 520 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
 521 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
 522 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
 523 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
 524 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
 525 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
 526 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
 527
 528 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
 529 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
 530 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
 531 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
 532 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
 533 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
 534 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
 535 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
 536
 537 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
 538 from Simon Phipps
 539 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
 540 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
 541
 542 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
 543 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
 544 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
 545 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
 546 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
 547 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
 548 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
 549 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
 550 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
 551
 552       </div>
 553       <div class="tags">
 554
 555
 556         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</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>.
 557
 558
 559       </div>
 560     </div>
 561     <div class="padding"></div>
 562
 563     <div class="entry">
 564       <div class="title">
 565         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Holder_de_ord_og_NUUG_lanserer_testtjeneste_med_stortingsinformasjon.html">Holder de ord og NUUG lanserer testtjeneste med stortingsinformasjon</a>
 566       </div>
 567       <div class="date">
 568         22nd April 2012
 569       </div>
 570       <div class="body">
 571         <p>I
 572 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Hva_har_mine_representanter_stemt_i_Storinget_.html">januar
 573 i fjor</a> startet vi i NUUG arbeid med å gjøre informasjon om hvem
 574 som har stemt hva på <a href="http://www.stortinget.no/">Stortinget</a>
 575 enklere tilgjengelig.  I løpet av få måneder fant vi sammen med
 576 organisasjonen <a href="http://www.holderdeord.no/">Holder de ord</a>
 577 som arbeidet mot et lignende mål.</p>
 578
 579 <p>Siden den gang har vi fått tak i maskinelt lesbart informasjon om
 580 hvem som stemte hva mellom 1990 og våren 2010, og tilgang til
 581 stortingets nye datatjeneste som har informasjon fra høsten 2011 til i
 582 dag.  Det gjenstår litt arbeid med det første datasettet, men
 583 datasettet fra høsten 2011 er klart til bruk.  Begge datasettene er
 584 tilgjengelig <a href="https://gitorious.org/nuug/folketingparser">via
 585 git</a>.</p>
 586
 587 <p>På
 588 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/holder-de-ord-datadrevet-oppfolging-av-politiske-lofter/">Go Open</a> i morgen lanserer
 589 NUUG sammen med Holder de ord <a href="http://beta.holderdeord.no/">en
 590 test-tjeneste</a> som viser hva som er og blir behandlet på Stortinget og
 591 hvem som har stemt hva siden oktober i fjor.  Du får herved mulighet
 592 til å ta en sniktitt.</p>
 593
 594       </div>
 595       <div class="tags">
 596
 597
 598         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>.
 599
 600
 601       </div>
 602     </div>
 603     <div class="padding"></div>
 604
 605     <div class="entry">
 606       <div class="title">
 607         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
 608       </div>
 609       <div class="date">
 610         26th April 2012
 611       </div>
 612       <div class="body">
 613         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
 614 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
 615 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
 616 that the video editor application included with
 617 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
 618 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
 619 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
 620
 621 <p><blockquote>
 622 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
 623 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
 624 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
 625 </blockquote></p>
 626
 627 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
 628
 629 <p><blockquote>
 630 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
 631 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
 632 </blockquote></p>
 633
 634 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
 635 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
 636 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
 637 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
 638 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
 639 video.  AMR is
 640 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
 641 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
 642 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
 643 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
 644 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
 645 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
 646 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
 647
 648 <p>I know why I prefer
 649 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
 650 standards</a> also for video.</p>
 651
 652       </div>
 653       <div class="tags">
 654
 655
 656         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/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 657
 658
 659       </div>
 660     </div>
 661     <div class="padding"></div>
 662
 663     <div class="entry">
 664       <div class="title">
 665         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/NUUGs_leverer_h_ringsuttalelse_om_v3_1_av_statens_referansekatalog.html">NUUGs leverer høringsuttalelse om v3.1 av statens referansekatalog</a>
 666       </div>
 667       <div class="date">
 668         27th April 2012
 669       </div>
 670       <div class="body">
 671         <p>NUUG-styremedlem Hans-Petter Fjeld
 672 <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/110394259537201279374/posts/AGzRmAuFdW1">meldte
 673 nettopp</a> at han har sendt inn <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>s
 674 høringsuttalelse angående Difi sin standardkatalog v3.1.  Jeg er veldig
 675 glad for at så mange bidro og sikret at vår stemme blir hørt i denne
 676 høringen.  Anbefaler alle å lese våre
 677 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/uttalelser/201204-standardkatalog-v3.1">to
 678 sider med innspill</a>.</p>
 679
 680       </div>
 681       <div class="tags">
 682
 683
 684         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
 685
 686
 687       </div>
 688     </div>
 689     <div class="padding"></div>
 690
 691     <div class="entry">
 692       <div class="title">
 693         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
 694       </div>
 695       <div class="date">
 696         30th April 2012
 697       </div>
 698       <div class="body">
 699         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
 700 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
 701
 702 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
 703 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
 704 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
 705 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
 706 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
 707 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
 708 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
 709 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
 710 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
 711 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
 712 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
 713 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
 714 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
 715 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
 716 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
 717 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
 718
 719 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
 720 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
 721 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
 722 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
 723 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
 724 finally found a Danish supplier
 725 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
 726 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
 727 days ago.</p>
 728
 729 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
 730 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
 731 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
 732 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
 733 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
 734 toys.</p>
 735
 736       </div>
 737       <div class="tags">
 738
 739
 740         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 741
 742
 743       </div>
 744     </div>
 745     <div class="padding"></div>
 746
 747     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="04.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
 748     <div id="sidebar">
 749
 750
 751
 752 <h2>Archive</h2>
 753 <ul>
 754
 755 <li>2012
 756 <ul>
 757
 758 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 759
 760 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 761
 762 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 763
 764 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 765
 766 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 767
 768 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 769
 770 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (8)</a></li>
 771
 772 </ul></li>
 773
 774 <li>2011
 775 <ul>
 776
 777 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 778
 779 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 780
 781 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 782
 783 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 784
 785 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 786
 787 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 788
 789 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 790
 791 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 792
 793 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 794
 795 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 796
 797 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 798
 799 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 800
 801 </ul></li>
 802
 803 <li>2010
 804 <ul>
 805
 806 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 807
 808 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 809
 810 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 811
 812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 813
 814 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 815
 816 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 817
 818 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 819
 820 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 821
 822 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 823
 824 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 825
 826 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 827
 828 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 829
 830 </ul></li>
 831
 832 <li>2009
 833 <ul>
 834
 835 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 836
 837 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 838
 839 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 840
 841 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 842
 843 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 844
 845 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 846
 847 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 848
 849 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 850
 851 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 852
 853 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 854
 855 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 856
 857 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 858
 859 </ul></li>
 860
 861 <li>2008
 862 <ul>
 863
 864 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 865
 866 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 867
 868 </ul></li>
 869
 870 </ul>
 871
 872
 873
 874 <h2>Tags</h2>
 875 <ul>
 876
 877  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 878
 879  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 880
 881  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 882
 883  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (2)</a></li>
 884
 885  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
 886
 887  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 888
 889  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (55)</a></li>
 890
 891  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (107)</a></li>
 892
 893  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (9)</a></li>
 894
 895  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 896
 897  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (139)</a></li>
 898
 899  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (17)</a></li>
 900
 901  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 902
 903  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (6)</a></li>
 904
 905  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (29)</a></li>
 906
 907  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (16)</a></li>
 908
 909  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
 910
 911  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (4)</a></li>
 912
 913  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 914
 915  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (22)</a></li>
 916
 917  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (186)</a></li>
 918
 919  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (137)</a></li>
 920
 921  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (4)</a></li>
 922
 923  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 924
 925  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (31)</a></li>
 926
 927  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (48)</a></li>
 928
 929  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 930
 931  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 932
 933  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
 934
 935  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (4)</a></li>
 936
 937  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 938
 939  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 940
 941  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 942
 943  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (23)</a></li>
 944
 945  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 946
 947  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (1)</a></li>
 948
 949  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (35)</a></li>
 950
 951  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (1)</a></li>
 952
 953  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (4)</a></li>
 954
 955  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (10)</a></li>
 956
 957  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (6)</a></li>
 958
 959  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (32)</a></li>
 960
 961  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (1)</a></li>
 962
 963  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (25)</a></li>
 964
 965 </ul>
 966
 967
 968     </div>
 969     <p style="text-align: right">
 970  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.4</a>
 971 </p>
 972
 973   </body>
 974 </html>