blog/archive/2019/06/06.rss

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
   2 <rss version='2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/1.0/'>
   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries from June 2019</title>
   5                 <description>Entries from June 2019</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Jami/Ring, finally functioning peer to peer communication client</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Jami_Ring__finally_functioning_peer_to_peer_communication_client.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Wed, 19 Jun 2019 08:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Some years ago, in 2016, I
  15 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html&quot;&gt;wrote
  16 for the first time about&lt;/a&gt; the Ring peer to peer messaging system.
  17 It would provide messaging without any central server coordinating the
  18 system and without requiring all users to register a phone number or
  19 own a mobile phone.  Back then, I could not get it to work, and put it
  20 aside until it had seen more development.  A few days ago I decided to
  21 give it another try, and am happy to report that this time I am able
  22 to not only send and receive messages, but also place audio and video
  23 calls.  But only if UDP is not blocked into your network.&lt;/p&gt;
  24
  25 &lt;p&gt;The Ring system changed name earlier this year to
  26 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami_(software)&quot;&gt;Jami&lt;/a&gt;.  I
  27 tried doing web search for &#39;ring&#39; when I discovered it for the first
  28 time, and can only applaud this change as it is impossible to find
  29 something called Ring among the noise of other uses of that word.  Now
  30 you can search for &#39;jami&#39; and this client and
  31 &lt;a href=&quot;https://jami.net/&quot;&gt;the Jami system&lt;/a&gt; is the first hit at
  32 least on duckduckgo.&lt;/p&gt;
  33
  34 &lt;p&gt;Jami will by default encrypt messages as well as audio and video
  35 calls, and try to send them directly between the communicating parties
  36 if possible.  If this proves impossible (for example if both ends are
  37 behind NAT), it will use a central SIP TURN server maintained by the
  38 Jami project.  Jami can also be a normal SIP client.  If the SIP
  39 server is unencrypted, the audio and video calls will also be
  40 unencrypted.  This is as far as I know the only case where Jami will
  41 do anything without encryption.&lt;/p&gt;
  42
  43 &lt;p&gt;Jami is available for several platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOSX,
  44 Android, iOS, and Android TV.  It is included in Debian already.  Jami
  45 also work for those using F-Droid without any Google connections,
  46 while Signal do not.
  47 &lt;a href=&quot;https://git.jami.net/savoirfairelinux/ring-project/wikis/technical/Protocol&quot;&gt;The
  48 protocol&lt;/a&gt; is described in the Ring project wiki.  The system uses a
  49 distributed hash table (DHT) system (similar to BitTorrent) running
  50 over UDP.  On one of the networks I use, I discovered Jami failed to
  51 work.  I tracked this down to the fact that incoming UDP packages
  52 going to ports 1-49999 were blocked, and the DHT would pick a random
  53 port and end up in the low range most of the time.  After talking to
  54 the developers, I solved this by enabling the dhtproxy in the
  55 settings, thus using TCP to talk to a central DHT proxy instead of
  56
  57 peering directly with others.  I&#39;ve been told the developers are
  58 working on allowing DHT to use TCP to avoid this problem.  I also ran
  59 into a problem when trying to talk to the version of Ring included in
  60 Debian Stable (Stretch).  Apparently the protocol changed between
  61 beta2 and the current version, making these clients incompatible.
  62 Hopefully the protocol will not be made incompatible in the
  63 future.&lt;/p&gt;
  64
  65 &lt;p&gt;It is worth noting that while looking at Jami and its features, I
  66 came across another communication platform I have not tested yet.  The
  67 &lt;a href=&quot;https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tox_(protocol)&quot;&gt;Tox protocol&lt;/a&gt;
  68 and &lt;a href=&quot;https://tox.chat/&quot;&gt;family of Tox clients&lt;/a&gt;.  It might
  69 become the topic of a future blog post.&lt;/p&gt;
  70
  71 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
  72 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
  73 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  74 </description>
  75         </item>
  76
  77         <item>
  78                 <title>More sales number for my Free Culture paper editions (2019-edition)</title>
  79                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_sales_number_for_my_Free_Culture_paper_editions__2019_edition_.html</link>
  80                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_sales_number_for_my_Free_Culture_paper_editions__2019_edition_.html</guid>
  81                 <pubDate>Tue, 11 Jun 2019 16:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
  82                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The first book I published,
  83 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.free-culture.cc/&quot;&gt;Free Culture by Lawrence
  84 Lessig&lt;/a&gt;, is still selling a few copies.  Not a lot, but enough to
  85 have contributed slightly over $500 to the &lt;a
  86 href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Corporation&lt;/a&gt;
  87 so far.  All the profit is sent there. Most books are still sold via
  88 Amazon (83 copies), with Ingram second (49) and Lulu (12) and Machette (7) as
  89 minor channels.  Bying directly from Lulu bring the largest cut to
  90 Creative Commons.  The English Edition sold 80 copies so far, the
  91 French 59 copies, and Norwegian only 8 copies.  Nothing impressive,
  92 but nice to see the work we put down is still being appreciated.  The
  93 ebook edition is available for free from
  94 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;Github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
  95
  96 &lt;table border=&quot;0&quot;&gt;
  97 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;th rowspan=&quot;2&quot; valign=&quot;bottom&quot;&gt;Title / language&lt;/th&gt;
  98 &lt;th colspan=&quot;7&quot;&gt;Quantity&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
  99 &lt;tr&gt;
 100 &lt;th&gt;2016 jan-jun&lt;/th&gt;
 101 &lt;th&gt;2016 jul-dec&lt;/th&gt;
 102 &lt;th&gt;2017 jan-jun&lt;/th&gt;
 103 &lt;th&gt;2017 jul-dec&lt;/th&gt;
 104 &lt;th&gt;2018 jan-jun&lt;/th&gt;
 105 &lt;th&gt;2018 jul-dec&lt;/th&gt;
 106 &lt;th&gt;2019 jan-may&lt;/th&gt;
 107 &lt;/tr&gt;
 108
 109 &lt;tr&gt;
 110   &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/culture-libre/paperback/product-22645082.html&quot;&gt;Culture Libre / French&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
 111   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
 112   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
 113   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;19&lt;/td&gt;
 114   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;11&lt;/td&gt;
 115   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
 116   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;6&lt;/td&gt;
 117   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
 118 &lt;/tr&gt;
 119
 120 &lt;tr&gt;
 121   &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/fri-kultur/paperback/product-22441576.html&quot;&gt;Fri kultur / Norwegian&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
 122   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
 123   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;1&lt;/td&gt;
 124   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;0&lt;/td&gt;
 125   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;0&lt;/td&gt;
 126   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;0&lt;/td&gt;
 127   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;0&lt;/td&gt;
 128   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;0&lt;/td&gt;
 129 &lt;/tr&gt;
 130
 131 &lt;tr&gt;
 132   &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lulu.com/shop/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/paperback/product-22440520.html&quot;&gt;Free Culture / English&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
 133   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;14&lt;/td&gt;
 134   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;27&lt;/td&gt;
 135   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;16&lt;/td&gt;
 136   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;9&lt;/td&gt;
 137   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
 138   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;7&lt;/td&gt;
 139   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;3&lt;/td&gt;
 140 &lt;/tr&gt;
 141
 142 &lt;tr&gt;
 143   &lt;td&gt;Total&lt;/td&gt;
 144   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;24&lt;/td&gt;
 145   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;34&lt;/td&gt;
 146   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;35&lt;/td&gt;
 147   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;20&lt;/td&gt;
 148   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;10&lt;/td&gt;
 149   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;13&lt;/td&gt;
 150   &lt;td align=&quot;right&quot;&gt;10&lt;/td&gt;
 151 &lt;/tr&gt;
 152
 153 &lt;/table&gt;
 154
 155 &lt;p&gt;It is fun to see the French edition being more popular than the
 156 English one.&lt;/p&gt;
 157
 158 &lt;p&gt;If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native
 159 language, I would be happy to help make it happen.  Please get in
 160 touch.&lt;/p&gt;
 161 </description>
 162         </item>
 163
 164         <item>
 165                 <title>Official MIME type &quot;text/vnd.sosi&quot; for SOSI map data</title>
 166                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Official_MIME_type__text_vnd_sosi__for_SOSI_map_data.html</link>
 167                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Official_MIME_type__text_vnd_sosi__for_SOSI_map_data.html</guid>
 168                 <pubDate>Tue, 4 Jun 2019 09:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
 169                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Just 15 days ago,
 170 &lt;ahref=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MIME_type__text_vnd_sosi__for_SOSI_map_data.html&quot;&gt;I
 171 mentioned&lt;/a&gt; my submission to IANA to register an official MIME type
 172 for the SOSI vector map format.  This morning, just an hour ago, I was
 173 notified that
 174 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/text/vnd.sosi&quot;&gt;the
 175 MIME type &quot;text/vnd.sosi&quot;&lt;/a&gt; is registered for this format.  In
 176 addition to this registration, my
 177 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/file/file/blob/master/magic/Magdir/sosi&quot;&gt;file(1)
 178 patch for a pattern matching rule for SOSI files&lt;/a&gt; has been accepted
 179 into the official source of that program (pending a new release), and
 180 I&#39;ve been told by the team behind
 181 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/PRONOM/&quot;&gt;PRONOM&lt;/a&gt; that
 182 the SOSI format will be included in the next release of PRONOM, which
 183 they plan to release this summer around July.&lt;/p&gt;
 184
 185 &lt;p&gt;I am very happy to see all of this fall into place, for use by
 186 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/arkivverket/noark5-tjenestegrensesnitt-standard/&quot;&gt;the
 187 Noark 5 Tjenestegrensesnitt&lt;/a&gt; implementations.&lt;/p&gt;
 188
 189 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 190 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 191 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 192 </description>
 193         </item>
 194
 195         <item>
 196                 <title>The space rover coquine, or how I ended up on the dark side of the moon</title>
 197                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_space_rover_coquine__or_how_I_ended_up_on_the_dark_side_of_the_moon.html</link>
 198                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_space_rover_coquine__or_how_I_ended_up_on_the_dark_side_of_the_moon.html</guid>
 199                 <pubDate>Sun, 2 Jun 2019 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
 200                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A while back a college and friend from Debian and the Skolelinux /
 201 Debian Edu project approached me, asking if I knew someone that might
 202 be interested in helping out with a technology project he was running
 203 as a teacher at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/&quot;&gt;L&#39;école
 204 franco-danoise&lt;/a&gt; - the Danish-French school and kindergarden.  The
 205 kids were building robots, rovers.  The story behind it is to build a
 206 rover for use
 207 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/first-week-on-the-dark-side&quot;&gt;on
 208 the dark side of the moon&lt;/a&gt;, and remote control it.  As travel cost
 209 was a bit high for the final destination, and they wanted to test the
 210 concept first, he was looking for volunteers to host a rover for the
 211 kids to control in a foreign country.  I ended up volunteering as a
 212 host, and last week the rover arrived.  It took a while to arrive
 213 after &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/model-moms&quot;&gt;it was
 214 built and shipped&lt;/a&gt;, because of customs confusion.  Luckily we were
 215 able fix it quickly with help from my colleges at work.&lt;/p&gt;
 216
 217 &lt;p&gt;This is what it looked like when the rover arrived.  Note the cute
 218 eyes looking up on me from the wrapping&lt;/p&gt;
 219
 220 &lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-esken-med-det-rare-i.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;
 221 &lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-den-ser-meg.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;
 222 &lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-en-skrue-loes.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;
 223
 224 &lt;p style=&quot;text-align:left&quot;&gt;Once the robot arrived, we needed to track
 225 down batteries and figure out how to build custom firmware for it with
 226 the appropriate wifi settings.  I asked a friend if I could get two
 227 18650 batteries from his pile of Tesla batteries (he had them from the
 228 wrack of a crashed Tesla), so now the rover is running on Tesla
 229 batteries.&lt;/p&gt;
 230
 231 &lt;p&gt;Building
 232 &lt;a href=&quot;https://gitlab.com/ecolefrancodanoise/arduino-efd/&quot;&gt;the rover
 233 firmware&lt;/a&gt; proved a bit harder, as the code did not work out of the
 234 box with the Arduino IDE package in Debian Buster.  I suspect this is
 235 due to a unsolved
 236 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2703&quot;&gt; license problem
 237 with arduino&lt;/a&gt; blocking Debian from upgrading to the latest version.
 238 In the end we gave up debugging why the IDE failed to find the
 239 required libraries, and ended up using the Arduino Makefile from the
 240 &lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/arduino-mk&quot;&gt;arduino-mk Debian
 241 package&lt;/a&gt; instead.  Unfortunately the camera library is missing from
 242 the Arduino environment in Debian, so we disabled the camera support
 243 for the first firmware build, to get something up and running.  With
 244 this reduced firmware, the robot could be controlled via the
 245 controller server, driving around and measuring distance using its
 246 internal acoustic sensor.&lt;/p&gt;
 247
 248 &lt;p&gt;Next, With some help from my friend in Denmark, which checked in the
 249 camera library into the gitlab repository for me to use, we were able
 250 to build a new and more complete version of the firmware, and the
 251 robot is now up and running.  This is what the &quot;commander&quot; web page
 252 look like after taking a measurement and a snapshot:&lt;/p&gt;
 253
 254 &lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-commander.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; align=&quot;center&quot;/&gt;
 255
 256 &lt;p&gt;If you want to learn more about this project, you can check out the
 257 &lt;a href=&quot;https://hackaday.io/project/164082-the-dark-side-challenge&quot;&gt;The
 258 Dark Side Challenge&lt;/a&gt; Hackaday web pages.&lt;/p&gt;
 259
 260 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 261 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 262 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 263 </description>
 264         </item>
 265
 266         </channel>
 267 </rss>