Petter Reinholdtsen

Entries from December 2010.

Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer
2010-12-09 19:30

A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot student assosiation Robotica Osloensis at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to get their own 3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer operational.

The robotic group have already build several robots on their own, and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on Thingiverse. I even got some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at the computer science department at the university demonstrated their very cool 3D scanner.

Tags: 3d-printer, english, reprap.
Martin Bekkelund: En stille bønn om Datalagringsdirektivet
2010-12-09 21:25

Martin Bekkelund ved friprog-senteret har skrevet følgende korte oppsummering rundt datalagringsdirektivet, som jeg videreformidler her.

Det pågår i disse dager en intens diskusjon om innføring av Datalagringsdirektivet (DLD) i norsk rett. Kanskje har du gjort deg opp en mening, kanskje er du usikker. I begge tilfeller ber jeg deg lese videre.

Samtlige fagmiljøer, både i Norge og EU, har konkludert med at DLD ikke bør innføres på nåværende tidspunkt. Den tekniske kvaliteten på direktivet er dårlig, det griper uforholdsmessig inn i personvernet, det har store mangler og viktige spørsmål som hvem som skal ha tilgang og hvordan data skal lagres er fortsatt uavklart.

Jeg liker å tro at jeg er en hyggelig fyr. Jeg har et rent rulleblad, og med unntak av to fartsbøter har jeg aldri vært en byrde for samfunnet. Det akter jeg å fortsette med. Det er mange som meg, lovlydige, pliktoppfyllende borgere som aldri vil utgjøre en trussel mot noe som helst. Vi synes derfor det er trist og sårende at all vår atferd skal overvåkes døgnkontinuerlig.

Understøttet av faglige vurderinger kan du trygt si nei til DLD.

Ta kontakt med meg hvis du har spørsmål om DLD, uansett hva det måtte gjelde.

Denne teksten er å anse som Public Domain. Spre den videre til alle som kan ha nytte av den!

Siste melding fra Nettavisen er at regjeringen planlegger å fremme sitt forslag til implementering av datalagringsdirektivet i morgen, i ly av fredprisutdelingen for å få minst mulig pressedekning om saken. Vi får snart se om det stemmer.

Tags: norsk, personvern.
Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money
2010-12-10 08:20

With this weeks lawless governmental attacks on Wikileak and free speech, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can not be trusted to handle money transactions. A blog post from Simon Phipps on bitcoin reminded me about a project that a friend of mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get involved with BitCoin. I got some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon for helping me remember BitCoin.

So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas will get the package into Debian soon.

Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR. There are companies accepting bitcoins when selling services and goods, and there are even currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you want to get started and lack a friend without any bitcoins to spare, you can even get some for free (0.05 bitcoin at the time of writing). Use BitcoinWatch to keep an eye on the current exchange rates.

As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to the address 15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b. Thank you!

Tags: bitcoin, debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet.

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