<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
<atom:link href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/index.rss" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
+ <item>
+ <title>Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</title>
+ <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html</link>
+ <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html</guid>
+ <pubDate>Wed, 1 Mar 2017 20:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
+ <description><p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
+<a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
+USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
+Packard. Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
+work great! According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
+box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later. I tested on a
+Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
+fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly. I wrote a small
+test oneliner to test. It first print the current entropy level,
+drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
+Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+% cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
+ dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
+ for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
+ cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
+ sleep 1; \
+ done
+300
+0+1 oppføringer inn
+0+1 oppføringer ut
+28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
+4
+8
+12
+17
+21
+%
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second. In such case any
+application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
+will halt and wait for more entrpy. And here is the situation with
+the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
+
+<blockquote><pre>
+% cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
+ dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
+ for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
+ cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
+ sleep 1; \
+ done
+1079
+0+1 oppføringer inn
+0+1 oppføringer ut
+104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
+433
+1028
+1031
+1035
+1038
+%
+</pre></blockquote>
+
+<p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
+someone want to buy one her in Norway. :)</p>
+</description>
+ </item>
+
<item>
<title>Detect OOXML files with undefined behaviour?</title>
<link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Detect_OOXML_files_with_undefined_behaviour_.html</link>
</description>
</item>
- <item>
- <title>Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</title>
- <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html</link>
- <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html</guid>
- <pubDate>Sun, 11 Dec 2016 11:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
- <description><p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
-
-<p>In my early years, I played
-<a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
-Elite</a> on my PC. I spent many months trading and fighting in
-space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on. The
-original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
-edition I played had a 64 KB executable. I am still impressed today
-that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
-more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
-small.</p>
-
-<p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
-software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
-really have time to test it properly until a few days ago. It was
-great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
-still valid. But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
-to retrain to be able to dock on a space station. And I am still not
-able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
-bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
-put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
-
-<p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
-everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
-planets to be able to decide where to trade what. This time I had the
-advantages of the
-<a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
-where information about each planet is easily available with common
-price ranges and suggested trading routes. This improved my ability
-to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
-useful equipent in a few days. I believe I originally played for
-months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
-after less then a week.</p>
-
-<p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
-space, you should try out Oolite. It is available for Linux, MacOSX
-and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
-
-<p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
-activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
-<b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
-</description>
- </item>
-
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