X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/60605d90df9dcaed1cb8ccbe98e9139d00eea139..ae5db6d19f3d85fdd5e7bd4c12be28fa3f15fc43:/blog/archive/2014/03/03.rss diff --git a/blog/archive/2014/03/03.rss b/blog/archive/2014/03/03.rss index 4a4a8a03d4..cef899f8c0 100644 --- a/blog/archive/2014/03/03.rss +++ b/blog/archive/2014/03/03.rss @@ -6,6 +6,324 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Roger_Marsal.html + Sun, 30 Mar 2014 11:40:00 +0200 + <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> +keep gaining new users. Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC, +<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/#debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>, with a +wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great +contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.</p> + +<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> + +<p>My name is Roger Marsal, I'm 27 years old (1986 generation) and I +live in Barcelona, Spain. I've got a strong business background and I +work as a patrimony manager and as a real estate agent. Additionally, +I've co-founded a British based tech company that is nowadays on the +last development phase of a new social networking concept.</p> + +<p>I'm a Linux enthusiast that started its journey with Ubuntu four years +ago and have recently switched to Debian seeking rock solid stability +and as a necessary step to gain expertise.</p> + +<p>In a nutshell, I spend my days working and learning as much as I +can to face both my job, entrepreneur project and feed my Linux +hunger.</p> + +<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?</strong></p> + +<p>I discovered the <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP</a> advantages +with "Ubuntu 12.04 alternate install" and after a year of use I +started looking for an alternative. Even though I highly value and +respect the Ubuntu project, I thought it was necessary for me to +change to a more robust and stable alternative. As far as I was using +Debian on my personal laptop I thought it would be fine to install +Debian and configure an LTSP server myself. Surprised, I discovered +that the Debian project also supported a kind of Edubuntu equivalent, +and after having some pain I obtained a Debian Edu network up and +running. I just loved it.</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>I found a main advantage in that, once you know "the tips and +tricks", a new installation just works out of the box. It's the most +complete alternative I've found to create an LTSP network. All the +other distributions seems to be made of plastic, Debian Edu seems to +be made of steel.</p> + +<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?</strong></p> + +<p>I found two main disadvantages.</p> + +<p>I'm not an expert but I've got notions and I had to spent a considerable +amount of time trying to bring up a standard network topology. I'm quite +stubborn and I just worked until I did but I'm sure many people with few +resources (not big schools, but academies for example) would have switched +or dropped.</p> + +<p>It's amazing how such a complex system like Debian Edu has achieved +this out-of-the-box state. Even though tweaking without breaking gets +more difficult, as more factors have to be considered. This can +discourage many people too.</p> + +<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> + +<p>I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and +Virtualbox.</p> + + +<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?</strong></p> + +<p>I don't think there is a need for a particular strategy. The free +attribute in both "freedom" and "no price" meanings is what will +really bring free software to schools. In my experience I can think of +the <a href="http://www.r-project.org/">"R" statistical language</a>; a +few years a ago was an extremely nerd tool for university people. +Today it's being increasingly used to teach statistics at many +different level of studies. I believe free and open software will +increasingly gain popularity, but I'm sure schools will be one of the +first scenarios where this will happen.</p> + + + + + Dokumentaren om Datalagringsdirektivet sendes endelig på NRK + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dokumentaren_om_Datalagringsdirektivet_sendes_endelig_p__NRK.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dokumentaren_om_Datalagringsdirektivet_sendes_endelig_p__NRK.html + Wed, 26 Mar 2014 09:50:00 +0100 + <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Foreningen NUUG</a> melder i natt at +NRK nå har bestemt seg for +<a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/NRK_viser_filmen_om_Datalagringsdirektivet_f_rste_gang_2014_03_31.shtml">når +den norske dokumentarfilmen om datalagringsdirektivet skal +sendes</a> (se <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2832844/">IMDB</a> +for detaljer om filmen) . Første visning blir på NRK2 mandag +2014-03-31 kl. 19:50, og deretter visninger onsdag 2014-04-02 +kl. 12:30, fredag 2014-04-04 kl. 19:40 og søndag 2014-04-06 kl. 15:10. +Jeg har sett dokumentaren, og jeg anbefaler enhver å se den selv. Som +oppvarming mens vi venter anbefaler jeg Bjørn Stærks kronikk i +Aftenposten fra i går, +<a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/Autoritar-gjokunge-7514915.html">Autoritær +gjøkunge</a>, der han gir en grei skisse av hvor ille det står til med +retten til privatliv og beskyttelsen av demokrati i Norge og resten +verden, og helt riktig slår fast at det er vi i databransjen som +sitter med nøkkelen til å gjøre noe med dette. Jeg har involvert meg +i prosjektene <a href="http://www.dugnadsnett.no/">dugnadsnett.no</a> +og <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">FreedomBox</a> for å +forsøke å gjøre litt selv for å bedre situasjonen, men det er mye +hardt arbeid fra mange flere enn meg som gjenstår før vi kan sies å ha +gjenopprettet balansen.</p> + +<p>Jeg regner med at nettutgaven dukker opp på +<a href="http://tv.nrk.no/program/koid75005313/tema-dine-digitale-spor-datalagringsdirektivet">NRKs +side om filmen om datalagringsdirektivet</a> om fem dager. Hold et +øye med siden, og tips venner og slekt om at de også bør se den.</p> + + + + + Public Trusted Timestamping services for everyone + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Public_Trusted_Timestamping_services_for_everyone.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Public_Trusted_Timestamping_services_for_everyone.html + Tue, 25 Mar 2014 12:50:00 +0100 + <p>Did you ever need to store logs or other files in a way that would +allow it to be used as evidence in court, and needed a way to +demonstrate without reasonable doubt that the file had not been +changed since it was created? Or, did you ever need to document that +a given document was received at some point in time, like some +archived document or the answer to an exam, and not changed after it +was received? The problem in these settings is to remove the need to +trust yourself and your computers, while still being able to prove +that a file is the same as it was at some given time in the past.</p> + +<p>A solution to these problems is to have a trusted third party +"stamp" the document and verify that at some given time the document +looked a given way. Such +<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notarius">notarius</a> service +have been around for thousands of years, and its digital equivalent is +called a +<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_timestamping">trusted +timestamping service</a>. <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">The Internet +Engineering Task Force</a> standardised how such service could work a +few years ago as <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3161">RFC +3161</a>. The mechanism is simple. Create a hash of the file in +question, send it to a trusted third party which add a time stamp to +the hash and sign the result with its private key, and send back the +signed hash + timestamp. Both email, FTP and HTTP can be used to +request such signature, depending on what is provided by the service +used. Anyone with the document and the signature can then verify that +the document matches the signature by creating their own hash and +checking the signature using the trusted third party public key. +There are several commercial services around providing such +timestamping. A quick search for +"<a href="https://duckduckgo.com/?q=rfc+3161+service">rfc 3161 +service</a>" pointed me to at least +<a href="https://www.digistamp.com/technical/how-a-digital-time-stamp-works/">DigiStamp</a>, +<a href="http://www.quovadisglobal.co.uk/CertificateServices/SigningServices/TimeStamp.aspx">Quo +Vadis</a>, +<a href="https://www.globalsign.com/timestamp-service/">Global Sign</a> +and <a href="http://www.globaltrustfinder.com/TSADefault.aspx">Global +Trust Finder</a>. The system work as long as the private key of the +trusted third party is not compromised.</p> + +<p>But as far as I can tell, there are very few public trusted +timestamp services available for everyone. I've been looking for one +for a while now. But yesterday I found one over at +<a href="https://www.pki.dfn.de/zeitstempeldienst/">Deutches +Forschungsnetz</a> mentioned in +<a href="http://www.d-mueller.de/blog/dealing-with-trusted-timestamps-in-php-rfc-3161/">a +blog by David Müller</a>. I then found +<a href="http://www.rz.uni-greifswald.de/support/dfn-pki-zertifikate/zeitstempeldienst.html">a +good recipe on how to use the service</a> over at the University of +Greifswald.</p> + +<p><a href="http://www.openssl.org/">The OpenSSL library</a> contain +both server and tools to use and set up your own signing service. See +the ts(1SSL), tsget(1SSL) manual pages for more details. The +following shell script demonstrate how to extract a signed timestamp +for any file on the disk in a Debian environment:</p> + +<p><blockquote><pre> +#!/bin/sh +set -e +url="http://zeitstempel.dfn.de" +caurl="https://pki.pca.dfn.de/global-services-ca/pub/cacert/chain.txt" +reqfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsq) +resfile=$(mktemp -t tmp.XXXXXXXXXX.tsr) +cafile=chain.txt +if [ ! -f $cafile ] ; then + wget -O $cafile "$caurl" +fi +openssl ts -query -data "$1" -cert | tee "$reqfile" \ + | /usr/lib/ssl/misc/tsget -h "$url" -o "$resfile" +openssl ts -reply -in "$resfile" -text 1>&2 +openssl ts -verify -data "$1" -in "$resfile" -CAfile "$cafile" 1>&2 +base64 < "$resfile" +rm "$reqfile" "$resfile" +</pre></blockquote></p> + +<p>The argument to the script is the file to timestamp, and the output +is a base64 encoded version of the signature to STDOUT and details +about the signature to STDERR. Note that due to +<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=742553">a bug +in the tsget script</a>, you might need to modify the included script +and remove the last line. Or just write your own HTTP uploader using +curl. :) Now you too can prove and verify that files have not been +changed.</p> + +<p>But the Internet need more public trusted timestamp services. +Perhaps something for <a href="http://www.uninett.no/">Uninett</a> or +my work place the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> +to set up?</p> + + + + + Video DVD reader library / python-dvdvideo - nice free software + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Video_DVD_reader_library___python_dvdvideo___nice_free_software.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Video_DVD_reader_library___python_dvdvideo___nice_free_software.html + Fri, 21 Mar 2014 15:25:00 +0100 + <p>Keeping your DVD collection safe from scratches and curious +children fingers while still having it available when you want to see a +movie is not straight forward. My preferred method at the moment is +to store a full copy of the ISO on a hard drive, and use VLC, Popcorn +Hour or other useful players to view the resulting file. This way the +subtitles and bonus material are still available and using the ISO is +just like inserting the original DVD record in the DVD player.</p> + +<p>Earlier I used dd for taking security copies, but it do not handle +DVDs giving read errors (which are quite a few of them). I've also +tried using +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">dvdbackup +and genisoimage</a>, but these days I use the marvellous python library +and program +<a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">python-dvdvideo</a> +written by Bastian Blank. It is +<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/python-dvdvideo.html">in Debian +already</a> and the binary package name is python3-dvdvideo. Instead +of trying to read every block from the DVD, it parses the file +structure and figure out which block on the DVD is actually in used, +and only read those blocks from the DVD. This work surprisingly well, +and I have been able to almost backup my entire DVD collection using +this method.</p> + +<p>So far, python-dvdvideo have failed on between 10 and +20 DVDs, which is a small fraction of my collection. The most common +problem is +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=720831">DVDs +using UTF-16 instead of UTF-8 characters</a>, which according to +Bastian is against the DVD specification (and seem to cause some +players to fail too). A rarer problem is what seem to be inconsistent +DVD structures, as the python library +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=723079">claim +there is a overlap between objects</a>. An equally rare problem claim +<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=741878">some +value is out of range</a>. No idea what is going on there. I wish I +knew enough about the DVD format to fix these, to ensure my movie +collection will stay with me in the future.</p> + +<p>So, if you need to keep your DVDs safe, back them up using +python-dvdvideo. :)</p> + + + + + Norsk utgave av Alaveteli / WhatDoTheyKnow på trappene + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow_p__trappene.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Norsk_utgave_av_Alaveteli___WhatDoTheyKnow_p__trappene.html + Sun, 16 Mar 2014 09:30:00 +0100 + <p>Det offentlige Norge har mye kunnskap og informasjon. Men hvordan +kan en få tilgang til den på en enkel måte? Takket være et lite +knippe lover og tilhørende forskrifter, blant annet +<a href="http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2006-05-19-16">offentlighetsloven</a>, +<a href="http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2003-05-09-31">miljøinformasjonsloven</a> +og +<a href="http://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/1967-02-10/">forvaltningsloven</a> +har en rett til å spørre det offentlige og få svar. Men det finnes +intet offentlig arkiv over hva andre har spurt om, og dermed risikerer en +å måtte forstyrre myndighetene gang på gang for å få tak i samme +informasjonen på nytt. <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">Britiske +mySociety</a> har laget tjenesten +<a href="http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/">WhatDoTheyKnow</a> som gjør +noe med dette. I Storbritannia blir WhatdoTheyKnow brukt i +<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2011/07/01/whatdotheyknows-share-of-central-government-foi-requests-q2-2011/">ca +15% av alle innsynsforespørsler mot sentraladministrasjonen</a>. +Prosjektet heter <a href="http://www.alaveteli.org/">Alaveteli</A>, og +er takk i bruk en rekke steder etter at løsningen ble generalisert og +gjort mulig å oversette. Den hjelper borgerne med å be om innsyn, +rådgir ved purringer og klager og lar alle se hvilke henvendelser som +er sendt til det offentlige og hvilke svar som er kommet inn, i et +søkpart arkiv. Her i Norge holder vi i foreningen NUUG på å få opp en +norsk utgave av Alaveteli, og her trenger vi din hjelp med +oversettelsen.</p> + +<p>Så langt er 76 % av Alaveteli oversatt til norsk bokmål, men vi +skulle gjerne vært oppe i 100 % før lansering. Oversettelsen gjøres +på <a href="https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/alaveteli/">Transifex, +der enhver som registrerer seg</a> og ber om tilgang til +bokmålsoversettelsen får bidra. Vi har satt opp en test av tjenesten +(som ikke sender epost til det offentlige, kun til oss som holder på å +sette opp tjenesten) på maskinen +<a href="http://alaveteli-dev.nuug.no/">alaveteli-dev.nuug.no</a>, der +en kan se hvordan de oversatte meldingen blir seende ut på nettsiden. +Når tjenesten lanseres vil den hete +<a href="https://www.mimesbrønn.no/">Mimes brønn</a>, etter +visdomskilden som Odin måtte gi øyet sitt for å få drikke i. Den +nettsiden er er ennå ikke klar til bruk.</p> + +<p>Hvis noen vil oversette til nynorsk også, så skal vi finne ut +hvordan vi lager en flerspråklig tjeneste. Men i første omgang er +fokus på bokmålsoversettelsen, der vi selv har nok peiling til å ha +fått oversatt 76%, men trenger hjelp for å komme helt i mål. :)</p> + + + Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html @@ -62,7 +380,7 @@ currently hang while setting up APT sources. Killing the installation will get the installation going. This affect all installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p> -Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help +<p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help us get the new release published. :) Please join us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and