X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/b3e82c9942ba7127eeab00c5f54feffd2a290c48..71d699bfe812a6abf0336106650478318f8a4098:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index f9015d50ad..d185f8fa18 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -19,6 +19,656 @@ +
+
Do you need an agreement with MPEG-LA to publish and broadcast H.264 video in Norway?
+
25th August 2014
+

Two years later, I am still not sure if it is legal here in Norway +to use or publish a video in H.264 or MPEG4 format edited by the +commercially licensed video editors, without limiting the use to +create "personal" or "non-commercial" videos or get a license +agreement with MPEG LA. If one +want to publish and broadcast video in a non-personal or commercial +setting, it might be that those tools can not be used, or that video +format can not be used, without breaking their copyright license. I +am not sure. +Back +then, I found that the copyright license terms for Adobe Premiere +and Apple Final Cut Pro both specified that one could not use the +program to produce anything else without a patent license from MPEG +LA. The issue is not limited to those two products, though. Other +much used products like those from Avid and Sorenson Media have terms +of use are similar to those from Adobe and Apple. The complicating +factor making me unsure if those terms have effect in Norway or not is +that the patents in question are not valid in Norway, but copyright +licenses are.

+ +

These are the terms for Avid Artist Suite, according to their +published +end user +license +text (converted to lower case text for easier reading):

+ +

+

18.2. MPEG-4. MPEG-4 technology may be included with the +software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:

+ +

This product is licensed under the MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio +license for the personal and non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) +encoding video in compliance with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 +video”) and/or (ii) decoding MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a +consumer engaged in a personal and non-commercial activity and/or was +obtained from a video provider licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 +video. No license is granted or shall be implied for any other +use. Additional information including that relating to promotional, +internal and commercial uses and licensing may be obtained from MPEG +LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com. This product is licensed under +the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license for encoding in compliance +with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except that an additional license +and payment of royalties are necessary for encoding in connection with +(i) data stored or replicated in physical media which is paid for on a +title by title basis and/or (ii) data which is paid for on a title by +title basis and is transmitted to an end user for permanent storage +and/or use, such additional license may be obtained from MPEG LA, +LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for additional details.

+ +

18.3. H.264/AVC. H.264/AVC technology may be included with the +software. MPEG LA, L.L.C. requires this notice:

+ +

This product is licensed under the AVC patent portfolio license for +the personal use of a consumer or other uses in which it does not +receive remuneration to (i) encode video in compliance with the AVC +standard (“AVC video”) and/or (ii) decode AVC video that was encoded +by a consumer engaged in a personal activity and/or was obtained from +a video provider licensed to provide AVC video. No license is granted +or shall be implied for any other use. Additional information may be +obtained from MPEG LA, L.L.C. See http://www.mpegla.com.

+

+ +

Note the requirement that the videos created can only be used for +personal or non-commercial purposes.

+ +

The Sorenson Media software have +similar terms:

+ +

+ +

With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 Video +Decoders and/or Encoders: Any such product is licensed under the +MPEG-4 visual patent portfolio license for the personal and +non-commercial use of a consumer for (i) encoding video in compliance +with the MPEG-4 visual standard (“MPEG-4 video”) and/or (ii) decoding +MPEG-4 video that was encoded by a consumer engaged in a personal and +non-commercial activity and/or was obtained from a video provider +licensed by MPEG LA to provide MPEG-4 video. No license is granted or +shall be implied for any other use. Additional information including +that relating to promotional, internal and commercial uses and +licensing may be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See +http://www.mpegla.com.

+ +

With respect to a license from Sorenson pertaining to MPEG-4 +Consumer Recorded Data Encoder, MPEG-4 Systems Internet Data Encoder, +MPEG-4 Mobile Data Encoder, and/or MPEG-4 Unique Use Encoder: Any such +product is licensed under the MPEG-4 systems patent portfolio license +for encoding in compliance with the MPEG-4 systems standard, except +that an additional license and payment of royalties are necessary for +encoding in connection with (i) data stored or replicated in physical +media which is paid for on a title by title basis and/or (ii) data +which is paid for on a title by title basis and is transmitted to an +end user for permanent storage and/or use. Such additional license may +be obtained from MPEG LA, LLC. See http://www.mpegla.com for +additional details.

+ +

+ +

Some free software like +Handbrake and +FFMPEG uses GPL/LGPL licenses and do +not have any such terms included, so for those, there is no +requirement to limit the use to personal and non-commercial.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english, multimedia, opphavsrett, standard, video, web. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Lenker for 2014-08-03
+
3rd August 2014
+

Lenge siden jeg har hatt tid til å publisere lenker til skriverier +jeg har hatt glede og nytte av av å lese. Her er en liten norsk +lenkesamling.

+ +

+
+
+ + + Tags: lenker, norsk, opphavsrett, personvern. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Debian Edu interview: Bernd Zeitzen
+
31st July 2014
+

The complete and free “out of the box” software solution for +schools, Debian Edu / +Skolelinux, is used quite a lot in Germany, and one of the people +involved is Bernd Zeitzen, who show up on the project mailing lists +from time to time with interesting questions and tips on how to adjust +the setup. I managed to interview him this summer.

+ +

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

+ +

My name is Bernd Zeitzen and I'm married with Hedda, a self +employed physiotherapist. My former profession is tool maker, but I +haven't worked for 30 years in this job. 30 years ago I started to +support my wife and become her officeworker and a few years later the +administrator for a small computer network, today based on Ubuntu +Server (Samba, OpenVPN). For her daily work she has to use Windows +Desktops because the software she needs to organize her business only +works with Windows . :-(

+ +

In 1988 we started with one PC and DOS, then I learned to use +Windows 98, 2000, XP, …, 8, Ubuntu, MacOSX. Today we are running a +Linux server with 6 Windows clients and 10 persons (teacher of +children with special needs, speech therapist, occupational therapist, +psychologist and officeworkers) using our Samba shares via OpenVPN to +work with the documentations of our patients.

+ +

How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu +project?

+ +

Two years ago a friend of mine asked me, if I want to get a job in +his school (Gymnasium +Harsewinkel). They started with Skolelinux / Debian Edu and they +were looking for people to give support to the teachers using the +software and the network and teaching the pupils increasing their +computer skills in optional lessons. I'm spending 4-6 hours a week +with this job.

+ +

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

+ +

The independence.

+ +

First: Every person is allowed to use, share and develop the +software. Even if you are poor, you are allowed to use the software +included in Skolelinux/Debian Edu and all the other Free Software.

+ +

Second: The software runs on old machines and this gives us the +possibility to recycle computers, weeded out from offices. The +servers and desktops are running for more than two years and they are +working reliable.

+ +

We have two servers (one tjener and one terminal server), 45 +workstations in three classrooms and seven laptops as a mobile +solution for all classrooms. These machines are all booting from the +terminal server. In the moment we are installing 30 laptops as mobile +workstations. Then the pupils have the possibility to work with these +machines in their classrooms. Internet access is realized by a WLAN +router, connected to the schools network. This is all done without a +dedicated system administrator or a computer science teacher.

+ +

What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian +Edu?

+ +

Teachers and pupils are Windows users. <Irony on> And Linux +isn't cool. It's software for freaks using the command line. <Irony +off> They don't realize the stability of the system.

+ +

Which free software do you use daily?

+ +

Firefox, Thunderbird, LibreOffice, Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Samba, +Apache, MySQL, Joomla!, … and Skolelinux / Debian Edu)

+ +

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to +get schools to use free software?

+ +

In Germany we have the situation: every school is free to decide +which software they want to use. This decision is influenced by +teachers who learned to use Windows and MS Office. They buy a PC with +Windows preinstalled and an additional testing version of MS +Office. They don't know about the possibility to use Free Software +instead. Another problem are the publisher of school books. They +develop their software, added to the school books, for Windows.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
98.6 percent done with the Norwegian draft translation of Free Culture
+
23rd July 2014
+

This summer I finally had time to continue working on the Norwegian +docbook version of the 2004 book +Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, +to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with todays copyright +law. Yesterday, I finally completed translated the book text. There +are still some foot/end notes left to translate, the colophon page +need to be rewritten, and a few words and phrases still need to be +translated, but the Norwegian text is ready for the first proof +reading. :) More spell checking is needed, and several illustrations +need to be cleaned up. The work stopped up because I had to give +priority to other projects the last year, and the progress graph of +the translation show this very well:

+ +

+ +

If you want to read the result, check out the +github +project pages and the +PDF, +EPUB +and HTML version available in the +archive +directory.

+ +

Please report typos, bugs and improvements to the github project if +you find any.

+
+
+ + + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook
+
17th June 2014
+

The Debian Edu / Skolelinux +project provide an instruction manual for teachers, system +administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up +and maintaining a Debian Edu installation. This text is about how the +text processing of this manual is handled in the project.

+ +

One goal of the project is to provide information in the native +language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations. +But we also want to make sure each language contain the same +information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations +in sync. And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the +documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to +contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to +edit the documentation using a web browser. We also want it to be +easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them +help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of +tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these +goals.

+ +

We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the +Debian +wiki, as several wiki pages written in English. It consist of one +front page with references to the different chapters, several pages +for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the +chapters together into one large web page (aka +the +AllInOne page). The AllInOne page is the one used for further +processing and translations. Thanks to the fact that the +MoinMoin installation on +wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in +the Docbook format, we can fetch +the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne +page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the +manual. This process also download images and transform image +references to use the locally downloaded images. The generated +Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done +using the documentation/scripts/get_manual program, and the +result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and +a handfull of images. The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML +and epub versions of the English manual. This is the basic step of +our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and +epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files +are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.

+ +

But English documentation is not enough for us. We want translated +documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to +track the English original. For this we use the +poxml package, +which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a +translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based +translation tools used by those translating free software. The pot +file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po +files), which the translations update with the native language +translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the +original. The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML +and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to +create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case +debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml). This translated (or partly +translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can +then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version +of the documentation.

+ +

The translators use different tools to edit the .po files. We +recommend using +lokalize, +while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like +Poodle or +Transifex. All we care about +is where the .po file end up, in our git repository. Updated +translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as +bug reports +against the debian-edu-doc package.

+ +

One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if +they show translated user applications), and are needed in different +formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in +this regard). For this we transform the original PNG images to the +needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide +translated images by storing translated versions in +images/$LANGUAGECODE/. I am a bit unsure about the details here. The +package maintainers know more.

+ +

If you wonder what the result look like, we provide +the content +of the documentation packages on the web. See for example the +Italian +PDF version or the +German +HTML version. We do not yet build the epub version by default, +but perhaps it will be done in the future.

+ +

To learn more, check out +the +debian-edu-doc package, +the +manual on the wiki and +the +translation instructions in the manual.

+
+
+ + + Tags: debian, debian edu, docbook, english. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Hvordan enkelt laste ned filmer fra NRK med den "nye" løsningen
+
16th June 2014
+

Jeg har fortsatt behov for å kunne laste ned innslag fra NRKs +nettsted av og til for å se senere når jeg ikke er på nett, men +min +oppskrift fra 2011 sluttet å fungere da NRK byttet +avspillermetode. I dag fikk jeg endelig lett etter oppdatert løsning, +og jeg er veldig glad for å fortelle at den enkleste måten å laste ned +innslag er å bruke siste versjon 2014.06.07 av +youtube-dl. Støtten i +youtube-dl kom +inn for 23 dager siden og +versjonen i +Debian fungerer fint også som backport til Debian Wheezy. Det er +et lite problem, det håndterer kun URLer med små bokstaver, men hvis +en har en URL med store bokstaver kan en bare gjøre alle store om til +små bokstaver for å få youtube-dl til å laste ned. Rapporterte +nettopp +problemet til +utviklerne, og antar de får fikset det snart.

+ +

Dermed er alt klart til å laste ned dokumentarene om +USAs +hemmelige avlytting og +Selskapene +bak USAs avlytting, i tillegg til +intervjuet +med Edward Snowden gjort av den tyske tv-kanalen ARD. Anbefaler +alle å se disse, sammen med +foredraget +til Jacob Appelbaum på siste CCC-konferanse, for å forstå mer om +hvordan overvåkningen av borgerne brer om seg.

+ +

Takk til gode venner på foreningen NUUGs IRC-kanal +#nuug på irc.freenode.net +for tipsene som fikk meg i mål.

+ +

Oppdatering 2014-06-17: Etter at jeg publiserte +denne, ble jeg tipset om bloggposten +"Downloading +HD content from tv.nrk.no" av Ingvar Hagelund, som har alternativ +implementasjon og tips for å lage mkv-fil med undertekstene inkludert. +Kanskje den passer bedre for deg? I tillegg ble feilen i youtube-dl +ble fikset litt senere ut på dagen i går, samt at youtube-dl fikk +støtte for å laste ned undertitler. Takk til Anders Einar Hilden for +god innsats og youtube-dl-utviklerne for rask respons.

+
+
+ + + Tags: multimedia, norsk, video, web. + + +
+
+
+ +
+
Free software car computer solution?
+
29th May 2014
+

Dear lazyweb. I'm planning to set up a small Raspberry Pi computer +in my car, connected to +a +small screen next to the rear mirror. I plan to hook it up with a +GPS and a USB wifi card too. The idea is to get my own +"Carputer". But I +wonder if someone already created a good free software solution for +such car computer.

+ +

This is my current wish list for such system:

+ + + +

If you know of any free software car computer system supporting +some or all of these features, please let me know.

+
+
+ + + Tags: english. + + +
+
+
+
Half the Coverity issues in Gnash fixed in the next release
29th April 2014
@@ -258,769 +908,6 @@ mailing list if you want to help make this vision come true.

-
-
Språkkoder for POSIX locale i Norge
-
11th April 2014
-

For 12 år siden, skrev jeg et lite notat om -bruk av språkkoder -i Norge. Jeg ble nettopp minnet på dette da jeg fikk spørsmål om -notatet fortsatt var aktuelt, og tenkte det var greit å repetere hva -som fortsatt gjelder. Det jeg skrev da er fortsatt like aktuelt.

- -

Når en velger språk i programmer på unix, så velger en blant mange -språkkoder. For språk i Norge anbefales følgende språkkoder (anbefalt -locale i parantes):

- -

-
nb (nb_NO)
Bokmål i Norge
-
nn (nn_NO)
Nynorsk i Norge
-
se (se_NO)
Nordsamisk i Norge
-

- -

Alle programmer som bruker andre koder bør endres.

- -

Språkkoden bør brukes når .po-filer navngis og installeres. Dette -er ikke det samme som locale-koden. For Norsk Bokmål, så bør filene -være navngitt nb.po, mens locale (LANG) bør være nb_NO.

- -

Hvis vi ikke får standardisert de kodene i alle programmene med -norske oversettelser, så er det umulig å gi LANG-variablen ett innhold -som fungerer for alle programmer.

- -

Språkkodene er de offisielle kodene fra ISO 639, og bruken av dem i -forbindelse med POSIX localer er standardisert i RFC 3066 og ISO -15897. Denne anbefalingen er i tråd med de angitte standardene.

- -

Følgende koder er eller har vært i bruk som locale-verdier for -"norske" språk. Disse bør unngås, og erstattes når de oppdages:

- -

- - - - - - - - -
norwegian-> nb_NO
bokmål -> nb_NO
bokmal -> nb_NO
nynorsk -> nn_NO
no -> nb_NO
no_NO -> nb_NO
no_NY -> nn_NO
sme_NO -> se_NO

- -

Merk at når det gjelder de samiske språkene, at se_NO i praksis -henviser til nordsamisk i Norge, mens f.eks. smj_NO henviser til -lulesamisk. Dette notatet er dog ikke ment å gi råd rundt samiske -språkkoder, der gjør -Divvun-prosjektet en bedre -jobb.

- -

Referanser:

- -
-
- - - Tags: norsk. - - -
-
-
- -
-
S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software
-
9th April 2014
-

For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup -solution for use at home. My requirements are simple, it must be -cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption -keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files). -One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud -storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage, -writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail -service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space. On top -of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have -lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage. But -I never found time to implement such system. But the last few weeks I -have looked at a system called -S3QL, a locally -mounted network backed file system with the features I need.

- -

S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage, -handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3, -Google Drive or OpenStack API. There are heaps of such storage -providers. S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which -combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server. S3QL -include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots -and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as -a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local, -while the content is stored in the cloud as well. This allow me to -have a backup that should survive fire. The file system can not be -shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can -mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and -access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.

- -

It is simple to use. I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the -package is included already. So to get started, run apt-get -install s3ql. Next, pick a storage provider. I ended up picking -Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on -how -to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service, because I trust the laws -in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal -data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company -in Iceland. Another nice recipe is available from the article -S3QL -Filesystem for HPC Storage by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of -Admin magazine. When the provider is picked, figure out how to get -the API key needed to connect to the storage API. With Greencloud, -the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my -account.

- -

Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file -system. First, create a new bucket in the cloud. This bucket is the -file system storage area. I picked a bucket name reflecting the -machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do. -I'll refer to it as bucket-name below. In addition, one need -the API login and password, and a locally created password. Store it -all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this: - -

-[s3c]
-storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-backend-login: API-login
-backend-password: API-password
-fs-passphrase: local-password
-

- -

I create my local passphrase using pwget 50 or similar, -but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it. -Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API -details and password to create it:

- -

-# mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
-# mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Enter backend login: 
-Enter backend password: 
-Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
-the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
-Enter encryption password: 
-Confirm encryption password: 
-Generating random encryption key...
-Creating metadata tables...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
-#

- -

The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available. - -

-# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 4 upload threads.
-Downloading and decompressing metadata...
-Reading metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Mounting filesystem...
-# df -h /s3ql
-Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
-s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
-#
-

- -

The file system is now ready for use. I use rsync to store my -backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at -mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by -running rsync. To unmount, one should not use the normal umount -command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but -instead running the umount.s3ql command like this: - -

-# umount.s3ql /s3ql
-# 
-

- -

There is a fsck command available to check the file system and -correct any problems detected. This can be used if the local server -crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already -mounted" flag. This is what it look like when processing a working -file system:

- -

-# fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
-Using cached metadata.
-File system seems clean, checking anyway.
-Checking DB integrity...
-Creating temporary extra indices...
-Checking lost+found...
-Checking cached objects...
-Checking names (refcounts)...
-Checking contents (names)...
-Checking contents (inodes)...
-Checking contents (parent inodes)...
-Checking objects (reference counts)...
-Checking objects (backend)...
-..processed 5000 objects so far..
-..processed 10000 objects so far..
-..processed 15000 objects so far..
-Checking objects (sizes)...
-Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
-Checking blocks (refcounts)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
-Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
-Checking inodes (refcounts)...
-Checking inodes (sizes)...
-Checking extended attributes (names)...
-Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
-Checking symlinks (inodes)...
-Checking directory reachability...
-Checking unix conventions...
-Checking referential integrity...
-Dropping temporary indices...
-Backing up old metadata...
-Dumping metadata...
-..objects..
-..blocks..
-..inodes..
-..inode_blocks..
-..symlink_targets..
-..names..
-..contents..
-..ext_attributes..
-Compressing and uploading metadata...
-Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
-# 
-

- -

Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very -quick, about the same speed as local file access. Uploading large -amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my -house. Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s, -which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same -Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed. -Both were measured using dd. So for me, the bottleneck is my -network, not the file system code. I do not know what a good cache -size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your -working set.

- -

I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the -time. If another machine try, it is told that the file system is -busy:

- -

-# mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
-  --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
-Using 8 upload threads.
-Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
-#
-

- -

The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the -metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default. To ensure the -file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the -file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using -s3qlctrl: - -

-# s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
-# s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
-# 
-

- -

If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the -cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the -storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get -a report:

- -

-# s3qlstat /s3ql
-Directory entries:    9141
-Inodes:               9143
-Data blocks:          8851
-Total data size:      22049.38 MB
-After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
-After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
-Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
-(some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
-#
-

- -

I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of -storage. I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least -Greenqloud, -Google Drive, -Amazon S3 web serivces, -Rackspace and -Crowncloud. The latter even -accept payment in Bitcoin. Pick one that suit your need. Some of -them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are -quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you -best.

- -

While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers -and posters discussing the S3QL file system. There are several, which -told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the -science community and increased my confidence in using it. One nice -poster is titled -"An -Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject -Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach" by Hsing-Bung -Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields -and Pamela Smith. Please have a look.

- -

Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to -check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as -a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when -it come to locking and umask handling etc). Running -my -test code to check file system semantics, I was happy to discover that -no error was found. So the file system can be used for home -directories, if one chooses to do so.

- -

If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that -work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the -Tarsnap service, which also -provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client. It have -a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write -access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to -only read from it.

- -

As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my -activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address -15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b.

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- - - Tags: debian, english, personvern, sikkerhet. - - -
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EU-domstolen bekreftet i dag at datalagringsdirektivet er ulovlig
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8th April 2014
-

I dag kom endelig avgjørelsen fra EU-domstolen om -datalagringsdirektivet, som ikke overraskende ble dømt ulovlig og i -strid med borgernes grunnleggende rettigheter. Hvis du lurer på hva -datalagringsdirektivet er for noe, så er det -en -flott dokumentar tilgjengelig hos NRK som jeg tidligere -har -anbefalt alle å se.

- -

Her er et liten knippe nyhetsoppslag om saken, og jeg regner med at -det kommer flere ut over dagen. Flere kan finnes -via -mylder.

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Jeg synes det er veldig fint at nok en stemme slår fast at -totalitær overvåkning av befolkningen er uakseptabelt, men det er -fortsatt like viktig å beskytte privatsfæren som før, da de -teknologiske mulighetene fortsatt finnes og utnyttes, og jeg tror -innsats i prosjekter som -Freedombox og -Dugnadsnett er viktigere enn -noen gang.

- -

Update 2014-04-08 12:10: Kronerullingen for å -stoppe datalagringsdirektivet i Norge gjøres hos foreningen -Digitalt Personvern, -som har samlet inn 843 215,- så langt men trenger nok mye mer hvis - -ikke Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet bytter mening i saken. Det var -kun -partinene Høyre og Arbeiderpartiet som stemte for -Datalagringsdirektivet, og en av dem må bytte mening for at det skal -bli flertall mot i Stortinget. Se mer om saken -Holder -de ord.

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- - - Tags: dld, norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. - - -
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ReactOS Windows clone - nice free software
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1st April 2014
-

Microsoft have announced that Windows XP reaches its end of life -2014-04-08, in 7 days. But there are heaps of machines still running -Windows XP, and depending on Windows XP to run their applications, and -upgrading will be expensive, both when it comes to money and when it -comes to the amount of effort needed to migrate from Windows XP to a -new operating system. Some obvious options (buy new a Windows -machine, buy a MacOSX machine, install Linux on the existing machine) -are already well known and covered elsewhere. Most of them involve -leaving the user applications installed on Windows XP behind and -trying out replacements or updated versions. In this blog post I want -to mention one strange bird that allow people to keep the hardware and -the existing Windows XP applications and run them on a free software -operating system that is Windows XP compatible.

- -

ReactOS is a free software -operating system (GNU GPL licensed) working on providing a operating -system that is binary compatible with Windows, able to run windows -programs directly and to use Windows drivers for hardware directly. -The project goal is for Windows user to keep their existing machines, -drivers and software, and gain the advantages from user a operating -system without usage limitations caused by non-free licensing. It is -a Windows clone running directly on the hardware, so quite different -from the approach taken by the Wine -project, which make it possible to run Windows binaries on -Linux.

- -

The ReactOS project share code with the Wine project, so most -shared libraries available on Windows are already implemented already. -There is also a software manager like the one we are used to on Linux, -allowing the user to install free software applications with a simple -click directly from the Internet. Check out the -screen shots on the -project web site for an idea what it look like (it looks just like -Windows before metro).

- -

I do not use ReactOS myself, preferring Linux and Unix like -operating systems. I've tested it, and it work fine in a virt-manager -virtual machine. The browser, minesweeper, notepad etc is working -fine as far as I can tell. Unfortunately, my main test application -is the software included on a CD with the Lego Mindstorms NXT, which -seem to install just fine from CD but fail to leave any binaries on -the disk after the installation. So no luck with that test software. -No idea why, but hope someone else figure out and fix the problem. -I've tried the ReactOS Live ISO on a physical machine, and it seemed -to work just fine. If you like Windows and want to keep running your -old Windows binaries, check it out by -downloading the -installation CD, the live CD or the preinstalled virtual machine -image.

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- - - Tags: english, reactos. - - -
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Debian Edu interview: Roger Marsal
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30th March 2014
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Debian Edu / Skolelinux -keep gaining new users. Some weeks ago, a person showed up on IRC, -#debian-edu, with a -wish to contribute, and I managed to get a interview with this great -contributor Roger Marsal to learn more about his background.

- -

Who are you, and how do you spend your days?

- -

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.

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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.

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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.

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How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?

- -

I discovered the LTSP 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.

- -

What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

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.

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What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?

- -

I found two main disadvantages.

- -

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.

- -

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.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

I use Debian, Firefox, Okular, Inkscape, LibreOffice and -Virtualbox.

- - -

Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?

- -

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 "R" statistical language; 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.

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- - - Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. - - -
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Dokumentaren om Datalagringsdirektivet sendes endelig på NRK
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26th March 2014
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Foreningen NUUG melder i natt at -NRK nå har bestemt seg for -når -den norske dokumentarfilmen om datalagringsdirektivet skal -sendes (se IMDB -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, -Autoritær -gjøkunge, 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 dugnadsnett.no -og FreedomBox 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.

- -

Jeg regner med at nettutgaven dukker opp på -NRKs -side om filmen om datalagringsdirektivet om fem dager. Hold et -øye med siden, og tips venner og slekt om at de også bør se den.

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- - - Tags: dld, freedombox, mesh network, norsk, personvern, sikkerhet, surveillance. - - -
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Public Trusted Timestamping services for everyone
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25th March 2014
-

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.

- -

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 -notarius service -have been around for thousands of years, and its digital equivalent is -called a -trusted -timestamping service. The Internet -Engineering Task Force standardised how such service could work a -few years ago as RFC -3161. 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 -"rfc 3161 -service" pointed me to at least -DigiStamp, -Quo -Vadis, -Global Sign -and Global -Trust Finder. The system work as long as the private key of the -trusted third party is not compromised.

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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 -Deutches -Forschungsnetz mentioned in -a -blog by David Müller. I then found -a -good recipe on how to use the service over at the University of -Greifswald.

- -

The OpenSSL library 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:

- -

-#!/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"
-

- -

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 bug -in the tsget script, 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.

- -

But the Internet need more public trusted timestamp services. -Perhaps something for Uninett or -my work place the University of Oslo -to set up?

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- - - Tags: english, sikkerhet. - - -
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