X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/bb4d9ea49f1d44cdc1f3d37ce60ba313f79d8bad..0d739d3eb07965c734d8ede409012f5555f6ca7d:/blog/index.html diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 3d11f5139f..e2c697a98c 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,62 +20,67 @@
-
What would it cost to store all phone calls in Norway?
-
1st May 2015
-

Many years ago, a friend of mine calculated how much it would cost -to store the sound of all phone calls in Norway, and came up with the -cost of around 20 million NOK (2.4 mill EUR) for all the calls in a -year. I got curious and wondered what the same calculation would look -like today. To do so one need an idea of how much data storage is -needed for each minute of sound, how many minutes all the calls in -Norway sums up to, and the cost of data storage.

- -

The 2005 numbers are from -digi.no, -the 2012 numbers are from -a -NKOM report, and I got the 2013 numbers after asking NKOM via -email. I was told the numbers for 2014 will be presented May 20th, -and decided not to wait for those, as I doubt they will be very -different from the numbers from 2013.

- -

The amount of data storage per minute sound depend on the wanted -quality, and for phone calls it is generally believed that 8 Kbit/s is -enough. See for example a -summary -on voice quality from Cisco for some alternatives. 8 Kbit/s is 60 -Kbytes/min, and this can be multiplied with the number of call minutes -to get the storage requirements.

- -

Storage prices varies a lot, depending on speed, backup strategies, -availability requirements etc. But a simple way to calculate can be -to use the price of a TiB-disk (around 1000 NOK / 120 EUR) and double -it to take space, power and redundancy into account. It could be much -higher with high speed and good redundancy requirements.

- -

But back to the question, What would it cost to store all phone -calls in Norway? Not much. Here is a small table showing the -estimated cost, which is within the budget constraint of most medium -and large organisations:

- - - - - - -
YearCall minutesSizePrice in NOK / EUR
200524 000 000 0001.3 PiB3 mill / 358 000
201218 000 000 0001.0 PiB2.2 mill / 262 000
201317 000 000 000950 TiB2.1 mill / 250 000
- -

This is the cost of buying the storage. Maintenance need to be -taken into account too, but calculating that is left as an exercise -for the reader. But it is obvious to me from those numbers that -recording the sound of all phone calls in Norway is not going to be -stopped because it is too expensive. I wonder if someone already is -collecting the data?

+
I want the courts to be involved before the police can hijack a news site DNS domain (#domstolkontroll)
+
19th May 2016
+

I just donated to the +NUUG defence +"fond" to fund the effort in Norway to get the seizure of the news +site popcorn-time.no tested in court. I hope everyone that agree with +me will do the same.

+ +

Would you be worried if you knew the police in your country could +hijack DNS domains of news sites covering free software system without +talking to a judge first? I am. What if the free software system +combined search engine lookups, bittorrent downloads and video playout +and was called Popcorn Time? Would that affect your view? It still +make me worried.

+ +

In March 2016, the Norwegian police seized (as in forced NORID to +change the IP address pointed to by it to one controlled by the +police) the DNS domain popcorn-time.no, without any supervision from +the courts. I did not know about the web site back then, and assumed +the courts had been involved, and was very surprised when I discovered +that the police had hijacked the DNS domain without asking a judge for +permission first. I was even more surprised when I had a look at +the web +site content on the Internet Archive, and only found news coverage +about Popcorn Time, not any material published without the right +holders permissions.

+ +

The seizure was widely covered in the Norwegian press (see for +example Hegnar Online and +ITavisen +and +NRK), +at first due to the press release sent out by Økokrim, but then based +on +protests +from the law professor Olav Torvund and +lawyer +Jon Wessel-Aas. It even got some +coverage +on TorrentFreak.

+ +

I + +wrote about the case a month ago, when the +Norwegian Unix User Group (NUUG) +where I am a member decided to ask the courts to test this seizure. +The request was denied, but NUUG and its co-requestor EFN have not +given up, and now they are rallying for support to get the seizure +legally challenged. They accept both bank and Bitcoin transfer for +those that want to support the request.

+ +

If you as me believe news sites about free software should not be +censored, even if the free software have both legal and illegal +applications, and that DNS hijacking should be tested by the courts, I +suggest you show +your support by donating to NUUG.

- Tags: english, personvern, surveillance. + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett.
@@ -83,194 +88,25 @@ collecting the data?

-
First Jessie based Debian Edu beta release
-
26th April 2015
-

I am happy to report that the Debian Edu team sent out -this -announcement today:

- -
-the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is pleased to announce the first
-*beta* release of Debian Edu "Jessie" 8.0+edu0~b1, which for the first
-time is composed entirely of packages from the current Debian stable
-release, Debian 8 "Jessie".
-
-(As most reading this will know, Debian "Jessie" hasn't actually been
-released by now. The release is still in progress but should finish
-later today ;)
-
-We expect to make a final release of Debian Edu "Jessie" in the coming
-weeks, timed with the first point release of Debian Jessie. Upgrades
-from this beta release of Debian Edu Jessie to the final release will
-be possible and encouraged!
-
-Please report feedback to debian-edu@lists.debian.org and/or submit
-bugs: http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs
-
-Debian Edu - sometimes also known as "Skolelinux" - is a complete
-operating system for schools, universities and other
-organisations. Through its pre- prepared installation profiles
-administrators can install servers, workstations and laptops which
-will work in harmony on the school network.  With Debian Edu, the
-teachers themselves or their technical support staff can roll out a
-complete multi-user, multi-machine study environment within hours or
-days.
-
-Debian Edu is already in use at several hundred schools all over the
-world, particularly in Germany, Spain and Norway. Installations come
-with hundreds of applications pre-installed, plus the whole Debian
-archive of thousands of compatible packages within easy reach.
-
-For those who want to give Debian Edu Jessie a try, download and
-installation instructions are available, including detailed
-instructions in the manual explaining the first steps, such as setting
-up a network or adding users.  Please note that the password for the
-user your prompted for during installation must have a length of at
-least 5 characters!
-
-== Where to download ==
-
-A multi-architecture CD / usbstick image (649 MiB) for network booting
-can be downloaded at the following locations:
-
-    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso
-    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-CD.iso . 
-
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: 54a524d16246cddd8d2cfd6ea52f2dd78c47ee0a
-
-Alternatively an extended DVD / usbstick image (4.9 GiB) is also
-available, with more software included (saving additional download
-time):
-
-    http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso
-    rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/debian-edu-8.0+edu0~b1-USB.iso 
-
-The SHA1SUM of this image is: fb1f1504a490c077a48653898f9d6a461cb3c636
-
-Sources are available from the Debian archive, see
-http://ftp.debian.org/debian-cd/8.0.0/source/ for some download
-options.
-
-== Debian Edu Jessie manual in seven languages ==
-
-Please see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Jessie/ for
-the English version of the Debian Edu jessie manual.
-
-This manual has been fully translated to German, French, Italian,
-Danish, Dutch and Norwegian Bokmål. A partly translated version exists
-for Spanish.  See http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/ for
-online version of the translated manual.
-
-More information about Debian 8 "Jessie" itself is provided in the
-release notes and the installation manual:
-- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/releasenotes
-- http://www.debian.org/releases/jessie/installmanual
-
-
-== Errata / known problems ==
-
-    It takes up to 15 minutes for a changed hostname to be updated via
-    DHCP (#780461).
-
-    The hostname script fails to update LTSP server hostname (#783087). 
-
-Workaround: run update-hostname-from-ip on the client to update the
-hostname immediately.
-
-Check https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie for a possibly
-more current and complete list.
-
-== Some more details about Debian Edu 8.0+edu0~b1 Codename Jessie released 2015-04-25 ==
-
-=== Software updates ===
-
-Everything which is new in Debian 8 Jessie, e.g.:
-
- * Linux kernel 3.16.7-ctk9; for the i386 architecture, support for
-   i486 processors has been dropped; oldest supported ones: i586 (like
-   Intel Pentium and AMD K5).
-
- * Desktop environments KDE Plasma Workspaces 4.11.13, GNOME 3.14,
-   Xfce 4.12, LXDE 0.5.6
-   * new optional desktop environment: MATE 1.8
-   * KDE Plasma Workspaces is installed by default; to choose one of
-     the others see the manual.
- * the browsers Iceweasel 31 ESR and Chromium 41
- * LibreOffice 4.3.3
- * GOsa 2.7.4
- * LTSP 5.5.4
- * CUPS print system 1.7.5
- * new boot framework: systemd
- * Educational toolbox GCompris 14.12
- * Music creator Rosegarden 14.02
- * Image editor Gimp 2.8.14
- * Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.13.1
- * golearn 0.9
- * tuxpaint 0.9.22
- * New version of debian-installer from Debian Jessie.
- * Debian Jessie includes about 43000 packages available for installation.
- * More information about Debian 8 Jessie is provided in its release
-   notes and the installation manual, see the link above.
-
-=== Installation changes ===
-
-    Installations done via PXE now also install firmware automatically
-    for the hardware present.
-
-=== Fixed bugs ===
-
-A number of bugs have been fixed in this release; the most noticeable
-from a user perspective:
-
- * Inserting incorrect DNS information in Gosa will no longer break
-   DNS completely, but instead stop DNS updates until the incorrect
-   information is corrected (710362)
-
- * shutdown-at-night now shuts the system down if gdm3 is used (775608). 
-
-=== Sugar desktop removed ===
-
-As the Sugar desktop was removed from Debian Jessie, it is also not
-available in Debian Edu jessie.
-
-
-== About Debian Edu / Skolelinux ==
-
-Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based on
-Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
-configured school network. Directly after installation a school server
-running all services needed for a school network is set up just
-waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
-Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
-initial installation of the main server from CD or USB stick all other
-machines can be installed via the network. The provided school server
-provides LDAP database and Kerberos authentication service,
-centralized home directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other
-services.  The desktop contains more than 60 educational software
-packages and more are available from the Debian archive, and schools
-can choose between KDE, GNOME, LXDE, Xfce and MATE desktop
-environment.
-
-== About Debian ==
-
-The Debian Project was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock to be a truly
-free community project. Since then the project has grown to be one of
-the largest and most influential open source projects. Thousands of
-volunteers from all over the world work together to create and
-maintain Debian software. Available in 70 languages, and supporting a
-huge range of computer types, Debian calls itself the universal
-operating system.
-
-== Thanks ==
-
-Thanks to everyone making Debian and Debian Edu / Skolelinux happen!
-You rock.
-
+
Debian now with ZFS on Linux included
+
12th May 2016
+

Today, after many years of hard work from many people, +ZFS for Linux finally entered +Debian. The package status can be seen on +the package tracker +for zfs-linux. and +the +team status page. If you want to help out, please join us. +The +source code is available via git on Alioth. It would also be +great if you could help out with +the dkms package, as +it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.

- Tags: debian edu, english. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -278,193 +114,49 @@ You rock.
-
Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal
-
15th April 2015
-

It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete -computer system for schools I've involved in, -Debian Edu / Skolelinux, was -being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an -interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish -Agarwal.

- -

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

- -

My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and -historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India. -My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips, -installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different -fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with -few software start-ups as well.

- -

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

- -

It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few -years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was -anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free -educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many -nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as -it was known then. Since then I have started using the various -education meta-packages provided by the project.

- -

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

- -

It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational -software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and -figuratively). Even if I take the simplest software which is -gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of -the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even -pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered -#781841 and -#781842.

- -

I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions, -as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the -possibility of a larger life span. Of course with both it's more a -question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both -for the developer per-se.

- -

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

- -

I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I -think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take -help from people and the larger community wherever possible.

- -

I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact -that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it. -However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is -pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done -but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them. -Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but -still) I have had for a long time :

- -

1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions -each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how -far would each travel and similar questions like these. - -

The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can -be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in -interactive manner. While sites such as the -Ask -Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem (as an example or point of -inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done. I dunno -if there is a free software which does something like this. The idea -being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does -this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or -colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question -or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour. -This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how -the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started, -psychics and everything in-between.

- -

One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on -one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they -meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could -also be used.

- -

2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have -enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary. I don't think it -should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and -sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers -from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be -the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on -the user's input.

- -

3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called -palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What -needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and -copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into -nature, history etc. and let it loose. This could turn to be really -huge collection of images. One source could be taken from -commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free -stock photos. Potential is immense.

- -

Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag -both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a -lot. This is more so in educational software as these applications -need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is -immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and -maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know -of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and -maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.

- -

Which free software do you use daily?

- -

That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt, -aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays), -quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly -between kpat and Aiselriot. In desktops it's a tie between -gnome-flashback and mate.

- -

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

- -

I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in -whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it. -Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the -school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the -people now understand the concept of a repository because of the -various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.

- -

What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and -passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers -then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as -well.

- -

I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For -instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but -there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La -Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.

- -

One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates -and upgrades. People have this myth that each update and upgrade -means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this -innumerable times. That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers -like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because -it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that -changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with -the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS -releases.

- -

The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest -is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu -is aimed at. - -

Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for -around 2 years, and -gathered -some experience there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered -there was :

- -
    - -
  1. Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects - and they do not want you to teach anything out of the - portion/syllabus given.
    2. - -
  2. They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever - is in the syllabus.
    3. - -
  3. There are huge barriers both with the English language and at - times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris - you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's - say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be - as recognizable as say a - Puneri - Pagdi so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever - possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words - which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in - parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or - something but that is something for upstream to do.
    4. - -
+
What is the best multimedia player in Debian?
+
8th May 2016
+

Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in +Debian claim support for most file formats.

+ +

A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser +plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian +Edu. I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types +for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser +plugin supported most file formats / media types. +The +result can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have +not been updated for a while. But browser plugins are less relevant +these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone +players.

+ +

A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable +player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National +Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why. The cause is a +missing MIME type in the VLC +desktop file. In the process I wrote a script to compare the set +of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin, +only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the +two for VLC. This discovery made me dig up the script I used to +compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files +instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian +support most file formats.

+ +

The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as +a +table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included +in the table, with the package supporting most MIME types being +listed first in the table.

+ +

The best multimedia player in Debian? It is totem, followed by +parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and +kmplayer. Time for the other players to update their announced MIME +support?

- Tags: debian edu, english, intervju. + Tags: debian, debian edu, english, multimedia, video.
@@ -472,33 +164,29 @@ there was :

-
I'm going to the Open Source Developers' Conference Nordic 2015!
-
7th April 2015
-

I am happy to let you all know that I'm going to the Open Source Developers' -Conference Nordic 2015!

- -

It take place Friday 8th to Sunday 10th of May in Oslo next to -where I work, and I finally got around to submitting -a talk proposal for -it (dead link for most people until the talk is accepted). As -part of my involvement with the -Norwegian Unix User Group member -association I have been slightly involved in the planning of this -conference for a while now, with a focus on organising a Civic Hacking -Hackathon with our friends -over at mySociety and -Holder de ord. This part is -named the 'My Society' track in the program. There is still space for -more talks and participants. I hope to see you there.

- -

Check out the talks -submitted and accepted so far.

+
The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled
+
4th May 2016
+
A friend of mine made me aware of +The Pyra, a +handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled. I +would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)

+ +

The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB +plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5" +LCD touch screen. The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole +day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests +confirming this. The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the +last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before +production started.

+ +

As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with +Debian. Please let me know if you know of any others. Is it the +first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?

- Tags: english, fiksgatami, nuug, offentlig innsyn. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -506,30 +194,28 @@ submitted and accepted so far.

-
Proof reading the Norwegian translation of Free Culture by Lessig
-
4th April 2015
-

During eastern I had some time to continue working on the Norwegian -docbook version of the 2004 book -Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. -At the moment I am proof reading the finished text, looking for typos, -inconsistent wordings and sentences that do not flow as they should. -I'm more than two thirds done with the text, and welcome others to -check the text up to chapter 13. The current status is available on the -github -project pages. You can also check out 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.

+
NUUG contests Norwegian police DNS seizure of popcorn-time.no
+
18th April 2016
+

It is days like today I am really happy to be a member of +the Norwegian Unix User group, a +member association for those of us believing in free software, open +standards and unix-like operating systems. NUUG announced today it +will +try +to bring the seizure of the DNS domain popcorn-time.no as +unlawful, to stand up for the principle that writing about a +controversial topic is not infringing copyrights, and censuring web +pages by hijacking DNS domain should be decided by the courts, not the +police. The DNS domain was seized by the Norwegian National Authority +for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime +a month ago. I hope this bring more paying members to NUUG to give +the association the financial muscle needed to bring this case as far +as it must go to stop this kind of DNS hijacking.

- Tags: docbook, english, freeculture. + Tags: english, nuug, offentlig innsyn, opphavsrett.
@@ -537,61 +223,50 @@ you find any.

-
Frikanalen, Norwegian TV channel for technical topics
-
9th March 2015
-

The Norwegian Unix User Group, -where I am a member, and where people interested in free software, -open standards and UNIX like operating systems like Linux and the BSDs -come together, record our monthly technical presentations on video. -The purpose is to document the talks and spread them to a wider -audience. For this, the the Norwegian nationwide open channel -Frikanalen is a useful venue. -Since a few days ago, when I figured out the -REST API to program the -channel time schedule, -the channel has been filled with NUUG talks, related recordings and -some Creative Commons licensed TED talks (from archive.org). I fill -all "leftover bits" on the channel with content from NUUG, which at -the moment is almost 17 of 24 hours every day.

- -

The list of NUUG videos -uploaded so far -include things like a -one hour talk by John -Perry Barlow when he visited Oslo, a presentation of -Haiku, the BeOS -re-implementation, the -history of FiksGataMi, -the Norwegian version of FixMyStreet, the good old -Warriors of the net -video and many others.

- -

We have a large backlog of NUUG talks not yet uploaded to -Frikanalen, and plan to upload every useful bit to the channel to -spread the word there. I also hope to find useful recordings from the -Chaos Computer Club and Debian conferences and spread them on the -channel as well. But this require locating the videos and their meta -information (title, description, license, etc), and preparing the -recordings for broadcast, and I have not yet had the spare time to -focus on this. Perhaps you want to help. Please join us on IRC, -#nuug on irc.freenode.net -if you want to help make this happen.

- -

But as I said, already the channel is already almost exclusively -filled with technical topics, and if you want to learn something new -today, check out the Ogg Theora -web stream or use one of the other ways to get access to the -channel. Unfortunately the Ogg Theora recoding for distribution still -do not properly sync the video and sound. It is generated by recoding -a internal MPEG transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to -Ogg Theora / Vorbis, and we have not been able to find a way that -produces acceptable quality. Help needed, please get in touch if you -know how to fix it using free software.

+
Ny utgave (v2.2) av den frie norske stavekontrollen gitt ut
+
15th April 2016
+

I dag tok jeg mot til meg og pakket sammen en ny versjon av den +frie norske stavekontrollen, ca. tre og et halvt år etter forrige +gang. Resultatet kan lastes ned fra +no.speling.org-prosjeksiden, både +som kildekodepakke og som "pack"-fil som kanskje fortsatt kan brukes +av OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice. Byggesystemet trenger oppussing, men i +denne omgang hadde jeg bare tid til å fikse byggefeil forårsaket av +endringer i GNU grep. De øvrige endringene var gjort tidligere i +påvente av en ny utgave.

+ +

Her er det som er nytt (fra NEWS-fila i +kildekodepakken):

+ +

Release 2.2 (2016-04-15)

+ +
    + +
  • Rewrite how scripts/speling2words handle tripple consonants, to + avoid importing duplicate words from no.speling.org, and getting + rid of the existing duplicates in norsk.words.
    • +
  • Remove duplicate entries with tripple consonants from norsk.words.
    • +
  • Update frequency for entries in norsk.words based on + (ran 'make + freq-update').
    • +
  • Correct nn ispell build, avoid crash in munchlist causing lots of + words to fall out of the database.
    • +
  • Use grep -a to convince grep it is working on text files, to work + with newer grep versions.
    • + +
  • Remove some words disputed in the no.speling.org review process: +
      +
    • apparent (nb)
      • +
    • likke (nb)
      • +
    • ugjest, ugjesten, ugjestens (nb)
      • +
    • + +
- Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + Tags: debian edu, norsk, stavekontroll.
@@ -599,36 +274,37 @@ know how to fix it using free software.

-
The Citizenfour documentary on the Snowden confirmations to Norway
-
28th February 2015
-

Today I was happy to learn that the documentary -Citizenfour by -Laura Poitras -finally will show up in Norway. According to the magazine -Montages, a deal has finally been -made for -Cinema -distribution in Norway and the movie will have its premiere soon. -This is great news. As part of my involvement with -the Norwegian Unix User Group, me and -a friend have -tried -to get the movie to Norway ourselves, but obviously -we -were too late and Tor Fosse beat us to it. I am happy he did, as -the movie will make its way to the public and we do not have to make -it happen ourselves. -The trailer -can be seen on youtube, if you are curious what kind of film this -is.

- -

The whistle blower Edward Snowden really deserve political asylum -here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.

+
I.F. Stone - an inspiration for us all
+
13th April 2016
+

I first got to know I.F. Stone when I came across an article by Jon +Schwarz on The Intercept +about +his extraordinary contribution to investigative journalism in +USA. The article is about a new documentary in two parts +(part one is 12 minutes and +part two is 30 minutes), and +I found both truly fascinating. It is amazing what he was able to +find by digging up public sources and government papers. He +documented lots of government abuse and cover ups, and I find +his weekly news letters +inspiring to read even today.

+ +

+All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed. +
- I. F. Stone +

+ +

His starting point was that reporters should not assume governments +and corporations are telling the truth, but verify all their claims as +much as possible. I wonder how many Norwegian reporters can be said +to follow the principles of I. F. Stone. They are definitely in short +supply. If you, like me half a year ago, have never heard of him, +check him out.

- Tags: english, nuug, personvern, surveillance. + Tags: english, offentlig innsyn.
@@ -636,59 +312,57 @@ here in Norway, but I am afraid he would not be safe.

-
The Norwegian open channel Frikanalen - 24x7 on the Internet
-
25th February 2015
-

The Norwegian nationwide open channel -Frikanalen is still going -strong. It allow everyone to send the video they want on national -television. It is a TV station administrated completely using a web -browser, running only Free -Software, providing a REST -api for administrators and members, and with distribution on the -national DVB-T distribution network RiksTV. But only between 12:00 -and 17:30 Norwegian time. This has finally changed, after many years -with limited distribution. A few weeks ago, we set up a Ogg Theora -stream via icecast to allow everyone with Internet access to check out -the channel the rest of the day. This is presented on -the Frikanalen web site now. And -since a few days ago, the channel is also available -via multicast on -UNINETT, available for those using IPTV TVs and set-top boxes in -the Norwegian National Research and Education network.

- -

If you want to see what is on the channel, point your media player -to one of these sources. The first should work with most players and -browsers, while as far as I know, the multicast UDP stream only work -with VLC.

- - - -

The Ogg Theora / icecast stream is not working well, as the video -and audio is slightly out of sync. We have not been able to figure -out how to fix it. It is generated by recoding a internal MPEG -transport stream with MPEG4 coded video (ie H.264) to Ogg Theora / -Vorbis, and the result is less then stellar. If you have ideas how to -fix it, please let us know on frikanalen (at) nuug.no. We currently -use this with ffmpeg2theora 0.29:

- -
-./ffmpeg2theora.linux <OBE_gemini_URL.ts> -F 25 -x 720 -y 405 \
- --deinterlace --inputfps 25 -c 1 -H 48000 --keyint 8 --buf-delay 100 \
- --nosync -V 700 -o - | oggfwd video.nuug.no 8000 <pw> /frikanalen.ogv
-
- -

If you get the multicast UDP stream working, please let me know, as -I am curious how far the multicast stream reach. It do not make it to -my home network, nor any other commercially available network in -Norway that I am aware of.

+
A French paperback edition of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig is now available
+
12th April 2016
+

I'm happy to report that +the +French paperback edition of +my +project to translate the Free +Culture book by Lawrence Lessig is now available for sale on +Lulu.com. Once I have formally verified my proof reading copy, which +should be in the mail, the paperback edition should be available in +book stores like Amazon and Barnes & Noble too.

+ +

This French edition, Culture Libre, is the work of the +dblatex developer Benoît +Guillon, who created the PO file from the initial translation +available from +the Wikilivres +wiki pages and completed and corrected the translation to match +the original docbook edition my project is using, as well as +coordinated the proof reading of the final result. I believe the end +result look great, but I am biased and do not read French. In +addition to the paperback edition, the book is available in PDF, EPUB +and Mobi format from the github project page linked to above.

+ +

When enabling book store distribution on Lulu.com, I had to nearly +triple the price to allow the book stores some profit. I also had to +accept that I will get some revenue when a book is sold via Lulu.com. +But because of the non-commercial clause in the book license +(CC-BY-NC), this might be a problem. To bypass the problem I +discussed how to handle the revenue with the author, and we agreed +that the revenue for these editions go to the +Creative Commons non-profit +Corporation who handle donations to the Creative Commons project. +So far they have earned around USD 70 on sales of the +English +and +Norwegian +Bokmål editions, according to Lulu.com. They will get the revenue +for the French edition too. Their revenue is higher if you buy the +book directly from Lulu.com instead of via a book store, so I +recommend you buy directly from Lulu.com.

+ +

Perhaps you would like to get the book published in your language? +The translation is done using a web based translator service, so the +technical bar to enter is fairly low. Get in touch if you would like +to make this happen.

- Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + Tags: docbook, english, freeculture.
@@ -696,118 +370,33 @@ Norway that I am aware of.

-
En enklere Osloskolehverdag med automatisk sjekk av Fronter
-
12th February 2015
-

En stund nå har jeg vært nødt til å forholde meg til -Fronter, en nettløsning -Osloskolen bruker for kontakt mellom hjem og skole. Løsningen -imponerer ikke, og det er lagt opp til at vi foreldre skal logge inn -regelmessig for å se om noe har endret seg. Idéen om å la folk stikke -innom nettsider for å se om det har skjedd endringer er så idiotisk at -jeg har lett etter et alternativ. Fronterløsningen har en innebygget -løsning der en kan abonnere på forsiden (som viser en oppsummering av -det en har tilgang til), og få tilsendt en kopi hver natt, men det -fjerner jo bare behovet for å stikke innom, ikke den idiotiske ideen -om at folk skal huske hvordan nettsiden så ut sist og oppdage hva som -er endret.

- -

For å gjøre livet enklere har jeg derfor brukt litt tid på å lage -et program som kobler seg opp og sjekker etter endringer automatisk, -slik at jeg kan få beskjed fra datamaskinen når noe endrer seg i -stedet for å forsøke å finne ut av det selv. I går ble scriptet -brukbart, og jeg er dermed klar til å dele det med deg.

- -

Jeg startet med å skrive programmet i Python, og hadde en versjon -som logget inn og hentet ned enkeltsider fra Fronter. Men -Fronter-websidene suger golfballer gjennom en hageslange, med -uleselig HTML, flere nivåer av iframes og en struktur på innholdet som -er svært vanskelig å finne ut av, så jeg ga til slutt opp lxml-parsing -med Python og forsøkte meg med WWW::Mechanize for Perl som jeg kjente -fra før. I ettertid har jeg oppdaget at WWW:Mechanize også finnes for -Python, så jeg kunne antagelig droppet språkbyttet. Men da jeg -oppdaget det hadde jeg kommet så langt med Perl-utgaven, så jeg hoppet -ikke tilbake.

- -

For å logge inn i Fronter besøker en enten skolens websider eller -den sentrale innloggingsiden https://fronter.com/osloskoler/. -Perl-koden for å logge inn ser slik ut:

- -
-my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
-$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/');
-$mech->submit_form(fields => {
-    username => $username,
-    password => $password,
-} );
-
- -

Neste steg er å få oversikt over hvilke «rom» en har tilgang til. -På vår skole er det rom for skolen, biblioteket, elevrådet, -aktivitetsskolen og klasser der en har unger, og dette vil være -forskjellig fra person til person. Etter å ha romstert rundt i -Fronter-grensesnittet endel kom jeg over en grei HTML-side med -oversikt over rommene, -https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser, -så jeg bruker denne til å hente ut romoversikt med rom-ID.

- -
-my %room;
-$mech->get('https://fronter.com/osloskoler/adm/projects.phtml?mode=displayRoomchooser');
-for my $link ($mech->links()) {
-    my $url = $link->url();
-    if ($url =~ m%/links/list_files.phtml\?edit=(\d+)$%) {
-        $room{$link->text()} = $1;
-    }
-}
-
- -

Når en har rom-ID kan en slå opp websiden for rommet, som starter -på -https://fronter.com/osloskoler/contentframeset.phtml?goto_prjid=$ROMID -(der $ROMID byttes ut med rom-ID-tallet). Det gir en side med -iframes, og en må tre nivåer ned i iframes før en får tak i -HTML-informasjonen som vises frem når en ser på det aktuelle rommet. -Her ga jeg opp den robuste parsingen og hardkodet endel URL-er som i -stedet bør spores opp maskinelt. HTML-informasjonen som vises lagres -i en fil etter at økt- og innloggings-nøkkel er fjernet og deretter -bruker jeg lynx --dump --nolist for å hente ut en tekstlig -utgave av websiden. Denne tekstlige utgaven sammenlignes med forrige -versjon og oversikt over endringer kan så sendes ut på egnet vis.

- -

Jeg valgte å bruke git til å holde rede på endringer, så jeg -sjekker inn HTML og tekst-utgaver i git og bruker git til å vise frem -endringene i tekstutgavene. Programvaren for å gjøre dette er testet -på Debian GNU/Linux og kan -lastes -ned fra github.

- -

For å bruke dette selv, kjør følgende kommandoer på din -Debian-maskin (forutsetter sudo-tilgang for installasjon av -programvare):

- -
-sudo apt-get install git lynx-cur libio-prompter-perl libwww-mechanize-perl \
-      libconfig-inifiles-perl
-git clone https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/fronter-scraper-oslo
-cd fronter-scraper-oslo
-./update-git
-
- -

Det gjenstår endel, men systemet er allerede nyttig for meg. Jeg -ønsker at systemet også skal laste ned PDF-er og slikt som er lagt ut -for nedlasting på sidene, slik at f.eks. ukeplaner kommer inn i -git-arkivet mitt automatisk og jeg får automatisk beskjed når ny -ukeplan er lagt ut. Kanskje du kan bidra med å få det på plass, eller -kanskje du har andre ting du vil fikse? Jeg tar gjerne imot endringer -og forbedringer. Det er mye som kan gjøres bedre, og scriptet er ikke -veldig robust mot endringer hos nettsidene til Fronter. Jeg regner -dermed med at det vil trengs oppdateringer jevnlig etter hvert som -Fronter-løsningen endrer seg.

+
Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook
+
10th April 2016
+

During this weekends +bug +squashing party and developer gathering, we decided to do our part +to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian +Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the +Debian Administrator's Handbook +project to get started. If you want to help out, please start +contributing using +the +hosted weblate project page, and get in touch using +the +translators mailing list. Please also check out +the instructions for +contributors.

+ +

The book is already available on paper in English, French and +Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian +Bokmål too. In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and +Mobi versions available. And there are incomplete translations +available for many more languages.

- Tags: norsk, web. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -815,39 +404,54 @@ Fronter-løsningen endrer seg.

-
Nude body scanner now present on Norwegian airport
-
10th February 2015
-

Aftenposten, one of the largest newspapers in Norway, today report -that -three -of the nude body scanners now is put to use at Gardermoen, the -main airport in Norway. This way the travelers can have their body -photographed without cloths when visiting Norway. Of course this -horrible news is presented with a positive spin, stating that "now -travelers can move past the security check point faster and more -efficiently", but fail to mention that the machines in question take -pictures of their nude bodies and store them internally in the -computer, while only presenting sketch figure of the body to the -public. The article is written in a way that leave the impression -that the new machines do not take these nude pictures and only create -the sketch figures. In reality the same nude pictures are still -taken, but not presented to everyone. They are still available for -the owners of the system and the people doing maintenance of the -scanners, as long as they are taken and stored.

- -

Wikipedia have a more on -Full body -scanners, including example images and a summary of the -controversy about these scanners.

- -

Personally I will decline to use these machines, as I believe strip -searches of my body is a very intrusive attack on my privacy, and not -something everyone should have to accept to travel.

+
One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?
+
7th April 2016
+

Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related +packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found. I use +ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so. +But I might be wrong.

+ +

According to +the popcon +results for spl-linux, there are 1019 Debian installations, or +0.53% of the population, with the package installed. As far as I know +the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS +on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS +installation on Linux in Debian. In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian +the ZFS feature is already available, and there +the popcon +results for zfsutils show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of +the population. So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.

+ +

But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum +announced +in April 2015 that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were +cleared, the package is still not in Debian. The package is again in +the NEW queue. Several uploads have been rejected so far because the +debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason +to give up. The current status can be seen on +the +team status page, and +the +source code is available on Alioth.

+ +

As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure +my home server can function in the future using only official Debian +packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file +accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try +to help out the team. This was the background for my blog post about +creating, +updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically, and I +used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the +copyright file. It is not very easy to check every one of the around +2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it +right. If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to +find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.

- Tags: english, personvern. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -862,6 +466,21 @@ something everyone should have to accept to travel.

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