X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/cec4373a9fb73f8891e8366ff2a262bf78800bbd..dab433fb0808144159d85b05b298c7a1e549ee20:/blog/index.html?ds=sidebyside diff --git a/blog/index.html b/blog/index.html index 6eea85c558..de9f6e58b0 100644 --- a/blog/index.html +++ b/blog/index.html @@ -20,159 +20,42 @@
-
E-tjenesten ber om innsyn i eposten til partiene på Stortinget
-
6th September 2016
-

I helga kom det et hårreisende forslag fra Lysne II-utvalget satt -ned av Forsvarsdepartementet. Lysne II-utvalget var bedt om å vurdere -ønskelista til Forsvarets etterretningstjeneste (e-tjenesten), og har -kommet med -forslag -om at e-tjenesten skal få lov til a avlytte all Internett-trafikk -som passerer Norges grenser. Få er klar over at dette innebærer at -e-tjenesten får tilgang til epost sendt til de fleste politiske -partiene på Stortinget. Regjeringspartiet Høyre (@hoyre.no), -støttepartiene Venstre (@venstre.no) og Kristelig Folkeparti (@krf.no) -samt Sosialistisk Ventreparti (@sv.no) og Miljøpartiet de grønne -(@mdg.no) har nemlig alle valgt å ta imot eposten sin via utenlandske -tjenester. Det betyr at hvis noen sender epost til noen med en slik -adresse vil innholdet i eposten om dette forslaget blir vedtatt gjøres -tilgjengelig for e-tjenesten. Venstre, Sosialistisk Ventreparti og -Miljøpartiet De Grønne har valgt å motta sin epost hos Google, -Kristelig Folkeparti har valgt å motta sin epost hos Microsoft, og -Høyre har valgt å motta sin epost hos Comendo med mottak i Danmark og -Irland. Kun Arbeiderpartiet og Fremskrittspartiet har valgt å motta -eposten sin i Norge, hos henholdsvis Intility AS og Telecomputing -AS.

- -

Konsekvensen er at epost inn og ut av de politiske organisasjonene, -til og fra partimedlemmer og partiets tillitsvalgte vil gjøres -tilgjengelig for e-tjenesten for analyse og sortering. Jeg mistenker -at kunnskapen som slik blir tilgjengelig vil være nyttig hvis en -ønsker å vite hvilke argumenter som treffer publikum når en ønsker å -påvirke Stortingets representanter.

Ved hjelp av MX-oppslag i DNS for epost-domene, tilhørende -whois-oppslag av IP-adressene og traceroute for å se hvorvidt -trafikken går via utlandet kan enhver få bekreftet at epost sendt til -de omtalte partiene vil gjøres tilgjengelig for forsvarets -etterretningstjeneste hvis forslaget blir vedtatt. En kan også bruke -den kjekke nett-tjenesten ipinfo.io -for å få en ide om hvor i verden en IP-adresse hører til.

- -

På den positive siden vil forslaget gjøre at enda flere blir -motivert til å ta grep for å bruke -Tor og krypterte -kommunikasjonsløsninger for å kommunisere med sine kjære, for å sikre -at privatsfæren vernes. Selv bruker jeg blant annet -FreedomBox og -Signal til slikt. Ingen av -dem er optimale, men de fungerer ganske bra allerede og øker kostnaden -for dem som ønsker å invadere mitt privatliv.

- -

For øvrig burde varsleren Edward Snowden få politisk asyl i -Norge.

- - + +
1st November 2018
+

As part of my involvement in +the Nikita +archive API project, I've been importing a fairly large lump of +emails into a test instance of the archive to see how well this would +go. I picked a subset of my +notmuch email database, all public emails sent to me via +@lists.debian.org, giving me a set of around 216 000 emails to import. +In the process, I had a look at the various attachments included in +these emails, to figure out what to do with attachments, and noticed +that one of the most common attachment formats do not have +an +official MIME type registered with IANA/IETF. The output from +diff, ie the input for patch, is on the top 10 list of formats +included in these emails. At the moment people seem to use either +text/x-patch or text/x-diff, but neither is officially registered. It +would be better if one official MIME type were registered and used +everywhere.

+ +

To try to get one official MIME type for these files, I've brought +up the topic on +the +media-types mailing list. If you are interested in discussion +which MIME type to use as the official for patch files, or involved in +making software using a MIME type for patches, perhaps you would like +to join the discussion?

+ +

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

- Tags: norsk, surveillance. + Tags: debian, english, standard.
@@ -180,33 +63,79 @@ traceroute to mx03.telecomputing.no (95.128.105.102), 30 hops max, 60 byte packe
- -
30th August 2016
-

In April we -started -to work on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on -how to set up and administrate a Debian system. Today I am happy to -report that the first draft is now publicly available. You can find -it on get the Debian -Administrator's Handbook page (under Other languages). The first -eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on -proofreading the content. 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. A good way to contribute is to proofread the text -and update weblate if you find errors.

- -

Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as -electronic form.

+ +
22nd October 2018
+

+ +

My current home stereo is a patchwork of various pieces I got on +flee markeds over the years. It is amazing what kind of equipment +show up there. I've been wondering for a while if it was possible to +measure how well this equipment is working together, and decided to +see how far I could get using free software. After trawling the web I +came across an article from DIY Audio and Video on +Speaker +Testing and Analysis describing how to test speakers, and it listing +several software options, among them +AUDio MEasurement +System (AUDMES). It is the only free software system I could find +focusing on measuring speakers and audio frequency response. In the +process I also found an interesting article from NOVO on +Understanding +Speaker Specifications and Frequency Response and an article from +ecoustics on +Understanding +Speaker Frequency Response, with a lot of information on what to +look for and how to interpret the graphs. Armed with this knowledge, +I set out to measure the state of my speakers.

+ +

The first hurdle was that AUDMES hadn't seen a commit for 10 years +and did not build with current compilers and libraries. I got in +touch with its author, who no longer was spending time on the program +but gave me write access to the subversion repository on Sourceforge. +The end result is that now the code build on Linux and is capable of +saving and loading the collected frequency response data in CSV +format. The application is quite nice and flexible, and I was able to +select the input and output audio interfaces independently. This made +it possible to use a USB mixer as the input source, while sending +output via my laptop headphone connection. I lacked the hardware and +cabling to figure out a different way to get independent cabling to +speakers and microphone.

+ +

Using this setup I could see how a large range of high frequencies +apparently were not making it out of my speakers. The picture show +the frequency response measurement of one of the speakers. Note the +frequency lines seem to be slightly misaligned, compared to the CSV +output from the program. I can not hear several of these are high +frequencies, according to measurement from +Free Hearing Test +Software, an freeware system to measure your hearing (still +looking for a free software alternative), so I do not know if they are +coming out out the speakers. I thus do not quite know how to figure +out if the missing frequencies is a problem with the microphone, the +amplifier or the speakers, but I managed to rule out the audio card in my +PC by measuring my Bose noise canceling headset using its own +microphone. This setup was able to see the high frequency tones, so +the problem with my stereo had to be in the amplifier or speakers.

+ +

Anyway, to try to role out one factor I ended up picking up a new +set of speakers at a flee marked, and these work a lot better than the +old speakers, so I guess the microphone and amplifier is OK. If you +need to measure your own speakers, check out AUDMES. If more people +get involved, perhaps the project could become good enough to +include in Debian? And if +you know of some other free software to measure speakers and amplifier +performance, please let me know. I am aware of the freeware option +REW, but I want something +that can be developed also when the vendor looses interest.

+ +

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

@@ -214,75 +143,67 @@ electronic form.

- -
11th August 2016
-

This summer, I read a great article -"coz: -This Is the Profiler You're Looking For" in USENIX ;login: about -how to profile multi-threaded programs. It presented a system for -profiling software by running experiences in the running program, -testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of -the code to various degrees compared to a normal run. It does this by -slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running -and measure how this affect processing time. The processing time is -measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress -counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END). It -can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program -runtime and running the program several times instead.

- -

The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to -get the system into Debian. I -created -a WNPP request for it and contacted upstream to try to make the -system ready for Debian by sending patches. The build process need to -be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and -to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected -profiling information included in the source package. -But I expect that should work out fairly soon.

- -

The way the system work is fairly simple. To run an coz experiment -on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this: +

+
21st October 2018
+

Bittorrent is as far as I know, currently the most efficient way to +distribute content on the Internet. It is used all by all sorts of +content providers, from national TV stations like +NRK, Linux distributors like +Debian and +Ubuntu, and of course the +Internet archive. + +

Almost a month ago +a new +package adding Bittorrent support to VLC became available in +Debian testing and unstable. To test it, simply install it like +this:

-

-coz run --- program-to-run
-

+

+apt install vlc-plugin-bittorrent
+

-

This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation -information. To show what part of the code affect the performance -most, use a web browser and either point it to -http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/ -or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch). Check out this web -site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like. To make the -profiling more useful you include <coz.h> and insert the -COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the -code, rebuild and run the profiler. This allow coz to do more -targeted experiments.

- -

A video published by ACM -presenting the -Coz profiler is available from Youtube. There is also a paper -from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available -titled -Coz: -finding code that counts with causal profiling.

- -

The source code -for Coz is available from github. It will only build with clang -because it uses a -C++ -feature missing in GCC, but I've submitted -a patch to solve -it and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.

- -

Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece -of software in Debian. I would very much like some help with the -packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package -C++ libraries.

+

Since the plugin was made available for the first time in Debian, +several improvements have been made to it. In version 2.2-4, now +available in both testing and unstable, a desktop file is provided to +teach browsers to start VLC when the user click on torrent files or +magnet links. The last part is thanks to me finally understanding +what the strange x-scheme-handler style MIME types in desktop files +are used for. By adding x-scheme-handler/magnet to the MimeType entry +in the desktop file, at least the browsers Firefox and Chromium will +suggest to start VLC when selecting a magnet URI on a web page. The +end result is that now, with the plugin installed in Buster and Sid, +one can visit any +Internet +Archive page with movies using a web browser and click on the +torrent link to start streaming the movie.

+ +

Note, there is still some misfeatures in the plugin. One is the +fact that it will hang and +block VLC +from exiting until the torrent streaming starts. Another is the +fact that it +will pick +and play a random file in a multi file torrent. This is not +always the video file you want. Combined with the first it can be a +bit hard to get the video streaming going. But when it work, it seem +to do a good job.

+ +

For the Debian packaging, I would love to find a good way to test +if the plugin work with VLC using autopkgtest. I tried, but do not +know enough of the inner workings of VLC to get it working. For now +the autopkgtest script is only checking if the .so file was +successfully loaded by VLC. If you have any suggestions, please +submit a patch to the Debian bug tracking system.

+ +

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

@@ -290,58 +211,80 @@ C++ libraries.

- -
5th August 2016
-

As my regular readers probably remember, the last year I published -a French and Norwegian translation of the classic -Free Culture book by the -founder of the Creative Commons movement, Lawrence Lessig. A bit less -known is the fact that due to the way I created the translations, -using docbook and po4a, I also recreated the English original. And -because I already had created a new the PDF edition, I published it -too. The revenue from the books are sent to the Creative Commons -Corporation. In other words, I do not earn any money from this -project, I just earn the warm fuzzy feeling that the text is available -for a wider audience and more people can learn why the Creative -Commons is needed.

- -

Today, just for fun, I had a look at the sales number over at -Lulu.com, which take care of payment, printing and shipping. Much to -my surprise, the English edition is selling better than both the -French and Norwegian edition, despite the fact that it has been -available in English since it was first published. In total, 24 paper -books was sold for USD $19.99 between 2016-01-01 and 2016-07-31:

- - - - - - -
Title / languageQuantity
Culture Libre / French3
Fri kultur / Norwegian7
Free Culture / English14
- -

The books are available both from Lulu.com and from large book -stores like Amazon and Barnes&Noble. Most revenue, around $10 per -book, is sent to the Creative Commons project when the book is sold -directly by Lulu.com. The other channels give less revenue. The -summary from Lulu tell me 10 books was sold via the Amazon channel, 10 -via Ingram (what is this?) and 4 directly by Lulu. And Lulu.com tells -me that the revenue sent so far this year is USD $101.42. No idea -what kind of sales numbers to expect, so I do not know if that is a -good amount of sales for a 10 year old book or not. But it make me -happy that the buyers find the book, and I hope they enjoy reading it -as much as I did.

- -

The ebook edition is available for free from -Github.

- -

If you would like to translate and publish the book in your native -language, I would be happy to help make it happen. Please get in -touch.

+ +
18th October 2018
+

This morning, the new release of the +Nikita +Noark 5 core project was +announced +on the project mailing list. The free software solution is an +implementation of the Norwegian archive standard Noark 5 used by +government offices in Norway. These were the changes in version 0.2 +since version 0.1.1 (from NEWS.md): + +

    +
  • Fix typos in REL names
  • +
  • Tidy up error message reporting
  • +
  • Fix issue where we used Integer.valueOf(), not Integer.getInteger()
  • +
  • Change some String handling to StringBuffer
  • +
  • Fix error reporting
  • +
  • Code tidy-up
  • +
  • Fix issue using static non-synchronized SimpleDateFormat to avoid + race conditions
  • +
  • Fix problem where deserialisers were treating integers as strings
  • +
  • Update methods to make them null-safe
  • +
  • Fix many issues reported by coverity
  • +
  • Improve equals(), compareTo() and hash() in domain model
  • +
  • Improvements to the domain model for metadata classes
  • +
  • Fix CORS issues when downloading document
  • +
  • Implementation of case-handling with registryEntry and document upload
  • +
  • Better support in Javascript for OPTIONS
  • +
  • Adding concept description of mail integration
  • +
  • Improve setting of default values for GET on ny-journalpost
  • +
  • Better handling of required values during deserialisation
  • +
  • Changed tilknyttetDato (M620) from date to dateTime
  • +
  • Corrected some opprettetDato (M600) (de)serialisation errors.
  • +
  • Improve parse error reporting.
  • +
  • Started on OData search and filtering.
  • +
  • Added Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct to project.
  • +
  • Moved repository and project from Github to Gitlab.
  • +
  • Restructured repository, moved code into src/ and web/.
  • +
  • Updated code to use Spring Boot version 2.
  • +
  • Added support for OAuth2 authentication.
  • +
  • Fixed several bugs discovered by Coverity.
  • +
  • Corrected handling of date/datetime fields.
  • +
  • Improved error reporting when rejecting during deserializatoin.
  • +
  • Adjusted default values provided for ny-arkivdel, ny-mappe, + ny-saksmappe, ny-journalpost and ny-dokumentbeskrivelse.
  • +
  • Several fixes for korrespondansepart*.
  • +
  • Updated web GUI: +
      +
    • Now handle both file upload and download.
    • +
    • Uses new OAuth2 authentication for login.
    • +
    • Forms now fetches default values from API using GET.
    • +
    • Added RFC 822 (email), TIFF and JPEG to list of possible file formats.
    • +
  • +
+ +

The changes and improvements are extensive. Running diffstat on +the changes between git tab 0.1.1 and 0.2 show 1098 files changed, +108666 insertions(+), 54066 deletions(-).

+ +

If free and open standardized archiving API sound interesting to +you, please contact us on IRC +(#nikita on +irc.freenode.net) or email +(nikita-noark +mailing list).

+ +

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

@@ -349,40 +292,111 @@ touch.

- -
1st August 2016
-

For mange år siden leste jeg en klassisk tekst som gjorde såpass -inntrykk på meg at jeg husker den fortsatt, flere år senere, og bruker -argumentene fra den stadig vekk. Teksten var «The Relativity of -Wrong» som Isaac Asimov publiserte i Skeptical Inquirer i 1989. Den -gir litt perspektiv rundt formidlingen av vitenskapelige resultater. -Jeg har hatt lyst til å kunne dele den også med folk som ikke -behersker engelsk så godt, som barn og noen av mine eldre slektninger, -og har savnet å ha den tilgjengelig på norsk. For to uker siden tok -jeg meg sammen og kontaktet Asbjørn Dyrendal i foreningen Skepsis om -de var interessert i å publisere en norsk utgave på bloggen sin, og da -han var positiv tok jeg kontakt med Skeptical Inquirer og spurte om -det var greit for dem. I løpet av noen dager fikk vi tilbakemelding -fra Barry Karr hos The Skeptical Inquirer som hadde sjekket og fått OK -fra Robyn Asimov som representerte arvingene i Asmiov-familien og gikk -igang med oversettingen.

- -

Resultatet, «Relativt -feil», ble publisert på skepsis-bloggen for noen minutter siden. -Jeg anbefaler deg på det varmeste å lese denne teksten og dele den med -dine venner.

- -

For å håndtere oversettelsen og sikre at original og oversettelse -var i sync brukte vi git, po4a, GNU make og Transifex. Det hele -fungerte utmerket og gjorde det enkelt å dele tekstene og jobbe sammen -om finpuss på formuleringene. Hadde hosted.weblate.org latt meg -opprette nye prosjekter selv i stedet for å måtte kontakte -administratoren der, så hadde jeg brukt weblate i stedet.

+ +
8th October 2018
+

I have earlier covered the basics of trusted timestamping using the +'openssl ts' client. See blog post for +2014, +2016 +and +2017 +for those stories. But some times I want to integrate the timestamping +in other code, and recently I needed to integrate it into Python. +After searching a bit, I found +the +rfc3161 library which seemed like a good fit, but I soon +discovered it only worked for python version 2, and I needed something +that work with python version 3. Luckily I next came across +the rfc3161ng library, +a fork of the original rfc3161 library. Not only is it working with +python 3, it have fixed a few of the bugs in the original library, and +it has an active maintainer. I decided to wrap it up and make it +available in +Debian, and a few days ago it entered Debian unstable and testing.

+ +

Using the library is fairly straight forward. The only slightly +problematic step is to fetch the required certificates to verify the +timestamp. For some services it is straight forward, while for others +I have not yet figured out how to do it. Here is a small standalone +code example based on of the integration tests in the library code:

+ +
+#!/usr/bin/python3
+
+"""
+
+Python 3 script demonstrating how to use the rfc3161ng module to
+get trusted timestamps.
+
+The license of this code is the same as the license of the rfc3161ng
+library, ie MIT/BSD.
+
+"""
+
+import os
+import pyasn1.codec.der
+import rfc3161ng
+import subprocess
+import tempfile
+import urllib.request
+
+def store(f, data):
+    f.write(data)
+    f.flush()
+    f.seek(0)
+
+def fetch(url, f=None):
+    response = urllib.request.urlopen(url)
+    data = response.read()
+    if f:
+        store(f, data)
+    return data
+
+def main():
+    with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as cert_f,\
+    	 tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as ca_f,\
+    	 tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as msg_f,\
+    	 tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as tsr_f:
+
+        # First fetch certificates used by service
+        certificate_data = fetch('https://freetsa.org/files/tsa.crt', cert_f)
+        ca_data_data = fetch('https://freetsa.org/files/cacert.pem', ca_f)
+
+        # Then timestamp the message
+        timestamper = \
+            rfc3161ng.RemoteTimestamper('http://freetsa.org/tsr',
+                                        certificate=certificate_data)
+        data = b"Python forever!\n"
+        tsr = timestamper(data=data, return_tsr=True)
+
+        # Finally, convert message and response to something 'openssl ts' can verify
+        store(msg_f, data)
+        store(tsr_f, pyasn1.codec.der.encoder.encode(tsr))
+        args = ["openssl", "ts", "-verify",
+                "-data", msg_f.name,
+	        "-in", tsr_f.name,
+		"-CAfile", ca_f.name,
+                "-untrusted", cert_f.name]
+        subprocess.check_call(args)
+
+if '__main__' == __name__:
+   main()
+
+ +

The code fetches the required certificates, store them as temporary +files, timestamp a simple message, store the message and timestamp to +disk and ask 'openssl ts' to verify the timestamp. A timestamp is +around 1.5 kiB in size, and should be fairly easy to store for future +use.

+ +

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

- Tags: norsk, skepsis. + Tags: english, sikkerhet.
@@ -390,51 +404,68 @@ administratoren der, så hadde jeg brukt weblate i stedet.

- -
1st August 2016
-

Did you know there is a TV channel broadcasting talks from DebConf -16 across an entire country? Or that there is a TV channel -broadcasting talks by or about -Linus Torvalds, -Tor, -OpenID, -Common Lisp, -Civic Tech, -EFF founder John Barlow, -how to make 3D -printer electronics and many more fascinating topics? It works -using only free software (all of it -available from Github), and -is administrated using a web browser and a web API.

- -

The TV channel is the Norwegian open channel -Frikanalen, and I am involved -via the NUUG member association in -running and developing the software for the channel. The channel is -organised as a member organisation where its members can upload and -broadcast what they want (think of it as Youtube for national -broadcasting television). Individuals can broadcast too. The time -slots are handled on a first come, first serve basis. Because the -channel have almost no viewers and very few active members, we can -experiment with TV technology without too much flack when we make -mistakes. And thanks to the few active members, most of the slots on -the schedule are free. I see this as an opportunity to spread -knowledge about technology and free software, and have a script I run -regularly to fill up all the open slots the next few days with -technology related video. The end result is a channel I like to -describe as Techno TV - filled with interesting talks and -presentations.

- -

It is available on channel 50 on the Norwegian national digital TV -network (RiksTV). It is also available as a multicast stream on -Uninett. And finally, it is available as -a WebM unicast stream from -Frikanalen and NUUG. Check it out. :)

+ +
4th October 2018
+

A few days, I rescued a Windows victim over to Debian. To try to +rescue the remains, I helped set up automatic sync with Google Drive. +I did not find any sensible Debian package handling this +automatically, so I rebuild the grive2 source from +the Ubuntu UPD8 PPA to do the +task and added a autostart desktop entry and a small shell script to +run in the background while the user is logged in to do the sync. +Here is a sketch of the setup for future reference.

+ +

I first created ~/googledrive, entered the directory and +ran 'grive -a' to authenticate the machine/user. Next, I +created a autostart hook in ~/.config/autostart/grive.desktop +to start the sync when the user log in:

+ +

+[Desktop Entry]
+Name=Google drive autosync
+Type=Application
+Exec=/home/user/bin/grive-sync
+

+ +

Finally, I wrote the ~/bin/grive-sync script to sync +~/googledrive/ with the files in Google Drive.

+ +

+#!/bin/sh
+set -e
+cd ~/
+cleanup() {
+    if [ "$syncpid" ] ; then
+        kill $syncpid
+    fi
+}
+trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT
+/usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh listen googledrive 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%" &
+syncpdi=$!
+while true; do
+    if ! xhost >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
+        echo "no DISPLAY, exiting as the user probably logged out"
+        exit 1
+    fi
+    if [ ! -e /run/user/1000/grive-sync.sh_googledrive ] ; then
+        /usr/lib/grive/grive-sync.sh sync googledrive
+    fi
+    sleep 300
+done 2>&1 | sed "s%^%$0:%"
+

+ +

Feel free to use the setup if you want. It can be assumed to be +GNU GPL v2 licensed (or any later version, at your leisure), but I +doubt this code is possible to claim copyright on.

+ +

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

- Tags: english, frikanalen, nuug, video. + Tags: debian, english.
@@ -442,90 +473,161 @@ Frikanalen and NUUG. Check it out. :)

- -
7th July 2016
-

Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved -to be a slight challenge. Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it -again. It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up -an -hardened Android installation from the Tor project blog on a -device I had access to. It is a old mobile phone with a broken -microphone The initial idea had been to just -install -CyanogenMod on it, but did not quite find time to start on it -until a few days ago.

- -

The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot -loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select -'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux -machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot -oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using -the HTC developer web -site and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.

- -

Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029 -or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027. This -apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and -running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft -require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not. So I had to -come up with a different approach. I got a lot of help from AndyCap -on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without -him.

- -

First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from -the -windows binary for HTC Desire HD downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC. -For this there is is a github -project named unruu using libunshield. The unshield tool did not -recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip, -containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which -devices it would work for.

- -

Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device. For this I -followed some instructions -available -from HTC1Guru.com, and ran these commands as root on a Linux -machine with Debian testing:

+ +
29th September 2018
+

It would come as no surprise to anyone that I am interested in +bitcoins and virtual currencies. I've been keeping an eye on virtual +currencies for many years, and it is part of the reason a few months +ago, I started writing a python library for collecting currency +exchange rates and trade on virtual currency exchanges. I decided to +name the end result valutakrambod, which perhaps can be translated to +small currency shop.

+ +

The library uses the tornado python library to handle HTTP and +websocket connections, and provide a asynchronous system for +connecting to and tracking several services. The code is available +from +github.

+ +

There are two example clients of the library. One is very simple and +list every updated buy/sell price received from the various services. +This code is started by running bin/btc-rates and call the client code +in valutakrambod/client.py. The simple client look like this:

-

-adb reboot-bootloader
-fastboot oem rebootRUU
-fastboot flash zip rom.zip
-fastboot flash zip rom.zip
-fastboot reboot
-

+

+import functools
+import tornado.ioloop
+import valutakrambod
+class SimpleClient(object):
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.services = []
+        self.streams = []
+        pass
+    def newdata(self, service, pair, changed):
+        print("%-15s %s-%s: %8.3f %8.3f" % (
+            service.servicename(),
+            pair[0],
+            pair[1],
+            service.rates[pair]['ask'],
+            service.rates[pair]['bid'])
+        )
+    async def refresh(self, service):
+        await service.fetchRates(service.wantedpairs)
+    def run(self):
+        self.ioloop = tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current()
+        self.services = valutakrambod.service.knownServices()
+        for e in self.services:
+            service = e()
+            service.subscribe(self.newdata)
+            stream = service.websocket()
+            if stream:
+                self.streams.append(stream)
+            else:
+                # Fetch information from non-streaming services immediately
+                self.ioloop.call_later(len(self.services),
+                                       functools.partial(self.refresh, service))
+                # as well as regularly
+                service.periodicUpdate(60)
+        for stream in self.streams:
+            stream.connect()
+        try:
+            self.ioloop.start()
+        except KeyboardInterrupt:
+            print("Interrupted by keyboard, closing all connections.")
+            pass
+        for stream in self.streams:
+            stream.close()
+

-

The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect, -as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing. -The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the -device on while holding volume down and the power button should work -too.

+

The library client loops over all known "public" services, +initialises it, subscribes to any updates from the service, checks and +activates websocket streaming if the service provide it, and if no +streaming is supported, fetches information from the service and sets +up a periodic update every 60 seconds. The output from this client +can look like this:

-

With the new hboot version in place I could start following the -instructions on the HTC developer web site. I got the device token -like this:

+

+Bl3p            BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Bl3p            BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Bl3p            BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.560 6593.690
+Bl3p            BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690
+Bitstamp        EUR-USD:    1.159    1.154
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.570 6593.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Hitbtc          BTC-USD: 6594.580 6593.690
+Bl3p            BTC-EUR: 5687.110 5653.690
+Paymium         BTC-EUR: 5680.000 5620.240
+

-

-fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
-
+

The exchange order book is tracked in addition to the best buy/sell +price, for those that need to know the details.

-

And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like -this:

+

The other example client is focusing on providing a curses view +with updated buy/sell prices as soon as they are received from the +services. This code is located in bin/btc-rates-curses and activated +by using the '-c' argument. Without the argument the "curses" output +is printed without using curses, which is useful for debugging. The +curses view look like this:

-

-fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
-

+

+           Name Pair   Bid         Ask         Spr    Ftcd    Age
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCEUR   5591.8400   5711.0800   2.1%   16    nan     60
+       Bitfinex BTCEUR   5671.0000   5671.2000   0.0%   16     22     59
+        Bitmynt BTCEUR   5580.8000   5807.5200   3.9%   16     41     60
+         Bitpay BTCEUR   5663.2700         nan   nan%   15    nan     60
+       Bitstamp BTCEUR   5664.8400   5676.5300   0.2%    0      1      1
+           Bl3p BTCEUR   5653.6900   5684.9400   0.5%    0    nan     19
+       Coinbase BTCEUR   5600.8200   5714.9000   2.0%   15    nan    nan
+         Kraken BTCEUR   5670.1000   5670.2000   0.0%   14     17     60
+        Paymium BTCEUR   5620.0600   5680.0000   1.1%    1   7515    nan
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCNOK  52898.9700  54034.6100   2.1%   16    nan     60
+        Bitmynt BTCNOK  52960.3200  54031.1900   2.0%   16     41     60
+         Bitpay BTCNOK  53477.7833         nan   nan%   16    nan     60
+       Coinbase BTCNOK  52990.3500  54063.0600   2.0%   15    nan    nan
+        MiraiEx BTCNOK  52856.5300  54100.6000   2.3%   16    nan    nan
+ BitcoinsNorway BTCUSD   6495.5300   6631.5400   2.1%   16    nan     60
+       Bitfinex BTCUSD   6590.6000   6590.7000   0.0%   16     23     57
+         Bitpay BTCUSD   6564.1300         nan   nan%   15    nan     60
+       Bitstamp BTCUSD   6561.1400   6565.6200   0.1%    0      2      1
+       Coinbase BTCUSD   6504.0600   6635.9700   2.0%   14    nan    117
+         Gemini BTCUSD   6567.1300   6573.0700   0.1%   16     89    nan
+         Hitbtc+BTCUSD   6592.6200   6594.2100   0.0%    0      0      0
+         Kraken BTCUSD   6565.2000   6570.9000   0.1%   15     17     58
+  Exchangerates EURNOK      9.4665      9.4665   0.0%   16 107789    nan
+     Norgesbank EURNOK      9.4665      9.4665   0.0%   16 107789    nan
+       Bitstamp EURUSD      1.1537      1.1593   0.5%    4      5      1
+  Exchangerates EURUSD      1.1576      1.1576   0.0%   16 107789    nan
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCEUR      1.0000     49.0000  98.0%   16    nan    nan
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCNOK    492.4800    503.7500   2.2%   16    nan     60
+ BitcoinsNorway LTCUSD      1.0221     49.0000  97.9%   15    nan    nan
+     Norgesbank USDNOK      8.1777      8.1777   0.0%   16 107789    nan
+

-

And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I -could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device. -So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone -before I start. We will see what happen next. Perhaps I should -install Debian on it. :)

+

The code for this client is too complex for a simple blog post, so +you will have to check out the git repository to figure out how it +work. What I can tell is how the three last numbers on each line +should be interpreted. The first is how many seconds ago information +was received from the service. The second is how long ago, according +to the service, the provided information was updated. The last is an +estimate on how often the buy/sell values change.

+ +

If you find this library useful, or would like to improve it, I +would love to hear from you. Note that for some of the services I've +implemented a trading API. It might be the topic of a future blog +post.

+ +

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

@@ -533,112 +635,47 @@ install Debian on it. :)

- -
3rd July 2016
-

For a while now, I have wanted to test -the Signal app, as it is -said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my -friends and family are already using it. As I by choice do not own a -mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected. And I wanted to -have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my -machine. But yesterday I managed to get it working. I used the -Github source, compared it to the source in -the -Signal Chrome app available from the Chrome web store, applied -patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and -asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form. Here is -the recipe how I did it.

- -

First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using +

+
24th September 2018
+

Back in February, I got curious to see +if +VLC now supported Bittorrent streaming. It did not, despite the +fact that the idea and code to handle such streaming had been floating +around for years. I did however find +a standalone plugin +for VLC to do it, and half a year later I decided to wrap up the +plugin and get it into Debian. I uploaded it to NEW a few days ago, +and am very happy to report that it +entered +Debian a few hours ago, and should be available in Debian/Unstable +tomorrow, and Debian/Testing in a few days.

+ +

With the vlc-plugin-bittorrent package installed you should be able +to stream videos using a simple call to

-
-git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
-
- -

Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be -able to talk to other Signal users:

- -
-cat <<EOF | patch -p0
-diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
---- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
-+++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
-@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
-         });
-     });
- 
--    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
--    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
-+    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
-+    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
-     var messageReceiver;
-     window.getSocketStatus = function() {
-         if (messageReceiver) {
-diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
---- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
-+++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
-@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
- ;(function() {
-     'use strict';
--    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
-+    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
- 
-     window.extension = window.extension || {};
- 
-EOF
-
- -

The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating -an expiration timestamp. This timestamp need to be updated regularly. -It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js). -The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.

+

+vlc https://archive.org/download/TheGoat/TheGoat_archive.torrent
+

-

Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a -script to launch Signal in Chromium.

+

It can handle magnet links too. Now if only native vlc had +bittorrent support. Then a lot more would be helping each other to +share public domain and creative commons movies. The plugin need some +stability work with seeking and picking the right file in a torrent +with many files, but is already usable. Please note that the plugin +is not removing downloaded files when vlc is stopped, so it can fill +up your disk if you are not careful. Have fun. :)

-
-#!/bin/sh
-cd $(dirname $0)
-mkdir -p userdata
-exec chromium \
-  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
-  --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
-
+

I would love to get help maintaining this package. Get in touch if +you are interested.

-

The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor -SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today -Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines -will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal -connections if they use source IP address.

- -

When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under -"Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git -repository. I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the -Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote -'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the -registration form. Then I entered by land line phone number and -pressed 'Call'. 5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice -repeated the verification code three times. After entering the number -into the verification code field in the form, I could start using -Signal from my laptop. - -

As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to -whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server, -but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server -setup. It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the -content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data -exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know. -So better than many options, but not great. And sadly the usage is -connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server -to associate it to my home and person. I would prefer it if only -those I knew could tell who I was on Signal. There are options -avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not -using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.

+

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

@@ -646,46 +683,35 @@ using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.

- -
6th June 2016
-

When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out -which -multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats / -MIME types, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types -the various players claimed support for. The range was from 55 to 130 -MIME types. I suspect most media formats are supported by all -players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in -their desktop files. There are probably also some bogus MIME types -listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.

- -

Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of -the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files, -and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my -favorite media player VLC. The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable -yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the -Multimedia -player MIME type support status Debian wiki page.

- -

The new "best" multimedia player in Debian? It is VLC, followed by -totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and -kmplayer. I am sure some of the other players desktop files support -several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc, -toten and parole.

- -

A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as -supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their -desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl, -audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg, -video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska, -video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo. Personally I find -it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media -players in Debian. As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both -formats.

+ +
2nd September 2018
+

I continue to explore my Kodi installation, and today I wanted to +tell it to play a youtube URL I received in a chat, without having to +insert search terms using the on-screen keyboard. After searching the +web for API access to the Youtube plugin and testing a bit, I managed +to find a recipe that worked. If you got a kodi instance with its API +available from http://kodihost/jsonrpc, you can try the following to +have check out a nice cover band.

+ +

curl --silent --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
+  --data-binary '{ "id": 1, "jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "Player.Open",
+  "params": {"item": { "file":
+  "plugin://plugin.video.youtube/play/?video_id=LuRGVM9O0qg" } } }' \
+  http://projector.local/jsonrpc

+ +

I've extended kodi-stream program to take a video source as its +first argument. It can now handle direct video links, youtube links +and 'desktop' to stream my desktop to Kodi. It is almost like a +Chromecast. :)

+ +

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

@@ -693,118 +719,19 @@ formats.

- -
5th June 2016
-

Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I -decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a -talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine. I -wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed -the day before I would give the talk. The next day I took a plane to -the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I -started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover -that kpresenter refused to load its own data file. I cursed a bit and -started making the slides again from memory, to have something to -present when I arrived. I tested that the saved files could be -loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued. I continued to polish the -slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer -be loaded into kpresenter. In the end I had to rewrite the slides -three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and -shorter. After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem – -kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand. -Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great -program to make slides. The point I'm trying to make is that we -expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is -embarrassing to its developers if it can't.

- -

Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data -files from the desktop file browser? It is not a uncommon problem. A -while back I discovered that the screencast recorder -gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file -browser would refuse to open. No video player claimed to understand -such file. I tracked down the cause being file --mime-type -returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had -installed listed as a MIME type they would understand. I asked for -file to change its -behavour and use the MIME type video/ogg instead. I also asked -several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give -the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files. After a -while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the -output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.

- -

But history repeats itself. A few days ago I tested the music -system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file -browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files -(*.rg). I've reported the -rosegarden problem to BTS and a fix is commited to git and will be -included in the next upload. To increase the chance of me remembering -how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files -from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.

- -

The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types. -There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file. The output from -file --mime-type mentioned above, and the content of the -shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/). The file MIME -type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this -information is collected from -the -desktop files available in /usr/share/applications/. If there is -one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is -activated when asking to open a given file. If there are more, one -can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and -selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar. In general -this work well. But it depend on each program picking a good MIME -type (preferably -a -MIME type registered with IANA), file and/or the shared MIME -registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME -type in its list of supported MIME types.

- -

The /usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml entry for -the -Shared MIME database look like this:

- -

-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
-  <mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden">
-    <sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/>
-    <comment>Rosegarden project file</comment>
-    <glob pattern="*.rg"/>
-  </mime-type>
-</mime-info>
-

- -

This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip -(it is a gzipped XML file). Note, it is much better to use an -official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own -unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.

- -

The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list -audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the -file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:

- -

-% grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
-MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
-X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
-%
-

- -

The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the -MimeType= line.

- -

If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when -selected from the file browser, please check out the output from -file --mime-type for the file, ensure the file ending and -MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check -that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming -support for this MIME type. If not, please report a bug to have it -fixed. :)

+ +
30th August 2018
+

It might seem obvious that software created using tax money should +be available for everyone to use and improve. Free Software +Foundation Europe recentlystarted a campaign to help get more people +to understand this, and I just signed the petition on +Public Money, Public Code to help +them. I hope you too will do the same.

- Tags: debian, english. + Tags: english, opphavsrett.
@@ -819,6 +746,58 @@ fixed. :)

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