bosse
This user hasn't shared any biographical information
Posts by bosse
Twirssi
Feb 7th
I am seriously considering trying to tweet, although I’m pretty unenthusiastic about the whole concept. That’s probably the main reason why I’m doing it, I want to dive into it to understand it better. I’m looking at different tools to do the tweets effectively, and I’m considering Twirrsi, a twitter plugin for irssi.
"I krig med eliten" på Wikileaks
Sep 16th
Den danske dagsavisen Politiken (en del av JyllandsPosten/Politikens Hus) trykket på onsdag hele boken “Jæger – I krig med eliten” av den tidligere elitesoldaten Thomas Rathsack, etter at det danske forsvaret hadde forsøkt å få boken tilbakekalt. Dette har generert heftig kritikk i Danmark, til og med innad i eget avishus.
Vel, fra min side vanker det bare ros. Undertrykking av ytringsfriheten er noe av det verste som kan skje i et samfunn, selv om dette angivelig er informasjon som “går tett på” hvordan danskene opererer i Afghanistan. Som Politiken selv formulerer det i sin lederartikkel har de «valgt at bringe hele bogens tekst i dagens avis for at sikre og understrege offentlighedens ret til at følge med – også når vi er i krig, og når det ikke passer myndighederne». Dette står det stor respekt over.
For dem av oss som ikke holder oss med Politiken, kan vi gå til Wikileaks for å lese boken i sin helhet. Den er også tilgjengelig som en torrent.
En spiker i ytringsfrihetens kiste
Sep 19th
Justisminister Knut Storberget har nylig sendt et brev til norske internettleverandører der han ber dem om “frivillig” å ta i bruk Kripos’ filtreringsteknologi, som i dag benyttes til å sensurere webtjenere som antas å spre barnepornografisk materiale. Dersom leverandørene ikke stiller seg i rekke vil han tvinge dem til det ved å «innføre et lovpålegg som påbyr filtrering, særlig av overgrepsbilder mot barn.».
International phone calls on a shoestring
Feb 3rd
In less than five days, I’m going to South-East Asia to spend a month relaxing, trekking, inhaling pollution and fighting cockroaches the size of my fist in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. It’s going to be wonderful.
My problem is that it is very expensive to call to and from most of the countries in the area. The tariff for a call between a Telenor fixed-line in Norway and my prepaid mobile in Thailand is an outrageous €1.41 (NOK 11.38) per minute. The worldwide telecom tariffs are not based on distance, but destination bandwidth, de-facto monopolies, local regulations, corruption and several other complicated factors. In this case, Telenor really helps out with their typically inflated tariffs. For comparison, the Dutch telecom KPN charges “only” €1.08 (NOK 8.69) for the same call. Nevertheless, the tariffs are unacceptable, and Skype is really not an option, as it’s not as flexible and portable as a mobile phone.
Coping with vast amounts of information
Jan 9th
Google Reader
If you spend a lot of time reading on the internet, (by that, I don’t necessarily mean spending the time browsing people’s Facebook oneliners and paying your bills, but actually using it as the information source it is) then you are probably very busy right now, and I’ll get right to the point.
Use an aggregator for RSS feeds. It provides you with a clean view of a great deal of sources, from your favourite 100% online newspapers (and their brilliant political comics, like Doonesbury), to these pseudo-attempts of “established” media desperately trying to justify their dual physical/online existance. (Some do this better than others, but I’ll save that for a later rant.)
The point is that most of these are providing feeds of their news. Look for this symbol in your browser and click it to understand more. It’s worth it.
When you are on a site providing such feeds, then you can click on this icon in your browser in order to get the feed address which is usable in RSS/Atom feed aggregators. Such aggregators are probably integrated to your browser, like the well known Firefox (look at “get plugins/addons”) and even in Internet Explorer.
If you prefer to use a seperate application for this, then you can google¹ for them, or you can do what I do, use the excellent Google Reader which in my opinion just makes the internet a less noisy world to be in. It makes your up-to-date feeds available wherever you are.
For the time being, I don’t know of any better alternatives for me. If you read a lot of stuff happening on the internet (news, comics, torrents, blogs, podcasts), then perhaps you should check it out as well.
___
¹) I almost can’t believe that Google seemingly have their own verb in almost all world languages now.
Travel gadgets
Dec 31st
Today I’ve ordered a new gadget for my Asia trip in February. It’s the Globalsat DG-100, a simple GPS data logger utilizing the SiRF StarIII chipset, which has been getting very good reviews out there. It can be set to record waypoints (locations) for a configurable interval based on time (like every 10 seconds) or distance (like every 100m) with storage for up to 64,000 records of time, location and altitude. The output can be exported to a myriad of formats, and can be represented as a Google Maps interface or used to geotag images taken during the trip. I can put this in my daypack during the day, and in the evening I’ll have a complete record of my movements. (Why? I don’t know. It’s fun to play with that kind of data.) Best thing is that it is made for exactly the purpose of logging data, with no fancy and power hungry utilities like bluetooth, giving it up to 35 hours of usage without recharge. It also runs on normal batteries, if needed.
Reportedly, the included software sucks donkey balls, but the good thing is that the vendor has released its specifications, so some guys have already made improved open source software that runs on Windows as well as Linux (as opposed to the original version), an interesting example of how free software helps to make a simple product even better and more available.
As I’ve managed to lose my precious MP3 player somewhere amongst my mess of life possessions, I’ve also ordered a new MP3 player, the Creative Zen 16GB. Flying is one of the most boring ways to spend time when travelling, so music is quite important in order to enjoy every bit of the trip. It is also important that is some kind of support refilling it with music on Linux systems. From what I know from my previous Creative player, the open source application gnomad2 should do the trick. Plus thing is that it also utilizes SD chips, so that extra content easily can be added, and with everything flash the size and weight is comfortable enough to carry around.
The secret war
Dec 19th
This is a damn interesting article in the International Herald Tribune about the Hmong soldiers that fought on the American side during the Vietnam war, and their situation as of today, over 30 years past. They are still being hunted like fugitives in the jungles of Laos, and are pleading for help from the Americans, which is still an open question.
A little bit from wikipedia will tell us a bit more about the Hmong’s efforts:
"In the early 1960s, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began to recruit the indigenous Hmong people in Laos to join fighting the Vietnam War, named as a Special Guerrilla Unit [...] Over 80% of the Hmong men in Laos were recruited by the CIA to join fighting for the U.S. Secret War in Laos. The CIA used the Special Guerrilla Unit as the counter attack unit to block the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main military supply route from the north to the south. Hmong soldiers put their lives at risk in the frontline fighting for the United States to block the supply line and to rescue downed American pilots [...] more than 40,000 Hmong were killed in the frontline, countless men were missing in action, thousands more were injured and disabled."
No wars are just “over”, It’s not like a football game. Or binary.
P2P distribution of live content
Nov 19th
I enjoy quality journalism from international news channels like BBC World, Al-Jazeera and France24, but as I don’t own a TV (and probably never will) my only option is to use video streams from broadcasters or commercial third parties, and as unicast streams consume a lot of bandwidth for each concurrent user, they are not an affordable service for broadcasters to provide en masse. Usually, I’ll have to pay for the access, and I gladly do as long as the price is right.
Unfortunately, this is not a suitable solution if online TV streaming (where expensive ISP-dependent “value added” services like Nextgentel’s Broadpark just doesn’t cut it) are supposed to go mainstream. For a while now, I have been looking at different technologies for using peer-to-peer technology for distributing live multimedia streams as an alternative to unicast. There seems to be several services available online, depending on what you’d like to watch and if you don’t mind poor quality. One P2P service offer limited reception of Scandinavian entertainment channels like TV3, as well as NRK, TVNorge and others, probably without any consideration of copyright infringement. Besides this, the problem with solutions like this is also that the P2P distribution technology seem to be proprietary and poorly implemented with heavy dependencies on lock-in technology like Windows, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and ActiveX plugins.
Multicast transport might have been a good solution, but access to the MBone is usually not available outside academia, and IPv6 is just too far away.
Peer to peer distribution of live content is a complicated matter, and I have still not found a suitable open platform for P2P distribution of livestream content, so I am considering looking a bit deeper into current P2P protocols together with others. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
When I discussed this matter with a friend recently, she mentioned a service called Zattoo which seem to provide live content like Al-Jazeera, France24, Deutsche Welle and NRK in an acceptable quality for free. It is proprietary technology, and they seem to “only” use p2p to reduce the broadcaster’s bandwith demands to 10% of today. Not exactly what I was looking for in the technology itself, but it seems to be a cool service providing my favourite content free of charge. Much to my surprise, they also support a Linux client.
The definition of patriotism
Jul 7th
I am a Patriot
by Frederick H. Winterberg III
If being a patriot means hanging an American flag from the antenna of one’s car or from the flagpole in front of one’s house, then I don’t qualify.
If being a patriot means standing behind the president, no matter what he and his administration do, then I guess I’m out on that count too.
If being a patriot is not voicing your opinion because it goes against what the government is saying, I lose again.
If being a patriot means giving up my civil liberties, then I guess I’m out of luck.
If being a patriot means supporting the use of torture in questioning suspects, holding people indefinitely without bail or legal representation, or holding military tribunals to try “war criminals” out of the sight of the public and judiciary, then I am the antithesis of a patriot.
And yet this is what our government is calling for, in the name of patriotism. Anybody who doesn’t get in lockstep behind the president and embrace what I’ve outlined above is considered a traitor, or worse, a terrorist.
In my heart, I know I’m a patriot.
I am a patriot because I dearly love my country and what it purports to stand for. I love the idea of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, without interference from the government. I feel blessed to have grown up in a country with guaranteed basic human rights, which is so much more than many people in the world receive. I cherish the right to speak my mind when I want, where I want, on whatever subject I want, no matter how much it may go against the beliefs of those around me. And I cherish the right of other people to do the same, even when what they say infuriates me. I am grateful for my right to privacy, to be free from intrusive searches and seizures by the government and police without a warrant and just cause. I am thankful for the beauty and splendor of this country’s untouched and undeveloped areas, where the true beauty of nature can still be experienced and appreciated. And above all, I appreciate more than anything else the right to live my life as I see fit, without any government, religion, or corporation telling me what I should and should not, or can and can not do.
For these reasons, and many others, I am a patriot.
In the wake of September 11, the government has, with predictable zeal, gone after the very things that I cherish about my country and that make it a special place to live. Our rights are flying out the window at an alarming pace. My privacy can be invaded, my home searched without reason, the environment and nature are being bulldozed in the name of profits and oil. I could even be jailed for writing this piece.
Yet I am still a patriot.
I will not abandon my country by moving to Canada or another country because I don’t like the way this one is being run. I will not stand silent as my rights are being stripped, even though to speak out against the government these days is considered treasonous. I will not “watch what I say, watch what I do”, as the President’s press Secretary advised us last month. No, I will stand and fight for what I believe in. I believe in the constitution of the United States, and what it stands for. I believe in all the things I spoke of above that I love and cherish about this country.
Most of all, I believe patriotism comes from within, from a place deep inside me. Not from a flag, not from my possessions, not from my stature in society or how much money I make, not from getting in line behind those in power because they tell me it’s the right thing to do. To me, it is to stand up and fight for what I believe is right for myself and my country in the face of adversity, which is what we are facing now.
And that, in my opinion, is the true definition of a patriot.
November 21, 2001
Day 27-28: Endgame
Mar 5th
Thursday, March 2nd
OK, so this is it. The last day. I was feeling awful, because I knew I would miss so much. I checked out of my hotel, left my bag in storage, and went to take the Skytrain to Mo Chit and the MRT metro to Phahon Yothin in order to get my vacation photos printed at a bargain price of only 2.50 baht. With 399 pictures, it turned out to cost me nearly 1000 baht, but then again, this was 1/6th of the price back home. The clerks did not manage very well with English (this was not exactly a “touristy” area) but sign language and patience did the trick.
They needed two hours to do the developing, so I took the MRT metro back downtown to Sukhumvit/Asoke, and then the Skytrain one stop further down to Phrom Phong and the Emporium, where I sat down at Starbucks with a large drip coffee and today’s edition of the Bangkok Post. I contacted Sampron (from Koh Jum) who was in Bangkok at the moment, and we agreed to meet at Mo Chit again at 15:00, as I would go back there to get the photos. After some delays (hey, it’s Bangkok) I fetched the photos at Phahon Yothin and took the MRT back to Mo Chit, where he picked me up. We went downtown to have lunch at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, but we had to go to Siam Square instead, as Sampron had left his membership card at home. We had a snack and a nice conversation on a Starbucks in Siam Square (I don’t know why I keep ending up at Starbucks, I really hate that place) and later I was offered a ride to the airport. We got my bag out of storage and went uptown in his neighbourhood near Don Muang where we had a meal and some beers, before I was dropped off at the airport.
KLM was in a good mood that day, so they gave me an exit row seat, but unfortunately I got the seat right next to the emergency slide, so that my legroom got even smaller than with an ordinary seat. The good thing was that I could have my legs resting on the slide during flight. I didn’t give this much thought – I was too sad to leave Thailand in order to enjoy this rare privilege at all.
When arriving in Amsterdam, disembarking from the aircraft, I was welcomed by a chilly wind coming into the walkbridge from outside. My thin jacket didn’t help much, and I was really feeling down when it turned out to be somewhat of a snow blizzard around Europe that day. Most flights was delayed or cancelled, but eventually my connecting plane turned up at the gate, and I got back home to Kristiansand about 90 minutes after schedule.
With my pockets full of everything but Norwegian currency, and a bus service that didn’t accept credit cards, I went about the airport looking for an ATM. After finding one (on the other end of the airport, of course) withdrawing enough money for the bus and a taxi from the bus terminal, I discovered that the bus was gone. Luckily, the next bus would come by 30 minutes later. When I got to Arendal, I decided to not waste money on a taxi, so I had to run around to the other side of the terminal to catch the bus going to my parent’s house (where I had parked my dog and car while I was away), nearly missing it. Never mind that my shoelaces had gone up, that I had gotten a cold and was feeling terrible – the bus driver had the biggest smile I had seen after arriving back in Europe, and that instantly made me feel a whole lot better. On the bus, I met an old friend from back when I grew up here, as he was going home together with his young son and baby daughter. We nearly didn’t recognize each other, but when we did, we had a great oppertunity to catch up.
At around 14:00 on Friday, March 3rd, I was back where I started.
It had been wonderful.
