Pictures from Open Source Days 2008

As promised here are pictures of some members of the Danish Ubuntu LoCo team, at the Open Source Days 2008 in Copenhagen. All pictures by Niels Kjøller Hansen.

gruppe-lille
From left to right: Niels, Elge Sander, Søren (me), Mads, Mark and Sakse.

The moose is named after Helge Sander, our Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. (Elg means moose in Danish.)

The Software Exchange was running the booth with the fancy setup. They work under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and help the public sector in Denmark choose relevant software, in particular open source software.

Below are some pictures of LoCo team members lounging in front of the portrait of the sabdfl.

gnomonicshiyeesbc

Working webcam

Finally my webcam is working! Up until recently there was no working Linux driver for my webcam, but that seems to have changed.

Reports indicate that the driver is included in the Linux kernel from version 2.6.28. Until that version hits your system (should ship with Ubuntu Jaunty) installing the driver is still possible. See this guide:

http://m560x-driver.wiki.sourceforge.net/testing_m5602

The webcam (or the chip to be more accurate) is located in a lot of laptops. The Launchpad Bug report mentions Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Zepto. I have a Zepto 6615WD myself.

To find out if your webcam is a m560x model, open up a terminal and type

lsusb

if you see a line like this:

Bus 005 Device 003: ID 0402:5602 ALi Corp. Video Camera Controller

you are in business. You may have to activate your webcam somehow. On my system there is a button with a camera icon on it that I have to press before the camera turns on.

The quality is a bit grainy and far from the best – hopefully this can be solved as the driver matures.
hue-lille

However me being (and looking) tired in the morning is properly beyond the scope of some webcam driver. (Yes I cheated and used a regular camera for the Get to know a LoCo post a few weeks back.)

Ubuntu on a USB stick

I finally had the chance to play with the usb-creator feature on the Ibex live CD a few days ago. In short the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD comes with the option to create a USB startup disk or burn the Live CD iso file to a USB stick, to put it differently.

The usb-creator program can be launched from the System -> Administration -> Create a USB starup disk on the Ubuntu 8.10 Live CD

usb-creator

This is a great way to carry around a Ubuntu Linux install, without having to bring my Laptop everywhere. I just need a spare pc with USB boot enabled and I’m good to go, whether I’m trying to show others what Ubuntu can provide or just trying to get some work done. The boot time is of course a bit longer than usual, since everything happens over USB, but once the boot is over you have access to all the fabulous tools that comes with Linux. And if you want you can also install Ubuntu Linux onto the machine you are working on (but don’t do this on other peoples machines without their consent!).

The size of your USB key does limit the fun, both how many extra programs you can install and how many files you can carry around. But with a 4 GB key like mine there is room for the programs I need and can’t seem to find on the Windows machines at work.

It is not all roses though. During install and upgrades I quickly ran into this bug which seems to prevent upgrades of the kernel. Security also seems to be an issue. There is no password needed to log into the system or to use sudo. There is also the risk of forgetting the USB stick – somehow forgetting an entire laptop seems less likely than forgetting a USB key in the USB drive as you get up to leave.
I haven’t yet looked into the possibility of using the private encrypt directory to protect files on the key, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work on the Live CD.

So, what other uses have you put your Live USB keys to?

Sikkerhedsmæssige grunde?!?

Jeg aflæste mit el-forbrug i dag. Da jeg skulle logge ind på DONGs selvbetjenings side blev jeg mødt af følgende pop-up, efter jeg havde indtastet mit kunde- og aftagernummer

Du har ikke brugt selvbetjeningen i længere tid.
Af sikkerhesmæssige grunde er du nu blevet logget af.

Du skal logge på igen for at få adgang til selvbetjeningen.

nesadk

Nu er jeg jo ikke sikkerhedsekspert, men det giver da ikke mening, gør det? Hvilket sikkerhedsbrist bliver afhjulpet ved denne lille øvelse? Hvis man først er nået til at få denne besked smidt i hovedet, så har man jo lige indtastet det rigtige kunde- og aftagernummer. Intet forhindrer at man gør det igen.

dong-small

Sikkerhed!

Martin spørger:

Men hvis du skulle pege på én grund, og det må ikke være pris, til at folk skulle vælge Ubuntu (eller anden linux distro), hvad ville det så være?

Mit svar er sikkerhed! Der er to store aspekter af it sikkerhed. Det ene er brugerens forståelse af systemet, det andet er software. En bruger der forstår mulige sikkerhedshuller vil være bedre i stand til at mindske sin egen risiko. Dette er fuldstændig uafhængigt af hvilket system der anvendes.
Det andet aspekt – software – er selvfølgelig vanskeligt at vurdere pga. de meget komplekse problemstillinger, men min vurdering er at Linux (og hermed også Ubuntu) er mere sikkert end Microsoft windows (og andre lukkede systemer). Listen over kendte sikkerhedshuller i Microsoft software, der har fået lov til at eksistere uden sikkerhedsopdateringer i ugevis, er lang…

Men i sidste ende handler software sikkerhed om tillid. Ingen almindelige brugere kan forstå og overskue alle programmer og koden der ligger bag. Jeg har det bedst med at opgaven med løbende at udarbejde sikkerhedsopdateringer varetages i en åben proces (som det sker med open source) og ikke under lukkede forhold, hvor udarbejdelse af og kontrol med sikkerhedsopdateringer er begrænset til nogle få udvalgte medarbejdere indenfor et enkelt firma.

Arrival

The Danish Team got our free Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex CDs today!

The CD box contains

  • Ubuntu: PC: 230
  • Kubuntu: PC: 50
  • Server PC: PC: 50
  • Server 64bit: PC: 20

I actually thought the box would also include some 64bit (k)ubuntu desktop CDs. But there you go. If you are part of the Danish LoCo Team do get in touch if you want to help distribute these CDs. Everyone is of course free to use the Ship It service.

The delivery company (TNT) also deserves some praise. I wasn’t at home when they tried to deliver yesterday – but on my way home I received a phone call (why getting on the Metro) informing me that they had a package for me, if I would be home the next day or if other arrangements should be made. As it happens today is my day off, so I was at home, and they promised to be here between 9 and 16. I think they were here around 10.

Compared to other shipments I have received this was a nice service.

Så er den her

Ubuntu 8.10 (med kælenavnet Intrepid Ibex) er som planlagt blevet udgivet i dag.

Jeg har startet Azureus for at hente .iso filer ned. De skal jo gerne være klar til Ubuntu Live!, så vi kan få brændt en masse cd’er til interesserede. Jeg har også brugt lidt af dagen i dag til at eksperimentere med muligheden for at brænde .iso filer til usb-sticks. Der følger et program med Ubuntu 8.10 der gør det muligt at ‘brænde’ f.eks. en live cd til en usb stick. Meget praktisk altid at kunne gå rundt med en Ubuntu Live cd – bare i formen af en usb stick.

Den nye Ubuntu kan hentes her: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download.

15 minutes of fame!

Onsdag d. 29 oktober kl. 21.25 (det er i morgen) sender Magasinet Penge en udsendelse om en familie der har fået skiftet alle deres Windows computere ud med computere med Ubuntu.

Vi køber private computere for mere end tre milliarder kroner om året, og mange af de penge betaler vi faktisk for programmer. Men måske er der penge at spare ved i stedet at bruge gratis software.
Magasinet Penge tjekker, om de gratis glæder også giver glade brugere.
Vært: Dorte Fals

Efter 17 dage gøres status i programmet. Min medvirken har været begrænset til installation af maskinerne før programmet og lidt praktisk ude hos familie. Hvis jeg er med i nogle klip står jeg sikkert tavs i baggrunden sammen med Martin eller roder med nogle ledninger i det ene børneværelse.

Manden der taler vores sag er Morten Kjærsgaard fra OSL. Jeg var som sagt kun med til at bringe computerne ind i familiens hus, så jeg ved meget lidt om det endelige udfald, men glæder mig meget til at se programmet.

Jeg håber selvfølgelig også at denne tv eksponering vil give ekstra opmærksomhed til Ubuntu Live! nu på lørdag og Open Source bevægelsen i Danmark generelt.

Martin har skrevet lidt mere om detaljerne og vores bidrag her