Fsf-friends April 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

27 participants
61 discussions

To open software within three years
by Manjush G.Menon 26 Sep '05

26 Sep '05

Original Message ----- From: "IT@School" <itschool(a)asianetindia.com> To: <manjushmenon(a)hotmail.com> Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2002 5:08 PM Subject: Reply > Mr.Manjush G. Menon > We are not giving to depend totally on Ms. Products. Rather MS > Office is taught along with open office and Windows along with Linux > from this year. Arranging the resource persons for training an open > software, making available the software, the maintenance of a help desk > etc. are logistical issues which could not be immediately undertaken. > We plan switch out to open software within three years. > Executive Director > ---- Original Message ----- From: Manjush G. Menon To: itschool(a)asianetindia.com Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 5:46 PM Subject: Respected sir, From Manjush G. Menon, Sr.Programmer, Sofker Solutions Pvt Ltd, Kochi-18. To The Executive Director, 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project, SCERT Buildings, Poojapura, Thiruvananthapuram-12. Respected sir, SUB: In protest against the inclusion of products from multinational companies in the syllabus of 'IT @ SCHOOL' It's a very dissappointing fact that when the whole world is moving towards Free software, we at kerala are going behind a major MNC - Microsoft. I hereby register my protest in such an act from 'IT @ SCHOOL' Project team. Breaking of prototypes will definetly help us in finding economical and high quality products for our future generation. For students and programmers, the GNU Linux contains 'GNU Compiler Collections' which includes C, C++, FORTRAN, PERL, TCL etc. Also, for DTP and other publishing purposes, it includes GNU Office utilities like Abi-Word, gedit, and other worksheet utilities, all these with a nominal cost of Rs 700-800/-. The software as it is, is free and the cost is accounted towards the media (CD + Documentation) included. By this letter, I urge you to take this matter seriously and suggest necessary modifications in the action plan of 'IT @ SCHOOL' project. Wishing you all the best and wishing all 'Students @ SCHOOL' a bright future, Thanking you, Yours faithfully Manjush G. Menon. ______________________________________________________ Check out all the latest outrageous email attachments on the Outrageous Email Chart! - http://viral.lycos.co.uk

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PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha 16 Sep '04

16 Sep '04

Thanks to George Lessard for posting this across. FN ---------- Forwarded message ---------- PERUVIAN EFFORT COULD BAN MICROSOFT ON GOV. COMPUTERS Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva is pushing legislation to obligate all public institutions to convert exclusively to open-source software. Open-source programs, embodied by the Linux operating system, have underlying code available to anyone who wants to modify or customize it. Such software, in unadorned form, can be downloaded from the Internet for free. Villanueva hopes his measure triggers activity in Peru's software industry by freeing programmers from the constraints of working with coding controlled by a few large companies. Open-source could take the expense out of software upgrades; which is important for a country like Peru that owes about $30 million in overdue software license fees. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury, AUTHOR: Associated Press] (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/3531007.htm)

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LINK: Association for Free Software, annual conference 17 May 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

Association For Free Software AFFS Annual Conference, 17 May 2003 Norfolk, England, 29 April 2003 -- AFFS is pleased to confirm details of its first Association For Free Software Annual Conference (AFFSAC), to be held at Aston University in Birmingham on Saturday 17 May 2003. This is a great opportunity for free software supporters and developers to meet, share experiences and plan activities for the year ahead. AFFSAC is a one-day plenary conference, with sessions about topics such as networking, multimedia and activism. The conference is free to AFFS members and those who have applied to join, with small charges for optional extras. Online registration and electronic ticketing is available on the AFFS web site at http://www.affs.org.uk/ Uniquely, the talks give priority to people developing and using free software, with speakers announced by project rather than company. Talks range from the 5-minute "lightning talk" to 40-minute keynotes, followed by question-and-answer sessions. The full programme will be published shortly before the conference and more applications from speakers are welcomed until then. The conference has been welcomed by the developer group, the Association of Free Software Professionals. Neil Darlow of AFSP said: "AFFS and AFSP can, through cooperation and individual effort, promote the recognition of free software to a level where enterprises and consumers of software will routinely consider free software as a viable solution." Later, at the same venue, the AFFS Annual General Meeting will hear reports on the first year's work and current members will make key decisions about the year ahead. Association For Free Software The Association for Free Software is a non-profit association with the primary goal of promoting the adoption of FSF free software in the UK, formed in 2002. The Free Software Foundation says that free software is software that gives users the rights to use, distribute, modify and redistribute modifications of it. AFFS is the UK associate body of the Free Software Foundation Europe. Aston University The Aston University Campus is in the centre of the exciting and vibrant city of Birmingham, home to over 50,000 students. Birmingham, Britain's second city, is flourishing and is now internationally recognised as a leader in leisure, entertainment, business, shopping, industry and sport. ENDS Notes 1. For more information about AFFS see http://www.affs.org.uk/ 2. For more information on FSF Europe see http://www.fsfeurope.org/press/ 3. For more information on Aston University see http://www.aston.ac.uk/ 4. Email contact: frontdesk(a)affs.org.uk

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EVENT-GOA: LaTeX, TeX, Free Software in the Enterprise... network security (5.5.2003)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

SIX PROPONENTS of Free Software from Kerala are to visit Goa shortly, and to interact with those interested in issues they're working on. Those coming are CV Radhakrishnan, CV Rajagopal, E Krishnan, Anil Kumar, S. Rajkumar and KG Kumar. Some of the presentations planned for Monday, May 5, 2003 from 4 to 6 pm at the Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna are: o Introduction to LaTeX and digital typography o TeX as a business solution: a case study of the BSNL Trivandrum telephone directory o GNU/Linux and Free Software in the Enterprise: with a case study of the online bill payment system of BSNL Tvm. o Free Software and its relevance in higher education (subject to confirmation) o Network security using Free Software tools. All are invited to this interesting meet. If you'd like any particular emphasis, kindly send your feedback to KG Kumar of the Indian TeX Users Group at <kg at tug.org.in> See you on May 5 at Verna! FN PS: Below is a feature relating to the work of some members of the team, which puts the issue in context... - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6738 Currents: Free Software Makes Telephone Users' Lives Easier in India Posted on Thursday, March 20, 2003 Large prep and printing job made manageable and affordable with free tools. Thanks to free software, one-third of a million telephone users living in Southern India will no longer find locating phone numbers such a complex process. Telephone directories often take a notoriously long time to be published in India, meaning phone subscribers are lost when trying to locate numbers they need. GNU/Linux increasingly is attracting attention in Corporate India, not only for its usually lower costs but also because of its high quality products. Last weekend, the latest edition of the Thiruvananthapuram telephone directory--from the regional capital of the south-western province of Kerala--was processed and typeset using a range of free software tools. These tools provided substantial savings in cost and time, while producing a neatly laid-out and elegant publication ahead of schedule. The two-volume directory, to be distributed to all subscribers of the Thiruvananthapuram secondary switching area as of March 25, contains 1,200 pages and 320,000 entries. Some 400,000 copies of the directory currently are being printed by the locally based St. Joseph's Press, using typesetting software and programs provided by River Valley Technologies (RVT), also based in the Kerala capital. RVT specialises in typesetting and publishing solutions using free and open-source software. For the phone directory publishers domestic telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), this is the first complete directory to be published since 1999. K. Sreekantan Nair, Principal General Manager of the Thiruvananthapuram telecom district, said BSNL has spent Rs 35 million on printing the directory. Normally, an order of this magnitude -- a print run of 400,000 copies, each with 1,200 pages printed on 48 GSM white paper in three columns of Helvetica Narrow 7 point typeface, with 94 lines per column--would have taken six months and involved around 50 employees wholly dedicated to the work. In this case, however, the press was able to finish the entire printing process in four months, using a smaller team. At present, SJP's printing presses are operating 21 hours per day at their maximum capacity of 20,000 copies per hour to finish the printing. Using software like PageMaker or QuarkXPress could have taken a longer time, said RVT. Instead, they used a combination of free software programs to extract BSNL's data, process it and typeset it into camera-ready copy. RVT managing director C. V. Radhakrishnan said the BSNL data of telephone numbers, subscribers names and addresses was supplied as files in dBase, an outdated database software that goes back to the days of the DOS operating system. Using a set of free software libraries downloaded from the Internet and locally customised, this data was extracted into the PostgreSQL relational database, also free software, and was then entirely recreated. RVT wrote a Java program to pipe this newly generated database into TeX.

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NEWS: Free Software protests Microsoft's participation
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

URL : http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6784 [50]Linux Community NYFairUse representatives staged a peaceful protest at last month's DC conference supposedly aimed at exposing free and open-source software to government officials. [51]NYFairUse representatives, costumed as the American Founding Fathers, left the warm comfort of their homes at 4:00 in the morning on March 17th, 2003, to go down to Washington DC. We left for George Washington University in full colonial regalia in a 15-person passenger van. The purpose of our trip was to protest the mismanagement of the EGOVOS conference taking place that morning. The central issue that galvanized NYFairUse in this situation is the increasingly irresponsible manner in which free and open-source software advocates have been putting together conferences and events. EGOVOS was supposed to be a showcase for free and open-source software in government, be it local, national or international. The conference had the potential to open up a stubbornly closed market by laying out the legal, moral and practical foundations for the use of free software in everyday government operation. Instead, it became a platform and photo opportunity for the Microsoft organization--the inevitable result when the $40 billion company dedicated to destroying free software is invited to make a presentations. As expected, Microsoft didn't let their shareholders down. The few news items that came out of this conference were about Microsoft's "Shared Source". Microsoft's money buys real loyalty in the technology press, and in a conference with little media coverage the only mainstream press was from E-Week, which ran a full article on Microsoft's misdirections under the headline, "Microsoft's Matusow: No Right Way to Create Software". The article did everything it could to blur the differences between free software and the closed, anti-competitive methods of monopolists. All of this becomes fodder for their next $100 million campaign aimed at every CTO in the nation. Worse than that, it takes food off the table of our free software consulting industry and the developer community it supports. Their presence crippled people who sell free software for a living. It damaged those who could offer the uninitiated (such as the attendees of the conference) a solid, firsthand presentation of the benefits of free software. It leaves the public confused about the benefits of free software in their businesses, jobs and lives. Bad Leadership versus Good Advocacy NYFairUse first heard about the problem with EGOVOS through the NYLXS mailing list, as part of a follow-up on our experiences with the 2003 Linux World Exposition in New York. At the Expo, NYLXS member David Sugar voiced his confusion about his product (the GNU/Bayonne telephony system) losing the award for Best System Integration Software to Microsoft's Services for Unix. NYLXS had its annual dinner after the convention, and we spoke with Linux Journal editor Don Marti about the award and its implications to our membership. Something didn't seem right, but Don offered a reasonable explanation for the turn of events. NYFairUse had an impromptu discussion about the award and about the rumblings coming from SCO that suggested they might be preparing lawsuits against the GNU/Linux community for infringing upon UNIX patents. We decided to keep an eye on upcoming developments on both fronts. A few days later. David Sugar e-mailed the NYLXS list about Microsoft's presentation at EGOVOS. We quickly had a broad and lively discussion about the situation, with the participation of the Washington DC-area LUGs, developers from California and Canada, members of the Free Software Foundation, NYFairUse, GNU Enterprise, The Open Office Marketing List, a few interested journalists, NYLUG and eventually Bruce Perens (who happens to be a member of the group hosting the EGOVOS conference, the Cyber Security and Policy Institute). I watched my e-mail account fill with hundreds of private messages from people across the east coast, all volunteering to protest Microsoft's inclusion. NYFairUse had an internal discussion and decided that the last thing we wanted was an unwieldy demonstration in front of hundreds of government officials who might be investigating free software for the first time. We need to reverse the trend of Microsoft getting a free public relations boost at the expense of free software developers and advocates, particularly at our own venues, so we decided that NYFairUse would go in with a focused message presented by a small and prepared group. We rejected the calls for a broad and raucous protest: if all the volunteers showed up we would have outnumbered the actual conference participants. We had to figure out how to attract attention, raise the necessary issues, put the open-source "leaders" on notice and still not turn the conference completely upside down. The answer NYFairUse came up with was exciting, fun and effective. We are fortunate to have associates working on Broadway, and they introduced us to costume designers who dressed us as Colonial Americans, circa 1776. Suddenly everything came together, and NYFairUse was ready to move ahead in a constructive manner. The core of the NYFairUse action included Joe Grastara, Dave Williams, Cesar Vargas, Sunny Dubbey, Adam Kosmin, Tim Wilcox, Marco Scoffier, Vincenzo L., Ray Connolly and myself. Dave Williams and Joe Grastara helped us construct an effective message that became our pamphlet. Ray arranged for transportation and drove both to and from the event, a total of twelve hours. Cesar, Sunny, Ray, Tim, Adam and myself dressed as Founding Fathers. Marco and Vinnie helped everyone prepare. The entire enterprise was underwritten by NYLXS. Most of the participants met in Brooklyn and stayed overnight at my home, where a weekend-long InstallFest was taking place. Ray, as the driver, got several hours sleep while the rest of us made final preparations. At 4:00 AM, NYFairUse embarked on the trip to Washington. We arrived safely at 9:30 in the morning, fully dressed in costumes and ready to make our case. figure Reaching our Audience: Confronting Hostile Guards Upon our arrival at George Washington University, the appearance of seven historic American heroes astonished people, and cameras flashed all around. After we picked up our badges and began handing out our pamphlets, people flowed out of the main auditorium to surround us and inquire about who we were and what we were handing out. We brought 400 pamphlets, and all but a dozen where given away. Each NYFairUse member became a center of attention. We managed to talk personally with nearly every member of the conference accept for Bradley Kuhn, who refused to talk to any of us for some reason. Our pamphlet strongly condemned the organizers of the conference for not appropriately representing the free software movement and for caving in to self-interest over the good of the community. We explained that they were giving Microsoft a free public relations opportunity to confuse the issues and to promote their "Shared Source" disinformation campaign. The conference itself, although filled with luminaries from the international Free Software Community, was limited in its attendance. During our visit, no more than 500 people were at the presentations, but the numbers might have been closer to 300. The small gathering proved useful, as NYFairUse was able to contact nearly every participant directly. We had nearly 100% penetration of the conference, including both attendees and speakers. Many of us spent several minutes talking to individuals, and I personally had the pleasure of speaking about the problem with European Union Minister Philip Aigrain, whom I had previously met in Bordeaux last year. I also spent a few minutes talking to Georg Greve of the European FSF, David Axmark of MySQL, Sarah Brown from Public Knowledge and many others whose names I failed to get. The same was true for all of the NYFairUse members. At one point while giving out pamphlets, the security guards came over. Searching for the leader of the protest, one guard approached me and asked who was in charge. I waved him off, and he became very annoyed. He asked me my name, so I smiled and said, "George...like in Washington, and you're in my University." I spotted journalist Grant Gross and said, "Look Grant, they're throwing us out of here!" Grant took out his notepad and the cameras gathered around. The guard retreated and went to speak with Tony Stanco. They decided that it was better to let us proceed than to face the bad press. A few minutes later Tony Stanco came over to talk to me. I spent a couple of minutes with him, during which he asked me if I got everything I wanted out of the event. I told him that we'll know in a few months, if Microsoft still is getting a free ride courtesy of the Open Source community. Mr. Stanco reassured me that what we were doing was okay. Having his approval was not reassuring. I made it clear that it wasn't our intention to have a blood-letting. Our purpose was to get a message across to the open-source leadership, explaining what we require of them and what standards we expect. Mr. Stanco then pointed to the crowd, saying, "You see these people? You'll never get through to them with screaming and yelling." I replied, "Maybe -- it depends on the need. In this case, we don't need to scream. In another situation, a louder voice might be useful." Mr. Stanco then said, "Have you ever heard Microsoft talk? They're going to be the best promoters of Free Software when they open their mouths." I reiterated my points: Microsoft's presence at the EGOVOS conference takes attention away from other, more deserving individuals and focuses it on themselves. Mr. Stanco refused to recognize the situation he created. He also failed to understand that this was part of a broader trend the community faces: the increasing encroachment of Microsoft in venues designed to sell free software to the public. The public deserves better. By 2:00 PM, we essentially had spoken to everyone at the conference. We made a lot of contacts, and in addition to handing out pamphlets, NYFairUse members handed out literature about their own government and business projects. In fact we took about 30 folders representing the Free Software Chamber of Commerce, our New York Free Software consultants network. Every folder was given out. We had a long discussion with the head of Hewlett Packard Research in Europe, who was very upset with us because he believed we opposed the commercialization of Free Software. We spent some time explaining how this was not the case, that we were upset because someone was giving Microsoft a free pass to the Open Source movement without making them contribute anything. The NYFairUse Position People often have asked why NYFairUse discriminates against Microsoft. The truth is that NYFairUse has no such bias. Our approach to Microsoft is the same as it is toward any company that warns businesses to avoid the GPL (as if a standard Microsoft EULA would withstand legal scrutiny). After all, they publish detrimental lies, such as this one from the current Microsoft web site: The GPL is designed to prevent commercial development of software distributed under the license. It does this largely by requiring licensees to make available, at little or no cost, the entire source code for any program that incorporates any amount of GPL code. Given that requirement, commercial developers cannot recover their research and development investments by charging reasonable and appropriate fees for their original software if it uses any GPL code. Free-software developers have every right to pursue this anti-commercial objective. Microsoft's concern is the resulting degradation of the software ecosystem that would be triggered by widespread acceptance of the GPL, particularly within the governmental and academic research sectors. This ecosystem has sustained unparalleled innovation throughout the industry for the past quarter-century. The principal role of government and universities in the ecosystem is to undertake basic research and to dispense the findings both into the societal base of technical knowledge and to private enterprises and individuals capable of developing these innovations commercially. Commercial enterprises, in turn, engage in applied research to develop products that advance the state of technology, generating jobs, profits and tax revenues that boost the economy (funding additional basic research in the process). Commercial enterprises also disseminate innovations directly into the larger technical-knowledge base. Microsoft uses its monopoly to thwart free software projects, such as SAMBA when it bans companies from releasing CIFS tools under the GPL, and when it participates in the Digital Rights Management scam that will end the practical use of free software through the Palladium "trusted computing" platform. But it wasn't Microsoft that we were upset with on this occasion. We are mad at people such as Tony Stanco, who discriminate against free software developers and distributors for their own personal advancement. And we let them know about it. As a footnote, after our trip to George Washington University, NYFairUse made a trip to Capitol Hill while still dressed in our costumes. We got big smiles all along the halls of Congress, especially at Congressman Weiner's office. He's a member of the the sub-committee on Intellectual Property and the Internet. We have a handshake deal to install a GNU/Linux system in his office, so stay tuned.

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few errors in new design
by Sameer N. I. 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

hi, I just saw the FSFIndiaPoster.pdf the colours used are fine except on the "weave your own code". the text that reads "Weave your own code". the colour of "Weave" is green you used. It appears on top and the colour for "Code" is saffron. It should be interchanged because saffron is on top in our national flag and green is at bottom. please check. Best regards. Sameer.

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GNU is not an ideal system... but the "best one available"
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

------------------------------------------------------------------ NEWSFACTOR: DEVELOPER'S DILEMMA: CHOOSING AN OPEN-SOURCE LICENSE "The GPL is not perfect, but it is the preferred option, says Marten Mickos, CEO of MySQL AB. 'GPL is like democracy--not perhaps an ideal system, but most definitely the best one available. We have no regrets as to choosing GPL.' COMPLETE STORY: http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21280.html More IT Management stories: http://linuxtoday.com/it_management ------------------------------------------------------------------

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Writing stored procedures for MySQL
by Biju G C 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

While searching web I came across these projects and thought it may be interesting. MySQL+LUA=MyLUA Is a patch to MySQL that allow users to write procedures in a scripting language called LUA Allow to write a MySQL procedure in a scripting language, without rebuild the server. http://www.fastflow.it/mylua/ PHP functions 4 MySQL Is a user defined function for MySQL that allow users to write functions in PHP. It allow users to write a MySQL function in a scripting language, without rebuild the server. http://www.fastflow.it/myphp/ DBTCP DBTCP is a proxy server for ODBC connection. Allow to make a query from a linux machine to a database in a Windows machine trough ODBC. Allow to connect all ODBC compliant databases from a Linux server from shell scripts, perl via DBD and PHP. http://www.fastflow.it/dbtcp/ Why a proxy for odbc connections ? The main reason for using dbtcp is the lack of support for a few odbc databases under Linux and the fact that you can use multiple dbtcp clients on a pay-per-odbc-connection database management system. Example: COUNT.LUA - Append a column to the result with the row number linux: $ mysql mysql Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g. Your MySQL connection id is 2 to server version: 3.23.32-gamma-log Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer mysql> select user from user procedure lua("/usr/src/mysql/sql/count.lua"); +-----------+---------+ | user.User | Counter | +-----------+---------+ | | 1 | | root | 2 | | | 3 | | root | 4 | +-----------+---------+ 4 rows in set (0.01 sec) Source -- Called when the procedure is initialized function init () ROWS.init=1 end -- Modifica un campo del risultato -- Change a field definition of the result set function set_field ( num, name, type, length ) if ( FIELDS[num] == nil ) then FIELDS[num]={} end FIELDS[num].name=name FIELDS[num].type=type FIELDS[num].length=length end -- Richiamata per cambiare le definizioni delle colonne -- Called to change the columns definition for the result set function change_columns () set_field ( FIELDS.num, "Counter", "STRING", 10 ) FIELDS.num=FIELDS.num+1 end -- Richiamata appena prima di inviare il set di risultati al client -- Called just before sending the result set to the client function end_of_records () local idx, new_tab, idx2 local i,v new_tab={} -- Crea la struttura vuota per i valori idx=0 while ( idx&ltROWS.num ) do ROWS[idx][FIELDS.num-1]=idx+1; idx=idx+1 end end __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

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fsf-friends@gnu.org.in at nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.india.fsf-friends
by Biju G C 30 Apr '03

30 Apr '03

Hi all, Thanks to Tom Koelman and others at http://gmane.org fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in is now available as a news group at server : news.gmane.org groupname : gmane.org.fsf.india.fsf-friends U can set it up in ur news reader with the above information or by clicking nntp://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.fsf.india.fsf-friends in mozilla browser/mail reader U can also view it online at http://news.gmane.org/thread.php?group=gmane.org.fsf.india.fsf-friends Arun, Thanks for ur willingness to allow fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in at http://gmane.org Admins, If v want to hav our old mails available at http://gmane.org V hav to import old mail archives into Gmane Here is the instruction (from http://gmane.org/import.php ) Importing Archives Into Gmane Mailing list archives can be imported into Gmane. Archives to be imported can be in one of two formats: Either a tar file of a one-message-per-file directory, where the files have names that increase numerically, or a Unix mbox file. No other formats are acceptable. A Unix mbox file is preferred. If you wish to have an archive of a mailing list you administrate imported into Gmane, send a mail to Lars ( larsi+gmane(a)gnus.org ) with the URL of the mailing list archive, and which group it should be imported into. The list admin/owner should OK this before the archive is imported. If you're the list admin, please say so in the email where you request the import. If not, please get in touch with the list admin first and get an approval before you request the import. The list admin often has access to an mbox format mail archive for the list, so get the URL for the archive at the same time. For the technically inclined, here's how a mailing list archive import is done. It's not always as straightforward as it may seem. * If there are no articles already in the group, the archive is simply imported. * If there are already articles in the group, things get a bit more complicated, since Gmane tries to keep at least a loose correlation between the order of the article numbers and the sequence in which the messages were posted. 1. Let's say there's already articles 1-1000 in the group, and there's 2000 (unstored) articles in the archive. 2. Reception of new articles for the group is temporarily disabled. 3. The archive is imported into the group, ignoring any articles that have already been stored in the group. The articles from the archive get article numbers 1001-3000. 4. Articles 1-1000 are renamed to 3001-4000. 5. Using a hacked-up version of the prunehistory inn command, the storage tokens for these moved articles are altered. 6. The overview file for the group is regenerated. 7. Any articles that arrived while doing this operation are handled and injected into the group. This means that if you've read articles in the group before doing the import, they'll suddenly become unread again, since they're assigned new article numbers. This is inconvenient, but it's a one-time inconvenience. Having the articles permanently out of sequence would be a permanent inconvenience. The web interface to the articles will still respect the old article numbering, as well as the new. http://article.gmane.org/gmane.test/44 and http://article.gmane.org/gmane.test/348 both refer to the same article after one of these renumberings. Cheers Biju --- Tom Koelman <tkoelman(a)xs4all.nl> wrote: > The following message is a courtesy copy of an article > that has been posted to gmane.discuss.subscribe as well. > > bijumaillist(a)yahoo.com writes: > > > #gmane.fsf.india.fsf-friends fsf-friends(a)gnu.org.in > > An open list which invites questions, proposals, suggestions, comments to aid the > FSF-India\'s activities. > > mailman dummy > > encode=encrypt > > A subscription message for the requested mailing list has been sent. > The resulting group will be created when the first message arrives > from the mailing list. New groups that are created are announced in > gmane.announce. > > Tom > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo. http://search.yahoo.com

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Free software debate in Parliament...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Apr '03

29 Apr '03

URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=444… TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 2003 [2]THE TIMES OF INDIA INDIA Oppn soft on Linux, wants no Windows TIMES NEWS NETWORK [spacer.gif] [ FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 2003 11:05:12 PM ] NEW DELHI: In a sign that the cyber age has well and truly dawned inside Parliament, the Opposition on Thursday warned the government against the Microsoft monopoly over software. It urged that open source software like Linux be given preference in official procurement. The government, they said, should not insist on proprietary software while issuing tenders for computers, since open source software is available at one-tenth or even one-twentieth the cost of proprietary software like Windows. Participating in the discussion on the working of the communications and information technology ministry in the Rajya Sabha, Congress MP Prithviraj Chavan referred to competition between proprietary and open source software as a "clash of civilisations". Referring to the recent developments in Iraq, Chavan pointed out that cheap alternatives to Microsoft are available and that countries like China, France and Germany are sponsoring the development of this software. He pleaded that the "user should have a choice" of software and that the government should not restrict its procurement only to proprietary products. Replying to the debate on Friday, IT minister Arun Shourie said that the government was not thinking in terms of a rigid policy framework as the life of technology in the information technology sector is just 20 months. "It is not a good idea to have a detailed statutory framework" as this could impede growth in this sector... Policy must be technology neutral," the information technology minister said. ______________________________________________________________________

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Fsf-friends April 2003