Fsf-friends June 2003

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NEWS: Patent vote fails Europe's software programmers
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 18 Jun '03

18 Jun '03

Thanks to Lawrence Liang lawrenceliang(a)vsnl.net for routing this. FN http://www.greens-efa.org/en/press/detail.php?id=1445&lg=en Bruxelles/Brussel, 17 June 2003, Patent vote fails Europe's software programmers Unlimited patents will be disastrous for the European software industry and SMEs The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament today adopted a report that allows for the unlimited patenting of software which will, in one swoop, entrench the market dominance of multinational companies, force small software firms out of business and bring to an end the European free software movement. With precise briefing from the Commission - where the bureaucrat responsible is a former employee of the UK patents office, and by the European Patent Office (EPO) - which pockets money on every patent it grants, the rapporteur, British socialist Arlene McCarthy, has defended a confused report that is full of contradictions. In doing this she has a strong backing from Conservatives but fierce criticism from her own political group. UK and German MEPs, in rejecting amendments to the report, have ignored the opinions of the Economic and Social Council, the Industry committee, the Culture committee, 140,000 people and 30 leading software scientists who signed two petitions to the Parliament, as well as the 95% of the European citizens who took part in a European Commission public consultation. The EPO has been illegally granting patents for computer programs for two decades. This practise completely contradicts the Munich convention, which in 1973 established the EPO and decided that computer programs and other rules of organisation and calculation were not patentable inventions under European law. Dany Cohn-Bendit MEP (Greens - Fr) Co-president of the Greens/EFA group and chairman of a conference earlier this year on software patents and SMEs, said: "This patent report is an insult even to the principle of free trade. Pretending to protect inventors and their inventions, it instead allows multinationals to lock up the market." Mercedes Echerer MEP (Greens - A), member of the Culture Committee, said: "It is truly regrettable that some of my colleagues are so confused about the nature of information technology. Ideas and algorithms are already protected under copyright. A computer program, on the other hand, is like a kitchen recipe - all that is needed is a pencil and paper to write it down. Patents already protect technical inventions - there is no reason to extended them to cover software." "This legalisation, as it stands, represents the death of the European software industry, and the death of the free and open-source software industry which, by more than a coincidence, is primarily a European sector. If implemented, it would conclude the transfer of our data-processing control to the US. You can be sure that the report will have a very bumpy ride when it goes to plenary in September with one third of committee members in opposition." Neil McCormick MEP (EFA - Scotland), member of the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Committee, said: "This is a matter of great public concern. It is important to give incentives to inventions, but this does not and should not cover the essentially logical and mathematical work of software development. There is a real danger that legal development of the kind favoured by the majority in the Legal Affairs Committee will hinder innovative development by small firms, not protect it." For further press information: Helmut Weixler Head of Press Office The Greens in the European Parliament Tel: (Bxl) +32 2 2844683 phone: 0032 475 671 340 fax: 0032 2 2844944 mobile phone: 0032-475-67 13 40 hweixler(a)europarl.eu.int THE GREENS/EFA in the European Parliament -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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SCO claims IBM Unix contract void
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 17 Jun '03

17 Jun '03

SCO claims IBM Unix contract void By Stephen Shankland Staff Writer, CNET News.com June 16, 2003, 5:02 PM PT update SCO Group on Monday said it revoked IBM's license to sell its version of Unix, called AIX, and requested that a judge permanently block IBM's Unix business. "We have terminated IBM's right to use AIX in their business, development, distribution and sales," said Chris Sontag, head of the SCOsource effort to derive more revenue from the company's Unix intellectual property. And in an amendment to the company's March complaint against IBM, SCO is "seeking a permanent injunction from IBM's continued use of our software in their business." Also in the amended suit, SCO said that it owns the copyrights to Unix and criticized the practices of Linux founder and leader Linus Torvalds. "A significant flaw of Linux is the inability and/or unwillingness of the Linux process manager, Linus Torvalds, to identify the intellectual-property origins of contributed source code that comes in from those many different software developers" who contribute to Linux, the suit said. IBM maintains that it has done nothing wrong, that its license to sell Unix products is still valid, and that its customers need not worry that they no longer have a license to use AIX, said spokesman Mike Fay, vice president of communications for IBM's systems group. "Our Unix license is irrevocable, perpetual and fully paid up. It can't be terminated," Fay said. SCO said that the termination of the AIX license means that all IBM Unix customers also have no license to use the software. "This termination not only applies to new business by IBM, but also existing copies of AIX that are installed at all customer sites. All of it has to be destroyed," Sontag said. Despite the harsh rhetoric, the fact that SCO is seeking a permanent rather than preliminary injunction means that the issue won't be resolved soon and customers need not worry, said Daniel Harris, an intellectual-property attorney with Clifford Chance. "There isn't going to be any practical impact now," Harris said. "Unless they seek a preliminary injunction, there's no (court) order impacting IBM or IBM's customers." IBM sold $3.6 billion worth of Unix servers last year. Among AIX's high-profile customers are Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for fulfilling its guarantees about the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons; Colgate-Palmolive, in order to run much of its global accounting and inventory system; and the National Weather Service, for forecasting hurricanes and other weather events. "We have a recognition of the fact that it's not the end users that have caused this problem, it's IBM's actions that have caused this problem. Our preference would be for corrective action on the part of IBM," SCO's Sontag said. "If we need to, we will enforce all our rights, even with IBM's end users." In a statement, IBM said it will stand behind its products and customers, but raised an intellectual-property issue that SCO so far has skirted: patents. "IBM will continue to ship, support and develop AIX, which represents years of IBM innovation, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment and many patents," IBM said. "I think that's a clear signal," said Gray Cary, an attorney at Mark Radcliffe, who said that a company's first response to an intellectual-property infringement lawsuit is a countersuit based on that company's patents. "I think that's code for 'stand by for the hurricane.' You're going to find a stack of patents about 5-feet high that your product infringes that's going to run up the cost of litigation.'" A judge likely wouldn't grant SCO a preliminary injunction, said John Ferrell, an intellectual-property attorney at Carr & Ferrell. "If they were to ask for preliminary injunction, I can't imagine that it would be granted because the harm to IBM would be so tremendous relative to the benefit of granting the injunction now, as opposed to waiting to the end of the case," he said. In addition, SCO would have to post a bond that would pay for the damage to IBM's business if a preliminary injunction were granted and later found to be improper, Ferrell said. "SCO would have to post that in cash." As a result, SCO's move means that AIX customers might feel a reprieve, Harris said. "If anything, I think the customers may breathe a sigh of relief that there isn't going to be any hearing on a preliminary injunction that might impact them," Harris said. Seeking a permanent injunction as part of a trial "is going to take years." But David Moyer, an attorney with Wineberg, Simmonds & Narita, said not seeking a preliminary injunction "could signal weakness" on SCO's part. "They had signaled they would do something to stop IBM from going forward with AIX. The fact that they haven't filed a motion yet either signals they don't want to do something that drastic or they don't believe they would win." Sontag didn't explain SCO's reasons for not seeking a preliminary injunction, other than to say the company is confident of its case and decided against "taking multiple steps." Because of IBM's unwillingness to bow to SCO's demands, SCO's actions Monday were expected. The companies had engaged in brief but unfruitful discussions, SCO said last week. The seeds of SCO's dispute were sowed several years ago. Unix and AIX has a long and twisted history. In 1995, Novell sold SCO Unix copyrights and contracts with many large companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Compaq Computer. Though those licenses lay largely dormant for years, SCO decided that they could be a source of revenue that could bolster the struggling company's fortunes after its failure to make a business of selling Linux. SCO in March sued IBM for more than $1 billion, alleging that Big Blue had violated its contract with SCO by misappropriating Unix trade secrets it had built into Linux. SCO then found Unix code that it says was copied directly into Linux and has said it will sue others as well. IBM licensed Unix from AT&T in the 1980s, and SCO--formerly called Caldera Systems and Caldera International--bought that contract in 2001. IBM was permitted to build on that Unix technology, but SCO argues that IBM violated its contract by transferring some of those modifications to Linux. Specifically, Sontag said IBM moved technology to Linux from AIX and another version of Unix called Dynix that IBM acquired when it bought Sequent. Specifically, the transferred code includes the Journaled File System (JFS), extensions to make Linux work on a multiprocessor server employing the non-uniform memory access (NUMA) technique, Sontag said. In addition, he said read-copy update (RCU) for relieving some memory bottlenecks on multiprocessor servers, was transferred.

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Linux (Finally) Ready for the Desktop
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 17 Jun '03

17 Jun '03

Linux (Finally) Ready for the Desktop By Robyn Weisman E-Commerce Times June 16, 2003 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/21695.html Ignoring a personal entreaty (and a 15 percent licensing discount) from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the city of Munich, Germany, decided recently to migrate its 14,000 PC desktop users from Windows to the Linux platform. Laura DiDio, senior analyst of application infrastructure and software platforms at the Yankee Group, told the E-Commerce Times that the Munich decision has a great deal of symbolic public relations value. "Munich is one of the largest cities in Germany, the country with the strongest economy in Europe," DiDio said, adding that government organizations in Europe have long been proponents of open source systems as an alternative to Microsoft offerings. Already Switching Of course, Munich is not the only entity switching to Linux for the desktop. According to Forrester analyst Ted Schadler, shipping giant FedEx now runs its Web applications and e-mail on Linux. Giga/Forrester analyst Stacey Quandt told the E-Commerce Times that tech-oriented organizations, such as the Johnson Space Center and the U.S. Census Bureau, also are using Linux on their desktop computers, and several insurance and financial services firms are evaluating Linux as a desktop alternative. Has Linux finally matured into a viable desktop alternative to the Windows monolith? And will increasing adoption of this open source OS have a snowball effect in more and more organizations? Growing Interest Deb Woods, director of product marketing at Red Hat, told the E-Commerce Times that Red Hat's sales have been increasing steadily across the board, month over month and quarter over quarter. Although most businesses have not made an enterprise-wide switch from Windows to Linux, numerous companies have migrated various aspects of their business, such as workstations, to Linux. However, Woods said, Red Hat's current Linux offering provides applications and support that an average office worker easily could utilize. Included with Red Hat's desktop Linux platform are the Mozilla Web browser, project planning tool MrProject, MailClient for e-mail, and OpenOffice, a suite of business applications similar to Microsoft Office that Woods said is quite capable in any enterprise environment. In addition, Red Hat's user interface is no more difficult to use than Microsoft Windows, according to Quandt. She said she knows several people who have computers that dual-boot between Windows and Linux, and she has yet to hear from anyone who stopped using Linux because of interface issues. Pricing and Compatibility Linux proponents often cite cost containment as a reason to migrate from Windows. Quandt said that while using Linux on the client side can be less expensive than using an equivalent Windows system, overall cost depends on two factors: the types and combinations of applications a company is trying to support, and how many users will be accessing the platform. Notably, alternative business productivity suites, such as OpenOffice, do not yet offer completely seamless compatibility with Microsoft Office documents, though they are moving in this direction. Still, a lack of perfect compatibility may stop certain enterprises from leaving the Windows environment. Most Likely To Switch DiDio said the SMB (small and medium business) segment of the Windows installed base is most likely to consider or commence a wholesale migration to Linux desktops, largely because SMBs are not saddled by tremendous physical infrastructure issues or the need to alter hundreds of thousands of desktops already running Windows-based applications. On the other hand, those factors are more likely to affect large enterprises' decisions about operating systems, causing them to be more conservative in their actions. "Switching over to Linux is a less challenging and less expensive proposition for [these small- and medium-size businesses]," DiDio noted. She also pointed out that companies might begin to use the Linux desktop as a complement to their main Windows setup. For example, an enterprise might switch a couple of remote departments to Linux and Sun's StarOffice office productivity suite. Then, as the company tries out future cost-cutting methods, it might ask itself how Star Office has worked in the test situation. In this way, Linux may slowly infiltrate the enterprise desktop, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © Copyright 1998-2003 ECT News Network. All rights reserved

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The Limitations Of Linux
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 17 Jun '03

17 Jun '03

The Limitations Of Linux Lisa DiCarlo, 06.16.03 There have been so many glowing stories on the use of Linux that one might come away with the impression that Linux is an elixir that solves myriad business problems, and that it is always cheaper than alternatives. But like a lot of technologies before it, Linux has, to some degree, been overhyped. There is no question that companies can sometimes cut costs and increase productivity by using Linux systems instead of Unix or Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) Windows. But there are costs and technical limitations associated with Linux that don't typically make headlines. Customers say these include a lack of mature development tools, too many Linux variants, acquisition costs for more sophisticated versions of the software and lack of applications for small and medium-sized businesses. Master Nursery Garden Center, a $500 million gardening cooperative, has been using Linux for several years and is satisfied with its cost and performance. Yet Michael Baeta, director of technology communications, concedes that there is "not a lot of depth" in some areas. "Figuring out stuff...like production, low-end desktop publishing or using a consumer-oriented database will take some outside consulting," he says. "You run into problems when you try to do something that it's not designed to do." That's partly because, at this point, Linux lags Windows in terms of integration with hardware and software. That's changing--Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ), Dell Computer (nasdaq: DELL - news - people ), IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), Veritas Software (nasdaq: VRTS - news - people ) and others are making inroads--but it takes time to test for every permutation and make sure everything works well together. What about cost? Ask anyone to name the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word "Linux," and most likely what he'll say is "free." While less complex versions of Linux are often free, enterprise-class variants are more costly. Tom Fisher, assistant vice president at Guide One Insurance, was stung by the $10,000 price tag of the mainframe version of Linux, distributed by SuSe. "IBM was preaching that Linux was free," says Fisher. "But it's not free on the mainframe. That was a big surprise." Still, he says he avoids support fees, which can run in the tens of thousands of dollars annually, by leveraging the worldwide network of Linux developers on the Web. Most companies measure cost not by the initial one-time purchase of hardware or software, but by what it costs over a period of years, or the total cost of ownership. "Linux is not free when you count maintenance and support," says Aaron Barnham, vice president of operations at TMP Technologies, a unit of Monster Worldwide (nasdaq: MNST - news - people ), which runs career Web site Monster.com. "Every company, product and Web site is different. With tech budgets tight, everybody needs to look at their true cost of ownership and determine what is the right fit." Barnham explained that the cost of swapping out Windows or Unix servers, retraining and maintenance might wipe out whatever initial cost savings Linux provides. That said, "If Microsoft keeps raising software prices, it will change our total cost-of-ownership numbers and that would force us to reconsider." Last year, Microsoft sponsored a study by International Data Corp. that found Windows systems to be cheaper than Linux over a five-year period. The study looked at five common business uses and concluded that Windows is less expensive in four of five instances. IDC pointed out, however, that Linux developers and supporters are quickly closing the price gap. Packaged Linux software will increasingly be built into server hardware, reducing the need for extra development. Further, the report said, "system management tools are emerging and can be expected to expand rapidly," thus reducing the total cost of Linux servers. For smaller customers, Linux might not be cost effective. That's because there aren't as many Linux applications available for small businesses as for larger ones, and also because small customers generally don't have the resources to do much custom development. "I'm not a fan of Linux at all [because] there wasn't a lot of off-the-shelf software," says Jalem Getz, president of Buyseasons, a $10 million costume e-tailer that dumped its open-source Web servers for Windows in 2000. "We had to build everything from scratch and we didn't have the budget for that." Getz says there were technical problems with Microsoft's Commerce Server products but that the company made good by giving Buyseasons four free weeks of development time with Microsoft engineers. John Groenveld, associate research engineer at Pennsylvania State Applied Research Lab, says he is "no fan of Microsoft" but is distressed by the fact that there isn't a single standard for Linux. There are many companies, including Red Hat (nasdaq: RHAT - news - people ) and SuSe, producing their own versions. "Each has [its] own peculiarities," Groenveld says. "What if you choose one that doesn't succeed" in the marketplace? Most experts agree that there will be a shakeout amongst Linux distributors simply because the market, however large, will not sustain all the players. So, in the end, this is what we know: Linux is here to stay; it will get better; and sometimes it's cheaper than alternatives, but it's not right for every application. We know the very same about Windows. Source: www.forbes.com

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NEWS: PIL Seeks Window out of Microsoft
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 17 Jun '03

17 Jun '03

There seems to be a mix-up between the kernel and the OS ("Linux is an open source code operating system developed by software programmer Linus Torvalds...") but the report below is interesting. Lawyer friends in India however caution that hastily-drawn PILs could also have unintended effects. FN PIL SEEKS WINDOW OUT OF MICROSOFT The Financial Express, June 12, 2003 www.financialexpress.com Sudarshan Kumar | New Delhi | June 11 EVEN AS Microsoft wages war against rival open source operating system Linux around the world, a public interest ligitgation (PIL) filed in the Jharkhand High Court could add fuel to the open source versus proprietary software debate, particularly in the e-governance space. The Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is ubiquitous through its popular Windows operating system which runs most of the world's desktop computers. The petition filed by a high court lawyer in Ranchi pleads for a directive to the Indian government and the state of Jharkhand to implement cheaper open source (read, Linux) software instead of expensive proprietary products. There has been a renewed thrust within governments, both in the states and at the Centre, to evaluate alternatives on Linux. Linux is an open source code operating system developed by software programmer Linus Torvalds to offer an alternative to the Unix system, variants of which are offered by leading vendors in their proprietary versions. The Linux source code is free to everyone under a general public licence. The term 'Linux' was developed from 'Unix' and 'Linus'. The petitioner-lawyer, Manish Kumar, did not wish to go on the record to share details of the petition. However, sources familiar with the process said point of admission hearing has been fixed for June 12. The petition says the proprietary software is available at a high price and its source code cannot be modified except with the approval of its owner. The code for open source software is, however, freely available and can be modified according to the user's requirements. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company could not comment on the PIL "as it is sub-judice". However, sources close to the company said Linux was often used by government officials as an "arm-twisting" tool during negotiations. On the open source debate, Microsoft India head of marketing Sanjiv Mathur said: "Both commercial and open source software play important roles in the broader IT ecosystem -- and in supporting IT-related development. The commercial software model has effectively demonstrated development-related advantages, including cost-effectiveness, opportunities for growth, long-term sustainability and affordable access. These advantages will largely be lost if developing nations, like India, adopt biases against commercial software or enact policies that inhibit the growth of a domestic commercial software industry." Microsoft has recently invited Jharkhand chief minister Ajun Munda to a 'government leadership summit' in Redmond. Mr Munda, however, did not attend the mid-May meet. The company has been persistent in its evangelising effort to woo governments and corporates alike across the world to implement its proprietary products and solutions. Critics say these licensing deals lock customers into heavy initial investments and regular payments for 'upgrades' to improved versions that are launched periodically. The software maker last month lost a key battle against Linux in Munich, Germany, where the city council decided to switch its 14,000-computer network to the open source operating system. Linux itself came under attack recently, albeit indirectly, with Unix code owner SCO Group (formerly Santa Cruz Operations) suing IBM (International Business Machines) for an alleged breach of contract. SCO says IBM handed over pieces of its proprietary Unix code to Linux developers. While IBM has denied any wrongdoing, Microsoft expressed tacit support for SCO by licensing its Unix technology. (ENDS) -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Linux gets fresh kernel
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 16 Jun '03

16 Jun '03

Linux gets fresh kernel By Robert Lemos, CNET News.com 16/6/2003 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39136626,00.htm Updated code for the heart of current Linux products was released last Friday, in the first major revamp to the kernel since November. Linus Torvalds, maintainer Marcelo Tosatti and the main Linux developers issued the update to the latest stable version of the 2.4-series Linux kernel. The release, version 2.4.21, adds support in the open-source operating system for a host of new devices and corrects software flaws. It also incorporates support for Advanced Micro Devices' 64-bit Opteron processor. Tosatti, the person who oversees development of the 2.4-series kernel, and Torvalds, the original creator of the Linux kernel and now the person who oversees the kernel development process, have signed off on the latest version of the core code amid controversy. Unix vendor SCO Group has accused IBM of copying its proprietary code and including it in the Linux kernel. Big Blue has until today to meet SCO's demand that it comply with the terms of its Unix license or face revocation of its rights. However, IBM says it hasn't done anything wrong and isn't likely to yield to SCO's demands. The software update arrives in the month that Torvalds estimated the next version of the core Linux software, 2.6, would arrive. Torvalds had frozen the feature of the next generation of the kernel last October in order to hash out existing issues. The new kernel can be downloaded from the Linux development site Kernel.org

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Transmeta pushes Linux in China
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 16 Jun '03

16 Jun '03

Transmeta pushes Linux in China By Matthew Broersma, Special to CNETAsia Monday, June 16 2003 8:57 AM Transmeta has signed on Chinese computer maker Chinese 2000 Holdings to develop and market low-cost Linux-based devices such as notebooks, PCs and set-top boxes. Transmeta, a manufacturer of low-power, Intel-compatible chips, says its chips consume less power than Intel or Advanced Micro Devices processors--with similar performance. But Transmeta has struggled to win contracts with major PC makers. The company said it hopes a growing interest in Linux in the Asia-Pacific region will boost demand for Transmeta-powered products. Chinese 2000 Holdings will develop products based on Midori Linux--Transmeta's own Linux distribution for mobile devices. In exchange, Transmeta said it has taken an equity ownership in Chinese 2000 Holdings and the two companies have made a profit-sharing arrangement for revenue from the sale of Midori Linux services and support. The companies are aiming products at China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Interest in Linux has grown in Asia-Pacific countries because, unlike a lot of other software, its intellectual property is not owned by U.S. multinational corporations. Linux is distributed under an open-source license that broadly allows anyone to modify and redistribute the code, as long as the modifications are shared with the developer community.. The Chinese government is backing a home-grown Linux system called Red Flag, while in Thailand, HP is selling a low-cost "people's notebook" running on Linux. Because of Linux's stability, some electronics makers are already using it to power high-end consumer electronics devices, one the best-known being the TiVo digital video recorder. "Transmeta's unique combination of microprocessor, system-level and Linux expertise, coupled with Chinese 2000 Holdings' experience in the Asian markets, make a formidable partnership," Transmeta Chief Executive Matthew R. Perry said in a statement. "Together, we offer our customers a comprehensive approach to Linux-based computing." ZDNet UK's Matthew Broersma reported from London.

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News from the GLUG-T
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Jun '03

16 Jun '03

An interesting report from South India... FN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Vijay Kumar B." <ec10052(a)rect.ernet.in> Subject: [glug-t] Meeting Minutes Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2003 14:02:43 GMT Every GLUG-T meeting is a different experience. But this one was a _really_ different experience. By 10:00am the strength was around 7(4 boys and 3 girls). But the people at Accel who were to provide the meeting place had not arrived yet. One of our speaker's Mr. Balaji had also not arrived. We decided to start. We sat down a flight of stairs in the Accel building.(There are no barriers for the exchange of knowledge!) Luckily I had my laptop with me which served the purpose of a digital black board. Manik borrowed the watch man's chair to put the laptop on top of it. The meeting started with an introduction of the two new girls 8-) Then we moved on to the first topic 'Game Programming in SDL' by me. I started off with crediting the author Sam Lantinga, and then showed a few programs written using SDL, to get an idea of what we are going to talk about. Heres a list of stuff I then started talking about: 1) Initializing the library, and quitting the library. 2) Video modes, resolution, bit depth, and the flags available with SDL_SetVideoMode. 3) Different bit depth formats and their details and functions available to generate those pixel formats from RGB values. 4) Drawing graphics on the screen either by directly accessing the pixels or by blitting. Locking and Unlocking the surface. 5) Loading windows BMP files, using SDL_LoadBMP. 6) Keyboard event handling using SDL's polling function and reading the keyboard status using SDL_GetKeyState. Did I say that you will use SDL_PumpEvents before using SDL_GetKeyState? 7) Providing proper delay using SDL_Delay and SDL_GetTicks. This was what I had prepared to talk about but Manik insisted that I explain the logic used in my pacman clone(one of the demos I had shown at the start). So I went on to explain state machines and the A* algorithm. We then moved on to the next topic of the meeting "Regular Expressions" by Rams. By then another staff of STEP TREC had joined us. He also informed us that Mr. Balaji will not be coming for the meeting because he was stuck up with some web server problem. Rams explained the history of the regular expression. It seems regexp were used long back in Set theory and were latter adopted in the computer world. Rams started off with repetition operators used with regular expressions '*' and '+'. He used the grep program and the dictionary file to demonstrate their purpose. He also explained that their meanings were different from the ones used in shell expansion. Here is a list of what he spoke about: 1) '.' and '?' repetition operators. 2) Anchoring using '^' and '$' to match the beginning and end of line. 3) Subexpressions and the infix operator "|". 4) Back referencing. (I particularly liked the palindrome searching example.) 5) Bracket expression using '[' ']'. Negating the expression. Specifying ranges. 6) Character classes to be used within Bracket expression. 7) Repetition operators '{N, M}' 8) Operators(?) related to the edge of a word '\b', '\B'. 9) Operators(?) related to the beginning and end of a word '\<' '\>'. On my request he gave us a list of tools that use regexp. extensively - awk, sed, perl, emacs, etc. He also showed us how to use regexp search in emacs. I then told the new members about our mailing lists. We then discussed about the topics for the next meeting. Muthu wanted to give us an introduction on Python, I wanted to show everybody a demo on the One True Program ;-), and Mr. Balaji would talk on clusters. We can only hope that the next meeting's venue will not be a staircase but a more glamorous hall at SASTRA. I hope all the members carried back home great experiences of this wonderful(?!) meeting. Non-free* software sucks. - RMS * 'free' as in freedom.

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[Fsf-friends] LINK: Call for volunteers to work on Bangla localisation (Gnome/GNU-Linux)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 16 Jun '03

16 Jun '03

From: "Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay" <essemm(a)softhome.net> To: "Frederick Noronha" <fred(a)bytesforall.org> Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 8:54 PM Subject: a call for volunteers attached please find an attachment calling for volunteers for the Bangla Localisation Project (Ankur). can you pass this around ? kindly do the needful. warm regards and have a wonderful day. sankarshan ********************************************** A call for 'Volunteers' An Overview The Ankur Bangla Translation Project is a voluntary community based localisation project aimed at facilitating the Bangla/Bengali version of the Gnome Project(of the Free Software Foundation). Under the aegis of this effort, around 12000 lines (in over 42 files) will be translated. Current Status As on 13.06.2003, more than 50% of the Gnome-Core and library files have been translated. The locale settings have been satisfactorily tested and the screenshots are available at the webpage of the Project at www.bengalinux.org Volunteer Profile The Ankur Project is in the final stages and this announcement forms the basis of a call for volunteers. The Project welcomes all those who are willing to participate, however the following qualities are most desirable: [1] ability and willingness to work in a community based development project using the OpenSource Software development model. [2] capability to identify the 'proper' vernacular equivalents of technical terms. [3] possessing conceptual clarity about Human Computer Interaction as well as linguistic nuances. [4] ease-of-use with GNU/Linux distributions, though the task of translation can also be carried out under other platforms (for details contact the mailing list). [5] capability to devote time and effort to undertake translation of strings. All contributions from volunteers will be duly acknowledged and credited. For further information about ongoing projects, please visit the homepage at www.bengalinux.org or join the mailing list gnome-translation(a)bengalinux.org. ---------- Who Dares, Wins !! http://sankarshan.blogspot.com - Random Thoughts http://sankarshan.rediffblogs.com - Open Minds, Open Source ----------

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Indian, Pakistan... parallel thinking on GNU/Linux
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 Jun '03

15 Jun '03

URL : http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/20030601.shtml#39263 Pakistan Putting Money Into Linux [map-pakistan.jpg] Our Pakistani correspondent, [49]Tariq Mustafa, writes to say that the new Pakistani national budget has $2.5 million in it for Linux. It's all part of a $54 million (Rs 3.25 billion) proposal covering 120 different projects in Information Technology and sciences for the coming year, according to the [50]Daily Times of Pakistan. Linux even gets its own line-item in the IT budget, according to the Daily Times story. You may remember a few weeks ago that I wrote about how India's President faced down Bill Gates over the issue, saying that his country needed to control its own computing destiny and that software controlled by an outsider (i.e. Windows) could not provide that. The big news here is that Pakistan agrees. Now perhaps they might settle their other differences. (I know, Tariq -- it's not that simple. But just [51]Imagine...) [52]Dana Blankenhorn 49. http://pakistan.blogspot.com/ 50. http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_9-6-2003_pg7_41 51. http://www.merseyworld.com/imagine/lyrics/imagine.htm 52. http://www.a-clue.com/ -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Fsf-friends June 2003