Fsf-friends July 2003

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

12 participants
23 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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Using GNU/Linux code... and yet charging for it?
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 31 Jul '03

31 Jul '03

On Wed, 30 Jul 2003, Mandar wrote: > Hi! > Sry for distracting you people by asking you an 'off the mark'topic > as you guys/girls(?) must be busy preparing for Ecap.I heard about > Lindows,providing the stability of Linux as well as able to run > windows program,if so is it the next big thing to hit the market?? > I visited their site,I couldn't understand was if it were using linux > code then how can they charge for it. > I hope you people will provide me the facts about Lindows. > Mandar Hi Mandar, Thanks for your query. Even among some who have been in the group for long, there has been some confusion over what Free Software stands for. What does the term 'free' really mean in this context? Free-of-cost or freedom? Gratis or libre? Just for debate's sake: If you wrote a program using GPL'd code, would it be alright to: (i) sell it for a price? (ii) block anyone else from copying it? (iii) charge per-user licence fees? (iv) sell or share it without the source code? (v) improve it, sell it commercially, but hide the source code you've written? Also, to take the debate further -- what's the difference between Free Software and Open Source? Is there some difference in the licence(s)? Is there some difference in the approach and motivations guiding either of these movements, or is it just a different name for the same thing? Finally, do you think the GPL is a good licence for (i) individuals (ii) small firms (iii) corporations (iv) all of these (v) none of these? What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of the GPL as compared to the Open Source licences or other model licences? What could be the possible reasons for the popularity of the GPL among developers till date, if you perceive one? Hope you don't mind me 'answering' your questions with further questions! But I thought this could throw up some interesting debate, and also clarify issues. Others are welcome to participate... FN

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[Fsf-friends] NEWS-DELHI: MP brings computer-enabled education to rural schools...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 29 Jul '03

29 Jul '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ HINDUSTAN TIMES: MP BRINGS COMPUTER-ENABLED EDUCATION TO RURAL SCHOOLS "'In the second phase we have used open source technology in which the main programme coding is available to all for modification, customisation and improvement. We are optimistic about its success too...'" COMPLETE STORY: http://hindustantimes.com/news/181_316881,000600030011.htm More Infrastructure stories: http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure ------------------------------------------------------------------ CNET NEWS: ASIAN LINUX: SOME KEEN, OTHERS COOL "Asia could leapfrog Western countries in the development of Linux-based applications, but some governments are not latching on to this opportunity, says a senior IBM executive..." COMPLETE STORY: http://news.com.com/2100-1016_3-5053537.html More Infrastructure stories: http://linuxtoday.com/infrastructure ------------------------------------------------------------------

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by SEPSIT KANNUR 24 Jul '03

24 Jul '03

The source code of on-line banking solution for Co-operative banks developed by Open Software Solutions name 'Sanghamithra' which is distributed under General Public License (GPL) is available through the url http://www.atpskerala.org/Sanghamithra/ Regards, Social Entrepreneurship Promotion Society on Information Technology (SEPSIT), Reg No 463/2002, Dinesh Software Park, Kannur, Keralam, India - 670002, Telephone : 0497-712965 -- ______________________________________________ http://www.linuxmail.org/ Now with e-mail forwarding for only US$5.95/yr Powered by Outblaze

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NOT A JOKE
by syed ahmed shah 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

When I asked a friend What I should do to my propreitory UNIX package when I install GNU/LINUX. he replied "SCO WINDOW SE BAHAAR PHEK DO" ___________________________________________________ Download the hottest & happening ringtones here! OR SMS: Top tone to 7333 Click here now: http://sms.rediff.com/cgi-bin/ringtone/ringhome.pl

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GNULinuxInIndia * July 22, 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

e88~~\ 888b | 888 | / 888 888 ,e, d888 |Y88b | 888 | L 888 888-~88e e88~\888 " /~~~8e 8888 __ | Y88b | 888 | I 888 888 888 d888 888 888 88b 8888 | | Y88b | 888 | N 888 888 888 8888 888 888 e88~-888 Y888 | | Y88b| Y88 | U 888 888 888 Y888 888 888 C888 888 "88__/ | Y888 "8__/ X 888 888 888 "88_/888 888 "88_-888 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Formerly LinuxInIndia * Compiled by: Frederick Noronha * July 22,2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------- GETTING THE NEWS OUT... A new initiative with a South Asian focus. We invite all user-group coordinators, and also individuals interested in FLOSS evangelism to join a new network, called FLOSSToday. The idea is make sure that news about what happens in different parts of India percolates from one region to another. The list was initiated with the aim of making cross-pollination of ideas and events, announcements etc across India and elsewhere in South Asia. This list aims at being an *event-centric* announcement-list. Reports of meetings and events to be held or already held, and announcements of FLOSS special events, gatherings, tech sessions are welcome. Opinions, discussions, feature articles would be offtopic here. For further details contact Sankarshan Mukhopadhyay <sankarshanmukhopadhyay at vsnl.net> who has launched this initiative with support from the compiler of this newsletter (FN). Says Sankarshan: "Let's hope this can bind the fragmented nature of the FLOSS world in India." Flosstoday mailing list * Flosstoday(a)mail.sarai.net http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/flosstoday INTEREST FROM BRAZIL: Christiano Anderson <anderson(a)debian-rs.org> writes in from Brazil to say: "I have read the President in India talking about free software, this is a very positive action, and we would like to keep in touch with someone from government in India to discuss about free software initiatives and experience with people from the Brazilian government. We would like to invite someone from India government to talk about the free software experience in our next Free Software conference. Do you think it's possible? Who could talk to us about the experience in your country? Marcelo Branco is the coordinator of Free Software Project in Rio Grande do Sul, he is also discussing free software initiatives for the Brazilian government." THIS IS AN INTERESTING page featuring Microsoft in India -- including the Shiksha Microsoft e-learning initiative, and reports of Gates committing $21 million to IT projects. Also links to FLOSS in India, and "Microsoft against Open Source". http://www.gnacademy.org/twiki/bin/view/SOS/MicrosoftInIndia KUNAL <kunalbharati at yahoo.com> OF THE NORTH Mumbai GLUG has arranged a seminar on FLOSS in his college. Says he: "It would really help if you give me some ideas what I (could) do. I will be distributing KNOPPIX 3.2 CDs. I would appreciate if someone from you comes up with other good ideas..." Students do need more options, any help would be welcome. DESI (India-linked) names continue to make news in the FLOSS movement worldwide. Guess who was making news when a new Debian Project Leader was elected by a narrow margin recently? Manoj Srivastava, the General Secretary of the Debian Project, who was credited with putting in the "work (that) had made the election possible". See the discussion on the debian-devel-announce list (lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2003/debian-devel-announce- 200303/msg00025.html) FROM GOA ANIMESH N Nerurkar <banduji(a)gmx.net> has announced plans for stepping up activities of the TUG-Goa network. On Saturday July 26, Prof (Ms) Kshama Fernandes will demonstrate the power of PDFLaTeX or LaTeX itself. Plans are also underway for activities in the academic circles of this small state on the west coast of India, otherwise better known as a touristic destination. All are welcome. SURAJ KUMAR <suraj(a)symonds.net> has on offer a copy of speeches on Free Software and Software Patents, downloaded from gnu.org. Says he: "I have cut a CD out of it. Unfortunately this collection does not contain RMS's speech at Chennai (Madras Institute of Technology) made on March 13th, 2002. However its worth noting that most of the speeches carry the same message (the only differences being the humour that he adds to various speeches)." See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/audio/audio.html The CD also bundles two of GnuPress published books: * Free Software, Free Society - http://www.gnu.org/doc/book13.html * Free as in Freedom - http://www.oreilly.com/openbook/freedom/ Also included are the web pages from http://gnu.org/philosophy/ and http://gnu.org/licenses/ LATEX WORKSHOP AT PUNE: Thanks to H S Rai <hsraidce(a)iitr.ernet.in> for this pointer. Read the detailed report of the Latex workshop held at Pune, western India during 9-14 July, which was jointly organised by Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana and Dept. of Maths, University of Pune. http://www.tug.org.in/download/pune-workshop-report.pdf or visit news item of the index page of www.tug.org.in FLOSS IN THE THIRD WORLD: Open Source practitioners from Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America recently got together to produce a manifesto on the role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the development cooperation context. Asking all stakeholders to pay more attention to (FL)OSS, they argue that it has a special importance when viewed, used and produced in the context of development cooperation and should be employed wherever possible. http://sarai.waag.org/display.php?id=28 E-BOOK: Prashanth CM <prashpro(a)yahoo.com> has announced his e-book on the Vieditor. Says he: "I have compiled an e-book on using vi-editor. Please go through this book and please send me comments. I know there are lots of corrections (required)..." Contact him for details. GIMP AND CMYK: Subash Jeyan <nsjeyan(a)vsnl.net> notes that one of the major cribs about the gimp has long been that it doesn't support cmyk colour space. Now, says he, there is a plug that addresses this partially. If you're interested, have a look at: http://www.blackfiveservices.co.uk/projects/separate-0.1.tar.gz HONG "FRED" FENG, one of the active Free Software proponents in China whom some of us here in India are in touch with, says: "My work in Koretide will be ended on Jul 20, 2003, so pls redirect the emails to me from the list to hongfeng at gnu.org" AN iLINUX DISTRO: Jyotirmoy Saikia <jyotirmoy_saikia(a)yahoo.com> of PicoPeta Simputers (Bangalore) informs that IIT Kanpur has released an iLinux distribution. Please check the site: http:///www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/isciig and go to the link "download Indian Linux" MALAYALAM DESKTOP PLAN: Dileep M Kumar <dileep(a)kumarayil.net> says they are working on project to create a Malayalam desktop for GNU/Linux. Says he: "We believe MGL may help to popularize 'Freedom' into Kerala in a minimal way. We are looking for volunteers to help us to translate more applications. As a first step we are concentrating on GNOME now. Take a look at http://smc.sarovar.org" RESTLESS SOUL TREVOR WARREN FROM MUMBAI <trevorwarren at softhome.net> has come up with a new initiative -- building libraries of freely sharable Free Software. He's looking out for anyone to sponsor/sell at a reasonable rate, the following distros: * Debian * SuSE * Gentoo * Knoppix(en) * Yellow Dog * Slackware * Red Hat + SGI XFS * Lycoris * Mandrake (older releases) * trustix * turbolinux * LDP(www.tldp.org) * FreeBSD 5.0 * OpenBSD * Collection of FSF-OS ebooks-docs. * NetBSD * etc related to FSF-OS. Can help? Write to Trevor with a cc to "trevorwarren at softhome.net". Says he: Donations are welcome or if that isn't possible just lemme know the cost of the cd's and i will pay for the same. This is a bit urgent. FLOSS IN AFGHANISTAN: BBC recently reported that the United Nations is training civil servants in the intricacies of FLOSS software to help them get government computer systems up and running. The first civil servants to complete their training in Linux went back to work earlier this month. The UN hopes that training government workers to use [GNU] Linux will help the country close the technology gap that separates it from many other countries. Broadly free, Linux is becoming a favourite among many organisations who want greater control over what they can do with software. In contrast to Microsoft operating systems, Linux gives programmers much greater flexibility to scrutinise the core of the program and to adapt it to their own ends. FROM KERALA, Mahesh Pai <paivakil at vsnl.net> informs of a report in the local newspaper *Mathrubhumi* (page 11, Kochi edition, 17 July 2003) that sees the Opposition leader VS Achutanandan raise questions about the role of Microsoft in the IT@School project. The translation reads: "One of allegations raised by Achutanandan relate to the 'project siksha' of Microsoft which is part of the IT@SCHOOL. The project is worth Rs 10 crore (100 million rupees). It was made clear in the agenda note given to the general body that an IT academy will be set up in 3000 Square feet space and and teachers will be trained (here) to use Microsoft products. However, the leader of opposition pointed out that it is made clear in the agenda note that the 3000 sq. ft. space in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, which would fetch rent of Rupees 6,84,000 is to be handed over to Microsoft for mere one rupee. He also stated that due to the training, the teachers will be able to use only Microsoft's products." It adds: "At the same time, authorities of IT@SCHOOL informed that there is no block to use of 'swatantra' (Free) software in the project. But the problem is that there would be no training support available. They also point out that the government has directed that there shall not be any new appointments for the training." SCRIBUS 1.0 IS OUT: Programmer Franz Schmid has released Scribus 1.0 - the Linux Desktop Publishing. Two years in development and available in 17 languages, Scribus represents the first open source DTP application capable of generating professional "press-ready" results. Unicode support including support for right to left scripts. Can export CMYK separations and "press-ready" PDF including PDF 1.4 features such as transparency. Scribus Home Page: http://web2.altmuehlnet.de/fschmid/ and mirrored at: http://scribus.planetmirror.com LIC OF INDIA SHIFTS TO FLOSS: The Life Insurance Corporation has shifted to a Linux operating system on the heels of pinpricks experienced with a Unix system, according to LIC officials. At a media gathering to introduce LIC's new pension policy, Mr R.R. Nair, Additional Zonal Manager, said "we are shifting over to Linux; almost 75 per cent of the branches have shifted". http://thehindubusinessline.com/stories/2003071501310700.htm PUNJAB LINUX USERS GROUP: Jaspreet Willy <plug(a)linuxmail.org> has started a user group for the Punjab region. Check out the Punjab Linux Users Group website: http://www.plug.willywings.com IN THE HOSPITAL: Dr G Parthasarathy <gpartha72 at vsnl.net> from a Kochi hospital in South India writes: "I am a pathologist, also the IT Officer and Sysadmin of the hospital networkj of a 316 bed hospital in Kochi. We are currently running NT 4.0 with a proprietary hospital management software on the hospital's 65 node network. I am not quite happy with the state of affairs and want to port it all to Linux which is more robust and much cheaper a solution. I wish to learn more about other hospitals like Breach Candy who have used GNU/Linux with Open Source Hospital Information Systems on their hospital networks." DR BUD P BRUEGGAR (bud at sistema.it) of Sistema (www.sistema.it) in Italy writes in to suggest: "Probably the most complete site on open source in health-care can be found at http://www.euspirit.org/. Among other resources, there is a software index at http://www.euspirit.org/list.php. FROM THE IIT-BOMBAY, Prof Siva <siva at iitb.ac.in> says: "Thanks much for the mail about FLOSS in Asia.... Regarding interesting work at IITB, let me start with two students (who can later put you in touch with others). Nandan Dixit (nandan at cse.iitb.ac.in) see xmmsmplayer.sourceforge.net for his work and Nilesh Bansal (nilesh at cse.iitb.ac.in) along with others is working on KDE localization." See http://www.cse.iitb.ac.in/~siva WHAT'S HAPPENING ON THE SIMPUTER FRONT? Perhaps the FLOSS lobby has been guilty of ignoring it. Edward Cherlin <edward.cherlin at etssg.com> explains all the way from the US that Africa Digital Bridges is the Simputer distributor for the Middle East and Africa http://www.simputerland.com/appmaster/m.partners.view.asp?pcode=AA0024 Cherlin is also setting up to recruit development partners for Simputer applications in the US. Says he: "I have Simputers here in Silicon Valley, and can demonstrate them for you. You can find Encore's European partners at http://www.simputerland.com/appmaster/m.partnerlist.asp" There is also "a lot" happening in development and field trials. Says he: "I am working with a developer of literacy software in the US to produce a Free Linux version. The current program is for US English only. It can easily be adapted to other forms of English, and we will work on software for other languages as well." FREE SOFTWARE, AND THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM-4 IN MUMBAI: Diego Saravia <dsa at unsa.edu.ar> writes in from distant Argentina to say: "I am searching for people in india related to the World Social Forum and Free Software, I see your bytesforall.org web site and I wonder if you could help me." Incidentally the WSF4 is being held in Mumbai(Bombay)-India in early 2004. Free Software advocates hope to deploy their solutions and raise issues at this global meet of activists there. See www.hipatia.info - info(a)hipatia.info - www.fsm.hipatia.info Fsm2004 mailing list Fsm2004(a)hipatia.info http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 JOIN OUR Latin American (and other) friends in an initiative to harness the power of Free Software for free speech and knowledge! Writes Martin Olivera <martin_olivera(a)yahoo.com.ar> from Argentina: "At first (this mailing list) was intended to organize the Hipatia (www.hipatia.info) participation in the WSF4 (World Social Forum 4). The main objective of Hipatia is the freedom of knowledge, leveraging free software as the key tool to do this. In this way, this list would like coordinate efforts to fulfill WSF4 software necessities (web, mail, communications, news, virtual spaces, anything...) using only free software, cooperating worldwide." WSF4 is to be held in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in January 2004. Do join this mailing list. It is open to everyone who could participate anyway for this: coordination, local (India-based) support, resources, free software selection/development/adaptation, content manmagement..." What possibilities we think of is restricted only by your imagination! FN List-Subscribe: http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 OR mailto: <fsm2004-request(a)hipatia.info?subject=subscribe> AT SCHOOLS, IN GOA: Daryl Martyris <dmartyris(a)hotmail.com> of the Goa Schools Computers Project says that 20 schools use the LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project) solution in Goa. "About 40 more use standalone Linux, and about 40 use Windows This link might give you an idea of cost comparison's - http://www.gscp.org/linux.htm " INDIAN LANGUAGE TOOLS: Prof Nagarjuna G <nagarjun(a)hbcse.tifr.res.in> reports that a team of students are to be working on Indianisation of Mozilla. Says Sayamindu Dasgupta <unmadindu(a)Softhome.net> : "I have no idea about the coding procedures followed by the mozilla developers. However, I guess, it might help if the students take a look at the sources of already working tools (for Indian language computing), like Yudit, QT 3.2, Pango, etc." MAKING FLOSS SPEAK IN INDIAN LANGUAGES: Want to get GNU/Linux to speak your language? Visit the web page below that will tell you what are the words you need to translate http://www.indlinux.org/downloads/gnomegloss/GnomeGlossary.csv IN HINDI: Dinesh Shah <dinesh at shahmicro.com> writes: "We have GNU/Linux - Hindi Edition - Milan ver 0.5 CDs with us. This is a bootable CD based on Morphix. You can use it as demo CD or if you want you can install it on the harddisk. Those who are interested can buy it from me or Mr. Venkatesh Hariharan @ Rs. 30 each. We can mail it any where in India @ Rs. 50 inclusive of delivery charges. To learn more about Milan 0.5 CD, pls visit http://www.indlinux.org" Phone Shah +91-98213-11906 +91-22-56919423 PROGRESS OVER HINDI FONTS: Young font and web designers Avneesh Chhabra a.k.a. The Virus Shivaas Gulati a.k.a MaRiAnZ RuLe say "At last, after weeks of hard work filled with successes and failures, we have finally done it. We have come up with a new font that is totally handwritten. Feel free to use it anyway you want. Released under the LGPL license. Hope to get some good feedbacks. You can download the font from the ilug-d website's download section or from www.msmschool.com/hindi freehand.ttf They can be contacted via email fontdudes(a)rediffmail.com FREE FONTS: Want to create fonts on GNU/Linux? Check http://pfaedit.sourceforge.net/ S2S2 INITIATIVES IN KERALA: Sujeevan Pullanhiotan <sujeevan_p at rediffmail.com> reports that in June 2003, the Swathantra Software Solutions & Support( S2S2) conducted GNU/Linux awareness program at various colleges and schools in Kannur district of Kerala. Talks on "Free Software in Education" and demonstration on GNU/Linux system using Knoppix 3.2 bootable CD was arranged at all places. "It was well attended and appreciated by all," says he. A one-day orientation was held for 115 school teachers from government schools in Kannur and remote Wynad participating. A seminar on Free Software, Its Philosphy was held at Mahatma College, Iritty, Kannur, besides others. Feedback: "Programes were successful, in the sense that people at large got an idea of what free software is all about and what its impact will be on society. Both students and teachers were overwhelmed by the number of applications and packages available in GNU/Linux. For almost all of them, the use of computer is limited to only word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, music and movie playing. Students were found to be better in learning and trying out Linux. Teachers have a different complaint -- they would like to try out GNU/Linux in schools, but the school IT syllabus specifies properitary packages..." http://s2s2net.netfirms.com PUBLIC SECTOR FREE SOFTWARE INITIATIVES: Mitch Kapor and others have just announced a web site for public sector free software initiatives called http://www.opensector.org LINUX, TO THE FIELDS: J S Sandha <jsandha at vsnl.net> has been trying to weave two fields -- ICTs-for-development and R&D on agricultural tractors. Sandha would like to take a project www.jagriti.com over to using GNU/Linux-based networks, with no licensing issues and workable on lower PC configurations. www.jagriti.com CRITICAL FEEDBACK: Suman <mansu at gmx.net> has some critical feedback for the sarovar.org and the Project Resource Centre (http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc) initatives. Writes Suman: "It's good to see such sites coming up but i hava a few suggestions regarding this. As usual from the mail I see that nothing is different from sourceforge. These days the software that is being developed and hosted is pretty bloated, or they do not have any use or miss important features. Above all most of the work is being duplicated. Hence most of the free time of developers is wasted on projects which meet the needs of very few people and which in many cases is inadequate to do the job. Linux is maturing now so should the applications. Sarovar.org should be different. Why not host a module where people pour in their ideas so that interseted others can take them and work. PRC achieves this to a very small extent but it is no more helpful because it doesn't help answering the larger question.... The site can also host TODO lists of various projects seperately. In addition to the ideas that flow here another thing that could be done is the person who gives a suggestion should also give an idea of how to do it which helps the developer take an instant decision. Also, if some KDE/GNOME gurus put their ideas in they can ask people to write components which can be used by other programmers like bonobo for gnome. If the ideas are easy to formulate many engg. students will take it up for their projects. jus my two pence worth." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOUR INPUTS and criticism to this newsletter are welcome. Contact us at fred at bytesforall dot org COPYLEFT 2003. May be freely circulated provided entire text and credits is left intact. FN -------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPILED AND CIRCULATED BY: -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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IT@School - food for thought
by Mahesh T. Pai 17 Jul '03

17 Jul '03

Missed out this one till late in the day. Refer to today's (17 July, 2003) Mathrubhumi, (pg 11 in Cochin edition). Here is a summarized rough translation for non-malayalees:- IT project: Antony respects suggestion by VS, Soopy opposes. By B. Rameshkumar Education minister expressed dissatisfaction over action taken by the chief minister in postponing meeting on the ground that the objections raised by the leader of opposition are very serious. The minister had to meet the leader of opposition at his official residence to comply with the chief minister's directions These incidents relate to the IT@SCHOOL project. The law department also has raised certain objections. The general council of the project was scheduled to meet on 11th. Apart from the Chief Minister, secretaries and ministers of education, industry, IT, finance, and local administration arrived for the meet. The leader of opposition gave a detailed note to the Chief Minister 2 hours before the meet pointing out that there are serious traps in the memoranda of understanding proposed to be signed. The CM arrived at the meet with this note. The CM directed that there points raised in the note are serious, and the education minister should discuss the issue with him (leader of the opposition). He did not take up the agenda. Minister Soopy stated that it is not proper to postpone it in this manner. However, the CM stood his ground that the minister discuss the issue with leader of opposition. In the meanwhile, the IT secretary pointed out that the concerned file has not reached (her). Certain quarters advised the education minister that he need not go and meet the leader of opposition. But, Soopy agreed to honour the promise made to the general council by the CM. He talked with Achutanandan for one hour on Tuesday night. He (VS Achutanandan) stood firm on the doubts and concerns raised by him. One of allegations raised by Achutanandan relate to the 'project siksha' of Microsoft which is part of the IT@SCHOOL. The project is worth 10 crore rupees. It was made clear in the agenda note given to the general body that an IT academy will be set up in 3000 Square feet space and and teachers will be trained (here) to use Microsoft products. However, the leader of opposition pointed out that it is made clear in the agenda note that the 3000 sq. ft. space in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, which would fetch rent of Rupees 6,84,000 is to be handed over to Microsoft for mere one rupee. He also stated that due to the training, the teachers will be able to use only Microsoft's products. He also questioned the direction issued to the DPI (Director of public Instruction) to issue orders to the schools informing them (to?) purchase (of?) necessary software. Achutanandan also demanded in his note to the CM to drop the move to hand over execution of the IT@SCHOOL project to a private concern for next 30 years. At the same time, authorities of IT@SCHOOL informed that there is no block to use of 'swatantra' software in the project. But the problem is that there would be no training support available. They also point out that the government has directed that there shall not be any new appointments for the training. (Note:- The words in brackets are added by me, to make the context clear).

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GNU/Linux for hospitals....
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jul '03

12 Jul '03

Please share this among doctor-friends who might be interested. FN >From LINUX USER & DEVELOPER (www.linuxuser.co.uk): M e d i c a l S o f t w a r e Free Software has been making inroads into many markets recently, particularly those where security and data integrity are of importance. This is certainly so in medicine, where another problem is the mess of different proprietorial software used across different departments -- each tied to its own OS and its own data format. Care2002 provides a modular replacement for all these apps, using a single database and single data format (currently SQL). Everything runs on the server, clients access the modules through their web browser. Care2002 has many built-in automation, data validation, signalling, and updating features, which substantially reduces the occurence of erroneous data and removes the burden of counterchecking data manually. FreeMED is another web-based app, for physicians and healthcare providers in any setting, from small practices to large hospitals. It provdes a comprehensive electronic medical record and billing system that gives the physician control and immediate accessibility to data. Meditux is a Medical Information System. Its primary task is to provide timely medical information to both medical and non-medical staff that operated in an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) environment. This release makes available most of the functionality of the current operating system that Dr Richard Piper conducts within his ICU. Some functionality has been withdrawn due to legal constraints (e.g. copyright and licensing requirements). However, Meditux still makes available 90% of its original functionality to you. Meditux-1.0 is released under the GNU/GPL. Meditux is a collection of Java Servlets, running under Apache Jakarta-Tomcat, Java SDK 1.3 and MySQL. Open Infrastructure for Outcomes (OIO) system facilitates the creation of flexible and portable patient/research records. The major component of the OIO system are the web-accessible OIOI Server and OIO library. OIO Server is a highly flexible web-based data management system that manages users, patients, and information about patients. (Of course, the same system can just as easily manage information about customers, invoices, shipments, and accounts.) K e y l i n k s Care2002 http://care2x.com/ FreeMED http://www.freemedsoftware.org LinuxMedNews http://www.linuxmednews.com Meditux http://meditux.sourceforge.net/ Open Infrastructure for Outcomes http://www.txoutcome.org -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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[FSFE PR][EN] Free Software prominently represented at the UN- Conference (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jul '03

12 Jul '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- [for immediate release] Free Software as part of the German governmental delegation at the UN- Preparation - Conference to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Paris Karlsruhe, 12.07.2003 >From July 15th to 18th, a preparative conference towards the World Summit on the Information Society will be held in Paris, at which the future and destination of the information- and science- society shall be discussed as requested by the UN- General Assembly. As a nominee from the coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS, Georg Greve, president of the FSF Europe will take part in the meeting as a member of the German governmental delegation. "To take part in such an important meeting as a member for the coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS means a huge honor and a challenge to fulfill the great expectations", said Georg Greve at the LinuxTag in Karlsruhe. "In this function I would like to thank the German Government that they opened the door for the participation of the civil society. We hope to build upon this during the two years of the summit's process and to serve as a role model for other countries." Georg Greve continues: "The sustainability of the information society will be my focus. Besides questions like equality of knowledge and access as well as informational independence, which are part of my regular work for Free Software, also gender- equality and greater possibilities of access by means of new media will play a seminal role." "Especially for developing countries, Free Software offers various possibilities to gain access to the information- and knowledge- society. Therefore, we warmly welcome Georg Greve as a member of the German governmental delegation", said Markus Beckedahl, Chair of the Network of New Media (Netzwerk Neue Medien e.V.). "Free Software provides transparent and open digital infrastructures. Thanks to the civil commitment of numerous programmers worldwide, those are open to everybody. The network new media e.V. is convinced, that Free Software is fundamental in helping close the global digital divide", continued Markus Beckedahl. ------------- About the FSF Europe: The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSF Europe) is a charitable non-governmental organization dedicated to all aspects of Free Software in Europe. Access to software determines who may participate in a digital society. Therefore the freedoms to use, copy, modify and redistribute software - as described in the Free Software definition - allow equal participation in the information age. Creating awareness for these issues, securing Free Software politically and legally, and giving people freedom by supporting development of Free Software are central issues of the FSF Europe, which was founded in 2001 as the European sister organization of the Free Software Foundation in the United States. http://fsfeurope.org Contact FSF Europe: Georg C. F. Greve <greve(a)fsfeurope.org> phone: +49-40-23809080 fax: +49-40-23809081 The network new media e.V.: Since one year, the network new media works on the networking of the civil society for the first World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) of the UN, that will take place in Geneva from 9th ~12th December 2003. Out of this work now the ~coordinating circle of the German Civil Society for the WSIS~ has emerged. -- More information about the wsis is available under: http://www.worldsummit2003.org http://www.itu.int/wsis _______________________________________________ Press-release mailing list Press-release(a)fsfeurope.org https://mail.fsfeurope.org/mailman/listinfo/press-release

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Experiments in Zero G, now open source...
by Amol Hatwar 10 Jul '03

10 Jul '03

I recently came accross this text that talks about an anti-gravity craft at wired.com. Here's the link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_antigravity.html Surprisingly you can make your own craft. It's rathr very simple. Here's the link: http://www.americanantigravity.com/ have fun, ah

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World Social Forum-4 ... and Free Software
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 09 Jul '03

09 Jul '03

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM-4 (IN MUMBAI, 2004) AND FREE SOFTWARE -------------------------------------------------------- JOIN OUR Latin American (and other) friends in an initiative to harness the power of Free Software for free speech and knowledge! Writes Martin Olivera <martin_olivera(a)yahoo.com.ar> from Argentina: "At first (this mailing list) was intended to organize the Hipatia (www.hipatia.info) participation in the WSF4 (World Social Forum 4). The main objective of Hipatia is the freedom of knowledge, leveraging free software as the key tool to do this. In this way, this list would like coordinate efforts to fulfill WSF4 software necessities (web, mail, communications, news, virtual spaces, anything...) using only free software, cooperating worldwide." WSF4 is to be held in the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay) in January 2004. Do join this mailing list. It is open to everyone who could participate anyway for this: coordination, local (India-based) support, resources, free software selection/development/adaptation, content manmagement..." What possibilities we think of is restricted only by your imagination! FN List-Subscribe: http://listas.hipatia.info/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fsm2004 OR mailto: <fsm2004-request(a)hipatia.info?subject=subscribe> -- Frederick Noronha in India -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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Government Information Awareness
by Raj Shekhar 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

<http://opengov.media.mit.edu/gia.htm> I came across this site on slashdot. The concept is really nice. If this is scheme is implemented in India, we will have a nice database of sleaze. Read the details below. What is the Government Information Awareness Program? Government Information Awareness (GIA) is a research effort by the Computing Culture group of the MIT Media Lab. It aims to provide software and data to help citizens understand the complexities of their government. The premise of GIA is that individual citizens have the right to know details about government, while government has the power to know details about citizens. Our goal is develop a technology which empowers citizens to form a sort of intelligence agency; gathering, sorting, and acting on information they gather about the government. Only by employing such technologies can we hope to have a government "by the people, and for the people." The system presents itself to users as a Web site, but is actually a suite of information technologies that actively peruse data, accept contributions, and post alerts about government. The system will accommodate information of almost any type, allowing users to sort through volumes of information which would otherwise be unusable. More importantly, the system allows for people to submit any information, while retaining anonymity, but while also being identified as a consistent source. -- Regards, Raj Shekhar http://geocities.com/lunatech3007/

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Linus Interview...
by Amol Hatwar 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

Caught an interesting interview of Linus by Mercury News here: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/6238207.htm Regards, ah

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DRAFT FAQ... for email users in Goa
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Jul '03

06 Jul '03

RECENTLY, a shiftover of mail-servers in Goa (from Goatelecom to Sancharnet.in) caused quite a few glitches in e-mail access here. Below are some threads from the debate. We are trying to find solutions (many have been found), and seek your help in pointing us in the right direction. Please note that some of the suggestions below are tentative and not tested in all conditions. Hence, your suggestions on these, and pointing out of inaccuracies, would be more than welcome. Kindly send your responses to fred(a)bytesforall.org with subjectline reading EMAIL FAQ... FN ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DRAFT FAQ: FOR GNULinux EMAIL USERS IN GOA, INCLUDING THOSE ON SANCHARNET ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by FN for ILUG-Goa It is found that sancharnet does not accept webmail logging from konquerer, but from mozilla it works. I am using RH 7.2. Dialling through kppp script is also not smooth due to long time it takes for password authentication. Has anybody else in the list found the same problem? -- Bijon B Shaha <bbshaha(a)gmx.net> I had to enable the silent option in /etc/ppp/options to enable wvdial to connect. But this connect now takes ages at least 1.5 min from handshake tone to final connection. Is this a problwm with Sancharnet speeds? Or is it a problem with my machine? What's the best and fastest connect setting? I'm using wvdial.. no extra settings in the file. -- Ashely Delaney <delaneyashley(a)softhome.net> > > For me after the silent option I get the connection and it takes around > > 30 secs to connect. That's about as long as it takes for me also... This is almost 20-25 seconds slower then Windows based systems. I tried it out! I don't like my Linux box slower then something else :-( > In wvdial.conf, will Stupid Mode =1 be of use? Nope.. tried that. The stupid thing does just that. Starts ppp before username and password and hence disconnects almost immediately. BTW I must note that with the option passive it took 30 seconds, and with option 'silent' it took 1 min and the next time it disconnected. Any ideas??? -- Ashley Delaney <delaneyashley(a)softhome.net> Wvdial which used to work flawlessly for dialling to goatelecom has become unusable due to long authentication time required by Sanchanet. The program after starting desparelty ppp waits and waits and waits and eventually comes out to start redialling. Has anyone found a solution as many linux users use wvdial for automatic dialling? -Bijon B Shaha <bbshaha(a)gmx.net> I use wvdial and have to enable 'silent' option in /etc/ppp/options to make sancharnet dialing to work with wvdial. However after configuring using debian tool pppconfig and using pon and poff it worked in the first shot. Still there are problems while sending mails using sancharnet smtp. -- Rajesh Fowkar Use PAP authentication without dialup script or terminal. -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Does anybody know how to configure Mozilla mail to handover outgoing mail to exim? -- Mahesh T Pai Very simple. Just put your outgoing smtp server as localhost (or your machine hostname) Exim listens on the port 25 of your local machine as defined in your inetd.conf file. You don't need to edit it. Just a tip: If you use fetchmail to retrieve your email you can install one of the many available pop3 servers. UW i.e. university of washington pop3, imap is quite good. <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wanna get your hotmail email in a linux email client? Use hotwayd proxy server http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/ -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are problems while sending mails using sancharnet smtp. -- Rajesh Fowkar smra.sancharnet.in requires SMTP authorization. Old email clients do not support authorization. Change your email client. You may not be able to send email using an MTA such as sendmail, postfix, exim etc.. Use an email client directly or get the use of an alternative SMTP server(relayhost) -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> Strange -- I had no problems in setting up wvdial. It just worked with same options as for Goatelecom. Regarding the mail sending -- a line on CSI-Goa (Computer Society of India-Goa chapter) list helped. I got three helpful responses. Sancharnet requires authentication for sending mails. I set that option on Sylpheed and it is working. -- Anil Seth <anilseth(a)sancharnet.in> Thats good to hear. But does wvdial.conf have the option Stupid Mode = 1 enabled? Sylpheed supports SMTP auth. Not all email clients support the same. Older versions of kmail -- e.g. kmail on RHL7.2 Debian woody 3.0, Mandrake 8.1 -- do not support smtp auth. MTAs most probably will not support the same as they are full fledged SMTP servers and not any email client like Sylpheed. Sancharnet could, like many other servers, have allowed POP before SMTP authentication so that most users (using sendmail, postfix, old email clients) will be able to use the given SMTP server BTW users of old versions of ppp should use 'passive' instead of 'silent'. -- Derek Cordeiro <derek_cordeiro(a)gmx.net> ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Debian vs Redhat: In Debian the wvdial package contains a file /etc/ppp/peers/wvdial-pipe whereas in RedHat Lnx the same does not exist. Is it that this file is not important?(Then why does it continue to exist even in Knoppix?) There is a utility called pppstatus in Debian Woody(and Knoppix). The same I downloaded and compiled on Mandrake, RedHat, But it fails to do the job (it provides a terminal interface graph). Has anyone tried it, Any answers? -- Derek Cordeiro I can add a lot to that since yesterday I made a mess of my dialup accounts. Redhat ppp dialer (rather the ifup-ppp script) also uses a file in the same directory. It is created with the names like ppp0, ppp1. It contains the command for connecting to the ISP using wvdial. (These files should actually be temporary and dynamic and should be cleaned up when the connection is closed. My problem may have been a side effect of abnormal terminations.) For the curious, I used a shortcut to make sancharnet correspond to ppp0. The idiot kept dialing goatelecom! I got rid of goatelecom entry in wvdial.conf. It then complained about no phone number. Oh, well. I learnt - short cuts are dangerous. Regarding the ppp status, from my experience with Modem Lights, I would guess that these programs actually use the Modem Lock file for the status. If the modem is using /dev/ttyS0 and the monitoring program is using /dev/modem, the status will not be shown. The file name will be something like /var/lock/LCK..ttyS0 -- Anil Seth <anilseth(a)sancharnet.in> These files i.e. ppp0, ppp1 to my knowledge only contain a command wvdial with different options. The file "wvdial-pipe" contains pppd options like "noipdefault" etc. That's the reason I want to know it's significance.(It does not contain the command wvdial) The RedHat Network control creates ppp0, ppp1,...only upto version 8.0. RHL 9.0 directly edits the /etc/wvdial.conf file. There are additional settings in /etc/sysconfig/network(network-scripts) folder-- Derek Cordeiro ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ILUG-Goa, a network with a difference: sharing software, knowledge and ideas ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Electronics makers rally around Linux
by Soundara Rajan N.S. 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Electronics makers rally around Linux By John G. Spooner, CNET News.com 2/7/2003 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/systems/0,39001153,39138829,00.htm Several large consumer electronics companies are banding together to spread the usage of Linux in a range of new devices. Matsushita Electric, Sony, Hitachi, NEC, Royal Philips Electronics, Samsung, Sharp and Toshiba on Tuesday announced the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, or CELF, a consortium designed to adapt and advance the operating system for use in consumer electronics. Linux is widely used in large computers such as servers, but the eight companies wish to extend the operating system to other devices. While some companies, including MontaVista, have already created their own consumer electronics-oriented versions of Linux, the CELF wishes to spread out development work and take a more collaborative approach. CELF grew out of a Linux development alliance between Sony and Matsushita inked last December. At the time, the two companies agreed to collaborate on a new version of the open-source operating system for consumer electronics devices and said they would consider founding a forum to further those goals. The companies said their objective was to create a version of Linux that boots quickly and offers snappy performance for use in digital video recorders and other audiovisual devices. Digital video recorders capture TV programs and store them on a hard drive for later viewing. The CELF will cover the same basic objectives in a larger forum, with a steering committee made up of engineers from each of the eight companies, and will open up issues to the wider Linux community. Some of the CELF's initial goals will be to reduce start-up and shutdown times for the operating system, bolster its power management capabilities to help lengthen battery life in devices and reduce its memory requirements. The forum also will work to improve the real-time capabilities of Linux--in other words, the response times for devices that require precise timing, the consortium said in a statement. The forum will go about its work in a public manner, discussing ideas and then issuing requests and specifications for Linux developers to create software. The resulting software, once certified by the CELF, will be added to the consortium's source tree, a repository of Linux software. Individuals may join the CELF for free. Corporations wishing to join will pay fees ranging from US$4,000 to US$16,000, according to the forum's membership agreement posted on its Web site.

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Re: GNU/LinuxIndia... July 1, 2003
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Ola Christiano! Thank you for your note. Will forward to a couple of programmer-based lists in India. Christiano is from Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil, and his note is self-explanatory. It would be really nice if we could link up more closely with the global network that is etching freedom into software! FN PS: Christiano, could you give us some tips on how we could get more people in India to look at the possibility of developing for Debian? On Wed, 2 Jul 2003, Christiano Anderson wrote: > Fred, > > Thanks for sending me the GNU/Linux India news. Please keep on sending > it. > > I think you can help me. Richard Stallman invited me to help on GNU > Directory[1] and I'm working to include new packages and organise all > the structure, category list, etc. > > I'm including new packages to the Directory and I it could be important > to include packages developed in India. > > Please ask developers to send me the URL of their projects. I will > check if the project is GPLed and if it's ok, I will put the reference > on GNU Directory list. > > If you have any question, please let me know. > > Regards, > > Christiano > > [1] http://www.gnu.org/directory -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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Release of GNOWSYS Version 0.4
by Nagarjuna G. 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Release notes for GNOWSYS version 0.4. GNOWSYS: Gnowledge Networking and Organizing System. Useful for knowledge/content management, semantic web, building ontologies, building portal sites, link management etc. Learn more about it from http://www.gnowledge.org. In this version of GNOWSYS we have added a number of new modules. The core GNOWSYS engine of the earlier releases has been improved with better catalogue support. 1. Changes to GNOWSYS Core Semantic Engine: Amongst the main improvements to the core engine over GNOWSYS version 0.3 is that now the catalog support has been improved. All the Object Types, Objects, Association Types, and Associations entries are catalogued. Facet Types and Occurrence Types are yet to be fully supported by Catalog. This feature can be effectively used for large gnowledge bases, since ZOPE catalog increases the response time. In future releases Facet Types and Occurrence Types will also be catalogued. In GNOWSYS 0.4 the User Interface has also been changed. Amongst improvements to user interface. The layout of the index_html for an Object and an Object Types has been changed. We tried to get all the metadata of the objects visible. This may make the system a little slow, but useful for the users to know how to query for the most useful metadata of the objects. Users can modify all of this since we copy the entire template as dtml files in the instance. In association types now we have new associaton type called as rigid associations. By rigid association we mean: when an object is installed as an instance of an object type, which is defined as a role in a rigid association type, then the association will be automatically made. This works more like an RDBMS relation between two tables. Apart from these changes there are numerous other small changes and bug fixes. 2. New modules in GNOWSYS. In this release a number of new modules have been added, they are as follows. 1. Functional Representation (Execute) 2. Graphical Representation (Draw Maps) 3. Import Export (XML Data Exchange, TopicMaps (XTM)) 4. Publishing Module (Publish) Modules 2 and 4 may not work in non-UNIX operating systems without lot of tweaking. Most of this is due to the use of external programs like TeX and MetaPost. In future we will make this truly interoperable. 3. In future we will have: - authentication module (multi-user, role based with integration with the ObjectType Members), - work-flow (keeping track of objects and status), - RDF and OIL support for data exchange to make it ready for semantic web community. - XUL GUI for editing GNOWSYS sites effortlessly from Mozilla/Netscape and using a GTK/QT client. - UTF-8 support - skins or at least a style sheet - optimizing for speed - and improving all the above and continueing to fix bugs. Examples illustrating the use of GNOWSYS will be made and linked from the project website: http://www.gnowledge.org Happy gnowing! GNOWSYS TEAM Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education Nagarjuna -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/

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GNU/LinuxInIndia (July 01, 2003)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

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Former French PM condemns software patents
by Raj Mathur 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

[Cross-posted] Michel Rocard opposes the patentability of software "Everyone copies, and this is a good thing" By Florent LATRIVE and Laurent MAURIAC Liberation, Monday June 30, 2003 "A civilization should be preserved where the place of the world outside the market and of the human intellect is respected." One does not find a computer on the Parisian desk of Michel Rocard. He admits it freely: he is not "one of the generation which has an easy facility with the computer". However, as president of the Committee for Culture in the European Parliament, he has had to plunge himself, with an "evil madness", into software patentability, "words which even a year ago were unknown to me". Today, if he speaks about it in such an animated way, it is because hiding behind the technical aspects there is a real issue about civilization. For the ex prime minister, the introduction of patents on software in Europe would be "very serious". It would call into question the freedom of movement of human knowledge. Until now, software has been officially excluded from patentable subject-matter in Europe, just like mathematical equations or cooking recipes. But for several months, a very polemical draft Directive has been before the institutions of the European Union which aims to modify this regime. It will be put to the vote in the European Parliament at the beginning of September. Q.: Why do you reckon that Europe should not authorize patents on software? Since the cave of Lascaux, it is not clear that humanity has progressed in its aesthetic capacities. As for its ethical capacities and morals, one is even more doubtful. On the other hand, in the field of technical knowledge and the control of nature, the progress is astounding. The dizzying growth of knowledge is the key to this history. Knowledge was spread by copying, everyone recopied everyone, and that was good. With the patentability of software, one is re-writing the statutes on human knowledge. All of the intellectual exchange in the creations of the human spirit, the means of bringing knowledge together, will be achieved more and more by software. If patentability is introduced, i.e. a cost, a prohibition, one sets up a new rule. It is worrying. ... Full translation at: http://www.aful.org/wws/arc/patents/2003-06/msg00221.html Original (French) story at: http://www.liberation.fr/page.php?Article=121303 -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F It is the mind that moves

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Re: WSF and Free Software
by Diego Saravia 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

Hi, yesterday we setup and email list to discuss wsf and free soft. The idea is to involve people from 3 wsf with india free soft comunity towards 4 wsf. Do you like to be included? Do you know another people that must be included? > Dear Diego Saravia > > We do have a Free Software Foundation of India, and I am one of the > Directors staying in Mumbai. I saw your query to Frederick > (bytesforall) who forwarded the email to us. Do let us know what you > have in mind for the WSF program, and what we could do. We think that > WSF India event should exclusively use free software, and if needed > FSF India can help in this as a support organization. I am copying > this mail to Arun (arun(a)gnu.org.in). > > Nagarjuna > -- > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > nagarjun at hbcse tifr res in. http://www.gnowledge.org/ > I support Public Library of Science http://www.plos.org/ > > -- Diego Saravia dsa(a)unsa.edu.ar

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TeX, SchoolForge, FreEduc... and even Susegado
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

FORMER GOA BOARD for SSC & HSSC Education chairman Raghuvir Vernekar was waiting for the meeting to get up seat, as was Animesh, Alwyn and Mario. Others walked in somewhere between the appointed hour of 3 pm, scheduled for the launch of a proposed TeX Users Group in Goa. Normally-silent Alwyn Noronha was in full-bloom, explaining why he opted for TeX. "It's a way of creating documents that wil last over the years. Size of the documents is small. It's typesetting, not wordprocessing. You can get LateX to work with computers ranging from mainframes to Windows. Indexing and table-of-contents are very easy to create. You can even forward refer." We discussed the ways of creating PDF books. With so much content floating around, perhaps this might be a good idea. Prof Vernekar gave some ideas of how we could get in touch with Goa school principals (Goa Headmasters' Association) to introduce them to the idea of Free Software for education. One idea is to link up with the principals, teachers associations (AGSSTO, AGSSTA), and the higher secondary principal's forum. Any volunteers? Rizaplaystation, which was lugged in earlier, was demonstrated with FreEDUC. FN demoed some of the Gcompris games his daughter enjoys. Animesh ran through some other programs on this CD (www.ofset.org). This was followed by a discussion on the Goa government's approach towards GNU/Linux was discussed, as was whether have Goa's own 'base CD' would help. Albert Gouveia of NIO gave his inputs, as did educationist Dr Anil Seth and Bijon Shaha. Some pointed out that in view of the limited functionality of proprietorial software tools offered to students under the Cyberage scheme, a demand should be made for installing dual-boot systems on the PCs. Mario@Alienwiz gave an interesting explanation of his plans to create a 'virtual Goa' community game, perhaps aptly titled 'Susegado' (a difficult word to translate, but reflecting the relaxed state of the Goan mind). More about this later. Everyone adjourned for the customary tea-and-snacks at Navtara restaurant, leading to another session of informal discussions. Randall, a young student, was also present along with his friend from Don Bosco's IT college. Looking forward to seeing more young faces at the LUG. Let's take Free Software to your colleges too... Some plans: o St Xavier's Free Software talk and demo, possibly on 19.7 o Randall is checking out possibilities at Damodar's o Prof Bhat promised to follow up more IT-in-college initiatives -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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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[OFFTOPIC] INDIA-KERALA: Akshaya's plan for 500 community technology centres
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 01 Jul '03

01 Jul '03

KERALA STATE IT MISSION Department of IT Government of Kerala has put out an ad (Express Computer, June 16, 2003) requesting proposals to provide connectivity "to over 500 community technology centres (AkshayaECentres) in Malappuram district, Kerala". It says: As part of Kerala's ambitious e-literacy campaign, Akshaya e Centres are being set up throughout Kerala. These centres will initially provide e-literacy to one member from every household and eventually act as ICT Dissemination notes and IT Enabled Service Delivery points in every village. All Akshaya e Centres need to have quality internet connectivity and will have to be networked with a centralised operating centre. Implementation of the first phase of the project is now on in Malappuram District. The second phase involves setting up of over 6,000 Akshaya e Centres in all the district of the State, which is expected to be over by December 2004. Kerala State IT Mission, the nodal agency of the Department of IT, Government of Kerala invites proposals from connectivity providers with similar project experience to provide connectivity to over 500 Akshaya e Centres in Malappuram. Deliverables: Providing 128 Kbps connectivity at each centre to ensure smooth internet services ranging from broising, voice over IP, to video conferencing. Setting up Network Operating Centre linking Akshaya e Centres for management and monitoring of connectivity, and bandwidth management. How to apply: Interested service providers should send their proposals as per detailed RFP on or before June 25, 2003 along with service level agreement to be signed with details including guaranteed uptime, bandwidth, response time, maintainence plan etc For detailed RFP, contact: Director, Kerala State Information Technology Mission, ICT Campus, Vellayambalam Jn, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala State, India 695033. Tel -91 -471 - 272 6881, 232 4307. Email itmission(a)vsnl.com Website: www.keralaitmission.org www.akshaya.net -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 July 2003