Fsf-friends October 2004

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

34 participants
51 discussions

rerquest for comments
by Mahesh T. Pai 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

Please comment on http://paivakil.port5.com/writings/protectyourcode.shtml Not yet published -- except here. -- Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.port5.com Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

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[Fsf-friends] Fwd : Tragic accident kills free software hacker; RMS spared
by Titty Jacob 05 Oct '04

05 Oct '04

http://www.wiggy.net/tmp/accident/ Debian luminary Wichert Akkerman -- aka Wiggy -- has been reporting on his website this morning about a tragic automobile accident near Paris. At first Richard Stallman was thought to have been a passenger in the car, but later reports said he had already been dropped off when the accident occured. Wiggy will continue to update his site as more information comes in. Stallman and the others -- Hans Bakker, Edwin Hermans, and a third hacker identified only as Sebastian S. -- were returning from the SANE04 Free Software Bazaar in Amsterdam. According to Akkerman's news page, Hans Bakker is reported to have been killed in the crash, Edwin Hermans has suffered a broken leg, and Sebastian S. is in surgery. -- Debian GNU/Linux .~. The Choice /V\ of a GNU /( )\ Generation ^^-^^ .''`. : :' : `. `'` `-

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Massive victory at WIPO!
by Sandip Bhattacharya 04 Oct '04

04 Oct '04

[Warning! Cross posted!] http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/04/massive_victory_at_w.html Massive victory at WIPO! ------------------------- For years now, progressive elements and copyfighters have been trying to get the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization to start thinking about ways of promoting creativity and development instead of just IP -- to get the organization to see that its raison d'etre is a better world, and that stronger IP laws is just one way of accomplishing that -- and that IP only works sometimes. We've been foiled at every turn by the maximalists, the movies studios and the trademark offices, the patent-cops and the recording industry lobbyists and the IP lawyers' associations. Which is why this is such good news: at the general session of the WIPO in Geneva this weekend, the Assembly has adopted a decision to put development and the promotion of creativity front-and-center in its goals. That means that from now on, WIPO isn't an organization that blindly supports more IP no matter what, but rather one that seeeks to improve the world by whatever tool is best suited to the job. Jamie Love and the Consumer Project on Technology gets the credit for this: they were the ones who started this fight, and they've been the ones who led it all along. This is the day the tide turns. Bearing in mind the internationally agreed development goals, including those in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, the Monterey Consensus, the Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development, the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action of the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society and the Sao Paulo Consensus adopted at UNCTAD XI; (1) The General Assembly welcomes the initiative for a development agenda and notes the proposals contained in document WO/GA/31/11. (2) The General Assembly decides to convene inter-sessional intergovernmental meetings to examine the proposals contained in document WO/GA/31/11, as well as additional proposals of Members States. To the extent possible, the meetings will be convened in conjunction with the 2005 session of the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development Related to Intellectual Property. The meetings, open to all Member States, will prepare a report by July 30, 2005, for the consideration of the next General Assembly. WIPO-accredited IGOs and NGOs are invited to participate as observers in the meetings. (3) The International Bureau shall undertake immediate arrangements in order to organize with other relevant multilateral organizations including UNCTAD, WHO, UNIDO and WTO, a joint international seminar on Intellectual Property and Development, open to the participation of all stakeholders, including NGOs, civil society and academia. -- Sandip Bhattacharya * Puroga Technologies * sandip(a)puroga.com Work: http://www.puroga.com * Home: http://www.sandipb.net PGP/GPG Signature: 51A4 6C57 4BC6 8C82 6A65 AE78 B1A1 2280 A129 0FF3

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Memo to CSIR
by Raj Singh 04 Oct '04

04 Oct '04

Hello, I work for a CSIR lab. If required, I can supply the proper addresses and names of persons within the CSIR system (Members of Governing Council, DG-CSIR's office, Directors of various labs, etc.) to whom the memo should be sent (off-line from the list). -- Raj +---------------------------------------------------+ | Raj Singh | EMAIL : raj(a)ceeri.ernet.in | | IC Design Group | PHONE : 01596-242359 (office) | | CEERI | : 01596-252542 (home) | | Pilani -- 333 031 | FAX : 01596-242393 (office) | +---------------------------------------------------+

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Re: Re: [Fsf-friends] Institutional Model vs. Bazaar Model
by Frederick Noronha 03 Oct '04

03 Oct '04

> From: Ramanraj K <ramanraj(a)md4.vsnl.net.in> > > Fredrick Noronha and many have been suggesting micro-grants, and > others kinds of fundings for free software projects. RMS mooted > Software Tax. The free software code base is public wealth, and it is > fair to expect governments to become the major source of funds and > grants, that could be disbursed to deserving projects through FSF or > other responsible institutions through the device of assignments. Frankly, I was a bit surprised to see my name being mentioned in this debate, because I had not given any serious thought as such to it earlier. My suggestion flowed out of my attempts to convince friends at Sarai.net (which were eventually successful) to support the Free Software development process, by offering microgrants to students willing to work on the same. As such, it was more a immediate response to Sarai's willingness to do something, and the students' obvious need to get that little support, that could make a big difference. Now that you've made me think about it, a few more inputs: * More than the governments (which drag their feet, and act slowly, more as a response to pressure groups and lobbies or crises), we need to look at other institutions for funding support. * Groups like Unesco already have a Free Software Portal in France. In ICT4D (information communication technologies for development) debates held in India, by organisations like the UNDP, which I got caught up in due to by BytesForAll.org affiliation, the issue has come up repeatedly. * Now, a whole lot of organisations -- including controversial ones like the World Bank -- and other international donors have got clued on into the debate, and are willing to support FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software). The latest is the IOSN network in Malaysia, which is currently being managed by a talented young man from Bangalore, Sunil Abraham from Mahiti.org (not the government organisation with the similar name). * What we don't see happening is enough developers taking advantage of these supports, applying for projects that could well do with the support and has a genuine social need (not just because the money is available). On the other hand, a number of NGOs are quick to realise the potential, and jump onto the ICT4D bandwaggon. While I don't have anything per se against NGOs, and rather view them by what they do, it is rather sad that not many developers are taking the support which is there for the asking. * Friends in Kerala built up one Malayalam font with APDIP help, prior to the setting up of the IOSN.net network. Anyway, we need to look to other areas too, besides international UN-related organisations, and donor organisations. Of course, we all would not like the Free Software movement to just turn into another NGO and lose its voluntary spirit; but if help comes without strings then it could go to support the young people who need it and have a lot to contribute. We also need to be lobbying more actively with governments (both Central and State), bureaucrats (see the e-gov-india network on yahoogroups), organisations like Sarai.net which are willing to support this work and realise the potential of Free Software, university organisations, Commonwealth bodies to promote education, and all possible quarters. On behalf of BytesForAll.org, I can assure our support -- since I am personally committed to this idea -- in promoting the attempt to build links between (i) techies (ii) the ICT4D network (iii) NGOs who could and should be end-users of Free Software and its promoters in a big way, except that they don't seem to understand what the issue is all about or just take the easy way out and (iv) academia which could really put this agenda on the intellectual agenda. But we are just one volunteer and unfunded (by design) organisation; even if with a wide readership. What we need is more people pushing for these links to happen. It could really help to quicken the speed of change. FN ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 Goa India Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks http://fn.swiki.net http://www.ryze.com/go/fredericknoronha http://fn-floss.notlong.com =============================================================================

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Public release of the Rachana OTF
by Rajeev J Sebastian 03 Oct '04

03 Oct '04

Dear friends and well wishers, This email is to notify you that the Rachana group has released the first public version of the Rachana OTF font for Malayalam Traditional Orthography. It is available at www.stendekrnd.com/rachana/rachana.html We welcome your comments, suggestions and other communications. Also, please forward this message to lists and indiiduals who are interested in this sort of thing. Following is a copy of the Readme file which is also included the package. Thank you, Rajeev J Sebastian README for RachanaMedium.otf ---------------------------- The Rachana Medium OTF represents merely one artifact of the extensive work of Shri Chitrajakumar R and Shri KH Hussein, as leaders of the Rachana Akshara Vedhi on the linguistics and information processing models for the Malayalam language, and for Indic family of languages in general. The wealth of their experience and their love of their mother tongue is visible in each and every glyph of this font. Rachana Akshara Vedhi is the first font to provide a comprehensive set of glyph shapes for the entire character repertoire of Malayalam Traditional orthography, under the GNU GPL. The Rachana set of glyphs were initially developed in 1999, then released by Richard M Stallman at Cochin University of Science and Technology under the GNU GPL. At that time, it consisted of a set of TTF fonts. These fonts were further expanded by around 100 more glyphs, along with integration with the Unicode model, and the result is this Rachana Medium OTF font. Other members of the Rachana Akshara Vedhi, who were also instrumental in bringing out this font: Dr P. Vijayakumaran Nair (Kerala Forest Research Institute) N. Gangadharan (Malayalam Lexicon) Subash Kuriakose (Kerala Forest Research Institute, Peechi) The following have also contributed immensely towards the creation of the font: Dr Mammen Chundamannil (Kerala Forest Research Institute) Rajeev J Sebastian (Stendek R&D) Anwar Ummer (FSUG-CUSAT) PM Hashim (Design Difference) Ramakrishnan M. (debian.org) Raghavendra Bhat (FSUG-Kochi) Rachana Medium OTF typeface was developed using Free software: Fontforge (earlier versions are also called Pfaedit). Legal Information ----------------- Rachana Medium OTF Font Copyright (C) 2004 Rachana Akshara Vedhi This font is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This font is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this font; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Please see the LICENSE file for a detailed license agreement. Questions --------- All patches to this font, and any questions should be directed to rajeev_jsv(a)stendekrnd.com Please prefix the word [Rachana] to the subject line September 2, 2004 Rajeev J Sebastian

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[indic] Public release of the Rachana OTF
by Rajeev J Sebastian 02 Oct '04

02 Oct '04

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Re: PDF issues
by Tathagata Banerjee 02 Oct '04

02 Oct '04

On Saturday 25 September 2004 15:26, Nagarjuna wrote: > Last saturday in the FSF group meeting at Mumbai we discussed the > possibility of cleaning up the pdf files, which are actually made > using non-free software. Sayamindu said he will take care of this and > will send the files back. Then the book will be uplaoded at FSF site. > > Nagarjuna i have doubts whether 'cleansing' the pdf-s in this way will be a meaningful exercise. no amount of cleansing can delete the truth that the files were created using non-free software. all we can hope to achieve is hide that truth from the public. i understand the importance of maintaining a clean image, but i think it will be more honest and more in keeping with our moral integrity to keep the files as they are, and add an apology for using non-free programs, and an explanation regarding why it was necessary to use them. - t. -- cogito, ergo es.

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News from FSF-Europe
by Mahesh T. Pai 02 Oct '04

02 Oct '04

http://lwn.net/Articles/104752/ http://lwn.net/Articles/104753/ -- Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.port5.com Free Software - it is free as in FREEDOM

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[Fwd: [Ilugc] Microsoft's FAT patent overturned]
by Ramanraj K 01 Oct '04

01 Oct '04

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Ilugc] Microsoft's FAT patent overturned Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 19:25:45 +0530 (IST) From: Sivasankar Chander <siva(a)dias.ath.cx> Reply-To: schander(a)mindspring.com To: ilugc(a)ae.iitm.ac.in CC: Sivasankar Chander <siva(a)whitebox.dias.ath.cx> As the subject line says, Microsoft's patent on the FAT filesystem has been overturned by the USPTO on re-examination. http://www.pubpat.org/Microsoft_517_Rejected.htm This is good news in embedded space, as well as for users of digicams, mp3 players, etc., most of which make some use of the FAT filesystem. -Siva _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, email ilugc-request(a)ae.iitm.ac.in with "unsubscribe <password> address" in the subject or body of the message. http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc

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Fsf-friends October 2004