Fsf-friends January 2005

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

34 participants
66 discussions

Re: [Fsf-friends] sly stories
by CK Raju 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

--- "V. Sasi Kumar" <vsasi(a)hotpop.com> wrote: If he had studied in a government school, or had seen the IT text books for SSLC, he would have understood what free software is. I understand that he is in a CBSE school. We need to put pressure on CBSE to bring free software into their IT education. -- I think the dangers of such proprietary technologies creeping into the curriculum are much beyond that what we usually imagine. For instance, see this feature of Micro$oft. "...Project Shiksha Highlights Microsoft in partnership with State Governments to deliver comprehensive, leading K-12 IT curriculum as prescribed by the standards bodies Student scholarships to recognize India’s top students who drive innovation through technology A teacher scholarship program to recognize and reward India’s leading teachers committed to delivering world-class education An online community for teacher collaborations, best practice sharing and honing of skill sets..." (full story at http://www.microsoft.com/india/education/pil/shiksha/ ). Read our Chief Ministers details on amending Curriculum on an annual basis (after he visited Technopark, TVM in Nov 2004), and the seriousness would increase. (A response to that story is at http://www.indiavarta.com/Opinions/index.asp?Category=opinion&mesgId=32757 ) Rgds, CK Raju _____________________________________________________________ LinuxTimes.Net --> Open Source to everyone.

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Indian Free-gis mailing list
by sajithvk 15 Jan '05

15 Jan '05

Friends, Geographic Information Systems are powerful tools for organising and processing geospatial data. The use of this software is increasing in our country, especially since the availability of satellite imageries makes it a very useful tool in planning. However, most of our institutes use proprietary GIS applications, which are very expensive, in addition to being restrictive. Many people are not even aware of the availability of equally or more powerful Free Software applications like GRASS. So we formed an email group for Free-GIS related discussions. This email group was formed to promote the awareness and use of such applications, and to help new users to become familiar with them. Please see http://gnu.org.in/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/free-gis. We invite you to join the group and contribute to our efforts. List Admin

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FLOSS meet at NIT Calicut -- site temporarily moved
by Praveen A 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

There has been some problem with our website [http://glugc.nitc.ac.in]. We are trying to sort it out. For the time being check out the page in our main site. http://nitc.ac.in/nitc/static_files/floss/index.html Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Article from The Hindu: Sent to you by Praveen A
by thehindu＠web1.hinduonnet.com 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

I hope you'd like this. ============================================================= This article has been sent to you by Praveen A ( pravi.a(a)gmail.com ) ============================================================= Source: The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/edu/2005/01/11/stories/2005011100200400.htm) Education Plus    Kerala    YOUNGACHIEVERS A whiz-kid's tryst with Linux What do people do when they hear that doing a particular thing is very difficult? Most of them try to avoid it. But some people meet the challenge headlong. Sarath Lakshman a Standard X student of the Jawaharlal Nehru Government Higher Secondary School, Mahe, belongs to the second category. A challenge Until 2003, Sarath had never used Linux, computer operating system (OS). He had heard about it, though. When he repeatedly heard from various people that Linux was not an everyman's OS and that operating Linux requires more than a casual knowledge of computers, Sarath saw a challenge staring him in the face. His answer to that challenge was `SLYNUX' - or in other words `Sarath Lakshman's Linux'. The story of Sarath's achievements using the computer begins some time back. Even as a child, Sarath was interested in science and technology; the young scientist demonstrated this by prying open household electronic gadgets and tinkering with them. When he reached Standard VIII and started learning about computers as per the syllabus designed by the IT@School programme, he got hooked to computers. E-periodic table One day, in Standard IX, when the Chemistry teacher was taking a class on the periodic table, it struck Sarath that computers could be used to teach the periodic table in a much more interesting way. This resulted in the development of the `e-periodic table' - software that helps the student to learn the positions of elements, their atomic numbers and so on. This software turned out to be a hit with the students of his school. When officials of the IT@school got wind of this, they got in touch with Sarath and asked him whether he would give the copyright of his software to them. Sarath was only too willing and a few days later had the satisfaction of seeing his `e-periodic table' in the resource CD for the Standard X IT@School sent to all schools in the State. New software As far as Sarath was concerned, this was only the beginning. "I then thought of developing a software that would help students learn the basics of electronics - my childhood passion. I began working on this and eventually came up with `Electronic Studio MX', which uses animation to explain basic concepts in electronics," he told The Hindu-Education Plus. With two successful projects under his belt, Sarath turned his attention to Linux - something he had always been told was very, very difficult to operate. Initially, Sarath installed a popular version of Linux, on his computer. Soon, he saw that what he had been told about Linux was not too much of an exaggeration. " I found that this OS was very good in matters of security and smoothness of operation. But I found that the average user would be confused by the names given to programmes in Linux. The fact that Linux uses inter-dependent system files excited me and convinced me that I could make this OS simpler and easy to comprehend," he explained. SLYNUX Sarath said he was also particular that his version of Linux should be operational from a live CD - that is, it could run even without being installed in a computer. Next, he went about devising the SLYNUX desktop to closely resemble the normal Window's desktop. This way, he ensured that anybody who is familiar with Windows could easily switch to using SLYNUX. Sarath says that anybody who uses his OS would have the advantage of getting a lot of pre-installed programmes. "Normally, there are very few programmes in Windows OS. You would have to pay for getting more programmes installed or else pirate the same. For instance, SLYNUX has a pre-installed SLYNUX media player and a Linamp player. So, the user can play VCDs and even DVDs using the programme `Xine'," he said. That is not all. SLYNUX also has a multi-purpose messenger programme that can be used for MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Jabber and IRC messaging services. SLYNUX also has Mozilla Firefox, which can be used to access the Net. "Another major feature about my OS is that it supports internal modems; something that other Linux versions normally don't. It can also access most of the file types used in the Windows OS. In addition to this, SLYNUX also supports Malayalam fonts. I have even included an on-screen Malayalam keyboard," Sarath said. By providing a flash player plug-in, a CD-burner software and a `paint' programme, Sarath has also made sure that his OS is pretty strong on the multi-media front. He recommends at least 256 MB of RAM to get the best out of his SLYNUX CD. Marketing Sarath says he hopes to market SLYNUX, which he took only seven months to develop. "I will retain this as an open software. I would like to see more students using this free software. If we can have something free, why spend lakhs of rupees purchasing proprietary software," he asked. The answer would have to come from policy makers who handle IT education in the State. As this `young achiever' points out there is no institutionalised support in the State to people like him who set out to make things easier for others; for, there may be others - as yet unseen flowers - who are capable of similar feats, if not more. Sarath can be contacted at `sarathlakshman(a)yahoo.com G. MAHADEVAN Photo: S. Gopakumar Copyright: 1995 - 2005 The Hindu Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the consent of The Hindu

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[Fwd: [Ilugc] One Day One Command] watch
by Ramanraj K 14 Jan '05

14 Jan '05

watch - a useful command. Communities too need to "watch" out and sometimes act quickly. "hue and cry" has semantic traces back to watching out for seasonal fish from the shores, then actually evolved into a legal practice in England, where neighbours were obliged to come in aid of felony alarms until the practice was repealed in 1827. Watching for dangers, raising alarms, and rushing aid are part and parcel of community life, and being able to delegate some of these activities to commands like watch, could make life a little easier. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-hue1.htm http://archives.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/02/pol.play.amber.alert/ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Ilugc] One Day One Command Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:21:47 +0530 (IST) From: Bharathi S <sbharathi(a)MidasComm.Com> To: Indian Linux Users Group - Chennai <ilugc(a)ae.iitm.ac.in> One Day One Command :- --------------------- watch - Periodically run and show the output of a program Summary: Watch runs command repeatedly, displaying its output This allows you to monitor the program output change over time. Examples :- $ watch ls -- Every 2sec(default time) 'ls' is executed and output is showed on the screen. $ watch -n 6 who -- Every 6Sec 'who' run and list the current users $ watch -d date -- Highlight the difference b/w successive updates Press Ctrl+C to stop the Watch Command. Read: man watch Wish you happy Pongal & Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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FLOSS meet at NIT Calicut
by Praveen A 13 Jan '05

13 Jan '05

Hi All, We are happy to announce the one day FLOSS meet at National Institute of Technology Calicut (formerly Regional Engineering College, REC) on 29th JAnuary 2005. For more details log on to http://glugc.nitc.ac.in/floss/index.html FLOSS@NITC Free/Libre Open Source Software Movement (FLOSS) which emphasis on the Freedom of using different softwares. FLOSS meet is a one day seminar/workshop focusing on Free/libre and open Source technologies on 29th January, 2004.The event is jointly organized by the IEEE Student branch, CSI Calicut Chapter and GNU/Linux Users group at Calicut. The Seminar is also intended to provoke the student community. The event will bring together academicians, students and the industry people who are involved in the Movement. The event will comprise of two session, in the morning and afternoon. The morning sessions will be more concentrated on the floss philosophy, how students can involve and get benefit out of the floss community etc. There will be talks related to the security issues rising in the computer world. The afternoon session will be a workshop type. The workshop will be live demonstration type about the favorite floss language Python. SPEAKERS The one day FLOSS conference will be managed by the industry people who are involved in the movement. The eminent speakers are MORNING SESSION 1.Atul Chitnis -- He is one of India's best known technologists. He has been at the forefront of India's technology evolution. He was the chief organiser for Linux Bangalore 2004. 2. Shanker Balan -- Systems engineer, Yahoo! Bangalore. He is the part of the team which takes care of Yahoo! Mail related operations all over the world. AFTERNOON SESSION 1. Swaroop C H -- Software engineer in Yahoo! , His book A Byte of Python has been downloaded more than 24,000 times. 2. Pradeep Kishore Gowda -- Senior Software engineer in ZeOmega infotech Bangalore. He has worked with/for Asea Brown Boveri(ABB), Ingersoll-Rand, Deeproot Linux, Business Intelligence and Newer Technologies (BIGANTS) Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Free Software magazine Issue 1: out! (fwd)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Hello people, (my apologies if you receive this email more than once!) I sent this email to people who proposed articles or advertising for Free Software Magazine. Well, Free Software Magazine (issue 1) is out! Please go and check it out: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com It is absolutely crucial, at this point, that we all: * Spread the word. Talk about Free Software Magazine to your LUG's mailing lists, your geek and non-geek friends, and anybody who you think could be interested in subscribing * Subscribe yourself! (if you can afford it). In the (hopefully near) future, writers and arvertisers will get a free subscription. Until then, please support us! * Tell Slashdot/Freshmeat/anybody about us! Here is a possibile announcement: "The first issue of Free Software Magazine (http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com) is out! Free Software Magazine is a new magazine entirely dedicated to free software. It contains quality articles relating to both technical and non-technical issues; all published articles are released under a free license after their publication. The magazine obviously needs subscribers - the more the better. Have a look at it: if you feel like supporting an exciting project, please subscribe! * Put a link to http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com on your web site. Even better, publish one of these banners on your web site: http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/banner-square.gif http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/fsm_banner_01.gif http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/banners/text_banner.txt * Do whatever you think could help the magazine - as long as it's ethical Well, that's it. Please let me know what you think about Free Software Magazine. And... thanks a lot for your help! Bye, Merc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Mobily Author of "Hardening Apache" (Apress) "...this book can save you pain, humiliation, and hair loss" -- Mitchell Pirtle, PHP Magazine 05/2004

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[Fsf-friends] Do you know anything about GRDSS... (developed at IISc, Bangalore)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

GRDSS is a GRASS (Geographic Resource Analysis Support System, http://wgbis.ces.iisc.ernet.in/grass) based GIS. GRASS is an open source GIS that works on the GNU/Linux platform, but most of the applications are in command line arguments. The command line syntax for GRASS was time consuming for individuals with limited programming skills. In order to overcome this, a user-friendly graphical interface GRDSS (Geographical REsources Decision Support System) was developed with all functionality of GIS and image processing. It aids decision makers and planners at a decision support system to visualise the decisions with spatial and temporal decisions along with capabilities to capture, store, process, display, organise, and prioritize spatial and temporal data. -- From GIS@development, August 2004 p 20. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) Nr Convent Saligao 403511 GoaIndia Freelance Journalist P: 832-2409490 M: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://fn-floss.notlong.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://goabooks.swiki.net * Reviews of books on Goa... and more

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Debunking Wine Myths
by Praveen A 12 Jan '05

12 Jan '05

Here are some common Wine "myths" that are either completely wrong or not very correct: * "Wine is slow because it is an emulator" * "Wine is bad for Linux" * "Emulators like VMWare are better" * "You need Windows anyway" * "Wine is bad, Winelib is better" * "Wine will always be playing catch up to Windows and can't possibly succeed at running new applications" * "Because Wine only implements a small percentage of the Windows APIs, it's always going to suck" * "Wine is only for Windows 3.1 / Wine will never support Win64" * "Wine is for Linux only" * "Wine is for Intel x86 only" * "My game has copy protection that doesn't work with Wine" * Myth 1: "Wine is slow because it is an emulator" Some people mean by that that Wine must emulate each processor instruction of the Windows application. This is plain wrong. As Wine's name says: "Wine Is Not an Emulator": Wine does not emulate the Intel x86 processor. It will thus not be as slow as Wabi which, since it is not running on a x86 Intel processor, also has to emulate the processor. Windows applications that do not make system calls will run just as fast as on Windows (no more no less). Read full storey at http://www.winehq.com/site/myths Regards Praveen A -- A proud GNU user http://www.gnu.org http://www.edathanattukara.com My Weblog at http://www.livejournal.com/users/pravi Visit me at http://www.pravi.tk Rediscover the web ! Get firefox at http://www.getfirefox.com Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

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Debian ports to BSD
by Vivek Varghese Cherian 11 Jan '05

11 Jan '05

Looks like Debian is now also porting itself to the BSD Kernels apart from the Linux Kernel. http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/ http://www.nl.debian.org/ports/netbsd/ Regards, Vivek Varghese Cherian

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Fsf-friends January 2005