Fsf-friends September 2005

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Careers in FLOSS... (Dec 2003 issue of LFY)
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 06 Jun '24

06 Jun '24

=========================================== LINUXForYou * Dec 2003 (Vol 1 No 10) In India Rs 50 (with CD) http://www.linuxforu.com Pages 102 * US$7.95 0 74470584957 =========================================== THIS ISSUE has probably reached your city. Saw it in Bangalore, and also got a complimentary copy from the LFY team at LinuxBangalore2003. But when I reached back to Goa on Dec 4, it wasn't in as yet. So it might take time to reach 'small town' India... FN REVIEWED: Mandrake 9.2 * PhProjekt * StarOffice 7.0 COMPUTERS AT TIS HAZARI, the session courts for the city of New Delhi, are being shifted over to Linux, courtesy the National Informatics Centre. - Rahul Chopra in this month's editorial. LINUX LEARNING CENTRE at Bangalore is offering courses in administration, security, development (internals and programming essentials, programming with Qt, device driver programming, MySQL & PHP), RHCE and Red Hat rapid track certification. www.linuxlearningcentre.com DotGNU RELEASES CD: It can now be used to implement application programs and Web services in C# and C applications under multiple operating systems, including GNU/Linux, FreeBSC, MacOS, MS Windows. The 219 MB release 0.1 CD is available as a free download at http://download.freedom.biz/dotgnu/dotgnu-0.1-cdrom.iso.gz.torrent e-Bridge calls itself "the new state-of-art training facility from eSpark Infotech is now open in the heart of Bangalore". It's offering embedded Linux courses (Linux fundamentals, programming Linux, embedded C & Linux, realtime C & Linux, Linux internals, device drivers, networking) and DSP courses (DSP fundamentals, TI/analog dev programming, audio/video, image processing, bio-medical systems). www.ebridgesolutions.net Linux.net provides a free e-mail service to those who want an e-mail address that ends in '@linux.net' MAJOR UPDATES and releases: OpenNA Linux 1.0, Gibraltar Firewall 1.0, Xandros Desktop 2.0, Onebase Linux 2.0, CUPS 1.120rc6. CAN YOU MAKE money with open source? Registration entails a "nominal fee" of Rs 5000 for a three-day conference. http://www.linuxasia2004.com/attendees/ February 11-13, 2004, New Delhi. SEND IN YOUR favourite slogans for a tee-shirt, and win five free copies of the shirt... LFYedit at efyindia.com MONEY CAN't buy respect, says Robert Adkins. Some of us might have met this guy at LB2003 in Bangalore. He's the CTO of Technetra Corp, and an advocate and implementer of FLOSS solutions for government. He can be contacted at radkins at technetra.com CAREERS WITH FLOSS: The number of students opting for courses in Open Source is growing steadily, even as industry experts predict a growing need for trained professionals in this expanding field. EXIT RED HAT, ENTER FEDORA: It's official now; the free (of cost) version of Red Hat Linux will not be available anymore. This has created a lot of FUD in an already unstable environment, thanks to the SCO episode. But is Red Hat closed for good? WEB-BASED COLLABORATION SOFTWARE: PHProjekt is an easy-to-install collaboration suite, which runs on the open source platform and databases. As the design of the system is developer-friendly, adding new features and components is a piece of cake. STAROFFICE: The latest version of Sun's office suite, StarOffice 7, may just be the right solution for the cost-conscious user. It loads faster than the earlier version, and sports some noticeable improvements. IN THE LFY CD THIS MONTH: Slackware (the "oldest Linux distro") and a range of GNU software for Windows users. FALLING BACK on backup systems. MAKING ADOPTION OF Linux in the enterprise easy. www.linux4e.com Business partners required: http://wwww.linux4e.com/partners ooWRITER HELPS YOU create your own templates and styles so that you can work with documents easily. Open Source is key to IBM's vision of computing. User empowerment is key to Microsoft's, writes Alolita Sharma USING DATABASE functions in Calc, a tutorial. (Wish there were more how-tos for the user in this mag! --FN) HALDIA DOCKS: it has a uniquely designed Linux installation with an active-active cluster set up, which is considered the best of its kind. This has ensured efficiency and cost-effectiveness. BASIC UNIX commands and concepts: an extract from *Running Linux* (Shroff Publishers, Pp 674 only Rs 425 in India). VxWorks and LynxOS are definitely the biggest embedded operating systems in use today. But slowly they are acknowledging the power of GNU/Linux and how it can help them maximise deployments. HELP LINUX GO INDIAN: By using various translation tools, you can join Language translation groups working across India to help translate GNU/Linux into your language. EXPERT INTRODUCTION: Multi-threaded programming under Linux. KICKSTART YOUR Linux installation (Part I): Installing Red Hat Linux on multiple machines one after another can be quite tedious. To avoid answering the same question over and over again, try the KickStart method, as it does not need any user intervention. WRITE CHEQUES. NOT JUST BOOKS: Niyam Bhushan on how anybody can turn thoughts into words, and words into wealth. NFS CLIENTS for Windows. OpenSSL PACKAGE offers a vast crypto library of algorithms WAIT QUEUES in Linux device drivers UNDERSTANDING recursive sub-routines INDIA-RELATED NEWS: HP launches GNU/Linux laptop Mandrake's latest distribution Oracle announces 10g for GNU/Linux Delixus offers India Linux CxProtect anti-virus mailing solution for mail-servers Trade management system from Network Programs Netweb Technologies unveils Tyrone MRO-Tek rolls out Network Management Systems Review of FLOSS at BangaloreIT.com =========================================== DISCLOSURE: This journalist (FN) writes a monthly column for LFY and gets paid for it. Promoting awareness about the content of LFY however is not part of the job, and is carried on with the intention spreading awareness about FLOSS among different GNU/Linux user groups in India. -- Frederick Noronha : http://www.fredericknoronha.net : When we speak of free Freelance Journalist : http://www.bytesforall.org : software we refer to Ph 0091.832.2409490 : Cell 0 9822 122436 : freedom, not price.

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Fwd: Bloggers Meet - Oct 8th?
by Thejesh GN 29 Sep '05

29 Sep '05

Interested please leave a msg on blogbang(a)googlegroups.com mallika: Can you put a msg on http://everymanscity.blogspot.com/ Thanks, Thej http://eventsbangalore.blogspot.com/ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Mallika Galagali <> Date: Sep 28, 2005 9:51 AM Subject: Bloggers Meet - Oct 8th? To: blogbang(a)googlegroups.com Hi All, At the risk of starting another infinite conversational loop, am proposing 8th of October (Saturday) for the Bloggers Meet....let's finally get this baby off the ground!! Agenda, I guess, will pretty much be as with the first meet...get to know each other, table a few common activities we can carry out (eg., volunteering with Akshara, theme-based writing, etc, etc...). What say? And if we can get quorum, my suggestion that we go ahead and meet! - Taz

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FFII, NoSWPats Win CNet Award for Outstanding Contribution to SW Development
by Anivar Aravind 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson(a)realmeasures.dyndns.org> Date: Sep 28, 2005 5:45 PM Please send congratulations to FFII and Nosoftwarepatents.com for their glorious work keeping software excluded from patentability in Europe! Seth > http://www.cnetnetworks.co.uk/awards/2005_winners.html#contri_software Outstanding Contribution to Software Development Winner: NoSoftwarePatents.com & The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) NoSoftwarePatents.com and the FFII joined forces last year to campaign against the European software patent directive, which many feared would open the doors to an increasingly litigious marketplace in which small businesses would struggle to survive. In July this year, the European Parliament unexpectedly rejected the directive, a victory which can be attributed to the tireless work of this alliance.

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Google Earth Exposes the Indian Military
by Shekhar Krishnan 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

Dear All: :: apologies for cross-posting :: This has caused quite an uproar in Mumbai, and the consequences will be interesting to follow. To read more about open geo-data and free mapping initiatives in India, see the Mumbai Free Map ( http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis | http://freemap.crit.org.in | http://www.freemap.in ). Please also visit and sign the open geo-data manifesto hosted by the Open Knowledge Foundation ( http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php ) and visit Mapping Hacks ( http://www.mappinghacks.com ). Best, Shekhar _____ Google Earth exposes IAF bases CHARLES ASSISI TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 12:16:08 AM ] http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1243460.cms MUMBAI: Legally, you aren’t supposed to come within arm’s length of India’s military bases. Whether it is the naval dockyards in Mumbai or the air force bases in New Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad, they continue to be strictly out of bounds for unauthorised personnel. But technology, unerringly, finds ways to subvert the law. A little over two weeks ago, Google released fresh satellite images of New Delhi, south Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad as part of its new initiative, Google Earth ( http://earth.google.com ). These images, available to anybody with access to the Net, provide users with images of earth from space. Punch New Delhi and the software first zooms in on Rashtrapati Bhavan. After having taken a look at its lawns, take in a detailed perspective of Parliament building. Maybe, fly over the Prime Minister’s residence. And if that doesn’t satiates the voyeur in you, move over to Palam Airport where IAF planes are based. The level of detail even reveals the camouflage used to mask hangars. Pictures of Mumbai reveal with numbing clarity the docks where INS Viraat is berthed. Users can zoom close enough to take a reasonably good look at the deck of India’s lone aircraft carrier. Browse around and you can stroll past piers where warships of all kinds and submarines are docked. Pan across to take a long look at what lies beyond the fortified gates of Navy Nagar where access is normally controlled by gun-wielding guards. And if that isn’t enough, there are shots of a carrier under construction, which sources speculate, could be the top secret advanced technology vessel (ATV). It’s much the same thing with Bangalore. The air force base at Yelahanka with the jets and helicopters parked are available for all to view. And if it’s the HAL factory you’re interested in, zoom right in. -- ______ Shekhar Krishnan 9, Supriya, 2nd Floor 709, Parsee Colony Road no.4 Dadar, Mumbai 400014 India http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar http://web.mit.edu/~shekhar/www

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NISG NeGP initiative at a cost of Rs.14,000 CRORES
by Ramanraj K 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) is driving the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) and estimated to cost Rs. 14,000 Crores. Governance has evolved by trial and error over a very long period of time, much the way free software evolves these days. Governance was thought best to be divided into legislative, executive and judiciary. eGovernance could avoid the many prejudices a human executive suffers, and the old divisions have to be redefined. Compare: developer : user :: legislator : citizen A BDFL manages the developer:user gap pretty much, and the right to fork satisfies the disgruntled in the unlimited virtual world. The legislator:citizen relationship is constrained severlely by limited resources, and there could be no right to fork. It is for this reason, the Constitutional machinery elaborately defines how citizens govern themselves by electing legislators. The existing Constitutional machinery assumes paper as the medium through which the laws will be executed. Writ of certiorari traditionally meant "calling for the (physical) records" - now, if a judge could "visit" the files through an electronic medium, the scope, nature and methods of the writ stands vastly modified. Each and every constitutional device, control and measure has to be modified to suit the new medium of execution. Traditionally, constitutions are classified as written and unwritten, and today we have to create a new classification electronic and non-electronic. The constitutional machinery has to be totally rebuilt from scratch to suit the new medium. eGovernance actually calls for serious debates on constitutional reform before spending a single rupee on any eGovernance program. Sprinkling "IBM", "Linux", "Open Source", "Open Standards" and other catch words here and there over the project are mere incidental things that do not go to the core issues of governance. Does the GOI expect IBM to give the framework for eGovernance? Is Indian legislative history (1600 - 1950) repeating itself ? E-Courts has been added to their planning boards as an after thought, and clearly shows poor planning. Burning 14K Crores (in two years ?) over NeGP, that too controlled by NASSCOM sounds very stupid, to say the least. They are looking for consultants (apply at your own risk ;) and I hope they don't get too smart ;) Bullock carts fitted with electric motors won't move efficiently - NiSG is only doing this and this is not my imagination: their advt calling for consultants has the wheel of a bullock cart with an e in the centre :) There are other strange issues there too: :: forwarded message :: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [eGovINDIA] The Share-holding pattern of NISG as obtained from NISG website (MOA) Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 06:13:45 -0700 (PDT) From: eGov INDIA <egovindia(a)yahoo.com> Reply-To: eGovINDIA(a)yahoogroups.com To: eGov INDIA <egovindia(a)yahoogroups.com> NISG is a controlled company - You all can look at it. Who are all involved in it ON behalf of President of INDIA the following GOI departments are partners. 1. Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, 2. Department of Information Technology, Government of India 3. Mr. R. Chandrashekar, Officer on Special Duty (NISG), Current Joint Secretary eGovernance of GOI. Who makes most of the decisions now. He is from GOAP cadre and was in GOAP before coming as JS of GOI. NASSCOM is facilitating this. They are SILENT partners. Which holds 52 % This is for name sake. The Share-holding pattern of NISG as obtained from NISG website (MOA) is as under: http://www.nisg.org/corpinfo.htm 1. Ajay Kumar Agarwal, S/o Shri Krishna Murari Lal Agarwal, Secretary, For and on behalf of President of India, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Government of India, North Block, New Delhi – 110 001 160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only) Total Amount : Rs 16000 2. Rajeeva Ratna Shah, S/o Shri Janardhan Das Shah, Secretary For and on behalf of President of India, Department of Information Technology, Government of India Electronic Niketan, 6 CGO Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only) Total Amount : Rs 16000 3. Kiran Karnik, S/o Shri Sharadchandra Karnik, President For and On behalf of National Association of Software and Services Companies, International Youth Centre, Teen Murti Marg, Chanikya Puri, New Delhi – 110 021 520 Equity Shares of Rs. 100/- each (Five Hundred and Twenty Only) Total Amount: Rs 52000 4 Rentala Chandrashekhar, S/o Shri Rentala Ramachandra Rao, Officer on Special Duty (NISG) For and On behalf of President of India Government of India, 4007, Electronics Niketan, 6, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi – 110 003 160 Equity Shares of Rs.100/- each (One Hundred and Sixty only) Total Amount : 16000 Ministry of Personnel : 16000 Ministry of IT : 16000 Ministry of IT: 16000 NASSCOM : 52000 GOI share value 48000 NASSCOM share value 52000 Current Shareholder pattern 48 % and 52 % For just Rs52000 one can hold majority stake in NISG which is going to decide GOI investment of Crores of rupees ? Is it PPP ? NISG has to be AUDITED by CAG CVC need to look into NISG activities ! ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back! http://us.click.yahoo.com/VpgUKB/pzNLAA/cUmLAA/tSwplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eGovINDIA/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: eGovINDIA-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

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where do the software get installed..?
by Amachu 28 Sep '05

28 Sep '05

say we r installing a software xxxxx.rpm ... where will it go and instal? (Like in Windows we have c:\Program files ????) How to find the location of installation? Can we choose it on our own? -- Regards, Amachu Mobile: 91 98417 72001

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Public knowledge politics
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 27 Sep '05

27 Sep '05

Dear Sasi, Today's Hindu carries a *story* by Anand Parthasarathy. AP seems to be spreading a message that "vulnerability of Free Software" is easily derived through the reported instances of "vulnerability of Firefox.exe". Its a shame that people holding such responsible positions, still carry out such propaganda. CK Raju, Thrissur ----------------- http://ernakulam.sancharnet.in/doxa

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 29, Issue 21
by Amachu 27 Sep '05

27 Sep '05

well, with regard to versioning, i intended to ask as 2 how a software in modified to suit the latest OS version... say for eg: a software like xine for fc4 differing from its own version for fc3. also is it the kervel version of the OS that determines the OS version... am i confusing!! Ooof... to put it simply what makes a software wriiten for fc3 uncompatible for fc4? -- Regards, Amachu Mobile: 91 98417 72001

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reg Mail Subject line (was Re: [Fsf-friends] Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 29, Issue 21)
by Archana.S.R 27 Sep '05

27 Sep '05

hi, > i know its possible to mount all available partitions automatically when the > OS boots.. > > i've seen it happen when i booted Dynebolic live cd.. please use proper subject lines in the mail lists -- Archana.S.R.

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Call For Proposal - Sarai/CSDS FLOSS fellowships
by V Vivek 27 Sep '05

27 Sep '05

CALL FOR PROPOSAL Sarai/CSDS Short Term FLOSS Fellowship, 2005 - 2006. The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi (www.sarai.net) invites applications for fellowship to projects in the area of Free Software, Open Source Software and Social Usage of Software. Sarai invites developers/researchers/ programmers (practitioners as well as students) to propose projects in the area of free and open source software applications relevant to educational, social and community needs. We are looking for original ideas, as well as proposals to localize and adapt existing software and applications to South Asian conditions. We are also looking for ideas around technical manuscripts,beginners manuals, review manuscripts etc. Some of the focus areas are: - Indic Computing - Developing/Distributing/Supporting a standalone / addon localized Linux distribution - Printing support (i.e. ability to print in Indian Languages) - Multimedia / Publishing Tools Research - Developing / Enhancing Tools like GIMP, Scribus for publishing quality work - Enhancing current audio/video tools available under Linux - Fixing/Supporting Cinelerra, LiVES etc - P2P - Researching on feasibility and implementation of P2P news distribution network - Researching and developing - Collaboration Tools/Frameworks (Apnaopus, CreativeDot ) - Developing extensions for the project newsrack( http://floss.sarai.net/newsrack ). - Low Resource Computing - Devising solutions for networked computing in Low Resource Spaces (Define the parameters of the "low resource space" and work on it) - Generic - Developing Linux drivers/software for easily available hardware (usually the cheapest hardware available on the market is not supported under Linux (scanners, webcams etc)) [ This would include writing a howto on how to get it to work under popular distributions (redhat, pcqlinux etc) and all.. ] - Review papers on emerging technologies - Indic Computing - IPV6 - Wireless Networks - Manuscripts for beginners What is Sarai: _____________ Sarai is a public initiative of media practitioners and scholars looking at media cultures and urban life. Sarai's interests are in the field of old and new media, information and communication technologies, free software, cinema, and urban space - its politics, built form, ecology, culture and history, with a strong commitment to making knowledge available in the public domain. It is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. For more information visit www.sarai.net . Sarai is committed to promoting the free software and open source vision. Conditions: __________ Applicants should be resident in India, and should have a bank account in any bank operating in India. These are support grants and grantees will be free to pursue their primary occupations, if any. Mail your project proposal, workplan and CV to both the following addresses: <floss at sarai.net <https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc> > Please mark your subject line 'FLOSS (Free/Libre Open Source Software) Initiative'. Also point out what you see as the relevance of your work, and how you plan to share the resultant software once finalized. Enquires: <floss at sarai.net <https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc>> Last date for submission: November 15th, 2005 Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are welcome, so long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual.

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Fsf-friends September 2005