Fsf-friends December 2006

fsf-friends@gnu.org.in

20 participants
29 discussions

*Treachery* in its elements, in its finest form ...
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 21 Dec '06

21 Dec '06

1. The Bush administration in US has formulated an offensive cyber attack strategy declared through its National Security Presidential Directive 16. Details on this at http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/ 2. Major news agencies across the world carried the details. Clippings from The Hindu. "...The U.S. President, George W. Bush, has signed a secret directive ordering his administration to develop a national-level guidance for determining when and how America should launch cyber attacks against `enemy' computer networks, officials said... ...military planners imagine soldiers at computer terminals silently invading foreign networks to shut down radars, disable electrical facilities and disrupt phone services..." News from PTI at http://www.hinduonnet.com/2003/02/08/stories/2003020801891400.htm 3. Against this backdrop, Kerala State Electricity Board is going ahead with its Microsoft-platform based implementation and Local Self Govt Dept in Kerala is wedded to Microsoft-based package from Information Kerala Mission. What are these middlemen upto ? Working for US security ? Masking as a recruiting agency for IT professionals ? Let's watch them a little more closely.... CK Raju, Thrissur --------------- Communication will no longer be a means for any revolution, they may the means for an colonial offensive. ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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Re: Condolense
by Vihan Pandey 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

> Dear All > Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS) which was he main source > of > venture fund for OSS in its previous meeting has taken an administrative > decision to start an endowment in the name of Rajendran Chettan. > Every year we propose to launch a project in the Free software domain and > the students can work on this project, Are you aimed specifically at launching new projects or will you be giving students work on currently active projects as well? Also, are you looking at GNU's ``high priority" project list? Especially the one on writing free video drivers. We will evaluate the work and present > the award to the best contributor. Great initiative :-) Let me know if there is any way i can help. Regards, - vihan

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Fwd: [OSSICS] Re: Fwd: FW: [OSSICS] Re: Condolense
by Anilkumar K V 20 Dec '06

20 Dec '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Krishna Das <dasatps(a)gmail.com> Date: 19-Dec-2006 21:23 Subject: Re: Condolense To: ATPS(a)googlegroups.com Dear All Appropriate Technology Promotion Society (ATPS) which was he main source of venture fund for OSS in its previous meeting has taken an administrative decision to start an endowment in the name of Rajendran Chettan. Every year we propose to launch a project in the Free software domain and the students can work on this project, We will evaluate the work and present the award to the best contributor. Please give your suggestions. Regards and lots of love DAS

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Re: Fwd: I require your suggestion on the matter - Kalpesh Sharma, Information Security Expert, India
by Vihan Pandey 18 Dec '06

18 Dec '06

> This may be of interest to the group members--a spat between Ankit > Fadia and another self-proclaimed security expert...I wonder if we, as > a community, should respond to this. i guess the only real way to respond is cheer and support those who are really fighting for freedom. Those who want to ``bother us with politics" are best ignored. At the end of the day the people who are actually contributing to Free Software, even in the smallest possible way are the ones who are going to change the world. Those who want to just have public spats and quote big names, are free to do that. At the end of the day it really achieves nothing except a waste of time and energy. If someone has violated GPL, or even plagiarised someone's genuine copyrite of a GPL'd program then it is a matter of concern and something must be done. Though i personally doubt this case qualifies as one. The only thing we can so is continue spreading awareness amoung the people around us, and beyond of what Free Software is all about and why it's important. Regards, - vihan

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Fwd: I require your suggestion on the matter - Kalpesh Sharma, Information Security Expert, India.
by Satish Babu 17 Dec '06

17 Dec '06

This may be of interest to the group members--a spat between Ankit Fadia and another self-proclaimed security expert...I wonder if we, as a community, should respond to this. satish ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sudhakar Jaani <mhm_777(a)dataone.in> Date: Dec 17, 2006 12:46 PM Subject: I require your suggestion on the matter - Kalpesh Sharma, Information Security Expert, India. To: sbabu(a)ieee.org Respected Sir, I am an Information Security Expert with more then 6 years experience in the field of Information Security. Before proceeding further, I would like to introduce myself and about my achievements. Recently, I proved LIVE ON-AIR on a reputed news channel of India, that India's all internet banking, internet shopping and internet trading websites of India have vulnerabilities. I proved this LIVE (on camera) right in front of 'IT' Minister Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, Technical and Legal Experts, Director of Indiabulls Securities LTD. (Share broking firm) and India's star editor and chairman of IndiaTV news namely Mr. Rajat Sharma. You may confirm about my expertise level by checking on (+91)9350593505(INDIA TV). In this LIVE and Exclusive Breaking news continuously till 24 hours I challenged and proved right in front of camera LIVE by hacking all bank websites, shopping, websites, trading websites of INDIA. This is the world's biggest ever Hacking proved challenge in legal way to help the Nation and with an intention to work for National Interest. I proved that as concerned to India's Information Security field not one or two or three but all internet banking websites, all internet trading and all internet shopping websites within India can be hacked. This was proved to be possible during my LIVE telecast on 3rd August 2006 recently. To know more about me, go through the below mentioned reference sources. Now, coming to point I am in touch with you for a matter of Ankit Fadia. I need your valuable support and co-operation in this, so that we can save the citizens of our nation and other nations also, media peoples, publishers, government and non-government sectors as well as inform CBI, CIA and FBI that how this person is misusing your Honorable names by false comparisons and attachments with them. And the biggest exclusive and breaking news is that world's biggest encyclopedia wikipedia's two india administrators are behaving as if they are ankit fadia's relatives or near - dear ones. A very hot comment going between a wikipedia administrator and me on wikipedia articles mentioned on below pages. These nominated india administrators of wikipedia are also equally responsible for spoiling wikipedia reputation. Whereas I am trying to save the wikipedia which is world's biggest online encyclopedia. He has spoiled prestigious names by falsely misguiding them. Some of them are: 1) Stanford University 2) President of India 3) Amazon 4) Wikipedia 5) Rediff.com 6) Similarly many others. In short, you are a part of public and I am trying to do something for you. So Kindly please follow as much as you can from the below links below and give your suggestion and opinion on them: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976861802 http://www.gather.com/viewArticles.jsp?memberId=121822&nav=Namespace http://www.gather.com/viewArticles.jsp?memberId=155782&nav=Namespace Thanking you with hope of early reply, Sincerely Kalpesh Sharma Information Security Expert. Ahmedabad, India. Website: http://www.esnips.com/web/shriganesh33sBusinessFiles Blogsite: http://kalpeshsharma.wordpress.com and http://kalpeshsharma.blogspot.com Join ME: http://kalpeshsharma.gather.com (My Groupsite) My Reference Sources: 1. http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Internet_Vs._Traditional_Banks-106678-1.html 2. http://knowyourbroker.blogspot.com/2006/08/online-trading-safety-debate-hea… 3. http://www.nabble.com/An-Important-Information---Please-go-through-it.-t270… 4. http://www.gather.com/viewArticles.jsp?memberId=121822&nav=Namespace 5. http://www.gather.com/viewArticles.jsp?memberId=155782&nav=Namespace 6. http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-33274.html 7. http://www.indymedia.org/content/2006/11/849890.shtml 8. http://www.shvoong.com/science/423737-fullstop-e-system 9. http://www.antionline.com/showthread.php?threadid=272872 10. http://www.mail-archive.com/misc@openbsd.org/msg33681.html 11. http://www.traderji.com/general-chit-chat/7564-kalpesh-indiatv.html 12. http://forum.janmat.tv/viewtopic.php?p=177&sid=20b608a3ea76ae9b25f2b80e5570… 13. http://www.chiragmehta.info/chirag/2006/08/03/a-challenge-a-fullstop-on-e-s… 14. http://parasthetux.gather.com/ 15. http://groups.google.com/group/lug-indore/browse_frm/thread/abb5e98a751e6193 16. http://digg.com/security/Ankit_Fadia_Ethical_Hacker_A_Zero_byte_character 17. http://eggheadcafe.com/tutorials/aspnet/72eabce4-d74c-4abf-b8a0-6f7ae4f476e… 18. http://econpapers.repec.org/RAS/defaultotherS.htm

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BadVista.org: FSF launches campaign against Microsoft Windows Vista
by Anivar Aravind 16 Dec '06

16 Dec '06

Boston, MA—December 15, 2006—The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today launched BadVista.org, a campaign with a twofold mission of exposing the harms inflicted on computer users by the new Microsoft Windows Vista and promoting free software alternatives that respect users' security and privacy rights. "Vista is an upsell masquerading as an upgrade. It is an overall regression when you look at the most important aspect of owning and using a computer: your control over what it does. Obviously MS Windows is already proprietary and very restrictive, and well worth rejecting. But the new 'features' in Vista are a Trojan Horse to smuggle in even more restrictions. We'll be focusing attention on detailing how they work, how to resist them, and why people should care", said FSF program administrator John Sullivan. The campaign will organize supporters into effective and unusual actions drawing attention to this daylight theft of computer users' rights, aggregate news stories cutting through the Vista marketing propaganda, and provide a user-friendly gateway to the adoption of free software operating systems like gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org). Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF said, "Whilst Microsoft embarks upon its largest ever product launch, its marketing dollars will be spent in an effort to fool the media and user community about the goals of Vista. Our campaign will ask the important questions. Can you set yourself or your company free? Can you ever be free from Microsoft? As with our campaign against Digital Restrictions Management, we aim to demonstrate that technologists can be social activists, because we know the harm that Vista will cause". Among other harms, BadVista.org will focus on the danger posed by Treacherous Computing in Vista. Commonly called Trusted Computing in the industry, it is an attempt to turn computers from machines controlled by their user into machines that monitor their user and refuse to operate in ways that manufacturers don't authorize. Supporters can sign up to receive more information and participate in the campaign at http://badvista.org. ------------------------------ The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software—particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants— and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their Web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support their work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA. Press Contact: For more information about this announcement or to schedule an interview, please contact Peter Brown or John Sullivan at +1-617-542-5942 or <pr(a)fsf.org> <pr(a)fsf.org>.

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Re: [Fsf-friends] A National Shame
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 16 Dec '06

16 Dec '06

M$ is known to bribe politicians secretly and announce concessions to public institutions openly. What is disturbing here is that all left-front ruled governments in India figure in their list as do the Government at the centre, where the left-front is the principal supporter for its policies. Is Bill Gates' anti-theological stand (made public in 1996 when e-governance was taking roots in Kerala), such a strong and convincing reason for this covert friendship. Will they do this to all capitalists who renounce existence of God ? I think this is a terrible shame and more shameful is the fact that they had already entered into strategic partnership and alliance with State Governments involved for e-governance efforts, when news were spread that Microsoft became a technology choice after due deliberations with expert committees. Microsoft, at least, is not lying here. Its the middlemen, those proxies, who are playing the treacherous game with the citizens of the nation. CK Raju Thrissur ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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Re: [Fsf-friends] A National Shame
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

I suggest we should stop whining and do something. Inplace of accusing M$ of being hatching a conspiracy with GoI departments (this will anyway continue, even if we complain). Sometimes it is and can be partnership. Why, the reasons should be obvious, 1) for a GoI officer/ babu, it looks cool if their name is associated with M$ (which no doubt is a big name), and is also a status symbol for them. 2) They can always claim that M$ will do this and that and will provide them with some immediate short term benefits that is tangible in terms of money. 3) They can relate to M$, from the one and only OS known/ taught to them into which they can _click_into_. 4) Don't forget the banquets/ dinners/ free passes to conferences. 5) And sometimes actual genuine help too, though usually inspired from future benefits M$ will/ can have. ... .. and many more... Free Software still has to go a long way in terms of acceptance, and our best bet is and should be the coming next generation, if they can be introduced to the concept of FLOSS and made to realise the benefits of FLOSS, especially the younger technocrats, who are shaping the future of Indian Computing Industry. And if possible, provide solutions to the GoI people. BTW don't expect too much from babus. PS: If any one of you is familiar with DICE (A Windows based software developed by NIC for use in sarv sikhya abhiyan), I am working on a free, web based and generic version of it, still in preliminary stages, anyone interested? -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in http://www.ajaypal.com -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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A National Shame
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 15 Dec '06

15 Dec '06

Unfolding of the drama ============== "September 28, 2006 -- Microsoft India today announced the winners of its first “Microsoft E-governance awards”. The first of the annual awards set up to recognize the most impactful E-governance applications in the country received over 300 nominations and the winners include 20 E-governance applications implemented across the country (the names of the winners are attached in the addendum). The projects nominated include those developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), State IT Departments, and Department of Information Technology, Government of India in partnership with Microsoft..." "Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India added, “E-governance is a critical necessity for our country today. A strong E-governance infrastructure enables an efficient and transparent governance mechanism providing a thrust to the development indices of a country. We are very happy to be working with the Indian governments on creating such applications.”.." "As pioneers in the E-governance space in India, Microsoft has been working closely with various departments of the Central and State Governments and Public Sector organizations for the last 13 years. Currently Microsoft partners with 14 state governments and there are nearly 150 e-governance applications running on the Windows platform. Additionally Microsoft continues to create benchmarks in local language computing and community outreach programs that help facilitate affordable access to technology in rural areas for effective delivery of E-governance service..." Complete official document at http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/3/6/03695790-07C9-4EF2-845E-F12092… (also available as cached google page - if M$ withdraws this document) =========================== Surely this is an occasion of national shame to all of us, who work to propagate values of freedom in an information society. It should also put to shame the recommendations of Knowledge Commission of India to Govt of India - because already 14 states have already entered into partnership with Microsoft, some for the last 13 years. Its also a shame to the Right to Information Act 2005, where "preservation of confidentiality of sensitive information" has been thrown to winds - because these are now guaranteed only if US State agrees - refer Akbar Raj's case and the stunts followed by Kerala Police with Microsoft HQs and US Security Department. No longer can the Ministry of Local Self Governments in Kerala now deny that Information Kerala Mission is outside this nefarious design of this proprietary corporate. Even then which are the other 13 states ? What is NIC doing with Microsoft ? What is Min of IT, Govt of India doing with Microsoft ? Are all these happening with the consent of the citizens ? Do we have a right to know ? CK Raju Thrissur ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using NWebmail, BSNL's Webmail Program

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FSF announces support for the Free Ryzom campaign with a pledge of $60, 000.
by Anivar Aravind 14 Dec '06

14 Dec '06

Boston, December 13th 2006 - Free Software Foundation announces that it will officially support the Free Ryzom campaign (www.ryzom.org) with a pledge of $60,000. The Free Ryzom campaign was established to purchase the online game and universe known as Ryzom, property of the now bankrupt Nevrax company, and release the entire game as free software. As stated by Peter T. Brown, Executive Director of the Free Software Foundation, the FSF considers the Free Ryzom campaign "a high priority project for the free software movement". The aim of the campaign is to publish the source code to the entire game under the terms of the widely-used GPL, as well as publishing all of the artwork and other content under similar free licenses. The Free Ryzom campaign represents a unique opportunity for the free software movement and the emerging free gaming field. A fully free MMORPG (massively multiplayer online roleplaying game) engine and client/server architecture would allow the development of a myriad of universes, each one evolving its own philosophy and unique content - but sharing in general technical improvements. If successful, this campaign would allow any user to create their own universe and produce their own content based on the Ryzom/Nevrax architecture. Since the announcement by Nevrax of their bankruptcy, the Free Ryzom campaign has drawn together a heterogeneous community of volunteers formed by ex-employees, current players and free software sympathizers. With the support of the FSF, it is now expected that the campaign will be able to increase its bid to over 200.000€. The campaign is also seeking to create a non-profit organization to run and maintain the current game servers. Monthly fees would be spent on service costs and game development. Pledges can be submitted at the Free Ryzom campaign website (www.ryzom.org). Pledges must be made within the next few days, since the deadline for the final bid is expected sometime before Wednesday, December 19th, depending on when the judges make their decision. -- About the Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of Free (as in freedom) Software - particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants - and Free Documentation for Free Software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software. Their web site, located at www.fsf.org, is an important source of information about GNU/Linux. They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA. About The Free Ryzom Campaign The Free Ryzom Campaign is a community-based initiative formed to purchase the MMORPG game Ryzom from the now-bankrupt Nevrax. Players, former Nevrax employees, and free software sympathizers have partnered with Olivier Lejade (former CEO of Nevrax, now CEO of Mekensleep) and Valentin Lacambre (a well known personality related to the alternative Internet movement in France) to purchase the game and release the source code under the terms of the GNU GPL, and the content and artwork under similar free licenses. For more information on their campaign, or to make a donation pledge, please visit www.ryzom.org _______________________________________________ info-fsf mailing list info-fsf(a)gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-fsf

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Fsf-friends December 2006