May 2006 - Fsf-friends - lists.fsci.in

Internet, tech skills growing quietly in Goa...
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 02 Sep '24

02 Sep '24

INTERNET, TECH SKILLS GROWING QUIETLY IN GOA PANJIM, April 30: Goa's BSNL internet service provider is already providing some 3000 broadband connections in the state, and roughly another 24,000 people dial-up to get access the Net using this central government-run service. These figures emerged during an informal discussion at the monthly meeting of the India Linux Users Group (Goa), a network promoting Free Software and Open Source in the state. ILUG-Goa, which holds its meetings usually on the fourth Saturday of each month at the Goa Science Centre at Miramar, sees a range of tech issues -- usually directly related to Free Software and Open Source in Goa. During it's meet on April 29, a range of issues came up for discussion, from how to partition your hard-disk (to install GNU/Linux side-by-side with Windows), to software tools to ehance productivity, and various internet and broadband options available to users in diverse parts of Goa. For instance, there are some useful Free Software tools to monitor your bandwidth usage on BSNL's broadband. One such tool is available for free download at http://tinyurl.com/qgu9p Called the Data One Broadband Statistics, this is a screen-scraper written using Perl to download usage statistics of BSNL's Data One (www.bsnl.co.in/service/dataone.htm) broadband service and total it. Generally, BSNL (www.bsnl.co.in) allows only the Microsoft-based IE and has no monthly total. But trust Indian software talent to find a work-around. This solution comes from the Free Software/Open Source network in Chennai. Meanwhile, the Goa free software network stays connected and announces its event via http://iluggoaannounce.notlong.com There are no fees for joining, all are welcome, and encouraged to form parallel user-groups in diverse parts of the state. Meanwhile, the Fedora Core 5 Free Software distribution has just become available on DVD in Goa. Number of foreign magazines are also available. Members of ILUG-Goa such as engineer Bijon Shaha and software pro Arvind Yadav gave diverse views on techies-only distros like 'Gentoo'. Debopriyo 'DP' Sarkar pointed to a 'mindmap' of various Free Software distributions or 'distros' available, which was illustrated at linuxhelp.blogspot.com Earlier, there was a brief presentation on FreeMind. FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. It has the potential of playing the role of a high productivity tool. Operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster because of one-click "fold/unfold" and "follow link" operations. Other members raised a range of issues -- from how to get started in GNU/Linux, to playing around with tools like StumbleUpon, and how to encourage Free Software usage in schools and educational institutions. Remy Furtado of Rosary College, Navelim expressed an interest in working on the Free Software tool Moodle, ideal for distance education, as the Goa University moves to a pattern of semisterisation. Goa Engineering College's Prof George Easaw has done work on this platform, as have others. Reacting unofficially, BSNL officials said Goa now had six STMS 155 MBps connectivity, which was resulting in a speedy expansion of broadband to many parts of the state. But for broadband facilities to become available in village areas, at least 60 subscribers were needed to make operations viable. So far, broadband from BSNL is available in a growing number of areas in Goa: Panjim, Vasco (except Cortalim, but including Sada, Mangor, Bogmalo, Sancoale and other areas), Ponda, Bambolim, Merces, Dona Paula, Porvorim, Mapusa town, Calangute-Candolim, and Saligao, among others. Equipment has already been installed in Aldona exchange, and broadband facilities are expected to go functional -- ------------------------------------------------------------- | India Linux Users' Group, Goa | | Join the friendly user group | | Mail list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa/join | ---------------------------------------------------------- | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/teach-yourself-linux | | http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-goa-announce | | http://www.iosn.net/country/india/organizations/ilug-goa/ | ------------------------------------------------------------- , , / \ .-. * SOFTWARE ((__-^^-,-^^-__)) (. .) * FREEDOM `-_---' `---_-' / V \ * SHARING `--|o` 'o|--' // \\ \ ` / /( )\ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER ): :( '.^^_^^.' SHARE IT EQUITABLY :o_o: \_/ \_/ "-"

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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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mailing lists
by Kush 02 Jun '06

02 Jun '06

Hi, Can anybody tell me some good and reasonable mailman or phplist based mailing list hosting companies? We use yahoogroups now but would like a different and free or reasonably cheap system. Thanks for any help. Kush

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Elephants Dream : Worlds First Open Movie released
by Tinku Sampath 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

' ELEPHANTS DREAM ' ' Elephants Dream ', worlds first Open Movie which was finally realized using powerful graphic rendering engine such as Blender is released to public under Creative Commons license. The short film was created by the Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam during 2005/2006, bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers from all over the world. You can download the movie in different formats. Sound tracks and images are also available. A video documentary is also ready for download. I am including the official press release. ______________________________________________________________________ Press Release May 18, 2006 For Immediate Release Elephants Dream, internet release of the first 3D 'Open Movie' (Blender Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - The 3D animated short 'Elephants Dream' will today be released as a free and public download. This is the final stage of a successfully completed Open Movie project which has been community-financed, using only Open Source tools, and opening up the movie itself as well as the entire studio database for everyone to re-use and learn from. The movie and production files are licensed as âEURCreative Commons Attribution 2.5", which only requires a proper crediting for public screening, re-using and distribution. In the past weeks, the donating sponsors have received the dual DVD set of this project in their mailbox. This DVD set remains for sale via the blender.org e-shop as support product for future Open Movie projects. The Blender Foundation is committed to start working on similar projects soon. The movie files and download mirrors can be accessed here: [1]http://www.elephantsdream.org/download Elephants Dream is the culmination of the Orange Open Movie Project, produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The project was conceived to help develop and establish the capabilities of the Blender 3D open source tool for the creation of cinema quality animation. The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two people with different visions of the surreal world in which they live. Viewers are taken on a journey through that world, full of strange mechanical birds, stunning technological vistas and machinery that seems to have a life of its own. 'Elephants Dream' features the voice talents of renowned Dutch movie actors Tygo Gernandt and Cas Jansen, as well as an original score by German composer Jan Morgenstern. The short brought together the talents of a team of artists from countries as diverse as Syria, Germany, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. In addition to the performances of the cast and creative efforts of the lead artists, Elephants Dream has had the assistance of hundreds of individuals across the world who contributed a variety of work such as programming additional functionality for Blender, creating textures used in some of the scenes, and providing international translations for the DVD release. The files have been released on two DVDs with the movie in PAL, NTSC and HD formats, a making-of documentary, and all of the studio files. The DVDs were shipped in early May 2006. As promised, shortly after, the movie and database of source material is now available for public download as well. Studio Orange team: Director: Bassam Kurdali (Syria /USA), Art Director: Andreas Goralczyk (Germany) Lead Artists: Matt Ebb (Australia), Bastian Salmela (Finland), Lee Salvemini (Australia) Technical Director: Toni Alatalo (Finland) For more information: [2] http://www.elephantsdream.org [3]http://www.blender.org Contact: Ton Roosendaal Chairman, Blender Foundation Email: ton(at)blender.org ______________________________________________________________________ - Tinku Sampath References 1. http://www.elephantsdream.org/download 2. http://www.elephantsdream.org/ 3. http://www.blender.org/

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Re: [Fsf-friends] IT@School
by Bharathi Subramanian 01 Jun '06

01 Jun '06

> Thanks much for your quick response. Is it possible for you to > post it to Chennai? Can someone from Chennai volunteer to help > AID Chennai with IT@School installation. Kindly attend the next ILUGC Meet (mostly on 10th Jun). I hope, you can find some guys with your freq. FYI: NRC-FOSS is successfully included one(!) FOSS Intro "elective" course in Anna Univ, TN. Hoping to convert some of the lab class to use FOSS Tools. Bye :) -- Bharathi S

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Re: Fsf-friends Digest, Vol 37, Issue 16
by Mishi Choudhary 30 May '06

30 May '06

Hi Arun please get in touch with me as soon as you find time Warm Regards Mishi Choudhary

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Service interruption
by Anurag 30 May '06

30 May '06

Hello, Due to a minor DNS issue with tifr.res.in registry at ncst, FSF-India website and mailing list may not be accessible for a day. We are looking into the problem and trying to resolve it at the earliset. Please try again after sometime if your postings do not get delivered to the list. thanks Anurag -- __ __ gnu /noo/ n. Ox like antelope; (abbr.) /gnoo/ n. (recursive acronym) Gnu's Not Unix.

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IT@School
by Krishna Pagadala 27 May '06

27 May '06

Hi Arun, IT@School is being used in Kerala, is it for both English and Malayalam mediums? How difficult will it be to localise it to Tamil? I am trying to get an organisation in Chennai to be interested in IT@School. Is it available as a live CD? can somebody post it to Chennai if I give the address? Thanks -Krishna ===================================== Misinterpreting Copyright by Richard Stallman http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html http://freeknowledge.dyndns.org/ --------------------------------- Sneak preview the all-new Yahoo.com. It's not radically different. Just radically better.

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[Fwd: [GNU/FSF Press] Protestors provide a nasty "vista" for Gates]
by Ramanraj K 24 May '06

24 May '06

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [GNU/FSF Press] Protestors provide a nasty "vista" for Gates Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 13:57:08 -0400 From: Ted Teah <tedt(a)fsf.org> Organization: Free Software Foundation To: info-fsf(a)gnu.org, info-press(a)gnu.org, info-gnu(a)gnu.org Hazmat Suits Greet Microsoft Developers As They Gather For Annual Conference To schedule an interview about the campaign or for more details about the event, please contact Ted Teah at the Free Software Foundation (+1 617-542-5942 x20) or Henri Poole at Civic Actions (+1 510-684-3180). Seattle, May 23 2006 As Microsoft developers gathered in Seattle to hear Bill Gates's keynote speech on the future of Microsoft and the coming release of its updated operating system Vista, protesters wearing bright yellow Hazmat suits swarmed the entrance of the city's convention center, delivering an unsettling message to the corporation: your product is defective and hazardous to users. The surprise protest marked the launch of DefectiveByDesign.org, a direct-action campaign that will target Big Media and corporations peddling Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). "Flash protests, direct actions, and practical ways that people can get involved and help stop the stupidity of DRM," is how campaign manager Gregory Heller described the grassroots effort. An initiative of the Free Software Foundation (FSF), Defective By Design is urging all technologists to get involved at the start of the campaign. "Technologists are very aware of the dangers of DRM," said Peter Brown, Executive Director of the FSF. "We see this as the tip of the iceberg and it is our duty to do something about it." The tech community is uniquely qualified to lead this effort, in Brown's view. "We know about the collusion of Big Media, device manufacturers and proprietary software companies to lock us down," he continued. "Their aim is to put Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into all our computers and homes". Brown's case is simple: the computers, high-definition screens, phones, music players and video players that are currently being sold are "defective by design". These products don't respect the user's right to make private copies of their digital media. These devices make no provision that would allow art, literature, music or film to ever fall into the public domain. Effectively, the media purchased for these devices does not belong to the user -- rather, the networking of these DRM'd devices means that as the user watches a film, reads an e-book or switches channels on their HDTV, their habits can be recorded and actions monitored. The result is that over time, DRM technology will negate, if not completely eliminate, the rights of the individual. "In any other industry, such limitations or invasions would be considered major flaws. A media player that restricts what you can play is like a car that you won't let you steer," said Brown. "Products containing DRM are defective -- only, unlike other products, these defects are deliberately created by an industry that has long stopped caring about us." With DRM in place, media conglomerates can change the rules whenever they want, leading to more restrictions on the individual. "Media bosses scream 'pirate' equating sharing with murder and kidnap, then sue our college students. They then steal our rights and impose crippled products upon us," said Henri Poole, Chairman of CivicActions and a coalition partner in the campaign. "Media bosses have long been the 'gatekeepers to the market' for artists. Now they are threatened by new distribution methods that give artists new freedoms and direct access to an audience. DRM is the media bosses attempt to re-impose their rule". Today's event is the first in a series planned by DefectiveByDesign.org that will mobilize individuals to make a stand against DRM. ----30---- About Defective By Design DefectiveByDesign.org is a broad-based, anti-DRM campaign that is targeting Big Media, unhelpful manufacturers and DRM distributors. It aims to make all manufacturers wary about bringing their DRM-enabled products to market. The campaign aims to identify "defective" products for the consumer. Users are being asked to stand up in defense of their existing freedoms and to take action by joining at http://DefectiveByDesign.org 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. Donations to support their work can be made at http://fsf.org/join They are headquartered in Boston, MA, USA. _______________________________________________ FSF And GNU Press mailing list <info-press(a)gnu.org> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-press

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Ankit Fadia : The real picture
by Prabhat Sandheliya 22 May '06

22 May '06

Dear All, Yesterday (03-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called "Hacking Guru" Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to share my feelings with you. The Seminar was a complete failure, though it was attended by about well over 100 people, but was a complete disaster. The very first thing by which I was offended badly was using the sacred word "Hacking" to demonstrate something we, the hackers, call cracking. The seminar topic was "Ethical Hacking", now I want to ask Mr Fadia, what is unethical about hacking ? Hacking is very positive word and there in no need to put "Ethical" before it. By the way his seminar topic should be "Ethical Cracking". If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a real hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the history by writing a paper "Cathedral and Bazaar". please read the article here : http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html<http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/hacker-howto.html> The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking, should read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS), the man who started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), gdb (debugger), emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares in the world written by him. Please read the article here : http://www.outpost9.com/reference/jargon/jargon_69.html The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers to break into some one's machine. Now a days even 10 year olds can download these tools from Internet to control others' machines. Can we call them hackers ?? If he calls it hacking, I doubt if he understands the term even "Cracking", leave hacking altogether. This childish behavior is called script kiddie. IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is the significance of the term "Ethical" here ?? In the entire session I kept waiting for some program or utility, written by himself. But I don't thing he had something like this to share with audience. The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and the saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. He didn't care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a shame !!! Mr Fadia, I real hacker always respect the creativity of others, and before using their work proper credits are given, this is the hacker's attitude. It's not like that, you download something from Internet, use it and forget the person, who made it. That's pretty mean. Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a "hacker" and was using a Windows XP operating system ???? I have been in to computers for the past 10 years and I never come across any real hacker who uses Windows. I met Brian(Apache creator), Andy Cleen, Alon cox, Rusty (all networking gods), RMS (the GOD himself) but all of them were using some or other form of Unix or Linux. Come on, MR Fadia, Windows is the worst OS in the world, full of security holes, so what is the point to break into a Windows machine ???? What do you want to prove ???? He only once mentioned Linux, just to tell how you can use it's live CD to boot a Windows machine and cracke the password. Actually, before attending the seminar, I Googled a lot about Fadia and his work. But what I could find was self acclaiming statement by Fadia about himself and his future and just crap, crap and crap by technology illiterate Indian news papers' reports. I just want to share my findings with you. Vulnerabilities patches by Fadia = 0 (He may know how to break in, but doesn't know how to fix up) Bugtraq id's by Fadia = 0 Hacking / Security tool by fadia = 0 (He simply Goolge and download the tools from Internet, that's not cracking. Actual cracker is the programmer, but Fadia never ever gives due credits. Now that's not hacking, that's stealing) Any open source software by Fadia = 0 (He is afraid of suggesting Linux to people, 'coz it's secure) Any Linux or Windows software security patch = 0 Any recommendation or recognition by Real Hacker Community = 0 (They laugh at him. He is just a kid) Software / Cryptography patents by Fadia = 0 Algorithms by Fadia = 0 Any official citation by FBI/CIA/CBI for Fadia = 0 (They don't even bother about any explanation) Any confirmation of his self-claims = 0 (Nobody, expect him knows, if they are real) Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama's message = 0 (Hahahahahahahaha) Any original technical tutorial or book by Fadia = 0 (He simply copy the things and never he never ever gives due credits to the original authors.) Any originality in his tutes or books = 0 (Hahahahahahaha) Skill level of Fadia = Only God knows !!! I tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his books are nothing but simple "copy and paste" material from well known sites for Windows registry editing. Please visit www.winguides.com and compare the material with his first book. Oh God ! this is the clear violation of intellectual property rights of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I have done it already. I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, "Ethical hacker certified by Ankit Fadia" ! He sill is child in hacking field, and he is giving the certificates for hacking ????? And worst thing, Reliance web world is promoting it. What a shame !!! Have all gone mad ? Can't they see ? Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, that's also because of Fadia arrived there one hour late. Well, that's India's celebrity style statement. Otherwise, I would have asked all these questions to him there only. Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows is so vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than Windows. And the reply came was straight "NO". What a shame ??? I understood the reason, why he said no. The reason is same why Microsoft does not patch up it's OS. Plain economics. If you make system secure with Linux who is going to ask for people like Fadia, so called "security expert" ??? I want to make an appeal to all of you, please make all of your friends aware of these facts. Let one should not get undeserved advantage. I also want to appeal news papers, please do not make a hero out of nothing. Stop polluting the honest media by prejudiced reports. And at the end I want to tell Mr Fadia, that I don't have any personal problem with you or your achievements, but please behave properly in hacking community. We hackers are very positive people we never ever try to harm anybody, until he comes to our or our philosophy's way. Please stop calling your self a hacker, if does not understand the hacker culture. And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, so GROW UP !!! Prabhat. PS : I am sending this mail to Mr Fadia, Reliance web world, most of Linux mailing lists and all of my friends. Please post your comments at lug-indore(a)googlegroups.com

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Re: KC and open source
by malovika roy 19 May '06

19 May '06

hi, we keep hearing about projects like mentioned by Kush below done by various organisations. But these are isolated cases. what is slowing down the impact of open source in e-governance especially, is the lack of coordination and sharing of knowledge. Its ironic actually. to some extent there is coordiantion, but then why arent successful projects shared or talked about in forums like this one? will someone from Pune LUG tell us what they have done for e-governance? Likewise will someone from Bangalore LUG share their knowledge with Delhi LUG? I am not implying that there is no sharing at all, there is, however, how many of them are working on e-governance projects? there is nothing to quantify this fact. Point is that vaious groups tend to go thru the same cycle of planning and working out an e-governance project which can be just cloned and enhanced or modified for customised use. While Indian developer community is being noticed and praised for its work, there is still a big void of contribution to the public sector. And this is not just my opinion, but the feeling of most leading companies who are continually encouraging student community, and asking for more public sector development. We would like to know why? Malovika. > I think we will have to take multiple different approaches with respect > to the govt adopting open source. The problem is not that conscientious > officers in govt don't understand that open source is better but they > are reluctant to act as they are frequently bypassed or interfered in > day to day working thru vested interests lobbying the political people. > Open source gives the organised civil society an opportunity and a > challenge to start becoming an alternative to organised government. Once > civil society makes alternative information systems and methods of > collaboration for the general populace, the existing govt structure will > be forced to start reducing the establishment costs by giving value for > money to citizens for govt services (as citizens will start demanding > them) thru adoption of cost control technologies such as open source. > This is something which has started to happen in Mumbai now specially > for the municipal govt. Organised civil society is now taking up the IT > component of the municipality (praja.org etc). Their system is not open > source fully but by bypassing the govt IT machinery (which is liable to > political interference) things have changed. Creation of new bureaucracy > has been stalled and existing bureaucracy is being forced to act. > > Praja is also working in Bangalore. They are bypassing the formation of > new govt structures such as NIC, CDAC etc which till now had a > stranglehold on every aspect of egovernance. > > Kush > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > "Things work out best for the people who make the best out > of the way things work out."

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Re: open source or Free software (!!!)
by malovika roy 19 May '06

19 May '06

Krishna, Didnt know it was a big deal... here I intended to say Open Source and not merely Free Software. I maybe layperson but I think the crux of that mail was not to open a debate of whats appropriate sounding "Free" or "Open"... and thanks for the link Lakshmi. Malovika. Malovika, > Please use Free Software on this list, or atleast FOSS. > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Open > > Why ``Free Software'' is better than ``Open Source'' > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html > > -Krishna > > > > There have been attempts like the little league > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/little_league/ > > Laxminarayan Kamath Ammembal > (+91) 9342287956 > laxminarayan(a)deeproot.co.in > www.geocities.com/kamathln > > ----------------------------------------------------------- > "Things work out best for the people who make the best out > of the way things work out."

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Da Vinci Code of Microsoft
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 18 May '06

18 May '06

"...classified as "Other" in April are recognized as Apache sites running on Linux. Large blocks of Apache sites at Go Daddy have shifted back and forth between Apache and Other since January , due to changes in its bulk hosting service. It uses a front-end system that generates an HTTP redirect with no Server header when a site is first accessed � only once the redirect is followed, or if the site is accessed a second time, does it identify Apache as the server. The latest shift helps Apache regain 2% market share after a drop of 5.7% last month, when Go Daddy shifted more than 4 million hostnames from Apache to Windows Server 2003. Apache's improvement this month has no effect on Go Daddy's continued hosting of parked domains on Windows Server 2003, which gains 143K hostnames at Go Daddy this month...." Full story at http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html CK Raju, Thrissur

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Knowledge commission and open source
by malovika roy 17 May '06

17 May '06

Hi, this is to just share with you some news on open source in e-governance. Last week knowledge commision (KC) headed by Sam Pitroda was here in Banaglore to chalk out details of their proposal to government on e-governance. Now the electronic media largely concentrated on the commission's comments on Reservation issue... but there was more to it. I had attended the press briefing, and one of the slides in their presentation was on Open Source and open standards. Sam said that the KC was keenly pushing for open source in e-governance projects and is trying to convince the govt. of adopting open standards. Since the objective is to bring uniformity across nation w.r.t. e-governance projects, it is crucial to have open standards. and the KC didnt rule out re-looking at some existing projects and modifying them. Well, lets see how far the KC goes to keep the banner of open source flying high. Malovika. Bangalore. -- ----------------------------------------------------------- "Things work out best for the people who make the best out of the way things work out."

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India lays down 'open' challenge
by Frederick Noronha (FN) 15 May '06

15 May '06

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4764565.stm Last Updated: Friday, 12 May 2006, 11:32 GMT 12:32 UK India lays down 'open' challenge After his first trip to India, regular columnist Bill Thompson looks forward to the end of western domination of the free software community Indian computer programmer India's programmers are writing code to meet their own needs The five of us bounced out of the restaurant at around 10, after a great meal, some beers and the usual arguments about preferred programming languages, the future of free and open source software and the merits of Terry Pratchett's later works. It was a warm night so we crossed the street to get something to cool us down - not ice cream, but the best kulfi in the Defence Colony, one of the hippest areas in downtown New Delhi. It was my last night in India after four days making Digital Planet specials with the World Service. My new friends from the Delhi Linux User Group had dragged me out of my luxurious business hotel into the real city for a meal. The sizzling paneer and noodles were excellent. The beer was cold. And the kulfi was as good as Raj had promised. But even better was the chance to make a connection with a group of people outside the US and Europe who are working with the Linux operating system. Indian problems I'd come to India with the sense that, like Brazil and other countries outside the West that are taking free software seriously, India is moving into a new phase in its use of free and open source software. These guys - and it was a boy's night out, though there are women members of the group too - are using the freedom which the Linux distribution licence gives them to build tools and technologies for themselves. They don't have to wait for a far-distant company to decide whether their market is big enough or commercially viable. If they need code that meets their specific needs, they can just write it themselves. They are certainly going beyond the point where they take code from the US and Europe and spend their effort "localising" it by adding support for local languages. [Bill Thompson: Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world's population.] But according to Raj and Mary, both Linux experts, Indian coders are still isolated from each other, and although they contribute to many projects there is no real focus on solving Indian problems. The website of the Free Software Foundation of India lists a few dozen India-based projects, but there is apparently a long way to go before a real free software community emerges. And while Government support for free software is genuine, government computer departments do not contribute to other projects and do not make their work available for others to build on. The government just sees free software as a way to save on licenses. This is a shame, as there is a political dimension to the use of free software which will be very important for India and other developing countries. Liberal Origins Until now free and open source software has been one of the ways in which the US spread its values around the world, the soft guy approach that seems to oppose, but in fact is symbiotic with hard-edged capitalism on the Microsoft and Intel model. Both are firmly embedded in US cultural values, and the free market is as important to Linux as it is to Microsoft. Linus Torvalds Linus Torvalds: creator of Linux If we consider its origins within the post-hippy hacker culture of MIT then we can see that free software is as parasitic on the larger computer industry and its capitalist ethos as the early hippies were on their wealthy middle-class parents and their Protestant work ethic. All that nice code won't run unless Intel and AMD, neither of whom is particularly noted for being soft and cuddly, continue to make the processors and Dell and Sony continue to squeeze component suppliers and ship the systems. In 1999 Richard Stallman the originator of free software, wrote that he saw 'no social imperative for free hardware designs like the imperative for free software', so the situation clearly does not bother him. Yet, as often happens when the US tries to impose a particular point of view on the world, the results can be the opposite of what was intended. Just as the continued boycott of Cuba after the Soviet Union collapsed forced Castro into alliances with other Latin American countries and has helped promote new left-leaning governments across the continent, so the desire to spread US liberal values through free software may have unexpected consequences. Cultural shift Stallman, Linus Torvalds and Eric Raymond, the three big thinkers behind free/libre/open source software - and one should always be suspicious of any movement that so fails to reconcile its divisions that it needs three names - may have unleashed a monster that will consume them. Because until now the developed world could take the code provided so generously by Western developers but their ability to modify it was limited. There were too few skilled programmers and too few companies interested in supporting that sort of work. Now the programmers are out there. And while the Indian Linux community is currently fragmented, as Raj says, this could change very quickly. Much of the work on internationalisation, pushed by people like Gora Mohanty at Srijan Technologies, is complete, and new ideas are emerging. I visited one company, Om Logistics, who simply cannot pay what Microsoft want to charge for licences when one of their bureaux might make a few thousand rupees profit in a month. They use Linux on both servers and desktops, and the result is that they have an affordable and reliable system. Soon it wlll be even more suited to their needs, because Indian developers will be deciding how it should develop. These programmers will take today's Linux code and make it far more useful to the people of India and other developing countries than today's predominantly Western developer community ever could. And when that happens, the centre of free software development will soon begin to move from the US and Europe. Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world's population, and amounts to a massive flow of intellectual capital into the developing world. And as they reshape it to meet their needs it will stop being just another US import and become a resource that can be used in brand new ways. Once the people on the receiving end make it their own they will change the world. The fun is just beginning. Bill Thompson is a regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet -- ---------------------------------------------------------- Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Yahoomessenger: fredericknoronha http://fn.goa-india.org | fred(a)bytesforall.org Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9822122436 ----------------------------------------------------------

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The Code Breakers on BBC World
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 12 May '06

12 May '06

Message from Hiran, at Vidya Academy, Thrissur. Repeat telecast appearing at 2200h tonight in BBC World. "..Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded �code� being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos..." http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2783 CK Raju

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The Code Breakers on BBC World
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 12 May '06

12 May '06

Message from Hiran, at Vidya Academy, Thrissur. Repeat telecast appearing at 2200h tonight in BBC World. "..Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded �code� being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos..." http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_clickpage.asp?pageid=2783

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T-shirts
by Krishna Pagadala 12 May '06

12 May '06

Is FSFI selling T-Shirts? I would like to buy a few of them. Thanks Krishna ===================================== To Reflect, to Inspire and to Empower http://www.employees.org/~krishnap/ http://freeknowledge.dyndns.org/ The great moral question of the twenty-first century is: If all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information, can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone -- if everyone can have everything, everywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone from anything? -Eben Moglen --------------------------------- Get amazing travel prices for air and hotel in one click on Yahoo! FareChase

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FOSS Documentary on BBC World
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 09 May '06

09 May '06

Hey All , I think many of us would be intrusted in watching this Documentary on BBC world **The Code Breakers** Microsoft has dominated the world of computing for many years, with its heavily guarded 'code' being beyond reach to many in the developing nations. In some of the poorest countries the cost of upgrading an operating system to keep up with the rest o fthe world amounts to a year's wages, and there are few legitimate options. In Thailand for example, 95 percent of software on computers is pirated. The poorest countries are now beginning to use free or open source software (FOSS), a software that parallels many of Microsoft's programmes but with the major difference being that they are distributed free of charge and can be altered by computer programmers who are allowed unfettered access to the 'source code'. In this two-part documentary, Code Breakers includes stories and interviews from around the world where FOSS is making an impact, from disaster management in Sri Lanka to tortoise breeding programmes in the Galapagos. Thursday 11th May at 0100 Repeated: Thursday 11th May at 1500; Saturday 13th May at 0100^; Monday 15th May at 0700# & 1300 -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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IT@School project
by Arun M 08 May '06

08 May '06

Dear friends, See the story on free software and IT@School in kerala. http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/08/stories/2006050811430400.htm IT@School will soon distribute Wikipedia to schools. regards arun

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IT@School
by Arun M 06 May '06

06 May '06

Hi friends, IT@School project from Kerala is moving towards free software in big way. >From a stage were IT@School allowed free software and non free software to coexist, now decision is to support only free software. Teachers training is now going on in Ernakulam. New version of Debian CDs will be distributed to schools. Statistics from IT@School shows that 48.35% of schools conducted exams in GNU/Linux. Which is a pretty good number considering minimal training and support given. Note that number of GNU/Linux installation will be more than 48% as many schools used Windows just for exams(software used to conduct exam failed in some school). In terms of numbers GNU/Linux reached 1335 schools out of 2761. Ernakulam is leading with 98.36% migration followed by Trivandrum (83.33% migration). Worst situation is in Kollam (9%) This is definitely going to improve in coming academic year as project is setting up more facilities for helping schools in moving to free software. with regards arun.

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Re: [IHUG] Re: [Fsf-friends] Talk on GNU/Hurd internals
by Ritesh Raj Sarraf 05 May '06

05 May '06

WHat about the docs Anand had mentioned ? Do you guys have the book links on Hurd Internals ? Ritesh On 5/5/06, BVK <bvk.groups(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> 2006/5/4, Aanjhan R <aanjhan(a)gmail.com>: >>> Can someone post the Details abt the Talk that happened > > I recorded the whole talk. Its huge, 140MB. I have uploaded it to > www.megaupload.com. You can download it from here > http://www.megaupload.com/?d=27MAETL8 > > I will upload it in mp3 format later. > > -bvk > > > > _______________________________________________ > Indian GNU/Hurd Users Group - http://i-hug.sarovar.org > To unsubscribe, email i-hug-discuss-request(a)lists.sarovar.org with > "unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the message. > http://lists.sarovar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/i-hug-discuss > > -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf RESEARCHUT -- http://www.researchut.com "Necessity is the mother of invention" "Stealing logics from one person is plagiarism, stealing from many is research."

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Re: [IHUG] Re: [Fsf-friends] Talk on GNU/Hurd internals
by Ritesh Raj Sarraf 05 May '06

05 May '06

WHat about the docs Anand had mentioned ? Do you guys have the book links on Hurd Internals ? Ritesh On 5/5/06, BVK <bvk.groups(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > 2006/5/4, Aanjhan R <aanjhan(a)gmail.com>: > > > Can someone post the Details abt the Talk that happened > > I recorded the whole talk. Its huge, 140MB. I have uploaded it to > www.megaupload.com. You can download it from here > http://www.megaupload.com/?d=27MAETL8 > > I will upload it in mp3 format later. > > -bvk > > > > _______________________________________________ > Indian GNU/Hurd Users Group - http://i-hug.sarovar.org > To unsubscribe, email i-hug-discuss-request(a)lists.sarovar.org with > "unsubscribe" in the subject or body of the message. > http://lists.sarovar.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/i-hug-discuss > > -- Ritesh Raj Sarraf RESEARCHUT -- http://www.researchut.com "Necessity is the mother of invention" "Stealing logics from one person is plagiarism, stealing from many is research."

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Talk on GNU/Hurd internals
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 04 May '06

04 May '06

Hi, GNU Hurd hacker Annad Babu will be presenting a talk on Hurd/Mach internals. When: Monday 10AM-1PM (May 1st) where: Computer Science & Automation Dept., Indian Institue of Science[, Malleswaram, Bangalore]. Links: * GNU Hurd http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/ * Debain GNU/Hurd http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd * Qemu image http://www.zabor.org/balrog/hurd/ * Indian GNU/Hurd User Group http://i-hug.sarovar.org/ IRC: * on FreeNode #hurd, #hug, #i-hug, #hurd.in Regards Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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[offtopic] GNU/Linux training faculty needed at Kochi.
by Vimal Joseph 04 May '06

04 May '06

Hello, If you have an aptitude in teaching and some experience in GNU/Linux (Debian preferred) please mail me. Candidates should either BTech or MCA. Knowledge in malayalam is essential. ~vimal <vimal(a)space-kerala.org>

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Re: [Fsf-friends] Monopoly fights for survival
by Ajay Pal Singh Atwal 03 May '06

03 May '06

----- Original Message ----- From: doxa(a)sancharnet.in To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in Sent: à¨¬à©à©±à¨§à¨µà¨¾à¨° 03 à¨®à¨ 2006 10:19:15 à¨¸5à©à¨°à© IST Subject: [Fsf-friends] Monopoly fights for survival "...Microsoft has been paying the large domain resellers to move their "parked" sites to IIS on Microsoft Server. Moving the parked customers of a single large reseller, GoDaddy.com, caused a shift of 4.5 Million domain names, or 5% of total server share from Apache to Microsoft IIS in the Netcraft report. This is an "appearance" change only, because the sites involved have no content. But managers believe figures like those in the Netcraft report, and act on them. It's time for the Free Software / Open Source community to fight back...." Full story at http://opensourceparking.com/ Just moved my parked domains to opensourceparking.com, thanks for the info. -- Sincerely Ajay Pal Singh Atwal Dept of CSE & IT BBSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib Punjab, INDIA -------------------------------- http://www.bbsbec.ac.in -------------------------------- ajaypal[at]bbsbec.org, ajaypal[at]acm.org

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Fwd: Ankit Fadia -- my childhood hero!
by Prabhat Sandheliya 03 May '06

03 May '06

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prabhat Sandheliya <prabhat.news(a)gmail.com> Date: May 3, 2006 10:34 AM Subject: Fwd: Ankit Fadia -- my childhood hero! To: lug-indore(a)googlegroupes.com Hey guys, Her is the latest news in Ankit Fadia Case. I would Like you all to introduce Mahesh Aravind. He has written, such a wonderful and though provoking mail. Thanks man ! Prabhat. Here is the original message by him : ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Mahesh Aravind <ra_mahesh(a)yahoo.com> Date: May 2, 2006 4:38 PM Subject: Ankit Fadia -- my childhood hero! To: prabhat.news(a)gmail.com Prabhat, > Yesterday (03-04-2006)I attended a seminar by a so-called "Hacking > Guru" Ankit Fadia, at DAVV, Indore (MP) auditorium. I just want to > share my feelings with you. I read your mail (re: Ankit Fadia's fraudulent certificate), forwarded to ilug-cochin mailing list. It was excellent. Other than that, I can't find words to describe it. These were the "revelations" I had in the recent few years. I thought I was the only one who didn't accept Fadia as a "hacker", knocking him off discussions as just a wannabe kid backed by a loooot of media hype. Cracked Osama's message, huh? I'm not a hacker, just a wannabe. I'm a laaazy wannabe that 3-4 years ago I set out myself and went to get a `Hacking Book', instead of D-I-Y learning. What caught my eye (due to then recent media hype) was _Unofficial Guide to Ethical Hacking_, written by India's "young(est) hacker whiz kid" -- Ankit Fadia. I thought: Cool, this kid is only 16 (read: younger than me!) and he wrote a (I don't feel the same today) top-notch chapter on TCP/IP, a subject, whose core is still an uncrackable nut to many network professionals. Wow, *he* is something! At this moment I like to explain that, I hadn't reached enlightenment (or sought "nirvana") and was still stuck with (how horrible those days) Windoze. Cracking windows security, musta been something of weight. Oh, manipulating the registry(!!!), woohoo! Can be a `real hacker' among my school mates..., yipee! And at those times, I hadn't realised that a real hacker just doesn't show off! Months later, a lot(!) learned (from other "real" books), I stumbled upon [blacksun.box.sk] -- the so-called Black Sun Research Facility. Going through their archives, I was astonished to see that many articles were a copy of the chapters from the book, I paid Rs 385/- to buy. But then I was forced to think the other way: all these articles (or "philes") had some or other cracker `handle' as the author. Hey, how can these foreign (at then mostly Israeli) hackers get an Indian book's extract? These "philes" were word-to-word match with the Fadia's book. Then I came to know the Fadia's (then) website [hackingtruths.box.sk] was hosted in the same domain. Bingo! This kid is a fraud! I shoulda known it when I saw non-English comments to some of the so-called virus(!!) asm source code fragments. Somewhere (I don't recall where), I also read that Fadia was thrown out of BSRF for copy-pasting their articles, and not attributing the relevant credit to their authors. I think, nowadays articles at BSRF bears Fadia's name as the author. Not sure, cause nowadays I don't like (or want) to go to script-kiddie sites. > The seminar topic was "Ethical Hacking", now I want to ask Mr Fadia, > what is unethical about hacking ? Hacking is very positive word and > there in no need to put "Ethical" before it. By the way his seminar > topic should be "Ethical Cracking". Quite right. I think we need conduct more campaigns to restore the `media defaced' image of the `sacred word'. And, I think there's also a course called CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker); which looks like an internationally acclaimed course [ www.gocertify.com/article/ceh.shtml]. What do you think of it? Please let me know. > If you really want to become a hacker, please read an article by a > real hacker, Eric Steven Raymond (ESR). The man who changed the > history by writing a paper "Cathedral and Bazaar". This is what showed me the path, got me into "it"... and _our_ history revealed to me by ESR's Jaron File. I've read (tried to, at least) *all* his articles/essays. From _Halloween docs_ to _Sex Tips For Geeks_. I owe him much more than one! > The people who can not differentiate between hacking and cracking, > should read an article by the GOD of hackers Richad M Stallman (RMS), > the man who started GNU movement all by himself. The gcc (compiler), > gdb (debugger), emacs (editor) are some of the most popular softwares > in the world written by him. I particularly like this -- RMS *IS* GOD! (Please check the spelling: RMS is Richard Matthew Stallman) But these s/w could have been better captioned as GCC (compiler _suit_), GNU Emacs (Integrated <substitute-what-*ever*-you-want> environment). I for one breaths, eats and sleeps inside Emacs. This very mail was composed in it. Of late, I've been plotting to put `/usr/bin/emacs' as my shell in /etc/passwd! > The things Fadia demonstrated were ancient techniques used by crackers > to break into some one's machine. In the book too, mostly he gives us a list of common, default passwords and asks us to try our luck. > IP spoofing, SQL Injection, password cracking softwares, Trojan horse > programs, these are the tools of cyber criminals. So I wonder what is > the significance of the term "Ethical" here ?? Did he mention all this? I wonder from what site he learns all these "theories"? One particular book I liked very much is _Stealing the Network: How to Own the Box_, by Syngress Publications. It describes real hacking/cracking techniques, in fictional stories, using `bare' hands and crazy, creative ideas. I'll say its a must-read for anyone into computer security career. Any pointers for a freely-downloadable _The Cuckoo's Nest_? > The entire session was demonstration of third party utilities, and the > saddest thing was no mention of the name of any author of any utility. > He didn't care to give some credits to the utility developers. What a > shame !!! Great! What an attitude? Something like Micro$oft's `Embrace and Extend' policy: What yours is mine, and what mine is mine! > Second most annoying thing was that he calls himself a "hacker" and > was using a Windows XP operating system ???? A Windoze hacker, huh? Windows is not even an operating system; its an Un-Operating System! To quote _Unoffical Guide to Ethical Hacking_: There is a common belief that Windows is very insecure, but then Red Hat too is not so great in the security sphere. There are nearly 50 known ways to get root on a Linux box. The reason why hackers have found so many more holes or bugs in Windows is due to the fact that it is the most widely used OS in the world and the largest number of hackers have a go at Windows Security. The only thing that is in support if Linux is that fact that it is free and spreads the concept of open source and well, performance. However, while Linux's performance is better, I do not agree to what people say about the low Windows security. So, I think there is nothing wrong in using a Windows box for hacking. What can you say to this? Some people *never* learn! > Any confirmation of him decrypting Osama's message = 0 > (Hahahahahahahaha) Does Osama use Windows? > I tried to read a few books by him, but to my wonder some part of his > books are nothing but simple "copy and paste" material from well known > sites for Windows registry editing. Recently a book was released by him on _Email Hacking_. Not surprisingly, many of my friends' Yahoo! a/c started disappearing, some lost their mails, others got Mailer Daemon failures for mails that they never sent but bears their email id in the `From:' column, etc. Some even accused *me* for `hacking' their a/c's (honestly, I didn't, I never wanted to, and I don't know how to do it). Any news like this in your locality? Maybe we can sue him for promoting and encouraging criminal activities. > Oh God ! this is the clear violation of intellectual property rights > of the website. Please inform the webmaster. I have done it already. You being a fan of RMS, please don't use the term <quote>intellectual property</quote>. There is no such thing! Do visit [www.gnu.org/words-to-avoid.html]. Thoughts and ideas can't be owned and copyrighted (or patented for the matter). > I was astonished by the course he came to promote here, "Ethical > hacker certified by Ankit Fadia" ! "Ethical MESS-DOS(r) Hacker certified by Ankit Fadia". Sounds cool! I wonder what language does he work on? Microsoft Visual COBOL? > Unfortunately, question and answer round was cut from the seminar, Or he will have to *answer* some of those. How can he, when he follows some of them step-by-step from various "underground" sites? > Anyways, I went to him at the end of the seminar, and asked if Windows > is so vulnerable, can he suggest audience to use Linux rather than > Windows. And the reply came was straight "NO". What a shame ??? Shame? Not for him, of course. Obviously, he finds "Linux" too hard for him to contain and operate, let alone "hack"! > The reason is same why Microsoft does not patch up it's OS. Plain > economics. If you make system secure with Linux who is going to ask > for people like Fadia, so called "security expert" ??? Or people who are MCSEs? (MCSE: Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert) > And for god sake, stop behaving like a child, now you are in college, > so GROW UP !!! Just out of curiosity, what course does he pursue? Anyway, its good to know that *some* action is going out there to "shed light on" this incident. I fully appreciate it, and like you asked, I'll warn my friends about it. How can I cooperate? First of all, I think I'll subscribe to your mailing list. Best of Luck and Happy Hacking! Regards, Mahesh Aravind ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Prabhat Sandheliya --------------------------------------------------------------------- Promote Linux - Join mailing list : http://groups.google.com/group/lug-indore (Linux Users Group - Indore)

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Monopoly fights for survival
by doxa＠sancharnet.in 03 May '06

03 May '06

"...Microsoft has been paying the large domain resellers to move their "parked" sites to IIS on Microsoft Server. Moving the parked customers of a single large reseller, GoDaddy.com, caused a shift of 4.5 Million domain names, or 5% of total server share from Apache to Microsoft IIS in the Netcraft report. This is an "appearance" change only, because the sites involved have no content. But managers believe figures like those in the Netcraft report, and act on them. It's time for the Free Software / Open Source community to fight back...." Full story at http://opensourceparking.com/

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Free Software alternative to skype
by प्रव ीण् ए (Praveen A) 02 May '06

02 May '06

Hi, Checkout this. They have a Firefox extention as well. http://openwengo.com/ Regards Praveen -- "Value your freedom, or you will lose it, teaches history. `Don't bother us with politics', respond those who don't want to learn." -- Richard Stallman Me scribbles at http://www.pravi.co.nr

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Fsf-friends May 2006