Hi,
As a part of the "Software Freedom Day 2006" celebrations at College
of Engineering Chengannur, a one day training camp is planned for the
staff and students of two Government Schools in Chengannur. A group of
12 students from the college will be spending a day helping them
install and learn GNU/Linux. We have selected a group of 100 students
in each school who will attend our training. (We could not celebrate
the SFD on time as we had exams that time, then the school had exams.)
We have already installed IT@School on the computers at the schools.
The college has agreed to provide us an LCD projector and laptops for
the event.
This is a part of the actvity of the FLOSS cell existing at the
college. Hope this small contribution of ours goes a long way in
making Free Software useful and popular.
Date and Time: 28thSept 2006, 1000hrs to 1600hrs
Venue 1: Govt. Girls' School, Chengannur
Venue 2: Govt. Boys' School, Chengannur
FLOSS Cell, College of Engineering Chengannur, Kerala.
http://floss.cec.googlepages.com/
--
Cheers :-)
githinATgmailDOTcom
Free as in Freedom
http://githin.googlepages.com/
Hi all,
New updates !!
It's available here
http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Dictionaries#Marathi_.28India.29
download mr_IN_pack.zip and install using "Install New
Dictionaries" wizard of file menu.
Works perfect with 2.0.x which has got inbuild huspell
engine, but to make it work with 1.1.x and 2.x (with
myspell) recompile their source code with Hunspell UNO
component, then follow the same procedure.
Please revert back with queries, suggestions, comments
if any.
PLEASE NOTE: It's just a 1st version of marathi spell
checker and requires periodic refinements.
Contributions will be highly appreciated.
Regards.
Priti
Note: forwarded message attached.
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Ultimately, we need to recognize that Linux is a 15-year-old kernel and that
there will be another technical development to superscede it eventually. I
can't say what that will be, but I think the best chance of mobilizing
individual contribution to it would be to use GPL 3.
*Bruce*
http://digg.com/linux_unix/Use_GPLv3_for_Linux_Kernel_says_Bruce_Perens
Cheers
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
Thanks !
By the way, it's only the 1st version and consistant
refinement is needed for upcoming versions.
Contributions will be highly appreciated.
Regards.
Priti
--- RKVS Raman <rkvsraman(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Congratulations!!!
>
> -Raman
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Hi all,
This is for your information !
Most awaited marathi spell checker is now available
for installation without any hassle through "Install
new dictionary" wizard of "File" menu.
It's in pipeline and will be available upstream very
soon !
For more details please visit:
http://blogs.nuxeo.com/sections/blogs/laurent_godard
Do revert back with comments/suggestions, if any.
Regards
Priti Patil
janabhaaratii Project
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
(Formerly NCST)
8th Floor, Air India Building,
Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021.
India.
Telephone: +91 22 2202 4641, +91 22 2283 6924
Fax: +91 22 2204 9573
Website: www.cdacmumbai.in, www.janabhaaratii.org.in
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Pls see these reviews
http://www.amazon.ca/Rebel-Code-Inside-Source-Revolution/dp/customer-review…
They give a better idea which i was not able to convey as well. The main
point is that it gives ideas about trends and also is a great
motivational book. There are so many ideas which tell how things
happenned or why they fell in place.
It really inspires one to be good in software. e.g. i remember when I
was in engg college in 1991 we couldn't even think of writing an
assembler software and here in the book there is this exceptional 19
year old who has a head start in programming and thinking of emulating
an OS and that too Unix. Even now most of us cannot write or even think
of designing systems software like compilers/assemblers/OS etc. There is
a huge difference in quality among majority of our engineers and the
normal engineers/technicians there. (when I read joelonsoftware.com
--though its microsoft oriented, i feel we hardly know as much as these
top chaps know) (also we are bogged down in a few open source projects
like fonts development etc which hardly should have taken more than an
year or two-- if there are more good indian led projects why can't a
list be maintained for them like sourceforge.net)
There is also a huge difference in quality and mindset between what type
of so called engineers are being produced from our educational machine
as compared to the western education system. There those people don't
think of themselves as engineers till they get out of 6 to 8 year
courses (no time limit is fixed unlike the people who pass out here
after their 3 or 4 year courses and still don't know much) and in
between drop out or take totally different subjects e.g. Larry Wall's
career is not typical computer science subjects at all. Thats why he was
so innovative and PERL was produced. Linus Torvalds stayed in
college/university for 7/8 years, some of these bright chaps completed
Btech and then Mtech next year or same year --there are so many options
for training, research and development there --where we don't even come
close.
when i see such sites as
http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/FinalProjects/ I am
amazed. See the difference in quality between what their final year
students produce and whats produced here (where most things are copied
and students don't have any idea what to do till the term has already
started)
Then it was also quite interesting to read that Linus could lead so well
the OS kernel work maybe as a result of the 1 year compulsory army
officer training that he opted for during university days. We have
nothing like that here.(not many Indian geeks want to build a sound body
to cope with the pressure of working on computers and not many people
understand what its like to have compulsory army training) He keeps
things in his head --photographic memory and so on (thinking on one's
feet, the maturity in tackling conflicts or not giving offense,
developing leaders under him automatically etc etc).
Difference between system of working with linux development as compared
to emacs forking development etc etc-- so many management aspects are
also revealed in the book --it can be read a few times just to
understand and learn from such history.
I think its a great book and can really really inspire new people to
think ambitiously.
Our drawbacks--
we have no authentic idea about the number of indian open source
programmers/developers and whether there is an increase/decrease or
constant number since nobody measures and nowhere in any open source
project do we see names of Indians mentioned much. There should be some
annual survey in some authentic Indian publication and highlighting of
role models and good personality traits so that people understand what
made open source/free software succeed. Spanish speakers/non english
speakers ask more questions in forums than Indians and that shows places
like Brazil,Mexico, Italy, East Europe, japan, korea etc are more active
and increasing in development/computer literacy
then in college we don't share or innovate code but compete unhealthily
against each other --this is typical indian crab mentality --teachers do
not see this aspect and cannot think of ways to reduce this mentality
--only highlighting positive traits/ publicly praising healthy
competition/sharing/giving/good leadership etc etc and publicising good
indian/foreign role models can change this negative crab mentality.
We even don't learn how humility has played such a great part in the
open source movement--witness what one top hacker told how linus himself
is and was so humble and encouraging which motivated all those around
him. Or the great traits of Richard Stallman and so on and so forth. Our
nerds think its infra dig to help somebody else --specially if they
don't know computers or don't know as much as them. They think that is
macho. They have never been told that --knowledge increases the more you
use it or give/share it. Also knowledge is one thing no thief can steal
from you (even if they succeed in the short term --your peers will
eventually find out and time will compensate you unless you brood on
that one negative thing for ever.)
There is nothing like our abominable ragging in the west --people will
sue the institution and the authorities if that happens there because
their justice system works. A simple thing such as highlighting local
political godfathers in an institution or state from a different/outside
publication can keep such things in check. By outside publication, I
mean say if an institution in Bihar has a lot of political interference
(political godfathers who control student union/elections/council etc)
have a report published in a publication outside Bihar or on the web
--make the issue transparent and the politician will have to hide/duck
for cover and all this nonsense will reduce. We have something like
indiavotes.org /mumbaivotes.org now coming up which is asking educated
people to understand and take part in higher governance so that quality
of leadership improves. A great book is here
http://www.vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/ since good men should not
be aloof from society. Einstein etc could motivate society because
they were accessible and participative. Indian
scientists/researchers/hackers must contribute to society by
participating in the community too.
Kush
I recently had a chance to read the book
Rebel code by Glyn Moody published in 2001 and somewhat dated. The book
must be made required reading for children in school (atleast from the
8th/9th class onwards)if India is ever to become a software superpower
because of the following reasons--
It gives a complete overview of the history of the open source movement
and one gets a good understanding from such history.
It shows the values of the hacker movement--meritocracy, peer
acknowledgement, pride in one's work etc etc plus also how work becomes
worship/happiness and money comes naturally as a side effect. How
sharing and giving reduce costs and ultimately increase the buying power
of the whole world.
What are the pitfalls that are to be watched for in leadership, getting
group consensus, keeping the community whole and so on. How things
could be easily subverted? and so on. How the commercialisation
helped/did not help the movement?
etc etc
In short this book is a real motivator as it gives insights and shows
things from various perspectives. Its not talked about later
technologies such as php, mysql, open source CRM/ERP business solutions
etc etc but it is certainly better than reading all those confusing
computer magazines which do not tell about trends and tend to give
information overload to people like me.
I wish we had access to such books in 2001 itself. It would have helped
a lot. In the end open source (volunteer driven part) has succeeded in
some ways though core development now is being done by people paid by
the establishment. But these top people have been given the freedom to
innovate and do what they like once they have proved themselves.
Also this movement was a backlash against vendor lock in, not listening
to the customer, fleecing the customer etc etc because of the unequal
balance of power etc between vendor and customer. Most of the factors
which led to the free software movement have since reduced/vanished
but eternal vigil is needed . Microsoft and others can bring back the
clock anytime -- I think there is a parallel between the Kerberos
episode and open document standards being adopted/twisted by Microsoft
(decommodifying or non transparency in standards is mentioned). Its not
only Microsoft which is bad but also Oracle, HP, Canon, IBM etc--they do
what suits them most and leads to vendor lock in.
Kush
