Fsf-friends October 2007

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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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School Admin
by Sarath Lakshman | ശരത്ത് ലക് ഷ്മണ് 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hi friends, Recently I have written an application which can be used in the schools in kerala as student admission register as per Kerala Educational Rules [KER]. This would make tasks such as T.C issuance, finding details about students etc easier. Checkout http://code.google.com/p/school-admin Platforms: GNU/Linux , M$ Windows Comments please :) -- Sarath Lakshman http://sarathlakshman.info

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[CROSS-POSTED] Re: National Policy on ICT in Education
by Raj Mathur 21 Nov '07

21 Nov '07

On Thursday 18 October 2007 13:57, H.S.Rai wrote: > If any one want to send some suggestions. This is important enough to me, and presumably to a number of other people on these lists. I have started putting my thoughts down on the web, and invite anyone who wants to contribute to add to them (it's on a Wiki): http://wiki.linux-delhi.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/Main/NationalICTEducation The document is still quite preliminary and I'm hoping that people more qualified than me will take some time and help fill in the copious blanks. Insh'allah some of the ideas that we come up with would be able to influence the forthcoming policy in a positive direction. I have just one request, which is to avoid jingoistic anti-MS statements that may end up making the whole document unpalatable to policy makers (this is specifically aimed at the Linux/FOSS community ;) Here the subtle knife may be preferable to the blunt hammer. Note that you will have to register on the Wiki before you can edit the page. Your account details will remain confidential. Regards, -- Raju -- Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/ Freedom in Technology & Software || February 2008 || http://freed.in/ GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves

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(no subject)
by Muralidharan Nair 31 Oct '07

31 Oct '07

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UK schools warned off M$ deal.-BBC
by Vikram Vincent 26 Oct '07

26 Oct '07

"The UK computer agency Becta is advising schools not to sign licensing agreements with Microsoft because of alleged anti-competitive practices. " http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7063716.stm -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://www.swatantra.org/

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Fwd: [blug-non-tech] MS sneaks in Patent Tax in Anti-trust ruling
by Praveen A 25 Oct '07

25 Oct '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Vinayak Hegde <vinayakh at gmail.com> Date: २००७ अक्तूबर २४ १३:०२ Subject: [blug-non-tech] MS sneaks in Patent Tax in Anti-trust ruling To: linux-bangalore-non-tech at yahoogroups.com I am surprised no one is discussing this. http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/EU_tells_open_source_to_start_paying_M… -- Vinayak -- Before posting to this list, read the list rules FIRST! http://blug.in/list-rules -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Fwd: [ifsa] RMS: Learn to share!
by Praveen A 24 Oct '07

24 Oct '07

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: rek2GNU/Linux <rek2 at binaryfreedom.info> Date: २००७ अक्तूबर २४ ०४:३४ Subject: [ifsa] RMS: Learn to share! To: Independent Free Software Global Activist <independentfreesoftwareactivists at binaryfreedom.info> Stallman: Students Should Be Taught to Share With The Class Sun, 2007-10-21 10:41 — dcp Richard Stallman, in receiving an honorary Doctorate from Italy's University of Pavia, brought back memories of the basic primary school principle that students bringing cookies to class should bring enough for everyone. In his speech, Richard Stallman discussed how innovation can impact individuals and society for better or for worse. He pointed out the negative innovation of bringing criminal charges against fishermen for rescuing distressed migrants at sea. Such innovations directly affect our freedom. Stallman went on to pose the question he considers most vital when considering technological innovations: "How does this affect our freedom? How does this affect our social solidarity?" He then addressed the issue of non-Free developer as dictator, exerting total control over software and its users. Stallman attacked Windows Vista, Apple, and Google Earth as examples of how companies attempt to restrict users' freedom with respect to software. Stallman emphasized the two freedoms that seem most important of the Four Fundamental Freedoms: the freedom to help your neighbor and the freedom to contribute to your community. Combined with the other two freedoms, users can exert more control over the direction of innovation in software. He reminded his audience that by exerting dictatorial control over the software, developers then have the ability to spy on users, without regard for the user's privacy, freedom or even the law of the land. And there is nothing users can do about it. He then went on to mention that Yahoo and Hotmail have been blocking e-mail from TruthOut.org from reaching subscribers who use their services. In separate news, Verizon Wireless came under attack for the same kind of behavior with respect to its phone services. Thus, the ability to exert such control can easily lead to direct attacks on Freedom of Speech. Free Software prevents such things from happening. Stallman went on to highlight the special connection between Free Software and educational institutions. For those who recall teachers admonishing students to bring enough cookies to share with the class, Stallman similarly admonished educational institutions: "So every school should bring only Free Software to class, and set an example with its software of the practice of disseminating human knowledge while building a strong, capable, independent and free society. And encouraging the spirit of good will, of helping other people." In Stallman's view, the mission of any educational institution is to teach students to be strong and independent, rather than dependent. Thus, schools should make it an objective to reject the "shiny new chains" of Windows Vista, and other non-Free software, and migrate to Free Software, as part of their overall mission. "Other Universities are doing this or have done it: you can do it too. You only have to reject social inertia as a valid reason for going deeper and deeper into the pit.", he said. -- IndependentFreeSoftwareActivists mailing list IndependentFreeSoftwareActivists(a)binaryfreedom.info http://www.binaryfreedom.info/mailman/listinfo/independentfreesoftwareactiv… List rules: http://www.binaryfreedom.info/?q=node/48 -- പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില് Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign

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Save Kannada what?? (Was:Log out of Microsoft tie-up, say open software advocates)
by Vikram Vincent 19 Oct '07

19 Oct '07

Hello, I was a bit tied up for the last few days and could not give my attention to this issue and hence the late reply. <quote> FREE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION OF INDIA 18th Oct 2007 Trivandrum PRESS RELEASE *Save Kannada From Microsoft's Monopoly* ====================================== http://www.gnu.org.in/node/129 <...> </quote> I am a bit surprised that FSF-I has sent out a press release with a title that is nothing short of promoting linguistic chauvinism. When the draft was released by Omshivaprakash I raised the following points: <quote> A few thoughts about the letter: 1. The main points of the letter - gives adequate focus on the Kannada language aspects, talks about "lock-in" and benefit of free software. 2. Can a few point about the ODF vs. OOXML and India's stand on the issue be added? I think this is very relevant to the situation. 3. Can we increase the emphasis of quality of localisation with free software. 4. Maybe quote a few points from the IOSN webpage http://www.iosn.net/ on why developing countries such as India would find it more advantageous to use FOSS based solutions. While the language issue would stir our passions, on its own it would not present a compelling case since Free s/w Kannada localisation is also still backward. Hope these points are taken into consideration when finalising the letter(if this a draft). </quote> The issue at hand is more related to the 'ISO standards' and 'healthy business practises' rather than 'language' and FSF-I's press release should have reflected that. The FSF should always ensure that its stand on any issue conforms to certain scientific rationale and cannot and should not promote any petty interests but should focus on convincing people logically. The language argument that has been raised does not hold water because the free software localisation to Kannada also is still very backward. Our only hope is that free software promotes a healthy evolution of the system with quality and quantity. While the "Save Kannada campaign" is not under FSF-I, I would like to urge them too to address the intellect rather than the baser human emotions. The only was to protect any language is to ensure that a strong local economy is generated around it. This can happen only when the knowledge is localised and sufficient trained labour can be developed around it. Then, capital by the businesses along with pro-people government policies along with constant pressure by the people will ensure that the economy grows healthily and only then will that language survive else it will end up like Sanskrit, Latin, Pali and others. Thank you, Regards -- Vikram Vincent +919448810822 http://www.swatantra.org/

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[bangalore] LAMP workshop, would like to meet a few FSF friends.
by krishnakant Mane 17 Oct '07

17 Oct '07

hello friends, I am Krishnakant Mane from Mumbai. I am doing knowledge research and working on the SELF Project in TIFR with Dr. Nagarjun. I am also an independent free software consultent and an advocate of free software. I am coming to Bangalore for a LAMP workshop which has now turned more into a free software orientation workshop. I will be doing this at R.V.C.E. campus so I will be interested to meet a few fsf friends. the workshop is on 18th and 19th. so hope to see a few of my freedom fighter friends out there. if any one would like to contact me, plese note down my mobile number. 09820310472. any contribution like soft copy books of free software or on any related topics is more than welcome. regards, Krishnakant.

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Fsf-friends October 2007